Okay, so here’s the deal: I’m a freshman this year, so I’m obviously a first-timer on the trip. I went on a dental mission trip to Haiti last year, but I’ve never done anything like this before and I wasn’t sure what to expect. One thing that did strike me almost immediately after arriving here was the gratitude for what we are doing. I’m not talking about the owners of the actual sites we’re working on- although they are VERY grateful. No, I’m talking EVERYONE: the people at camp victor, the people we are helping personally, even random strangers who find out why we are here. I’m not even just talking about Ocean Springs. We stopped in New Orleans for a night before arriving at Camp Victor and a group of about for of us we’re eating in what I think was a bakery, but may have been a café. A woman sitting next to us asked us if we were here on spring break. We told her we were. We also told her what we had come to do. She immediately thanked us- even though she knew that we would not be working in that area but somewhere 2 hours away. She also told us stories about volunteers who had come to New Orleans to work since Katrina.
That was before we had even entered Camp Victor. At the Camp, there is a lounge, and in the lounge, is a 1,000-piece puzzle with which I have become slightly obsessed. I often find that I feel that I’m not doing much, but every little bit helps. The puzzle helped me to see this. I’m not the only one working on that puzzle and sometimes one person will only find 1 or 2 pieces, but those pieces help someone else find 1 or 2 more pieces and so on. Our work is a lot like that, everyone does just a little work in respect to the big picture, but every little bit helps.
-Jessica
Ross using the saw-zaw to cut plywood while team leader Dale makes sure the cut is straight.
Jessica painting on Green Gook so that the boards don't rot.
