Never Stop Exploring

After an early morning flight from Ohio, and another in Atlanta, I found myself struggling to recall three years of high school Spanish in order to navigate to the security checkpoint in the Augusto Cesar Sandino airport in Managua. It was May 2007 and it was the first time I had stepped foot in a truly foreign country (somehow Americans tend not to count Canada, despite the culture and beauty it has to offer). I loved every minute of the next 10 days!

This trip was arranged through a student organization at my university and it focused on the use of Appropriate Technology in developing countries. More importantly, it taught students to open their minds and expand their horizons. As a mechanical engineer I was learning about the use of solar energy to provide the most basic of needs, but through cultural exchange. In my opinion, that created a deeper learning and experience than was possible any other way.

Not only was I learning about how solar ovens could be made, but I was experiencing home cooked Nicaraguan cuisine using those ovens, I was sharing meals with my host mother and her young daughter, trying as hard as I could to remember that high school Spanish again, I was “showering” from a bucket, I was sharing beers with fellow classmates under the most star filled skies I had seen to date. I learned that solar panels don't need to be used to fill up swathes of desert and generate megawatts of electricity to heat and cool massive houses, they can be used to power a single light so a young student can study longer, perform better in school, and grow to be a better person who contributes more to their society!

I learned a lot about another country and its people, I learned a lot about myself, and I learned that the first time I stepped foot in a foreign country would be unforgettable. That trip was the bite from the travel bug that got me hooked. Aside from telling friends and family, that wasn't a trip I was able to share widely until now, and it feels amazing.