Wa Gwan?

Greeting in Patois for “What’s going on?”!

The SuperKids program started in 2008, and my sister, who has been a volunteer with the Great Shape 100 smiles program for a number of years, contacted my husband Bruce and told him that she had the perfect volunteer job for him… helping set up computers for school children in Jamaica. He contacted Brad Adams and soon he was set up to work for the 2nd week of the program in 2008. he loved it and wanted to go again in 2009 but wanted me to go with him.

I am not a tropical vacation kind of person but I signed up,

knowing I’d be totally overheated most of the time, and have to hide from the sun. Well, one day with the kids TOTALLY cured that. I WAS IN LOVE! I helped as a teacher’s aide at Breadnut Hill Primary for two weeks while my husband went around setting up computers at all the schools. I could hardly wait to get to school in the mornings and it was hard to leave the kids when the bus came to pick us up! The year before at Breadnut, the school had arranged to get a computer room set up, and the families did a fabulous job in a very short time to be ready for the computers. They also had another room roughed in November of 2008, that was finished for our use in 2009. The pride they felt in their school, evident in the changes that the families showed in making upgrades for our return.

Miss Gowie, the principal, is wonderful! Working with her was a joy, and her whole staff is equally as committed as she is. Breadnut Hill Primary School is my newly claimed alma mater! I love it and hope that I will be assigned there again this November!

I have been collecting my supplies plus any and everything I can stuff into my suitcases that I think might be useful and fun for the teachers and kids this fall. I have spent the last year recruiting, going to seminars on education, sending info and supplies to Gretchen and Georgene from all the new upcoming ideas I have learned and have been waiting for the day that we coulf return to Jamaica and I can see my kids! It turned out that Bruce and I were the first ones to sign up for a return trip this November and I hope we will be blessed with the health and the energy to do this long into the future!

I also want to add my thanks to Sandals and Beaches for their INCREDIBLE support. Not only were our days at school filled with joy, but we felt so loved and supported by being able to have a lovely place to stay and refresh for the next school day, fabulous staff in the restaurants, housekeeping, reception, groundskeepers (and in my case, the nurse, for a cut elbow that she checked daily for me), management, etc., who made our stay SO comfortable. We were fed every morning, lunch was made for us to take to the schools, transportation was provided, our beautiful rooms were cleaned daily, the pool was spotless, the grounds were gorgeous, the food was

fantastic (and the drinks lovely). I could go on and on!

I don’t know what I will experience that will be new and different this year but I know it will be memorable and wonderful and I will be even more committed to return in 2011

i can’t wait!!

Hope to see you all there. You’ll love it!

Rosalie Broding

SuperKids volunteer 2009, 2010 and hopefully for many more years to come!