Ben Thompson

As I got thrown into the seat in front of me, I awoke from my 2 hour nap just in time to see the biggest ball of dust I had ever seen and hear tires screeching along the pavement like nail on a chalk board.

After a 16 hour drive we arrived in San Diego, California, on a bright sunny Saturday afternoon, 10 other of my friends and I, our youth leader, and two chaperons from First Presbyterian Church of Albuquerque, New Mexico jumped out of the vans and ran into the ocean. At this time the sun was about to set and its reflection off the water was almost blinding. With the sea glistening in my face, I turned to one of my friends, Laura, and said, “Nothing can bring this trip down.”

We were in San Diego to build a house for Habitat for Humanity, a volunteer program to help out the people that cannot afford to purchase a home. We had to start from scratch. We were not the only people who were going to build this house. There were people from other churches from around San Diego, along with professional builders.

The first night we all slept in a big basement of a Presbyterian church in San Diego. The basement was made of concrete and was very uncomfortable to sleep on. The next morning we were awakened by the Jurassic Park soundtrack, more specifically the track where you hear the dinosaur ROAR. As we heard this, none of us wanted to get up at seven in the morning, but we had to.

One girl took the awakening to an extreme: she jumped out of bed and ran across the room as if she was being chased by a dinosaur. To this day we still make fun of her.

After we got dressed we went to the supply store. This store was in the ghetto of San Diego. We all got out and stared at this old run down building that was barely standing before us. When we entered the building it smelled like rotting fish, and I hate seafood. We would spend many hours in and out of the shack, retrieving the building supplies and taking them to the site.

There was an old man who would always sit outside of the building, no matter what time of day he was always there in his rocking chair. He had a long beard and a pipe that was constantly lit. We began to call him stinky. We never though he would leave the chair to take a shower.

After 3 days of taking the supplies to the site, we were finally done. Now, the real fun started. With the direction of Robby, the contractor, we began to build the house. He would tell us what we could do to help, which wasn't much. At the time all we wanted to do was get out of the blistering sun and in the ocean. All I could imagine was how my friend Kim, the girl I had a huge crush on, looked in her bikini. At 15 years old I really didn't think about much else.

At the end of the fourth day, we were all beat. Phil, our youth leader, decided to take us out to a nice restaurant for dinner. We all went back and showered in a hurry. That night we went to Hard Rock Caf��, which was better than the McDonalds that we had been eating.

After dinner we went strolling along the board walk. We watched the sun set. It was a beautiful orange ball that was sinking into the ocean, turning the ocean many shades of yellow and orange. We continued to walk along the board walk, giggling like little 15 and 16 year olds do, entering shops and wishing we had brought money to buys cheesy shirts.

Next day, we realized that we only had two more days in San Diego. We were surely going to live them up. We went to the work site as usual and tried to build stuff that we couldn't. I loved the smell of the saw dust and the sounds of the nail gun firing.

That night we all were so tired that all we wanted to go was go to bed. (Ha, so much for living it up huh?) We ventured back to our basement and put in Scream. I had never seen the movie before. Needless to say, I did not sleep at all that night.

The next morning, our final real day in San Diego, we got up at seven in the morning and proceeded to the work site. Robby greeted us with a big smile and told us that he didn't have anything for us to do that day. This was a dream come true to me. The only option we had was to spend the day at the beach. Damn!!! We said our goodbyes to Robby and his crew, and thanked them. As we drove away I remember him yelling, “Drive home safely.” I thought to myself, were on a mission trip. God wouldn't let anything bad happen to us.

The girls were all lying out on the beach while the boys were playing tackle football. The sand was so hot that it hurt to put our feet on it. After we finished playing football the sun was about to set again in its rich, natural, orange color. We began to search for wood to build a fire on the beach. Once we found wood, it was my job to light the fire. The only reason that they gave me this job was because I was a Boy Scout, and we didn't have a lighter.

I had been out of Scouts for almost a year, and despite what you might hear, we never used sticks to start the fire, or stones, we would always light fire with a whole lot of Colman Fuel and matches. So, of course, I panicked, but eventually I found a lighter and got it started. We all hung around the camp fire as the chilled air from off the ocean began to bite at our hands and feet. Finally it was time to go back to the lonely basement, and sleep. That night I remember praying to God for letting us help these people and for letting us have a fun trip.

As morning came the next day we were already up and in the vans. I had chosen to go in the big 15 passenger van. Kim had been deciding as to which van she wanted to ride in, but eventually she came with me.

We were already about 2 hours into the trip home when the sun came up. We had been talking about the good time that we had, and how we hoped none of our pieces to the home would break or fall apart. We talked all the way till lunch time. We stopped off at another McDonalds. Between Albuquerque, and San Diego, our choices were limited. After lunch we all piled back in the vans. By now they smelled like sweat, and had sand all over the place. You couldn't sit down without getting sand in your ass.

We began to drive away, we were all dead tired. We decided to take a nap. The van swaying back and forth was because of the 50+ mph winds, and was almost comforting. It was like being rocked asleep. None of us had on seat belts. What for, were on our way back from a mission trip, and God wouldn't let anything happen to us.

As I began to emerge from my 2 hour nap I noticed that we were passing the other van on the right hand side of the road. AS I was thrown into the seat in front of me, I saw the biggest cloud of dust I had ever seen. The sound of breaking glass and screeching tires echoed through my head. I thought, “What the hell is going on.”

After our van had stopped I was the first one out of our van of 6. I ran over to the van that had flipped, because of the high winds. I saw something I will never forget.

The van landed up on the wheels well, what was left of them anyways. Its front windshield was totally smashed in, all the windows broken and 3 bodies lying on the road. It looked as if the car had gone through a brick wall. The person driving the van, Gail, had her seat belt on, and was stumbling over towards our van with many big scrapes and bruises. She was in the best condition of them all. She was in shock at what happened, as we all were.

I ran over to the van praying that everyone was going to live. Lying right next to the van, I saw my friend Laura. As I approached her I smelled burning rubber and could hear the glass crunching from underneath my feet.

I got to Laura and saw her arm had been cut badly. It was twisted in a way that it was not made to go. I noticed that she was bleeding form the head, profusely. I just stood there. I didn't know what to say or what to do. Hell I didn't even know if she was alive. I saw one of the other girls in the road ditch, about 75 feet away form the car, not moving. The other one I didn't see.

I was scared. I didn't know what to think. I saw Laura move her head, and look up at me. Her eyes were almost impossible to see. They were glazed over with blood. She smiled and asked me, “am I going to die?” I looked at her, the only thing I knew to say was, “no.” Then she smiled again, and asked, “Is my hair ok?” I smiled back at her, and said, “it looks perfect.” The reason she asked that was because she had gotten it done the day before we left for the trip to San Diego.

With in this short amount of time all the other girls had been found and the paramedics had been called. People on both sides of the freeway had stopped to help. Traffic was backed up on both sides of the freeway. They did whatever they could.

Finally the helicopter appeared in sight. It seemed like it had taken hours for it to get here, but it was only about 20 minutes. On I-40 there aren't many cities between Albuquerque and San Diego. The closest one was about 45 minutes away; it is Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

All 4 of them were rushed to that hospital, by helicopter. We all gathered ourselves together and headed back for Albuquerque. The car ride, from there on, was completely quiet. No one said a word. We were all sitting straight up with our seat belts on tight. We all prayed and wished that they would be alright.

Once we got back to the church, the news had spread to all our homes. Everyone's parents were there, except mine. Mine were out of town.

We all rushed inside to the church, where our pastor awaited us. We began to pray for, Laura, Genny, Susan, and Gail.

I didn't think that I wanted my parents there, I thought I was man enough to handle it, but seeing everyone all wrapped up in each others arms, and I lost it. I was sitting in a pew by myself, and then the tears came. They came like a river flowing down stream. I couldn't hold it in anymore.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
-Reinhold Niebuhr

This paper was hard for me to write, because I usually don't talk about this experience. It was very tragic for me, yet it opened my eyes to a new light. I realized that just because you are glorifying God doesn't mean you are invisible. It also made me think about my life, and what's important in it. Not having my parents there at the end was horrible. I'm not blaming them at all, they just happened to be out of town. That is one thing I did learn is how important my parents are to me.

I can't ever forget the people that I went through this event with. Every now and then I will see everyone at church. When we talk to each other, we never speak about this incident, though I know it is all in the back of our minds.

In the end everyone turned out to be fine. A couple surgeries later and everyone looked like new. I didn't put this in the ending because my goal was to have people think about their lives and what is important. I got criticized for not having an ending. I think it worked out for the best. I want to learn from this happening in my life. Every time I get into a car, no matter where I'm going I always remember what happened on that day.