Amigos de las Américas

Nunca hubiera podido imaginar o soñar exactamente la experiencia que viví con AMIGOS en este Summer Camp, conocer y convivir con personas de nacionalidad, cultura, creencia o criterio diferente ha marcado mi vida para abrirme a más posibilidades y obtener conocimientos, ideas y contactos para desarrollar mi Liderazgo y Servicio Comunitario, además de lograr una inmersión cultural en mi propio país que ha mejorado mis perspectivas de diferentes ambitos.

I was really nervous about the program because I had never done anything like it before. The longest I had left home was 2 weeks, and the longest I had been away from my parents was only one week. I had never left my twin sister for longer than two nights and texted her the whole time I was gone. Such connection to the people I was leaving behind wasn't possible here. I remember crying on the way to the airport, and telling my mom that it wasn't too late to turn around (she disagreed). However, even from the moment I started talking to the other participants in the airport, I realized that the trip might not be as scary as I had thought. During the three weeks I was there, I had so much fun and learned so much about myself. The people I met became some of the best friends I've had. Over a month later, and I still keep in contact with most of them. I text my roommate almost every single day. Aside from the people- who were some of the most wonderful people ever (as my father assured me before I left: only cool people go on trips like this)- the trip itself was amazing. The manual volunteer work we did was hard and I never thought I'd do anything like carrying baby coffee trees up a mountain, but it was fulfilling too. The programs from Bean Voyage allowed all of us to reflect on things we might not have considered otherwise, such as the underrepresentation of female coffee farmers in the global market. I could go hiking every day if I wanted to, and sometimes I still dream about the food we got to eat. I truly feel like I returned from Costa Rica as a different person, and that I changed for the better. My time there seemed almost to put my life in perspective and allowed me to disconnect from and reflect on my life back home. Given the choice, I would absolutely attend this program again.

I absolutely loved this program. My Spanish improved dramatically and I had an experience unlike anything I've ever done. Living with Ecuadorians (some of whom were my age), I got to learn a ton about Ecuadorian politics, culture, and language. We lived/helped on two different farms over the course of the trip, so I got to live within really special communities. The second farm was run by 3 amazing indigenous women who participated in our discussions and taught us about their history/traditions/language (Kichwa classes were SO cool). I did this in 2021, so the program was very COVID-conscious, and all of the volunteers (American and Ecuadorian kids) lived together in a pod with a few staff members. Because we were all together, when we weren't working on the farm or climbing mountains, we got to have really deep and enlightening conversations about societal/political issues, in the US, in Ecuador, and globally - with people weighing in with perspectives from all over the US and Ecuador! Overall, this was an amazing way for me to expand my own perspective by experiencing a culture/language in a respectful, culturally-sensitive way.