Isabella, our Exchange Student, updates on her trip to Guatemala

It is hard to believe that Isabella has been with us for almost six months already.  The year is passing quickly and she is having a lot of experiences.  She recently spent a week in Guatemala on a community project to lend a helping hand.  She had a wonderful experience and was happy to share with all of us about her trip.

Isabela provided the following update on her trip:

Last February 14, I traveled to Guatemala on a mission trip, which was organized by the club MAD4kids (Make a difference for kids). There we built cook stoves for families.  In Guatemala they have large amounts of open fires which creates a lot of problems such as upper respiratory problems and severe burnings.  With the cook stoves we helped reducing the carbon build-up inside their homes as well as preventing them from getting burned. Open fires are one of the leading causes of death in Guatemala, these stoves use less wood and are capable of burning for a longer time.

We also helped to build a bottle school through the organization Hug it Forward.  Each school has about 6,500 recycle bottles used as the building structure, and inside each bottle there’s about 80 to 100 plastic bags. The community helped to collect the bottles and the volunteers helped to build the school, even mixing the cement. Beyond doing the hard work, we were able to play with the children which in my opinion was the best part, they’re lovely. 

It was an amazing trip that provided me a lot of learning and personal growth, for sure it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Isabela Cipriani

Below, Isabella addresses our meeting:

Isabella, shows a keepsake from the trip to Chris Pepper: