Firstly, I want to thank my friends who have been so supportive and cheering me on through Facebook, text messages, and emails. Your support via donations and showing up to our fundraising events is just plain awesome! Special shout out to my sister Serlina who helped me raised donations on her 25th birthday, and my friend David who I haven’t seen in four years shows up to two of our fundraising events. You guys are just supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!! Okay, too many exclamations.
Instead of writing about pre-trip jitters and expectations, I would like to share the reason why I decided to join the Hoboken Cares team for this volunteer trip.
When I first read about the Jamaica volunteer trip, I was instantly drawn in about doing volunteering work in a country that I’ve never been to before. Upon sending the email request to our team leader, Andrew, I had my doubts--I thought it would be weeks before I would get an answer or just some sort of generated response email with a "thank you for your interest." Instead to my surprise, I got a speedy reply and an almost eager email of "what would you like to know?" and “come to our next team meeting." So I did.
Upon walking into Andrew’s art deco Broadway office building down in the Financial District, I felt a bit under-dressed and confused…Jamaica and finance don’t exactly mingle. Cool, fourth to arrive to the meeting. Andrew tells me about Mustard Seed and I start to learn and understand the mission and the trip--it's about spending time with the children. After introductions, we jumped right into sharing our Consolations and Desolations. This was something new for me, sharing our ups and downs of the week with people I just met. I shared that I started a new job as my consolation. For my desolation I shared that I am not religious and wondered if there would if it was okay since this is a mission volunteer trip. Jordan, Meaghan, and Andrew instantly assured me that it this group is welcomes all religious and non-religious to join. I was undecided then; however, I do remember after the meeting I had feelings of fresh excitement and determination.
Fast forward to two months later (November 7, 2014): our group and the people who volunteer for Mustard Seed are awesome. How do I know this? People volunteer their personal time and money to make these week long trips happen--from getting our group together and creating fundraising events to coming together for team meetings. All this is what I admire most. It’s been a long process; so glad to be going on this trip with a good bunch. Not dreading that 6 am flight :)
Love,
Lisa (newbie)
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