An amazing experience

Help Learn and Discover was an amazing experience. I have an inexpressible gratitude for being able to go the trip. If you love traveling, experiencing new landscapes and communities, and making new friends - you can do this all with HL&D and get more out of it than you expect. Jose and Juan, alongside their team of leaders, do an incredible job of organizing every day so that students get to experience their country in the best way possible.

My favorite part was volunteering. I wish it was longer! I went for 18 days and volunteered for 4. Our group did not want to stop working when Olivia called us for lunch. We dug holes and worked inside the houses scraping, sweeping, priming, and painting. It is an eye-opening experience for everyone. The community we worked with was very inspirational. They worked very hard and made us feel welcome every minute. It felt amazing to see our team working there and actually working on the houses and how grateful the community was to have us there.

To be completely transparent, the trip is busy. Like Jose mentioned - if you want to sleep in and drink wine and eat pizza, you have chosen the wrong place to travel. But if you are thinking about going on this trip and seem to love every aspect of what HL&D offers, don't hesitate! It offers so much more to those who will appreciate every moment of it. Ecuador is a beautiful and welcoming country and the program is filled with so much fun! And being with like-minded people just amplifies the whole experience. You enter as strangers but when helping, learning, and discovering in Ecuador together, you leave as friends with such a unique bond its hard to describe!!!