This past summer, after graduating the 8th grade, I went to Tanzania, E. Africa with Mir Pace International. I was awarded Mir Pace International's "Community Service Leadership Award," and am so grateful to those people who support this program and made it possible for me to participate in the Tanzania program. It was the best experience of my life! Thank you!

I met our group leaders and the other volunteers at Logan Airport in Boston. Our goals while in Tanzania were to fix up a shelter for street children, restore a small medical clinic, build a house out of mud, fix up a school, and deliver food to many hungry families. Each project was incredible, but my favorite project that we worked on was building a house out of mud for a very poor family. The structure was set up when we arrived at the site and so we finished the project by mixing mud and grass to form a kind of mortar, and then we filled in between the beams with the newly-made mortar. The owner of the home and his family were so happy when we finished and so grateful for our work.

All of the people we met in Tanzania were kind and we were welcomed everywhere we went. This was difficult to understand at times because even though the living conditions were horrible for these people, they always wore a smile when they saw us.

We stayed with our host, Father Jovin. He is a priest and one the friendliest and nicest guys I have ever met. I loved spending time with everyone on this trip and sharing with one another all that we were experiencing. After almost three weeks of hard work, we took a day to relax and pass through the Serengeti. We saw every animal you could imagine - it was as though they knew we were coming and they all came out to greet us! It was the perfect way to end our long trip.

I met many new people and made lots of new friends, while helping to make life a little bit better for those we served along the way. I really look forward to going on this trip again one day, and I hope to help as many people as I can.