Duke of Edinburgh Award Jamaica Group name: YAAAAAW �DJ� A SWEAT #1 and #2 (DJ Means Dukers of Jamaica) Unit Name: Glenmuir High School Group members:
Kim-Lee McCalla
John-Paul Bramwell-Medic Allison Mulliings Monique Francis- Runner Mona- Lee Blidgen Janeisha Duggan Patrick Richards- Medic Tiffany Ricketts-Navigator Shakaya Smith Oprah Coleman-Navigator Christopher Wilson Mellissa Reeves- Runner Janielle Lyn- Team Leader
Purpose of Journey: To observe the landscape of the area and the livelihood of the people living in the area.
On the 21st of October 2011 we arrived at Morgan’s Pass at approximately 6:15pm.On arrival we exited the buses and proceeded towards our camp site. Our 1st challenge for the camp came when we arrive at the river. The 1st thought that came to our minds was “NO BODY CANNOT CROSS IT”. However, we manage to cross it with the males giving the females piggy back rides. After crossing the river we did not hesitate to proceed to set up our camp site then we were briefed on the formation of the camp site. We were then introduced to the officials and were given a warm welcome by excited community members. The camp got settled and the mix and mingle began when we played ring games and went around to meet the other students from Eltham High School,2 hours after we were given a second Briefing and then it was “Lights Out”.
At Dawn we woke up at 4:55am and proceeded to our morning exercise and devotion. We then proceeded to bathe down by the river. After bathing we did not hesitate to set our pots on fire and in a couple minutes breakfast was ready. We had Saltfish Fritters, tea, Corned beef sandwiches Cup Soup, Dumplings and bananas with Cabbage and sausages and rice and tuna and corned beef.
After Breakfast we pulled down the tents and got the camp site cleaned up. We regrouped and had a short briefing buy our assessor Prince McNeish after which we departed from the camp site at approximately 10:15am.While walking, we extended greetings to all community members’ adults, children, dogs, donkeys, and even the bushes. We raided fruit trees and
observed some unusual insects which we termed as “mutants”. We had a sing along and cracked many jokes
Sample of joke Four men a British, Mexican, an American and of course a Jamaican sat on a cliff one day discussing how their people have suffered over the years. The Mexican got up and said “My people have suffered for too long now and in their honour I am going to jump of this cliff and hope my blood will change things!”So he shouted “THIS IS FOR MY PEOPLE!’’ and jumped off the British not wanting to be outdone quickly followed him and jumped. By this time the Jamaican was deeply touched by these men loyalty to their country and it was his time to jump so he shouted “THIS IS FOR MY PEOPLE!” and pushed off the American.
We had many stops on the way to rest and rehydrate our selves. We had two casualties unfortunately one of the patients was the medic. The other had shortness of breath which was attend to by the medic after he was treated. We had a number of sites seeing observing the land scape and vegetation. We observed that the majority of the persons in the area were mainly farmers, taxi men, or shop keepers. Upon reaching Colonel’s Ridge we were so over joyed to see the sign we thought we had finally reached forgetting that there was a distance behind the sign. We continued to walk until we stopped a shop to rest.
Chaos began when Monique went Psycho because she could not find her bag and started to accuse persons of stealing her bag. It turns out she was the one who misplaced it when bag was retrieved. After the situation was resolved three members of the group went ahead with the assessors leaving the rest of the group behind. Further up the road we stopped at a shop to refill our water bottles. Upon our arrival at Gattrymore the clouds had no mercy on us and showered us with water. Here we quickly turned our “Pontras to Ponchos� and we ventured off in the rain. Some of us got soaked and a cell phone fell in a puddle but we continued walking and
singing in the rain until we reach Brandon Hill Primary School.
Upon arrival we were given a standing ovation by other participants that arrived before us. We were briefed to change our wet clothes. Three of our members took the initiative and went back to help some Bronze participants who were 1hr and 55mins behind struggling on the way. After they returned sleeping arrangements were made and preparations were made for dinner.
Immediately after dinner we mixed and mingled with other groups. We told stories and gave jokes around a small “bonfire” (coal stove). Afterwards we were told of our new route to Summerfield and 11:00pm it was lights out.
On October 23, 2011 most of us woke up at approximately 6:00am. After our morning rituals (brushing teeth, etc.), we began making the fire to prepare breakfast. After breakfast we had a session with Prince our assessor. Then we cleaned up the campsite and packed up our things. Soon we were heading out to our first checkpoint, Crawle River. Again we greeted every living thing that we passed by on the road which included animals and plants. While walking our assessor raised many sing along songs and people in the group began to tell jokes. Some of us learnt many new songs. We encountered an intersection on the road on our way to Crawle River and we had no idea where to turn, so we began to sing “lead me Lord I will follow” and immediately afterwards a lady came out of her house pointing and said “its that way”. This was confirmed when soon after a donkey began to bray” Eeh auhh”. While walking we encountered many friendly individuals in the community. Soon we stopped for our 1st lunch.
When we resumed walking we came upon a footpath which was the route we would take to Crawle River. On the path we came upon an intersection which required much brainstorming and a little running. Here we asked for another sign and another donkey began to bray again.
While walking a group member was chopping bushes out of the way when the group was attacked by wasps. Two persons had been stung. Apparently while chopping their nest was disturbed. We had to detour around the nests and from there our group name was extended to” YAAAW!!! DJ a sweat; WASP NESS swarm dem”. There were many falls as many group members continuously slipped and fell. We stopped for a second lunch and then we continued to walk. Soon our assessor and two leaders that were walking with us left us because they were offered a ride in a van back. However, we managed to keep the spirit alive and we began to talk about our previous expedition. We stopped and had a third lunch and we were joined by some community members coming from church.
Soon we were walking again and we caught up to another group. We then stopped and planned our “BIG ENTRANCE”. We got militant and marched and shouted our name. Soon we were at Summerfield and we began to sing a Dora’s greatest hit songs
“Come on vamanos everybody lets go come on lets get to it.......... ” and “we did it we did it we did it YEEEAAH lo hicimos we did it We went over the mountains and through the hills yeah we did it we did it we did it hurray...We went through the bushes and get wasp sting yeah we got it........” and again we shouted our name YAAAAAW DJ A SWEAT WASP NESS SWARM DEM!!!!! And of course we drew massive attention
SUBMITTED BY:
YAAAAW DJ A SWEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NESS SWARM DEM!!!!!! SUBMITTED TO:
PRINCE McNEISH