A late reflection!
Trip Start
Aug 22, 2011
1
22
Trip End
Dec 22, 2011
Oswego, New York
Monday, February 13, 2012
This experience was one thousand percent life-changing for me. The culture of Ecuador is so beautiful, so vastly different, from anything I have ever found myself in. I miss the people, the family oriented atmosphere of everything and every daily interaction, the heat!, the iguanas, the people I met, Omar and Carlos, they seriously have a piece of me down there with them. This trip has given me so much confidence, and a new revelation that for my life, I want to keep helping the less fortunate in Latin America. My experience at Sor Domingo Bocca made me realize so much...it made me realize that the key to a better world is helping those in need. I mean, think about it. What do we tend to do in the states? Be self-absorbed. WE focus on what is going on with US, and typically, just us. WE are unaware of the goings-on in the world, and blissfully unaware of all the pain. IF we stepped out of our shell and reached out to countries in need (and I don/'t mean take advantage of them), we could help to give real, genuine boosts to their economies. Not even just in an economic sense, but just in a compassionate one. Think about how powerful compassion is. How powerful was it, when I brought my ukulele to the home for the girls, and just...the smiles on their faces when I played music for them. How happy they were each day just to be able to spend some time with people who really, truly cared about their well-being. If we all stepped out of our homes, got away from our computer (hypocrite as I type a blog, gah!), and looked beyond our boundaries to see the need, and beauty, of the rest of the world, it would be a more harmonious place. If Americans stopped being so dependent on consuming, these foreign countries that are producing everything we take and take and take, they could spend time providing for themselves, and less time being driven into poverty. Ecuador and this trip have made me realize so many things...about what is important to me. What is important to me is making this world a better one, making people see that in the end, we aren't just AMericans, Ecuadorians, or whatever...we're people. That's it. And if we treated each other as brothers and sisters, if we truly did that...the problems of this world would be minimized.
I cannot express how much this experience has meant to me. All the crazy times, all the times I felt like a minority, stepping out of my comfort zone completely. I miss my friends here more than I can describe. Thankkkkkya god for Skype! I miss walking down the streets and seeing bright, colored, beautiful birds. I cannot believe how close I got to the boys so quickly; they are some of the most genuine, fun, caring people I have ever met. I can say I am a new person, and I want everyone to feel this feeling. It's something to get excited about, you know. Changing the world!
After this trip, Iiiiii have been bitten by the travel bug. I graduate this semester, and plan on working over the summer to make money to join WWOOF, World Wide Organic Farming. I plan to do a few weeks in Ecuador! Going with friends from the states, I cannot wait for the people I love here and in Ecuador to all be together. It will honestly be a dream come true.
Thank you to everyone who read my blog as I went! I know I didn't keep it extremely updated, but I tried! I really hope you all enjoyed reading as much as I did writing!
Hasta luego, Ecuador!
