Young Neighbors In Action

During the summer after my freshman year I went on a mission trip with my youth group to Gallup, New Mexico.  To prepare us for this we did many different fundraisers and had a special going away Mass for us as well.  I was so excited for so many reasons, the top three being that I got to directly help people in poverty, go on my first plane ride, and see outside of Wisconsin for the first time.  After successfully handling the plane trip (I wasn't sure how I would react), and the five hour car ride from the airport to the camp we set up our room and waited for the rest of the groups to come.  My group basically had a host family, but since we had by far the largest group, we would split up some days and do other miscellaneous tasks as well.  We enjoyed helping the family and grew closer to them each day, especially Juan, the youngest of the children.  He was everyone's favorite.  Tasks I did at the host family's trailer home was paint the outside of the house, tape and paint the bathroom, pick up garbage, and move rocks.  Other miscellaneous jobs I helped out with at other locations were weeding by an apartment building and two little girls came out to help us with thier plastic garden tools, donate food to a local family and clean their garage, which was a messy and dreary looking place that also housed two malnourished chihuahuas, and on our final day we weeded some more for the first half of the day and then we cleaned up and decorated a room for a celebration dinner for the priest's ordination.  It was so sad to see how poor these people were, but it was more embarrassing to know that they had so little and were still so happy, something we weren't really accustomed to.  They had to live without so many of the things that we take for granted every day.  I know for a fact that we all learned not to take so much for granted from that mission trip.  It was very sad for us when we had to leave our family, especially when we said goodbye to Juan.  We also made friends with the other groups from other areas of the country and had to tell them goodbye too.  Thinking about this trip and the impact really puts me in my place and when I feel like complianing about some petty little thing, I shouldn't, because someone has it much worse than I do and I am blessed with everything I have.  The trip opened my eyes.