On the Kivu Gap Year, our day to day activities varied depending on our location. We spent the first semester living in inner city Denver, where each student had individual internships. I worked with an organization that provides job opportunities and counseling for women coming out of prostitution, homelessness, abuse, and incarceration. We traveled to Rwanda where we lived individually with Rwandese host families while working at individual internships. My internship was at a primary slum school where I taught English to third and fourth graders. We then climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. After Kilimanjaro, we ventured to places throughout all of India, saw the Taj Mahal, and served at an orphanage for children with special needs. Our journey was concluded in the Philippines, where we worked in the slums daily, serving malnourished children whose families live on less than fifty cents per day. Gap year was the most difficult, humbling, maturing, and best year of my life. The difficulties we encountered through cultural differences and homesickness brought extensive growth beyond measure. I think about gap year every day in who I am in my relationships with others, in the classroom, and spiritually. My gap year shaped me into the person I am today, and I would recommend the program to any high school graduate. I truly believe the lessons I learned on gap year will continue to impact and challenge me for the rest of my life. Although I live in a society that is sucked into a certain way of living, I am now challenged to live life outside of mediocrity and comfort, and fear living any other way.
