Function of the Scholastic Activities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Function of the Scholastic Activities - Essay Example The following analysis will briefly recount one such story. For years one of my closest friends had been traveling to Peru to volunteer in a clinic that his mother ran deep within the Amazonian rainforest. I eyed their yearly trips to Peru with marked curiosity as I was unsure whether they were simply doing this in order to fulfill some type of religious requirement or take an exotic vacation. Finally, through the course of our friendship, I began to ask details of what this trip involved, what the purpose of it was, and why the family saw it necessary to do this. The response I received was entirely unexpected. The family invited me to come and see. By virtue of obtaining a US passport and assuring myself that I was up to date with all of my shots, I agreed and undertook to accompany them as they traveled to Peru. My expectations were low as I assumed that the family would live the life of Americans while administering to the needs of the Peruvians by day. What I saw helped to chang e my worldview. Rather than enjoying a life of relative ease, which could readily be been afforded, the family opted instead to live and work with the locals. This included eating the same foods, living in the same types of accommodations, sharing the same experience and customs with the locals. More than just a summer getaway with the added bonus of performing a modicum of â€Å"feel good humanitarian work†, what I saw was the selfless sacrifice on the part of this family as well as the other unpaid volunteers that had given freely of themselves to work with this community. With regards to what this did and what this taught me, it opened my eyes to the fact that there remains great need within this world.