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Tourism

Blog Post 1

I have traveled outside the United States a total of three times.

The first time I left the States, I was 8 years old. It wasn't so much a tourist trip though because it was mainly to go visit my relatives who are still in Mexico. While I had been there before, I was too young to really remember much of anything and so I always count this as the first time I visited Mexico; so far it has also been the last time. I am really fond of this memory because it allowed me to see the places I had always heard my parents describe to me in the stories of their childhoods. It also let me meet the relatives that I occasionally talked to on the phone during the holidays when my parents made international calls to wish them a Merry Christmas or a Happy New Year. And even though I wasn't really old enough to be thinking about it yet, this trip allowed me to have a brief glance and a better understanding of where I come from.

The second time I was able to see life outside the United States, was in the summer of 2014 when I got the chance to visit Africa. This was through a service trip that is run by my high school. Every summer, they send about eight students and two faculty members to Malawi. During the year I went on this trip, we helped paint a clinic as well as a chief's house. After this portion of the trip, we volunteered at an orphanage,  taught English at an elementary school, and visited a local high school (to whom we donated lab equipment to). Finally, on the last section we ran an eye glass clinic. I really enjoyed this trip, however, it also raised a lot of questions and skepticism surrounding service trips.

A few of the concerns I had was how the buildings we were helping to paint were in pretty rough shape, and instead of fixing the damages, we were simply covering them up with paint. While it did make the buildings look better and made the people happy, it felt more like we were doing something that did not address their actual needs as well as something that would be so temporary. The other big concern I had regarding our actions was our time in the orphanage. Although it is fun to play with the children, you are only forming connections that will be broken rather quickly. This is especially problematic at an orphanage because the children there should not have another person in their life that they grow close with and then that person suddenly leaves. But, not all parts of this trip were negative; in fact, this is far from the case. I learned a lot from this experience and cherish seeing and interacting in a different culture. Seeing how happy everyone is with so little, changed my outlook on life in the United States, as well as showed me the importance of being a global citizen. My experience in Malawi is a major reason I am going to Nicaragua in the winter.

The third and most recent time I ventured outside U.S borders, was this past summer. I went to Germany with a friend of mine to visit some of our high school friends. Out of all the three times that I have been outside the U.S, this is the only time I would consider myself a complete tourist. We were there for about a month and focused a lot on seeing the sights and just enjoying our time as we tried to soak it all in. Although I had a really great time, I think that being a tourist isn't the best way to travel. You miss out on the deeper interactions you make on a service trip. And its easier to forget that time you spent trying to get the perfect picture in front of a monument than it is to forget the connections you make when you are working side by side with someone to hopefully make a difference.

 

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