I am 17 years old. I live in michigan and attend a church youth group. My youth group has at least one mission trip each year, and this last summer we went to New York. As many of you may know, New York is still recovering from the hurricane. We stayed in the upstairs of a building behind a church. There was no air conditioning, and there was but an inch between all of our mattresses. We spent about 10 days here. If we wanted a shower we had to drive to another church to the trailer of showers. The water was ice cold, there were no lights and it had a repulsive odor. We also had a time limit on our showers because there were so many people needing showers and not many showers. When we were here we broke into 4 groups, each group having a leader and a different place to work. My group worked on the pastors house, and since the pastor was in transition no one was in the house during the time. In the house we had to do some demolition, rip out the old installation, sand the floors, cut new dry wall and put it in. It was a big job to do with little time. Each day we would meet at the house, pray and get to work. Putting the installation in was honestly the worst part. It was very hot out when we were doing it, and the house didn't have air conditioning. For those of you who don't know, when putting installation in safety is huge. You have to wear goggles, gloves and cover your mouth. It's also somewhat difficult to cut through installation because it is so thick and it pulls apart from each other. After the installation my friends and I began working together to cut the dry wall. To do this we had to take a new sheet, walk it out side and put in on a table. Then we had to go back and forth in and out of the house with new measurements to mark each time. Once the drywall was all hung, you could really see it coming together. After we swept and sanded the living room and office the floors were light brown and clean, which was far better than the dark brown dirty floor. I've always been big in the whole traveling and volunteer thing so this opportunity was perfect. I am so glad I went on this trip. I learned so much and got to meet some new people. I am so glad I got to come home with all the knowledge from the cite such as how to hang drywall, how to handle installation and such. Best of all, I am glad I got to experience this trip with my friends. It was a great experience and I wouldnt change a thing.