LinzUO19

During the summer of 2005, after graduating from college, I went to El Salvador with Habitat for Humanity. At this time, I had scarcely been out of the country and had not been anywhere near somewhere like this. Our group was the only non Salvadorenos for many miles. It was my first experience of being somehwere truly foreign and opened my eyes to a life I never knew existed. I lived through the San Francisco earthquake of 1989 and my life went back to normal almost immediately. I didn’t lose my house; no one I know died. These people still didn’t have a home almost ten years after their big earthquake. They were still reeling from the civil war and many had made homes out of cardboard boxes. Although I was there for a good cause, and I know my hard work was appreciated, I think I gained at least as much if not more from them, as they did from me.