Matagalpa, Nicaragua

“Earth’s crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God, but only he who see’s, takes off his shoes (Elizabeth Barret).” When this quote was shown to me, I didn’t understand what it meant until my summer experience this year in the beautiful Matagalpa, Nicaragua. Nine other classmates and I had the opportunity to go there for a period of three weeks with a program called Global Glimpse.  There was so much work to be done in that country and I had that opportunity to make a huge difference. This organizations biggest goal was to help all the people in need they possibly could and I am eternally grateful to have been a part of that. Not only did I have the chance to learn of their culture, but also about myself. One of the days I was there and probably one of the hardest days of my life, one that my heart will never forget, was our trip about five minutes away from where our hostage was. We were taken to the local dump yard where 200 people were picking through garbage within the cows and pigs. I fought back the tears the whole time because I was shocked that a government would allow its people to live in such poverty. Not a day in my whole life had I seen so much necessity in a human being’s eyes. It seemed unreal to me to see the hard-ache these people went through compared to my life. I felt compelled to help as many of those people as I could and thankfully to this trip we did with “Las Hormiguitas” (the little ants), a Non-Governmental Organization with the mobile school to teach the children picking through garbage. While there, someone I will not ever forget was a 12 year old girl named Martha whom surprised me at first glance. She was a small girl for her age and had a black eye. When she saw we were helping all of the people there, she asked me to pick through garbage to find a backpack for her to go to school on Saturdays. Never in a million years did I think it would come down to me picking through garbage, but I decided to help. After realizing that our mission would be futile, I went into our bus and gave her mine. After doing that, I tutored her and I realized that she didn’t really need my help. She was very intelligent, but was deprived of opportunities. “I can’t go to school during the week because I have to be here picking garbage with my 9 brothers and sisters. I’ve always dreamed of going to college and studying biology, but will never be able to do it.” I never in my life had so much anger of myself and other ignorant people. We have people that are very intelligent and can give so much to the world, but are deprived from that opportunity. When she uttered those words to me, I had the biggest nurturing feeling about wanting to succeed. Here I am, in one of the countries with the most opportunities, and I’m not taking advantage of that. After seeing this, I learned that my calling in life was not only to get an adequate education, but to help as many people as I can; by any means necessary. Learning is not enough until you plant a seed in someone else’s heart to serve others and my wonderful Nicaraguense people helped me completely grasp that concept.