This summer I had the opportunity to travel from my home in Arlington, Virginia to a boarding school in Kenya. The goal was to help this girl’s school build a cow barn for their three cows, one bull, and one calf.

Everyday we woke up and got to work pouring concrete, laying rocks, and setting walls in the cement. We enjoyed the work and getting our hands dirty but my favorite part was always what came after. Along with the 14 other people I was traveling with, I would go and play field games with the school girls. At one point, they blindfolded me and wanted me to try and run in a straight line while they were creating walls on either side. I thought I was doing so well and then all of the sudden, boom! I ran right into the girls creating the barrier. After that, I attempted another field game. I hopped in the sack hoping for a better outcome with this race. I put every ounce of energy I had into getting across the finish line and I won!

We had then exhausted their long list of games they wanted to teach us so we sat down in a circle and they asked us questions about America. They asked about university, boyfriends, siblings and everything in between. The girls had never left the confines of their home town so they were curious as to what the rest of the world had in store for them. So I sat there for hours answering every last question while they braided my hair and laughed at how I tried to pronounce words in Swahili. When it came time to leave for the night I was just so excited to do it all again tomorrow.