This year I helped sponsor a volunteer trip for ten students. We first went to Mississippi and built a house in five days! At first I thought there was no way this was going to happen. Besides the foreman, none of us had so much as picked up a nail gun before.

The last day, I was put in charge of electrically wiring the house while everyone else laided down roof shingles. And later that night we went rollerskating with the family we built the house for. It was the first time I had strapped on a tool belt and wheels on my feet. Now it would have been a really impressive if I had done both at the same time.

Next, we were off to Nashville. While there we saw all the Civil Rights museums. These were very moving and enlightening for all of us. Before we left, we stopped by Graceland. Really, we didn't have a choice...

The next day we hopped back in the van and headed for Arkansas. Here, we first helped lay river rock to build a path at a state park. These were like freakin' boulders that you needed three people just to slide (forget lifting). Should it really be harder to make a trail than build a house? Boy, was I surprised.

Before we left we all thought we'd climb the mountain in the park. This is where my brush with death occurs on this trip. . I lost my footing and--I prefer to think of it as tumbling rather than falling--bounced down the mountain backward and landed with a rock in my back.

I guess I was fortunate though because somehow the rock was large enough to stop me from falling off the side of the mountain. But, undaunted I limped my way the rest of the way to the summit because stubborness always wins out over pain for me.

The last stop was to the Heifer Project. We took part in a learning experiment called the Global Village. By lot, we all chose numbers and that decided which "village" we would belong to. The divisions were to represent how the majority of the world's people live. The Guatamala village was the richest and actually had a house to live in, food, and other resources. The Africa village represented those who have some shelter, some food, and some resources. I ended up in the "Barrio," the poorest village. We had no shelter, no food, and no resources. I ended up being the leader and while I had no luck fishing (what was I doing? I had never picked up a fishing pole in my life. For all I know I was fishing with the wrong end of the pole) I did end up having more food than the other teams. I bartered labor for food from the other two teams. We had a nice rice and egg dish while the "Guatamalans" burned their food to bits and the "Africans" thought it was too much effort to try and cook.