Day Six: Our First Day of Work!

            As a team, we were all ready before 8 AM as we were instructed but island time meant we ended up waiting 45 minutes to get picked up for the start of service. The ride there was a dangerous for the few of us sitting in the bed of the truck. We had a series of obstacles to dodge by ducking and moving around in the truck. On the way to our site, we saw the work done by previous AB groups from UMD. Upon arrival to the site, many of us were anxious and eager to use the machete. We split into two different groups and work started. After getting shown how to use our tools we split into groups and started service.

            A partition of the group was delegated to clear back brush and trees from the side of the path. We were instructed to, as a guideline, move the brush back to about an arm span back into and above the cleared forestry. Participants described the task as very liberating and very fun, although blisters slowed the group down as the day went on. As fearful and weary we were about the looming threat of poisonwood, we were not daunted nor slowed down in our work.  At the start of the day, we were all very skeptical of the impact that we would make upon that of the overall task at hand. Throughout the workday we moved very swiftly in our bush whacking and viewed the task as one big team building activity. As the end of the workday quickly approached, we barely wanted to stop working, for we had built up very good chemistry and a good bit of momentum.  The work that we did was not fully appreciated and gauged until we stepped back and saw the clarity and wonderful pathway that we cleared. The work that we did instilled a strong sense of pride and confidence in our work that will continually drive us throughout the trip to work extremely hard.

            The other group was designated to remove trash by the roadside and nearby wooded area.  At first glance, there didn’t appear to be much litter on the road.  As my group walked along the path, we began to find random bottles, caps, etc.  Alex and Becca found buried “treasure” of a mound of rusty cans and glass bottles.  Later on, another group found a site of a car crash, with metal and glass strewn around the area.  We spent a lot of time there picking up the remnants of the rusty car as well as parts of a bike.  After a while we walked back to the other group and spent the remainder of the time clearing away plants that the other group cut down to widen the road. 

            The most satisfying part of today’s work was how the park officer commended our hard work.  We exceeded his expectation by doing a lot more work than he asked and rewarded us by showing us some new blue holes in the area. It was satisfying knowing that we worked above par. We also learned later in the day that there is a UMD legacy in which our sites in this forest are becoming prominent. It is amazing to know that we are part of this legacy. As a group we are going to keep moving forward to make a huge impact on our site.