Every day I sat on my bed after work and felt pain in my thighs. I would sometimes see mosquitoes and insects on a swing which served as my bed but had no other option than to slay the insects and continue to sleep on the swing. The sons of my host family were all over my room since it was the only passage to their room; hence, I was left with less space to dress and undress myself. Whilst I kept on enduring my situation every day of the two weeks I spent abroad, I also had to encourage my roommate to help her put on a good spirit when she was at the edge of giving up her quest to help with the building of a school which was our aim for traveling. I had to work under the scorching sun for four hours a day non- stop only to ensure that our aim of building at least, the foundation of the school was met. I sometimes complained about sweating and having pains in my body but that didn't stop me from working harder after I got some pain killers. I remember the day I had to quit bathing down a hill because some people walking by threw a bottle towards my direction. I was so frightened that I promised myself never to bathe there again. These were the popular encounters at a village called San Cristobal in Nicaragua where I went to help build a school.

Build On, which is a non-profit organization that helps developing countries by providing their educational need was recruiting students to go to San Cristobal to build a school. Every morning of the two weeks we spent on the trip, the recruited student worked on hot grounds and fields of the village. The inhabitants were helpful with the building of the school because of how dear it was to them and their children.

The right to education is one thing I am passionate about (especially the education of young girls and women). As a girl, seeing other girls as young as twelve being given out for marriage is one thing I don’t want to encounter. As a result of that, with Build On being a non- profit organization that helps to check the lack of education in rural areas, I immediately joined. Apart from traveling to San Christobal to build a school, I also engaged in Build On activities such as writing letters to students who live in rural areas where school is rare and are about to be deprived of their right to education. Education is important to me because my parents did not get the opportunity to complete theirs and are always talking about how grateful they would have been if they had completed schooling to their satisfaction. Due to this experience, I feel remorseful whenever I learn that teenagers elsewhere are not educated.

To add on, my feelings about helping to improve education in the rural areas became dominant after I saw that anytime my host brother wanted to tell me something, he could not help but murmur it because he knew that I was not going to understand. I was surprised to hear that the only youth who could speak English was a sixteen year old boy. And even with that, the boy spoke English like my little brother who is now learning to speak. When I wanted to speak with the inhabitants, I had no option than to wait for one person in my group who could speak and understand Spanish and that was a problem since those who could speak and understand Spanish were also busy making friends of their own.

Though I don't really have much to offer financially, I make sure any chance I get to promote education in rural areas, I take advantage of it. An example of another experience was having a book drive to be delivered to students who may need it. Education is truly a key that society must acknowledge and cherish because there are people elsewhere who have to cross over from their village to another village through rocks, by foot, by boats, or even by camels just because they want an education. I believe that if students have the opportunities to travel to help encourage students elsewhere who don't have such opportunity, the lack of education may be minimized. This issue of education cannot be solved with only one man’s intervention but rather, with the support of the whole community.