Kumiko: Spring Break project in Mississippi

By Kumiko Takahashi

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.

ESL Reading assignments: Apr. 14-18

Monday, Apr. 14: (postponed from Friday, snow day, Apr. 11) “What is near-death experience?”
Preparation: Do Before you read, scanning and Reading , pp. 102-103. Then do A and B, p. 103.
Also read this recent article about Obama's speech in Indiana this week:
http://www.tribstar.com/archivesearch/local_story_103001156.html
Print it off if possible and underline or make a list of the main points (main ideas or what he says he will do if elected President).

In class: We’ll go over your answers to the textbook questions and discuss C together. We'll also discuss the Obama article.

Wednesday, Apr. 16: Preparation: Read this article on Hillary Clinton's energy policy:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/energy/
Print it off if possible and underline or make a list of the main ideas as you did with Obama.
Also for Wednesday, read this profile of John McCain:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/mccain/articles/0301mccainbio-chapter1.html
List 5 things you learned about McCain from this article. For extra credit read any other article on any one of the candidates that interests you and be ready to tell the class about it.

Make a list of at least 6 new vocabulary words you learned from these articles and bring it to class. It can be in your vocabulary notebook.

In class: We'll discuss the articles and compare them to the one on Obama. (Bring it to class again.)

Friday, Apr. 18. Reading lab reports due. Be ready to tell the class about your book. Review for exam. Bring your vocabulary notebook.

In class: We'll have some reports on the lab readings and we'll review vocabulary for Unit 13 and the readings on the candidates. Bring the textbook and the articles to class also.