Summing up our 5 weeks in Mexico…
All in all I think the most interesting part about this country was that the people are so different. The entire culture is a more focused on love than what I’m used to… people keep kissing and hugging everybody, even when they don’t really know one other. And I loved it when I was surrounded by little kids that started talking to me in Spanish and I had no clue what they were saying but it seemed like they had fun all the time and they were so lively, amazing!
Another thing I’ll always remember about Mexico is the beautiful landscape. I have never seen such perfect blue water before and when the sun goes down, the whole sky looks amazing! And for a European girl, even cactus is weird. But to see cacti on the one side of the street and the ocean with the palm trees on the other side was quite overwhelming.
One of my most impactful days was when we were doing a Community Service in La Paz (first week in Mexico!) where we had to restore a basketball court. We painted new lines and planted some trees and covered the graffiti. After around one hour of work, suddenly almost a hundred kids came out of the school and started helping us. It was like a big party. We had music and drinks for everybody and the kids were really excited so we all worked together and we had so much fun. When we finished, all of the kids wanted autographs and we wrote like little thank you notes for them in our languages, and they were like really impressed and we all felt like rock stars. We still weren’t finished, but there were some parents and other people from the community who continued to work hard. This was when we all realized that we really made a difference in this community, because we encouraged them to actually become active and do something to make their home a better place.
Another very emotional day was our regional learning day in Los Cabos. We went to the slums in the morning and met the people who were living there and spent time talking to them playinging with their kids. A lot of us felt weird because we felt like visitors in the zoo, just watching them without being able to communicate (because a lot of us didn’t speak any Spanish). But when we started to play with the kids, we actually could see that it was a good thing that we were there because the kids looked so happy. We also learned about the living conditions in the slums and how the government tries to help them, so it was really interesting.
After this we went to a mango farm where we also got to see a waterfall, that was so pretty and in the end everybody got free mangos! Yay! We finished the day with the most beautiful boat trip that you can imagine, around the harbor with a beautiful sunset and live music on board *wow*. It was a perfect day that also presented us the differences that exist right next to each other.
By UWP Cast Member Ilka Seuken 
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