Hi, I’m Keri Morgan and I’m from Winston-Salem North Carolina and I’m here in Merida with PICY and it was a really big deal to be in a totally different country, speaking a totally different language, taking busses. I had never taken busses at home, and, you know, I’ve never walked to school or anything and so I think that was something that I was worried about, but when I realized that I can, I can speak the language well enough and feel comfortable enough to where I can get on a bus and go somewhere is amazing to know. And it’s really empowering because before I got here, I had no confidence in myself that I could just up and go.

There’s just like a huge family aspect whereas in the United States it’s more of a get out on your own kind of thing. And it really, now that I’ve seen it, it can…in the US, families can be kind of torn apart with independence, and, here there’s independence but it’s more, like, independence is family oriented. 

I think people are a lot happier here, and I was not expecting that. I was expecting, you know, when you’re in the US and you hear about Mexico you think about crazy poverty, you think about…you know. Nothing like, nothing like I’ve experienced is what I thought it would be. I’ve experienced only good things and… even being lost was fun, because, you know, you get to experience…people are way more helpful than you would have thought that they would be.  

At first when I came I shut down, the first night we got here, like, I heard Spanish right away and I just shut down, and then the next day I woke up and I was like, you know what, I gotta do it, I’m here, might as well just dive in. And so, that’s the best advice I can give is just to dive in because it’s an amazing opportunity to gain self-confidence and to gain education and more experiences and to be more grateful for what you already have.