Sarah's last impressions

It has now been approximately one and a half months since returning from the beautiful Tanzania and I am now really beginning to see the true value of the trip and how life changing it was. While in Africa everything seemed surreal, it is a whole different world and things like how incredible the people are and how large their hearts are was kind of overwhelming, it was just so much new information and experiences all at once.

When first returning from the trip, I was quite ill and that made me to a small extent, push away my experience, however that did not last all that long because one week after the trip I was able to attend the Global Youth Assembly in Edmonton, Alberta.

This conference was filled with young people with huge hearts craving change and in addition to the other youth the conference gave me a great opportunity to hear from some speakers, such as Craig Kielburger, Mariatu Kamara and many more. These speakers were so empowering that my emotions and experiences from Africa all came flooding back and I got a new energy that suddenly made me get over my illness. I was then able to see it as something else, maybe a little taste of the health issues they face. That is when I began to see the trip as real, when I was able to feel it. Now I am able to recall all the wonderful people I met and the challenges they face everyday, I do not look at this in sadness however, I have hope.

This year as a youth Ambassador, I am excited to spread my experience, and not just by words. One thing that blew my mind over there was how happy the people were and how much they cared about eachother, and us! I felt so incredible spending time with them that I believe that if I bring back some of their energy and compassion that change will come, it seems in Canada it is very easy to be swept up with day to day tasks that we forget about the simple things, like a quick smile to someone else. I am not sure I have laughed as much as I did in Tanzania, and we all know that can be healthy!

I would like to close off saying, as challenging as it is to come back to Canada and see how many things we take for granted, I also see it as a lot of potential! I have now committed myself to help bring change to this world, I now live a different life where the people are more important, so with working with others I believe that my experience has enabled me to serve others more easily and it will be my life long goal to try and help others see this as well.