May 20, 2017
Vanderbilt student-athletes will blog all week long from their service trip to Jamaica in partnership with Soles4Souls. Follow @vucommodores on Twitter and check back on VUCommodores.com all week for updates. Recap Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5 and Day 6 here.
The Commodores enjoyed a venture to Dunn’s River Falls on Friday before taking a dip with dolphins and stingrays in the ocean.
Allie Bruder, Soccer:
If I had to choose one word to describe this trip, I would use the word unreal. I signed up for this trip without really knowing what to expect. Although I have done a lot of service in the past, going to Jamaica and serving in a different country was out of my comfort zone. It is not everyday that you get to challenge yourself and push yourself past your limits of comfort. After an incredible week of distributions with Soles4Souls, meeting beautiful and inspiring children and learning more about the incredible team of student-athletes and Vandy staffers that served with me, this trip was much more than I ever expected.
We were sent here to serve and distribute shoes to the Jamaican children, but these children — and the entire trip — provided us with a new perspective. The main focus for me was pushing myself to new limits and fully embracing myself in a new environment. I learned from many experiences on this trip: meeting new people who were very different than me, trying to connect on new levels, being a “brave leader” on the Rose Hall house tour we experienced andn jumping into the Glistening Lagoon at 10:30 at night. Every experience on this trip, including Thursday’s trip to Dunn’s River Falls and swimming with the dolphins, has taught me that fear is something that gets in the way of what can truly make you happy. Once you push past that obstacle, expirences in life will only get better. You might fall along the way — like today, when I fell multiple times on the waterfall — but when you get up, don’t be afraid to fall again.
Tonight at our closing meeting, we were able to go around the team circle and speak about our highs of the week. It was so incredible to hear our leaders and my peers speak about their interactions with children and their experiences throughout the week. They were truly inspiring. From interacting with the kids, to bus rides with our bus driver and now close friend, Patrick, to learning Jamaican slang from Junior, who was our other guide, this trip, this country and the extraordinary people that surrounded me have inspired me to consider how I can make an impact with my life in the future. Instead of focusing on me, the money that I can make and the things I can do for myself, I can focus on others and how my actions and abilities can change the lives of other people.
Emmanuel Smith, Football
The plan for today was to have a lot of fun, try new experiences and break out of our comfort zone. We ventured to Ocho Rios and visited the Dunn’s River and Dolphin Cove. On the way to Ocho Rios, we played Justin Bieber on the bus, and the girls loved it. Our bus sounded like a mini boy band concert. On the way to Dunn’s River, we passed a cave where they shot one of the James Bond movies, and it looked just a beautiful as it did in the movie.
When we got to Dunn’s River, it was like a park, but little did we know that we had to free-climb up a waterfall. As we made our way down to the bottom, we walked past a bunch of small shops that were unique and fun to look at. We got to the bottom and came up to a part in the river where the freshwater meets the ocean water, and it was some of the clearest water I have ever seen in my life. You could look all the way down deep into a mixture of different blues. It was unbelievable.
As we hiked up the waterfall, we had to find a way to make it to the top. We were able to see the rocks that had moss on them. Those rocks were the most dangerous because they were super slippery. We noticed how slippery they were when Josh, my brother, fell into the water a couple times. (I’ll admit, I also fell a couple of times.) We had to help the rest of our group get up the water fall safely. Finally, we all made it up the waterfall, and all of the technology (cameras) was surprisingly in one piece.
Soon after, we left Dunn’s River to make our way to Dolphin Cove. There we ate lunch and swam with dolphins, pet sharks and held stingrays. When we arrived, we broke up into groups of nine and got in the water with a dolphin and a trainer. They gave us a boogie board and the other person had to swim out to the middle of the the dolphin lagoon. We learned about dolphins and got to take pictures and swim with them, which was a childhood dream of mine. Only a couple of us decided to go play with the stingrays, and they are some strong and amazing animals. I was scared at first to get in with them because we all know that they are very dangerous, but they were actually very friendly. I almost forgot that these two animals have such power as you swim beside them.
This was a rewarding experience that marked the end to a hard week of working with kids and seeing the smiles that resulted from getting a new pair of shoes. It has been a nice reminder that something so little, such as shoes, can make a memorable impact and serve as a gift in the world. I am so thankful for Vanderbilt and Soles4Souls for blessing me with this opportunity to travel to Jamaica.
Jackie Welch, Soccer:
Thursday was a bit different from other days on this trip. This wasn’t only because we got to sleep in a little more than usual; it was because we were finished distributing shoes to the children and onto doing some sightseeing for ourselves. But I must admit, excited as I was for the day, I truly woke up a little disappointed this morning. I wished we would get to experience just one more day interacting with the kids.
Nevertheless, we hopped on the bus and made our way to the waterfalls for our hike. Here’s what I thought was going to happen: We’d hike up a pathway alongside a waterfall. I was very wrong. We started at the ocean and hiked up the middle of the waterfall. In an attempt to seek out the safest and least slippery rock to climb on, I found out that I wasn’t a very good judge of that. I fell… a lot. After reaching the top of the waterfall, drenched in water and sweat, I decided that I had completed my workout for the day. We were now headed to Dolphin Cove, which I was extremely excited for.
On the bus ride there, we connected to the radio and brought back some old Justin Bieber tunes. Just driving to and from our destinations has been one of my favorite parts of this trip. Each time, I am sitting next to or across from a different person and I really like taking this time to learn about all of the members of this group. Kara Lucenti actually went to my high school, but I didn’t know her well at all, so this has been a really fun time for us to talk about mutual friends and learn more about each other.
Finally, we reached our destination at Dolphin Cove. We were very hungry when we got there and the first thing that we did was devour our burgers and fries. We divided up into groups and headed over to different areas of the water, where we would eventually be swimming with the dolphin. TJ was the dolphin trainer that accompanied us and it was really cool being able to watch him interact with the dolphin. Being able to ride on the dolphin and high-five him and kiss him was a super memorable moment. Interestingly, we weren’t able to have our phones or take any pictures at the waterfall or the dolphin cove. I think this really allowed us to be fully present and in the moment. Being able to soak in this second-to-last day was a very unique experience in today’s world, where we are all on our phone all the time.
I am loving this trip more and more everyday and cannot get the picture of Damian Williams (a boy I met at the school yesterday) out of my head. Being able to be personally see God’s work here in Jamaica is an indescribable feeling. The Jamaican people’s graciousness has been the reason that I feel like I am a part of something that is so much bigger than myself.
