Man in the Mirror

“I’m looking at the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways,” were the famous words of our own, fallen Michael Jackson. In many ways, he is 110 percent correct. Today, we all want to help and serve for others, but service to others is much more than just giving them material items. This is just what I have learned this week.
Looking back on service week, it was not at all as I had expected it to be. Going in, I was not exactly sure what to expect, but the service I had done in the past had all be very hands-on type things, like building or cooking or cleaning up. Here in Sir Lowry’s Pass though, that is not at all what they wanted. They just wanted us. So, Monday afternoon we all piled onto our bus with nothing but ourselves, and drove the forty-five minute drive over. Monday night was full of excitement because we were the first group in and the children were just ecstatic to have new friends to play with for the week. It was raining pretty hard out so we all had to piled into the community center. We were all assigned host mothers and after a couple of hours we split up and went to our houses for dinner. I was placed in Mrs. Emily’s home along with Madeline, Michael, and Mikaya. We cooked dinner for the family and as we were eating, Mrs. Emily’s husband and brother-in-law both pulled out their camera phones and began recording us as we were eating and chatting with the family. I thought this was very interesting because the moments that I pull out my camera on my phone are very big moments, things I want to remember and relive. I felt so happy that us being there was a big enough event for them to record it.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all had the same schedule, which was playing in or around the community center for the first two hours and then going to our houses to spend time with our families for the last hour. Thursday was just a little different because when we arrived there were about twelve police cars at the entrance of Sir Lowry’s Pass. A group of people were trying to squat on the land and build houses. So for this reason we all stuck together as a group instead of breaking off into separate houses. We spent our last hour at the school where we are painting a mural, and where I have been most of the week.



Today is Friday, and the last day of service week. It is a bittersweet feeling. I am sad because I have grown to love these children and I don’t want to leave them. I see the joy on their faces when we come into town, but also we are all so exhausted when we leave in the afternoons because they wear us down! We are having field day for the kids on our last day just like we did in elementary school. I am excited for the Spring Bok’s to have service week next week so the kids can continue to have fun and make new friends, and also for our final service the last week of our trip. This has been the best week by far!

Brooke Harris