By Breidy Cristal Santiago
Joining Create Caribbean was a new stage for me to be able to grow and learn new things. When I first heard about it from the interns I was debating whether or not I should join. Just the way that the intern had explained Create, made me want to join. They told me that Create Caribbean is an institute that conducts research and work on many different projects, and that they also help each other in homework any other academic work. I thought that it would be a great way to learn a new ability, to have fun and to make friends.
My first intern workshop was held on Saturday, September 24 at the St. John’s Primary School in Portsmouth. There I was able to meet with some amazi
ng kids. At the workshop we drew pictures, wrote stories and played games with the kids. It was really nice helping the kids to draw and guessing what they had drawn. I think my favorite part was writing the stories, because I was able to meet two wonderful girls who are going to the same dance studio I did. Their favorite thing to do was dance and so they wrote a short story on how much they liked to dance and what their favorite moves were.
Joining Create was one of the best decisions I had made so far as a college student. Being able to learn new things, meet people and trying new things is very refreshing. I am really excited for the future projects that I will have to work on at Create Caribbean. My first project was working on the Dominica History site; Building Communities: 1838-1938. Doing the research helped me to go back in time and see how Dominica went from having slaves who worked on the plantations to starting their own communities and forming village councils. I learned that back in that time the church played an important role in helping the freed slaves and that most villages were actually a result of the intervention of the Catholic Church.
My first meeting at Create was very interesting. I got to learn the commitment that I as an intern will have to put to Create Caribbean and that it is a privilege to be a part of it. I got to meet the new and old interns, and though I am not very good at remembering everyone’s name, I will learn them in time. I learnt that every week I would have to sign in when I come to do my hours and total my hours at the end of the week. I got an overview of the project that I would like to work on and the one that caught my attention was The Maroon Country. In high school I got to do my history SBA on the Maroon Communities in Dominica, therefore, I am looking forward to finding more information on how maroons were able to live and form communities in the heights of our country..
My second activity at Create Caribbean was held on Saturday, October 15 at the Create Caribbean Centre. There I got to learn a lot of important stuff from Dr. Esprit. I was very surprised with how much she knows about the history of Dominica. She introduced us to Digital Humanities and that it is a course that we must do as an intern at Create Caribbean. We also learnt about project management, time and resource management, project planning and task assignments, knowledge that is vital to my Create life.