Traveling abroad as a teenager

This June I went to Riobamba, Ecuador. I went with a program called Global Glimpse and their purpose is to help students explore many different cultures at a young age. The program supports juniors for all different backgrounds. Through this program I was able to stay in a country where I’ve never been previously for two weeks and explore all that was available to me. On the first official day I went to a museum of tribal history. Our guide explained the way things were done back then when everything was different and harder. He shared how the tribe learned how to read and write to further
educate themselves and future generations. He also gave further information about their ponchos and why they are so traditional and even explained the little details such as their calendar embroidered into the ponchos. That same time just outside, the people from the community were coming all together to celebrate giving thanks to the crops and what they have done to help them. The food that was shared were different and things I haven’t heard of but one I do remember is Guinea Pig. They cook it and eat it off a stick and is actually pretty common to eat at special events. Through this trip I was humbled greatly by just seeing how fortunate I am compared to many in Ecuador. Many in Ecuador may not have much but they still are happy and respectful and I applaud them. Seeing them be so humble makes me want to do the same and share it with others.Towards the end of my trip they started to talk about our CAP. It stands for community action project which is when students complete a project they themselves plan and pay for. On my trip the choice was either painting mural or building a fence. I choose the fence because I am horrible at painting. The process goes such as, first planning with your group a presentation that gives all the materials needed, questions, measurements and how much of everything would we need. After we make our presentation we start to plan what we will be doing first and after we start our project. The supplies we get and how much depends on how much money we have. Money that is donated by all students and could donate more to get better supplies which is something most students did. This CAP is something that will stay with me because we built it for a school and we all saw the faces of the students and how excited and happy they were. Everyone was so thankful for what we did and I’m so happy I was apart of this great experience.I loved every single minute of this trip especially during free time when I would hangout with my friends and just talk and eat snacks. Or when I would have conversations every night with my roommate about our day and we would just share our thoughts and opinions in everything we saw or heard. It was great because through this program I made many new friends that I got to experience something so impactful with.