Mission To Mississippi

Behind me was the forbidding maw of the stage that I knew so well. The ghosts of the old plays flickered behind the ominous black curtains. But that was another story. And at such an early hour, before these dark curtains, another began. There we were, arrayed on the stage for our picture before take-off, the Mission to Mississippi group of 2006, at 5:45, watching flash after flash as parents took an endless stream of pictures.

And there we were, all twenty four of us. Most I had now known for almost four years. Next to me stood Benny, Drama’s stage manager and a good friend of mine who survived AP US History with me. Then PJ, who was once the quietest kid in the class and was now the one with the most backbone, and who desperately wanted to catch an armidillo. And there was Joe, whose good-natured humor kept us from going insane in class as well as on the trip. Jimmy, who caught bumblebees and kept them as pets. And next to him was Devon, who never said much but turned out to be a fun guy to work with. Then Bridget, who played Cinderella in the play Into the Woods, and of course there was that awkward dance with me at the prom. And next to her was Nick Hixon, the son of The General, an avid lover of art, who joined forces with PJ on the armidillo hunt. And there was Amanda, who intelligently screwed up my testimony in the AP English Crime and Punishment trial. Next was Meghan, who, in her first yahtzee game, got three yahtzees in a row. And then Liz, who went to prom with Chuck as an anti-couple alliance and effectively created the most obvious couple of the class. There was Lucas, who worked with me behind the canteen at a fundraiser. And David who was perpetually late to meetings and to school. In front of him was Malley, perhaps the best female athlete in the class. And behind her was Renée who celebrated her birthday down south. And next to her was Julie who played field hockey with Malley. In front of her was Tomiko, the classes most enthusiastic cheerleader. And next to her was Heather who took charge when Mrs. DeAngelis had her accident. Behind her was Tobias, who never said much of anything, except to comment on how ridiculous Ms. Ducey’s AP classes were. And then there was Chuck, the class cynic and my trip buddy, who almost blew up the set of Into the Woods, screwing in a lightbulb. Towering next to him was Nick Stalford, to whom I had bragged to about having a prom date, before she suddenly had to cancel. And next to him was Andrew, who schooled some of the Mississippi kids at basketball, surprisingly. There was Lindsay who probably wasn’t as bad of a driver as she seemed to be, although she did get into a few too many accidents. And next to her, on the other side of me, was Kyle who wished to blow up the internet from an airplane, when I first met him. And then there was me. Mission to Mississippi 2006.

Unfortunately, we weren’t unsupervised. Our leader was Ms. Little, who taught me Algebra I & II and Trigonometry. Mr. Hixon, “The General,” was our bus driver. He was the man at the school who ruled with an iron fist, locking students in detention if they displeased him. He says he slept the best when he drove the bus . . . Mr. Boulet drove the bus for some periods. He taught religion and headed Music Ministry. He taught us about Temptation Pie too. He looked like Mr. Rogers. There was Mrs. Gagnon, who works at St. Patrick’s who was fun to work with. Mrs. DeAngelis, Liz’s mom, who distributed the drugs. Well, Alavert, Dramamine, and Advil anyways. She was the nurse. And on the way back, Mrs. Bourget drove. And danced to the music while driving. I guess I was lucky to live. Oh! There was also Marcel. He brought his guitar and accordian. He was an alumni who had done the trip as a student.


It was an amazing trip that I will never forget. I left on Thursday 14 from school in Auburn ME with 23 other students in my class and a few chaperones. Our mission was to go to Mound Bayou, Mississippi, help the poor, and come back and have a good time while doing so. Our leader was my Algebra teacher, Ms. Little, and our bus driver was our hardlining "General," Mr. Hixon, who takes care of the discipline problems at school.

We left on that Thursday at 6:00 in the morning. It was a long bus trip. By 9 in the evening, we were in Silver Spring, Maryland. By the end of the second day, we were in Knoxville Tennessee, where we went to Good Friday service.

The next day, we stopped in Graceland and saw Elvis's house. Then we went to Beale St. in Memphis. There were some amazing street singers singing "Sittin' on the dock of the bay." and other good songs. And there was an acrobat doing backflips in the street. We ate at BB King's Famous Club, where there were more excellent performers. Beale St. was awesome.

Then when we got back to the bus, we found out, we were robbed. It was the dumbest robbery I had ever heard of. They rifled through Heather's jewelery but took none of it. But they got away with Kyle's Graceland shirt, Jimmy's $200 sunglasses, and my entire backpack, boxers and all. And they took the time to remove my insect repellent before taking the bag. So I had to resupply at Wal-Mart! But they did not take my wallet or my digital camera. They were dumb. Chuck, my buddy for the trip, noted that my shirt read "Life is good" which was kind of ironic at that moment.

Late that night, we arrived at our campground and pitched tents and went to sleep. It was long and interesting day. The next day was easter sunday. We went to mass in Greenville MS. They had a gospel choir. It was amazing. Everyone in the church was getting into the music and the worship and the spirit was so incredible. Even Jimmy, an admitted athiest, wished to see another mass after that. They made northern masses look dull.

After mass, we had an easter egg scavenger hunt at the campground (my team won) and then headed off to Mound Bayou (MB). When we got to the St. Gabriel Center, we cleaned the place up so we could open for business. It took the rest of the day. Then back to the campground to sleep.

On the first day of work I was tasked to a house in MB. My job was to rake the yard and paint over some kitchen stains. Simple. Then after lunch I was tasked to paint a house. My housepainting group had a lot of fun. Marcel, one of the chaperones, and David, got into a paint duel. Marcel was owned. It was funny. We got most of the house painted by dinner. The next day, another group would take over.

The second day, I was tasked to work at Mrs. Dunlap's house. She had a nice looking house, but that was only the cover. The inside was dingy and decrepit. There was poor circulation in the house and I wish I could have done more to it. But my group had to clear away some trees, "to keep peekers away," Mrs. Dunlap said, prune some roses, and paint this house. We hosted lunch for the senior women. They told us stories about their lives. At one table, the two women had about 33 kids if i remember right (maybe it was grandkids). During the lunch, we had some singing. Bridget sang the Ave Maria, Marcel sang Yellow submarine and Joe sang I've Been Everywhere Man for us but these old ladies outsang us with traditional songs such as Wade in the Water. It was so cool to watch and hear them sing.

After lunch, it was back to Mrs. Dunlap's house and then dinner. That night, PJ, Nick and I went armadillo hunting. We saw one. It got a way though. PJ saw a raccoon.

The third day, I was back at Mrs. Dunlap's again, finishing the painting and the trees. Our chaparone, Mrs. DeAngelis, kept commenting to Lindsay, who is afraid of heights, that "you'd be alright if you fell five-ten feet" Tobias, the class's quietest kid suddenly opened up, and talked to everyone. He demanded waterbreaks every five minutes and was joking around. He claimed that he was doing the most work. He was fun to work with. He told Lindsay, he never spoke to her because "she wasn't popular enough." We laughed. But later disaster struck. Mrs. DeAngelis fell off a ladder, about five-ten feet, and broke her arm. Heather immediately took charge and we got her to a hospital. My team had to head back to the St. Gabriel center for the rest of the day.

We got to hang out with the citizens of MB. They were all black, they all had a strong black MS accent and they all had a totally different culture than any of the Mission Mississippi kids were use to. They came to us and wanted to hang out with us. We played soccer, basketball, even yahtzee with them. We did this every evening. They were very friendly people.

That night, there was a loud thunderstorm. It sounded as if nuclear bombs were going off. But somehow, I slept through the storm, except for the first few thunders.

The next morning was our last day of work. Mr. Hixon and a group of kids and myself went off to do a few odd jobs, including fixing doors, a wall, and cleaning some mold. The mold was, as gross as it sounds, amazing. We threw on some bleach and an hour of elbow grease and the house looked as good as new. We finished all the projects that day. We got to sleep in the Center due to the rain and some flooding in some of the tents.

On the day we left, we cleaned the center again. Then had a barbeque with the community. At 5, we left. Arrived in Lincoln Alabama late at night.

The next day, saturday, we set off for atlanta, which was going to be our side trip. I started to think about it. I remembered something about roller coasters in Atlanta, but I knew that we weren't going to one. Then Renee got excited about six flags. I thought "there is no way" But we did. We went to six flags. Now that was fun.

After six flags, we had dinner at the Hard Rock in Georgia. Then we headed to a hotel. The next day, we started our long trip home. At 12:46:06 AM Wednesday 26, two days after Atlanta, we crossed the Maine border. At 1:30 we were at the school. At 2:30 I was asleep at a friends house. At 10:00, I was finally home.

What did I learn? I learned that if you take a bumblebee, freeze it for ten minutes, and tie a string to it, you can keep it as a pet. Jimmy was talking about that on the bus.

But really, we had a positive affect on this community. We couldn't fix everything. But we were much appreciated. We made lives better in a community 1700 miles away. We made people less fortunate than myself happy. The smile on Mrs. Dunlap's face, when she saw her house, was worth the three day trip and the robbery.

I had a great time.

In other news I went to my Senior Prom last Saturday. I had an excellent time. There is no story about it this year as the prom went well. I danced all night long. I mean, hell, I had a date for one thing. That helped a lot (:

So now the great era of High School is ending. I have 9 days until graduation. And I'm feelling rather manic-depressive about it, sometimes manic, sometimes depressive. But I can't wait to graduate. Get out of the school, get out of Rumford and head forth to the Big Time. Next step is to survive college and then we'll see what will happen. If there is anything I learned in the last four years, its that you can't expect or be prepared for anything, but you must prepare yourself just the same. Life has several unexpected twists that will fly in your face at any given moment and you've got to be ready to do with these twists whatever is necessary to ensure your survival, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. I mean, hell, I'm going to a whole new world next year. Anything can happen. God help me. I mean it.

"God helps those who help themselves"

J Kuhl Signing Off