A Home Away From Home

The sun, radiating down on an elderly woman and glistening off of her pale blue eyes, showed a glimpse of her appreciation for volunteers. She was a local, watching the Travel for Teens Sicily participants work for the Biancavilla community. Our hard work was rewarded with soft smiles from elders and laughs from children. The locals spoke limited English; however, their facial expressions transcended language barriers and were more meaningful than words.

As a member of the TFT team during the summer of 2015, I spent two weeks living with a Sicilian family. I assisted with many aspects of running the families facility, from farming and household projects, to a cultural exchange of ideas and knowledge.

After cleaning out an abandoned tool shed to use as a donkey barn, or picking pappleechaes off 300 plus trees, the true result of service was not the work itself; instead, it was how the work affected the feelings of others.

Travel for Teens Sicily allowed my desire to help others prosper through the service work, my drive to explore soar through the excursions to Taormina, Catania, and Syracuse, and my personal connection to the world to click through my hike up Mt. Etna.