Sean Ryan

Reflection

            When I was getting ready for the Bona Responds service trip to Enterprise, Alabama and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi I was extremely nervous.  I was nervous about what was going to be asked of me, basically helping re-build someone else’s life that was destroyed either tornado, or hurricane was, in my mind, and monumental task.  I was nervous about how people in Alabama and the Gulf would react to our presence there.  And the thing I was most nervous about was traveling with only knowing a handful of people out of roughly 50 people venturing on this trip.  But by the time we pulled back onto Bonaventure’s campus, I knew everyone, and they knew me.  Even if we only exchanged words for five minutes, I could say that they were a friend of mine. 

That’s what this trip meant to me, new relationships, and the giving of me to people in need.  When I could have been back in my hometown of Allegany, NY doing who knows what.  Just getting off my butt and being down there was enough for some of those being in need. 

When we were at Enterprise, Alabama I had the privilege to meet an absolutely amazing family who were in awe that we would travel over a thousand miles just to move some down trees in their backyard.  They said, just standing there in our brown and yellow Bona Responds t-shirts was enough.   They explained to me that when they were watching our group walk up the streets with saw, shovels, and work gloves in hand was enough, and that was before they knew we came down from New York.  But to put it as simply as I can, they clarified to me that we created a felling of hope.  Knowing that even people over a thousand miles away care about them, brought a teary smile to their faces in a time of grief.  That’s what, in my opinion, Bona Responds is, hope.

After we stayed and helped in Enterprise for the days we packed up and headed towards the gulf.

            I was placed at Bay St. Louis, about an hour and a half outside of New Orleans.  We had around 20 members at our site, which I knew only three people when we started.  Our group worked together everyday for a week straight.  We did construction on a house damaged by Katrina, hauled pieces of people’s homes, and debris out the swampiest places Mississippi had to offer, and gutter a house that had still been sitting and rotting there after Hurricane Katrina hit a year ago. We knew what we had to do, work wise, but I noticed how close our group was becoming.  When I got on the bus at the beginning of our trip to the gulf, my team members were only faces to me, but now I can call them good friends.  So, I would like to say thank you Kelly, Katie, Meg, Charlie, Al, Chelsea, Emma, Patrick, Jerry, Josh, Patrick, Margaret, Dave, Chantel for the great memories.  I will never forget our whole experience together, and I hope to see you all on the bus again!