In February 2014, I was blessed to attend a mission trip the Republic of Nicaragua. For one week, 19 students and I from my all-boys Catholic school in North Jersey built a house, built a building for a missionary complex and provided aid for the people in Granada, Masaya and Managua. We left to give them help and aid but in reality, they were the ones who gave us so much more. Since the moment I began my mission work that week, I have not stopped thinking about the experience.
On the mission trip, I was able to learn a lot about myself, my country and my faith. I went to give the people of Nicaragua aid and to help improve their lives but I left realizing that they gave me so much more than I could possibly ever give them. Here are five lessons I learned on my mission trip:
1. Happiness is not a matter of belongings but a matter of belonging.
In the United States, we are very materialistic. When a new product comes out, we flock to stores to buy the item. When I was in Nicaragua, I saw kids who did not own toys to play with. When we encountered children at our construction site, we would give them water. They would then take a drink, close the bottle and then run the bottle to their friends and share it. Instead of focusing on an item to make us happy, imagine if people took more time on focusing on giving people a feeling of belonging. For what we could not give one another in Nicaragua, we gave each other the utmost respect.
2. If you live in the United States, you are lucky.
This nation does have problems. Turn on the news or read an article on here and one can learn all about unjust situations or issues plaguing our society but even through all of that, we are still very lucky. Most children do not attend schools in Nicaragua. Their police and military are so underpaid by the government that they stopped doing their jobs. There are no traffic laws, and children take off the soles of their shoes to get high off of the glue that holds the shoe together. Three generations of a family can be found shoveling through trash to find recyclables to make $1.25 in a day...if they are lucky. In this nation, workers have the right to earn a wage that they can feed themselves off of, have a right to compensation and a safe working environment. I came back with a much greater feeling of pride for my country.
3. Education is important.
This goes without saying but education is important. Yet, when one tours multiple schools with empty seats, few items of school supplies, and horrible education standards, I truly started to understand how blessed I am to live in a nation that values education.
4. Take pride in yourself.
As we were leaving our construction site for the day, we looked out the window of our vans to see a woman sweeping her floor. We all thought that as a common occurrence until we all began to realize that every shack in the village we were working in had a dirt floor. The woman wanted her house to by tidy, she wanted her children and her husband to live in a place that was neat. She did not have much but for what she did have, she took great pride in having it.
