Voices from Panama
Sarah: what teens can learn on a trip
1:47
Sarah talks about the value of experiencing life in another community and what teenagers can learn by taking part in a trip.
Transcript
Read in English
Automatically transcribed from the audio; may contain errors.
Last year in Panama, I was a dental assistant and I also interacted with the kids and they
just kind of helped out. They had like a bunch of different like interactive activities and
I kind of helped out with that. There's this girl, she looked about to be about eight years old
and her name was Mooshmila and I obviously wanted to take her home in my suitcase. She was
the cutest little thing and she was so sweet and she she was honestly my favorite. She was
right by my side and she never left ever so yeah honestly I don't think any
stories could have prepared me for the first night there cuz I was absolutely so
scared but because seriously I mean you're just you're sitting on a cot and
then you've got the only thing that's protecting you from the outside is this
mosquito net that's what it is and that's the only thing that's like keeping
getting you away from bugs and scorpions and mosquitoes.
It was kind of a realization as a teenager to go there and then just like you were doing
something outside of yourself and I think a lot of teenagers, they need to like experience
something like that.
Go and do something not for yourself but for someone else and you have no benefit for
It was such an eye-opener because you know up here it was you know you're very like
it's all about me you know my nails and just like you know all that but down there they have
nothing we're so thankful and they are it is it was so neat it was like whatever they had
they were thankful for but you know up here we are so spoiled and it was just really cool to see
that and distinguish between the two.
Read in Spanish · translation
Draft translation of the automatic transcript; may contain errors.
El año pasado en Panamá fui asistente dental y también conviví con los niños y
ayudé un poco. Había muchas actividades interactivas
en las que ayudé. Había una niña que parecía tener unos ocho años,
se llamaba Mooshmila y, por supuesto, yo quería llevármela a casa en la maleta. Era
una preciosidad y muy dulce; sinceramente, era mi favorita. Estaba
a mi lado y no se apartaba nunca. Sinceramente, no creo que ninguna
historia hubiera podido prepararme para la primera noche allí, porque tenía muchísimo
miedo. Estás sentada en un catre y
lo único que te protege del exterior es un
mosquitero. Eso es: lo único que te mantiene
apartada de los bichos, los escorpiones y los mosquitos.
Como adolescente, ir allí y hacer algo
por otros fue toda una revelación. Creo que muchos adolescentes necesitan vivir
algo así.
Ir a hacer algo por otra persona, no por uno mismo, sin recibir ningún beneficio.
Me abrió los ojos, porque aquí estás muy centrada en
ti misma, en tus uñas y en todas esas cosas. Pero allí no tienen
nada y están muy agradecidos. Era maravilloso ver que, tuvieran lo que tuvieran,
lo agradecían. Aquí estamos tan consentidos. Fue muy bonito ver
eso y reconocer la diferencia entre ambas situaciones.
