Traveling with a Purpose and the Serenity Found Within Island #2-St. Thomas

Day 5(Island #2) of our the Cruise found us at U.S. Virgin Islands - St. Thomas.  This was the place that touched my heart the most.

Here we participated in 2 separate activities.  The first being a "Baby Shower", a health-fair and activities for 300 Headstart children.  Prior to the cruise beginning, Princess Cruise line sent out an email to all passengers with a link to a specific Amazon site that would allow them to purchase much need infant items for the under-served women of St. Thomas, the Fathom participants were also asked to purchase items through the site as well as bringing donated items with them (it was your choice, no one was required to participate in the donation process).  When we docked at St. Thomas a large section of the immediate area had been decorated with canopies and tents, balloons and signs that indicated a "BABY SHOWER" was going to happen.  There was also a RV for healthcare screens set up by the Health Ministry of the U.S. Virgin Islands, staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses, a youth steel drum band, a youth dance group and a incredible dancer on stilts in full Carnival Costume.  $15,000 worth of infant related items were donated by passengers, Fathom, Princess Cruises and Carnival Corporation.

The 110 volunteers were broken up into a couple of different groups, 2 groups staffed the distribution of baby supplies to the 300 women who came with their newborn babies and the 3rd group, which is where I was were assigned to, helped with the 300 3-4 year old children who had arrived by bus with a look of absolute fear and uncertainty on their faces.  Within a few minutes of sitting on the ground with them and listening to the music and chatting away their smiles broke through.  I sat with 3 3 year old kids who got facepainting of dragons (boys) and butterflies and flowers (girls), I took their photos with my IPhone, showed them the photos and watched them scroll through my other photos.  We laughed, we danced, we drank cups of water, we chatted about what we wanted to be when we grew up and when it was time to go I was surrounded my toddlers who hugged me and smiled.  They didn't care that they didn't have the latest and greatest new technology, they didn't care that they didn't get a juice package or cookies, or some new outfit, all they cared about was that they could dance, sing and hug strangers who cared for them over an hour and a half.

The 2nd stop was at a Boys and Girls Club, here we met with youth and teenagers who were happy that they got out of school for the day, who were enthralled to sit with us and tell us their stories of life before and after the hurricanes.  While they talked about how frightening it was during the actual storms, they also were quick to move onto what happened after during cleanup and a few of them mused that they were a little sorry when the schools reopened and they had to go back to their classrooms.  They didn't dwell on the lack of electricity (some places still haven't come back yet), but they did talk about missing pets, houses that were destroyed, families that are still separated, how places like the Boys and Girls Club have given them a place to find friends and be themselves for a few hours each day.  They spoke about their favorite sports, baseball, basketball and soccer.  I spoke with one young girl whose family had just bought a new home right before the storm but hadn't moved in yet and still have moved into it since it now has no roof and rats have taken residence in the home, they are living with other family members.  I asked her what her favorite subject was in school and she told me reading, she loved to read and that's what has helped her throughout these past few months.  She also told me she wanted to be a chef.  Specifically she wanted to be a chef with her own restaurant in Orlando Florida, because that where Disney World is.

The women who received supplies for their infants, the 300 Headstart kids, the people who visited the Health Screening RV, the youth dancers, steel drum band, the kids & teens at the Boys & Girls Club, they were filled with joy, filled with smiles and true appreciation for the kindness of a bunch of strangers.  There was no questions about why, there was none of the divisiveness that has plagued our country this past year, there was no talk about why the hurricanes happened or the recovery efforts afterward, it was simply smiles, thank yous and lots and lots of hugs.

How can an experience like this not fill a person with serenity?  I know that I returned to the ship wanting to do more, hug more, smile more.  When people asked me what I did on shore that day, I'm sure that I probably bored them with my experiences, but you what?  I don't really care because if they could feel the joy coming off me then I know that it was a successful day, actually it was successful because of the joy I felt whether or not a stranger felt it as well.

Feel the Serenity when you give of yourself to others surrounding you.

Check back tomorrow for the last of the Island experiences.

http://www.fathom.org

Traveling with a Purpose and the Serenity Found Within - St. Maarten

Normally I write my about how to find serenity in my everyday life but today I want to reflect on the experiences I have had throughout the past week and for the next 3 days I will post about each days experiences.

Last week I traveled on the Crown Princess with Fathom, an organization that has partnered with Princess Cruise Line to provide relief to island communities throughout the Caribbean. There were 110 passengers out of the 3000 aboard the ship that provided relief help in 3 of the 4 ports of call.

Our first stop was the island of Antigua-this was the only port where we just explored, shopped and relaxed. It was extra fun for my husband and I to see the changes that have occurred since we were there over 35 years ago on our honeymoon. Back then it was just a small secluded island with a few hotels now it’s a popular resort destination with a lot of tourists.

Stop number 2 was our first relief project-St. Maarten(we were on the Dutch side, there’s also a French side). This island was hit hard by both hurricanes. Here our our first task was a remote beach cleanup. What made this beach so important was it was the nesting place for 3 separate species of sea turtles, all on the endangered list. We learned that when they come on shore to lay eggs if they encounter unknown obstacles they turn around and return to the ocean and don’t nest, hence their endangered status. So we spent an hour and half removing over a ton of plastic, styrofoam, fishing lines, debris from homes destroyed during the hurricane and a damaged plastic single person kayak that was partially buried in the sand. All of this debris was carried in from the Atlantic Ocean. Towards the end of the cleanup one of my friends started chatting with a beautiful young woman who was came down to beach with her dog when she saw the crowd of people. She had moved to St. Maarten 7 years ago from Holland and told us how frightening the 1st hurricane was and what a mistake she had made not evacuating and that when the 2nd one approached she packed what she could and returned to Amsterdam. She told us that the island looked like a war zone. She then thanked us for what we were doing but it she had to get going to her therapy for post-trauma victims and although she smiled through out the conversation, she seemed to have a sadness about her.

Our next stop was an Art & Music Institute, that provides they youth of the community with an outlet for dealing with their trauma through interpretive dance, art and steel drum/music instruction. Here we were treated to steel drum interpretation of the hurricane, dancers and the youth telling some of their personal stories of the storms. We also had the chance to play some the instruments and paint our own tee shirt with the help of the students.

As I reflected on the experiences at the end of the day, I found myself wondering whether I would be able to handle myself with the fortitude that the kids, teens and adults I met seemed to have in spades.  For the most part they are happy, they are filled with joy and they don't seem to look back at what was destroyed only what they have now. 

I think that this is really a type of true serenity.

For more information about these types of travels check out - http://www.fathom.org