Her Reflective Essay

When I was younger, my youth group went up to Tennessee to work with impoverished families. We constructed homes around these families, and provided support in whatever way we could. It was very tiring work, but I gained a valuable lesson from it.

We were assigned to the Phillips family. Our job was to see if we could return running water to the one bathroom, add doors to the two bedrooms, replace warped paneling, and put flashing around the chimney on the roof (apparently, the reason the paneling was damaged was because they forgot to put the flashing on when they first built the house).

The first time I walked through the door of their shack, I thought to myself, "God, what disaster has happened here?" I wanted to just walk right back out. The entire house was packed in with useless junk that had a single trail made out so that one could walk through without tripping. This is when I truly grasped the fact that not everybody lives the same way I do, though if they did, the world would be a much better place. However, just as pity and disgust began to seep into my mind, I stepped over the threshold and smelled… fried chicken. And biscuits. Think of the best chicken biscuit you've ever had and multiply its goodness by ten. Then add three smiling, genuinely warm-hearted people into the mix and you've got contentment. Mr. Phillips, Ms. Phillips, and Patricia make up one of the happiest, most satisfied families you could ever meet.

That didn't make up for the hovel they called their house, but despite their not-so-perfect living condition, they had a great, organic, vegetable garden from which they got a majority of their food. Mr. Phillips, even though he was poor and dirty, gave away baskets of tomatoes and peppers to family and friends instead of selling them. As he put it, "I just feel like it's nice to do. I like giving away my tomatoes. People like them." They also had flock of chickens and kept a pig or two; not as clean and healthy, but overall they led a locally sustainable existence. I was amazed at how they could take such good care of these animals and garden, and not of their house or themselves.

What I learned is that these things are not what mattered the most. What was more important was how these people accepted what they had and didn't complain. I had expected this family to be sad and sorry for themselves. I had imagined ourselves as something like heroes coming in the nick of time to save their house and save their lives. I wasn't entirely wrong, but these people were happy, satisfied, and at peace with the world. They had their share of troubles just like anyone else and they needed help. That was our job; to fix the problems so that they could continue on with their lives. They didn't so much worry about the material things, but regarded life and love seriously and did not take them for granted. They were happy with their lives overall, just not with their house. Though their style of living was not ideal for me, there's nothing bad or wrong with the way they're living. I learned that material items do not matter as much as your life and the people close to you, but they are still important parts of our lives.