My Return to Piers Park

This is my second year working at Piers Park and I was really looking forward to returning this summer to reconnect the amazing friendships I had made last year with all the kids. Piers Park is one of the most staggering places to work, the kids are all wonderful and well behaved. Most of the kids that I worked with last year are not with us this week but it's still exciting working with the new kids that joined the program. Two of the kids that returned for a second year are Chanu and Kristine, these two kids are both really funny and they love being by the harbor fishing and catching Crabs. In these few days I've also met Lucia who is one the most focused kids I've ever met. Lucia loves fishing, she is always asking questions about how to catch a fish and how she can cast further. I find this magnificent because it shows that she really loves the program and she's always ready to learn new things and share it with the world, as a JPA there is nothing on this planet that makes me happier than seeing kids so focused and eager to learn new things.

Me Showing Luchia How to Fish

Me and Chanu Removing The Crabs From The Crab Trap

This week has been like a roller coaster, one day we catch of a lot of Crabs and some days we get none. But no matter how good or how bad a day we are having the kids never cease to impress me with their creativity and their amazing ability to turn any boring situation into an entertaining one. On the days that we have caught a lot of crabs the kids get really excited because when we have our crab race everyone has a crab they can race. On the days where we caught few crabs there were always plenty of Jellyfish in the water. The kids would catch them with their nets and we would determine which type of Jellyfish it is.This week the most Crabs we caught at Piers was about 13 in one day, we had a huge race on that fortunate day. Overall my first week back at Piers Park has been terrific and I'm really looking forward to meeting all of the new kids that will come through our program over the summer. I'm really looking forward to the return of some of the kids that I worked with last year for it would make me really happy to know that they loved the program last year.  

The Crab Race

Jazeel Mendes