The Shack Experience – Day # 2

A luminous moon glistening down onto the overturning waves mirroring the starry sky above.  There is only one word that can describe this image; beautiful.For our second job in the shack experience, we left the shack at 11:30pm for a night of clamming in the ocean.  We were told the size of the clams that were acceptable and were sent out in pairs.  While digging with our pitch forks, even just hitting something was exciting, but then disappointing when it wasn’t a big enough clam.  We stayed pretty shallow but the men who do this as a job on a regular basis were going in so far that the waves were toppling over their heads. When we wanted a bit of a break, we walked to the shore to see how well we had done. By looking at the dozen we had collected, we were sure they would all be the right size. But when they started measuring them, slowly the dozen dwindled down into only a few clams.   By the end of a few hours, we had collected around three dozen combined.  One man had been able to get four dozen on his own!  He was able to get more than six people put together. Based on the clams we were able to capture, we made the equivalent of $1.20 each.  It would be pretty tough to support a family on this amount of money…As we told the clammers that they would be able to keep the clams we got, they seemed shocked but very greatful.  We all came to a consensus that it was an amazing experience but couldn’t imagine doing it to make a living. Now, the next time I look at a starry sky I’ll think of those who work through the nights, in crazy conditions, trying desperately to support their families. It is so hard to fully explain to people what we are going through.  I imagine that living like this for an entire life time with no hint of hope for a brighter future would be constant torture.School of Leadership Student – Mexico – Fall 2009