Written by: Kelsey Fairchild,
Kellen Kimmel, and Taylor Blumenthal – PC12
This summer started off with a
whirlwind adventure as we traveled to Africa together. We went to Tanzania and
Zanzibar with a volunteer trip called GIVE to teach English to bright and eager
students while also working to help build a classroom for a local community.
Each morning, students of all ages
would enthusiastically arrive at the school, ready to learn anything and
everything from numbers to nouns. We allocated our time to work with
construction as well, where our days were often filled with laying concrete for
the floors of classrooms. Each day,
people from the village would sacrifice their own time in order to come learn
and help build, wanting to contribute to the work we were doing for their
community. We were overwhelmed with the generosity and kindness of the local
people who had so little yet gave so much.
Not only did we devote our time to
the volunteer work, but we also were lucky enough to go sailing, swimming with
dolphins, on safaris, and visit schools and an orphanage. These experiences
opened our eyes to beauty we never knew was fathomable and gave us an
appreciation we otherwise couldn’t have imagined.
These past three weeks were filled
with more happiness, beauty and gratitude than we can even begin to explain. We
set out with the intention of changing the lives of others, only to find that
the real change was in ourselves. For us to simply say we are grateful for this
experience is an understatement. We are humbled.
