A moment in time.

by Sabrina Jefferies (United States of America)

A leap into the unknown USA

College is the time for taking early risks and exploring that next unknown to spark future interests. It was that time for me and I have been desiring these kinds of opportunities since. When college was in I signed up with many groups on campus for this moment in time to cross the ocean and explore the great unknown. This leap did lead me into some fun places. I have had the opportunity to head to America and Mexico Border to see first hand our boarder line and meet the people who live in El Paso, Texas then see and spend a night in the neighboring border town. With the team we ran an annunciation house for a day and visited with a teacher who runs a one room school in the shanty town of Juárez, Mexico. We also talked with border patrol to learn about that culture. This concept of boarder Vs border came up often and how that has played a role down there. Then next year I applied to go with a group to Romania for three weeks. This was to be my first experience overseas and something I have desired since. It gave me a taste. In Romania we visited headed to orphanages and towns off the beaten path. We saw the building finished for the best Amputation clinic in all of Europe. It hadn’t opened yet. We had some cultural tours to gain some of idea of the history there and answer some questions about war and possible new developments. We often saw kids without limbs coming near our vehicle in the city. That amputation clinic later helped them. We went to Red Sea beach and connected there to. We also played soccer and did outreach many places and traveled on trains overnight plus had to hop from train to train to get to our next location in Oradea. We traveled through Transylvania’s Alps. As another year moved in Jamaica came up through conversations amongst friends and roommates at my community house. I applied for Jamaica and provisions were made possible plus my roommate was coming along. This was so exciting. We headed To Jamaica visited a international school for week and helped them with some classes. Then we joined in sports activities such as futbol with the locals and headed into the banana plantations. I was the meal planner for the week for all breakfasts and lunches. Dinners were spent with the Jamaican people. The coconuts and mangos and guavas tasted so delicious. It was so cool that I could pick fresh limes off the trees and mangos. On our one day visit to Ocho Rios, Jamaica we walked up the cascading waterfall and my friend and took a leap of faith and headed out on a jet ski with an outfitter there who took us to a pirates cove where we had coconut drinks and Jamaica beer. This cove had a natural waterfall slide. Then we headed back Ocho Rios, Jamaica together on the jet ski. I loved the ocean waves and jumping those to get air and a big splash. Then some years past and I was connected then connected with Youth for Understanding. They just started opening up adult trek trips to places in summer. The summer destination was Cuba. This sounded exciting. In order to go I had to win the trip. I won this amazing lifetime opportunity trip. Then I had to prepare to leave. It was extremely risky not even having talked in person with anyone other than just a Zoom briefing and a plan to meet everybody for the first time at the Florida Airport Hotel. We headed to seek out possibilities for students in small villages to join the cultural exchange movement and if our ties remain good Cuba; this was to become another place for the exchange for Highschool students to come to the United States and attend school for a semester or year. We also visited coffee plantations and had a meal there. Took a tour of the plantation and met local artists. We saw how the artists create out there plus we were able to buy some unique items. Peace to all.