My first sunset.

Today was a really awesome day. 

I got to experience so many things today that I never have even dreamed about experiencing.  The first thing we did this morning was take a five hour ride to this reservation type place. I loved the ride because our bus is so comfortable. Our hostel makes me appreciate a lot of the small things I never would’ve talked about like air conditioning. Once we got here, the guy in charge told us about all the co-ops. They’re like a bunch of different organizations in which people make steps towards making their environment and lives better. Like this one group is connecting all the patches of the rainforest left in order to grow back the parts that had been destroyed. I think it’s really cool how they are trying to restore it. Before this trip, I really didn’t understand a lot about the whole rainforest situation before this trip. I’m learning so much about different cultures that I wouldn’t have ever gotten to experience if it hadn’t had been for this program. After all my time here learning from this culture, it really makes me want to find some way to make a difference in my own. We had a group discussion tonight about the things we’ve learned and how they’ve affected us, and what I thought was the coolest thing was that no matter how poor of a place we were at, everyone was smiling, and they were all trying to become educated in some way. Also, the community worked together. Like at the art school, the teachers worked to give the kids of the community something to do and learn in order to keep them off the streets and away from crime. As we all discussed, none of our communities have programs such as this. I guess I just did a lot of reflection today and thinking about what I could do to make MY world a better place. Back to what we did today.  After we got settled in here at the UN facilities, which by the way are amazing, we hiked up a mountain. We saw this view overlooking miles and miles of forest and it was so beautiful. We got to see the sunset over the rainforest. I was amazed by everything I did today. Especially by the fresh sheets, clean towels, and bug-free bed. Basically, The Ritz.