July 1, 2015 – Overall, the activity that had the most impact on me was working in the Santa Ana community kitchen. Before this trip, I heard about the poverty in Santa Ana, but it was all talk, just something in my imagination. When I arrived in the neighborhood, I looked around at the ratty shacks for houses, but I didn’t feel such a powerful shocking impact based on the culture difference. I knew it was sad to be in their condition, but it hadn’t really hit me. Soon after, I stepped into the community kitchen to help serve the children plates of soup and bread. I stayed disconnected from the kids at first, in order to focus on my duty, but then realized I wanted to break the ice between our group and the kids. As soon as a started talking to them, I realized they would be one of the biggest impacts ever made on my life.
Being able to communicate with the children made their struggles seem real to me for he first time. Instead of just hearing second hand stories of their hardships, I was hearing their life straight from the source, experiencing their challenges when living in poverty. Specifically, there was a three year old boy named Mario. His mother is a drug addict, so he roams the streets without her and his only place of shelter is the community center. He lives amongst the dogs and has many diseases and infections. My friends and I washed his feet and hands because he told us he had a cut that hurts him, and while doing so,we saw giant wounds all over his body.
This was by far the hardest thing I have ever had to witness. While he was crying because he was afraid of the band aids we put on him, I saw his face and couldn’t believe all he has faced at such a young age. He is the most charming kid I have ever seen with a lively sense of humor, and he is known all throughout the community. At this moment, I started crying because I felt bad that all we were doing for these kids was helping the ladies in the kitchen serve them plates of food. That was all we could do at the moment. I wanted to bring them all home on a plane with me to the United States but I knew I couldn’t.
Later that night, my group had a meeting about what we did that day. I expressed the fact that I felt useless in the situation, but my leaders told me that just being there to make them smile is already helping lift their spirits and our work there was not pointless. It made me feel a lot better, and I always want to spend time in the kitchen working with the kids. My only worry is that I will get too attached to them and it will be too hard for me to leave.
This trip had made me realize that even if I don’t go into international development, I do not want to live in the United States when I grow up, because the way the people value family here enough to keep them happy in poverty is the way I want to live. I want to start my own family in a place where family will be the number one priority, instead of school or work, like in the United States.
Kristiyana Owens, Rockville High School