VISIONS Service Adventures

It was a good start, for my VISIONS trip, for my southeast Asia travel and my community service experience.
With an excellent leader who was brought up in Cambodia, an inornate pure Cambodia was revealed upon our faces. We appreciated the significance of Angkor Wat, but also had a taste of the sad Khmer Rouge history; we experienced the refreshing countryside view on the bamboo train, but also the smelly landfill where nobody was willing to go. No matter it was good or bad, impressive or obnoxious, we felt a full, vivid Cambodia through our own eyes.
Besides, I am really proud to share that we built a brick wall within only a month from scratch. Labor was hard and tiring, not to mention that we were working under the scorching Khmer sun, but as we saw the smiling face of schoolkids around us, all pain was healed. They would give us a helping hand during their break time, or pick flowers for us sweaty nasty workers, despite the existence of language boundary. They lit up our summer and our community service experience.
I had few experiences of community service, the only activity I did was to send living supplements to needy countryside families. However, through this trip, I truly understood the meaning of community service. Maybe it is about teaching adolescents how to help others, whereas no matter it is donating a couple of money or building as a brick wall, it won't do much to the community, it can't change the way locals live or the future that they'll have. It is more about finding yourself in the community. Find your value, find your connection, find out how much you're needed, and find out why you're needed. Find what you can do and what you can't. Find your character and your mission.
It was my beginning, but it could never be the end. I am still on the way to my journey, and what about yours?

This trip was an exercise in adaptability. The living conditions were hard to adjust to, the work was often difficult, and we were asked to go out of our comfort zones in many ways. However, in the end, everyone on the trip was sad to leave, and we built truly strong bonds with the community. Personally, my French improved a lot over the three weeks, and language immersion is definitely one of the programs strongest suits. As expected, I made a lot of close friends. But, more importantly, I came away from the experience having felt like I was part of a community during my time in Guadeloupe. I strongly recommend this trip to anyone looking for an adventure and a chance to live a totally different life for three weeks.

I went with VISIONS down to Peru two years ago, and the experience was better than I ever thought it could have been. The staff was amazing, the community was loving and friendly, and we were able to do some fantastic, community-led service. I highly, highly recommend this program. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to return last year due to other circumstances, but I definitely would have if I was able to.

I am the parent of a boy who spent 2 weeks in Peru with Visions Service Adventures during the summer between 10th and 11th grade. He was young for his grade and only 15 at the time. He is now a confident, worldly tri-lingual 18 year old on a gap year, studying Japanese for 3 months in Tokyo. He will head to college in the Fall, with a wealth of experiences under his belt and the resilience, independence, resourcefulness and wisdom that such experiences help develop in an 18 year old. This Gap year that we carefully prepared with him started last fall with an amazing program in Latin America with Where There Be Dragons : A 3-month rugged experience in Peru and Bolivia. Not every teenager graduating from high school is a good candidate for this kind of experience, but for those who are, it is fabulous. But what really developed this sense of independence, what really triggered maturing and self-reliance and confidence, and a curiosity for the world can be traced back to that summer between 10th and 11th grade and his experience in Peru with Visions. He was very hesitant and apprehensive to leave home and go abroad without his family, be with strangers and work at projects he didn't know much about. This initial step outside his comfort zone was an eye opener and even more - a life opener - for him. As parents, our comfort zone was seriously expanded too but Visions' staff, experience and reputation were very reassuring and we knew he was in good hand. He came back from his 2 weeks in Peru with Visions with a new found confidence. Confidence in his ability to be his own person and resist bad influences or temptation (the zero tolerance policies on alcohol are very much enforced and there will always be kids who try and bend the rules. Knowing that you are strong enough to stand your ground to peer pressure is a real confidence builder and so precious in the high school and college years), confidence gained from being given tools and service goals, confidence gained by achieving those goals and being helpful in a community environment, be it the community that welcomed him or the community of the other participants by participating in chores, and finally confidence gained from stepping outside of his comfort zone and prevailing. This, in addition to all the wonderful, fun, new experiences of traveling abroad and being with a caring and trusted organization that really knows teenagers, is really what made it the first and most important step in who he is now. And as parents, we couldn't be prouder, and more grateful to organizations such as Visions.

Hello prospective Visions participants. My name is Sierra O'Brien and I am a sophomore from Lexington, Kentucky. I am writing this because I want to do my part in making everyone understand just how amazing a Visions summer is. I went to the month long Peru trip, which was the second, and hopefully not the last, Visions trip I go on. Throughout my time in Peru I made some truly life long friends, people that I still talk to daily. All of the participants are so talented and, I believe, will change the world. Aside from the people that I had the pleasure of living with, I had such amazing and immersive interaction with the locals we worked along side. They have impacted me in ways that I only hope I could give them a fraction of. Visions excursions and daily life taught me to look outside of myself and severely adjusted by priorities. If it wasn't for my time in Peru, I have no doubt, I wouldn't be the same person or be working to solve problems internationally and nationally. I highly recommend Visions as a way to spend your summer. I promise it will change your life forever.