A Learning Experience

This trip has been a great experience. While many of us thought we would be here solely for volunteer work, I find that many of us are leanring more about Hurricane Katrina, Camp Coast Care, and ourselves. The people we are helping are all so different. They all come from different areas and classes. I have learned how important it is to realize that everyone’s experiences of Hurrican Katrina were different, and although everyone was affected somehow, everyone was affected differently. I initially believed that we would help those who were most in need – such as those who literally do not have a home because it was demolished in the hurrican. Rather we are helping out people who simply need our help. If they weren’t in need of help, we would not be here. I think this group of ASBers have realized that we sometimes need to step outside of the box, and put ourselves in the other person’s shoes because there is always two sides to a story. In order for us to get the most out of this experience, we need not only to volunteer, but learn about those who we are volunteering for such as the home-owners and organizations such as Camp Coast Care.

While it is a great feeling to actually do the volunteer work, I am glad I am here because I WANT to be here. It was very rewarding today though because my group fixed the citing of the wall we somehow managed to destroy even further yesterday (reference “when the water pipe broke” for that traumatic experience…) I think the home-owner would be very pleased to see how dedicated we were to fix that wall after all the troubles there had been just for 1 wall. Hopefully I will continue to see this type of progress while building here for the rest of the week!