During spring break, I went to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to help the hurricane "Katrina" victims. Our group from Finlandia University had 14 people.
Here I am in Mississippi with Kristin, one of my best friends! (Click on photos for larger versions.)Before the trip, I was nervous about staying all day long with Americans because I didn't think my English was good enough to communicate with them. They were all kind and nice to me, although I couldn't always understand what they said. They were trying to say something as easily as they could, and trying to figure out what I wanted to say.
Pictured with me in this photo are, from left, Salome, Mary and Micki. We met at the camp, worked together and became good friends.Anyway, all the work was very hard.
Here I am, breaking a wooden board as part of the clean-up.When we tried to clean a man's house, I saw tons of garbage and many cats. The yard was wet and muddy. There were bugs, snakes, ants, frogs and even cockroaches under the garbage. That was really scary and disgusting! We were really unhappy when we were cleaning his garbage; but after that I realized that it was not only stinky and scary, but also good experience for me.
Through the trip and activities to help people, I made some good friends; and it was the greatest experience I've ever had.
Editor's Note: ESL Instructor Suzanne Van Dam drove the student volunteers to Mississippi and participated in the project.
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