My knowledge of foreign countries consists of the stories that my parents tell me about their time in Mexico when they were young. I have always wanted to visit Mexico but my mom preferred to enroll my sisters and me in academic enrichment programs every summer while my cousins all went to visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles and other cousins. They would come back with stories about how they milked the cows, rode donkeys and helped my grandparents “cosechar la cosecha “(harvest the fields). They would wake up at 5AM to be the first ones at the market and sell what they had harvested. When I was younger I thought that this all sounded so boring but now I would love to go down there and really experience this culture that I hope never gets lost.

Once in a while my grandparents tell me that there are some foreigners visiting their pueblo but most of the time these foreigners go to Acapulco or Cancun on vacation. It’s something that my grandparents take pride in. It makes them happy to know that Mexico has not been forgotten and that there are parts of their country that people love even if they visit just as tourists.

Although I have never been abroad as a volunteer or a tourist, listening to the stories that my parents, grandparents and cousins tell, I have grown curious about the world of Latin America and hope to one day visit as a volunteer.