Many of our student travel programs include service learning projects in local communities, and we love to hear how these experiences impact our travelers. However, after students from Texas Lutheran University returned from their trip to Ecuador we were lucky enough to receive this wonderful letter about the impact that the community service and interactions had on the local students. * "This morning I had the pleasant surprise to find on my desk 15 letters handwritten by kids from the San Jorge Bajo School, this school was visited by the Texas Lutheran Group back in May and they worked with the community on school maintenance and sharing wonderful moments with the kids. It is amazing to read such wonderful notes by the kids expressing their gratitude for the help and the gifts they received. I would like to share some of their beautiful messages. Here is the translation of some of the notes:

"Thank you very much for sending the “gringitos” to our community, for the opportunity to meet them and make new friends” "Thank you very much for the moments we shared with the students from United States, it brought happiness to us and we will remember them forever” "Our teachers and us welcomed them with joy, we had an unforgettable day …God bless all of you” "Thank you very much for painting the school, it is now very beautiful… we really enjoyed their visit, we played games, they gave us school material that will be very helpful for our learning” “I would like to express you the feeling I have in my heart for sending the group to meet us, they were very helpful and worked for our benefit… although they spoke other language and we couldn't talk much we played with them and had a lot of fun …Please receive a big bear hug…” "God bless you all and give you much more” “Please don’t forget us, we want you to come again, we will never forget you”

It is amazing how thankful these kids are for the visit! It is not only the help they received, they are very thankful just for the moment the group spent with them playing, they are amazed to know someone from other culture travelled many hours and come for a far, far, far place (as they say) just to meet them and spend time with them! Please be so kind to share this email with the professor at Texas Lutheran so they can know how much it meant to the kids of the community their visit!" * Thank you to San Jorge Bajo School for opening your doors to visitors, and thank you to Mafer for sharing this email with us. Lastly, thank you to the students of Texas Lutheran University for your positive and lasting impact on the students of San Jorge Bajo School.