What an interesting word. It is a word that gets used too often and yet it’s a concept that is not expressed or experienced often enough. Today we went to Don Santiago’s fishing camp to continue with our service work. We split up into three groups to pick up trash, work in the orchard, and paint signs. Service work is always supposed to be meaningful and meant to help others. But who are “the others” that we are helping? Do we take the time to get to know who it is that we are actually helping?
We were invited into a home and welcomed into a family. After we had finished our service work, we were invited to eat tacos with Don Santiago’s family. This offer was met with much gratitude. As we sat around on the beach, we marveled at the wonderful food that had been prepared for us. On this trip so far, I have seen many beautiful and extraordinary views that you don’t get to see everyday. Yet the one that I have found most beautiful was this moment. As love and gratitude was abundant in this small place, it was hard not to feel this way too. I felt the love radiating from everyone as we shared this one little moment, in a new place, in a foreign country, in another’s home.
On this trip, it has not been hard to see love as our unplanned theme of the trip. Something was said by a student earlier that I have found really interesting. She said that “the word love has been thrown around a lot these days by everyone”. Usually, it’s hard to see the true, pure, and unconditional love that everyone talks about. Yet on this trip, that’s all that we have given and received. I am excited to continue on this trip and to see the pure love that will be present in each new place we go.
