20/08/2020
If you know me then you already know how much the word ‘Greywood’ means to me. For those who don’t know me from basic or primary schools, today is the day when you will learn a little more about me.
‘Greywood’, better known to many as ‘Greywood District’; is a small farming community in northeastern St. Ann. This community has no formal water supply system.
Growing up in Greywood, we would have to go to the spring for water, as some persons had tanks but not everyone was fortunate enough to have a tank at home. However, let’s say that we all felt like we did. We were one community of kindhearted people. We could always go to our neighbors’ house for water, because they had a tank. In addition, we only had two street lights in a community of approximately 4km in size.
Growing up in Greywood was some of the BEST days of my life. We enjoyed visiting the spring with my friends and cousins. We would play hide and go seek, skipping , stucky-pully ( who remember stucky?)
On a Sunday we all went to Sunday school, as to our parents, this was as important as getting a good education.
There are key principles that I learned whilst growing up in Greywood:
• Empathy: the ability to put yourself in other peoples’ situations. As I mentioned earlier, not everyone had a tank, but we all enjoyed the luxury of tank water from our neighbors’ supplies
• Self development: the process of enhancing your abilities and character despite the odds
• Punctuality: being on time and respecting other people’s time
• Integrity: having good moral beliefs and being honest at all times. Most importantly, doing the right thing even when no one is looking
• Resourceful: the ability to think fast and decipher workable solutions
• Industrious/goal getter: to aggressively go after your goals in creative ways
• Sacrifice: the ability to give up something you enjoy for the greater good (like missing out on the football match in final of school to study for exams)
These are some of the key principles that you need to survive in a small, rural, underdeveloped community. Fast forward to over 20 years later, there are persons from our community in some of the world’s largest offi
