So my church goes to nicaragua on a mission trip during spring break. I cant afford to go so i applied for the scholarship. For it you have to write an essay on reasons why you want to go. PLEASE HELP ME!!! i know reasons like it will be good to experence new things and i will get to help, but i need other reasons to go. PLEASE HELP!!!

There are some things you must consider before you consider applying for this mission trip:

Are you sure you want to go there for humanitarian sake? This will not be like a regular vacation or a regular spring break. While there are a ton of new things to see, try, taste and do, mission trips are not for the faint of heart. Especially not to Nicaragua. Nicaragua is a poor country, and although it’s been doing decently well despite Ortega being its president, there are still people who are poor in rural and secluded areas. Although the government has been constructing homes and providing indoor plumbing and improved sanitation services and communication outlets in many parts in the country, there are still some areas that still do not have basic necessities, including running water and sanitation services. People who go to Nicaragua with humanitarian missions with non-governmental or faith based organizations tend to go to the least advantaged people in the country, usually to help construct houses, establish houses of worship, establish schools, improve infrastructure and give a hand to struggling families.

With that being said, you should be going to Nicaragua to help out those who are less fortunate than yourself. Although extreme poverty has decreased substantially in the past few years, there are still people who are living on 2 dollars a day and are forced to send their children to sell goods instead of sending them to school in order to make ends meet. Thereby, creating a never-ending cycle of poverty based on the lack of education and knowledge of other opportunities.

Some people live in shacks. While the upper class live in extravagant homes or in gated communities and the middle class live in decent homes, the poor sometimes live in shacks made out of tin or scraps of metal, which serves as minimal shelter in times of harsh weather. Giving these people an opportunity to live with 4 walls and a roof over their head is perhaps the best thing you can give to a poor person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjKmAGWU2gE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrVg-QZGQ74

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnOwcQUHDKY

Although these videos illustrate the more extreme side of the poverty spectrum, I’m sure they are enough of an inspiration to have you writing an essay.

Best of luck.

I’m a junior in high school and I’m focusing on colleges a lot. Duke is, as of now, my dream school. Do you think the following criteria could get me into Duke?

-Applying Early decision
-Legacy; my Father went to Duke Law School
-Will run track for Duke if my times allow me to (I honestly don’t know what kind of times it takes to run there)

-Final unweighted GPA upon ED application will be between 3.55-3.65, final weighted will be between 4.0-4.1
-10 Honors classes taken, 6 AP taken (all 4’s and 5’s, and one 3 on the tests)
-Senior class president
-Founder and President of Philosophy Club
-Founder and President of Pyschology/Sociology Club
-President of Politics Club
-Diversity Club member- went on school trip to Canada, and hosted a student from Canada for two weeks
-Debate Club member
-"Friends of the Orphans" Club member- went on week long mission trip to an orphanage in Mexico during spring break
-225 Hours Community Service completed upon graduation (of 125 required for graduation)
-Attended two summer academic programs, one at Arizona State freshman year, one at Duke Jr. year
-Took Psychology 101 as a Junior over the summer at a local community college, passed with an A
-Varsity Track for school (two years JV, two years Varsity) -One year JV football
-Run club track during the summer and off season (Track Athlete Year Round)- went to USATF Junior Olympics Nationals for 110m hurdles
-Very, very good recommendations
-Graduated Summa *** Laude from a prep school in Arizona

Could all of this distract them from my low GPA? I am not sure what my SAT scores will be, but I presume they will be somewhere between 2000-2250 total
How persuaded by legacy is Duke?
Most detailed answer gets ten points

Thank you!

About 90 per cent of admitted students are in the top ten per cent of their high school class. The 25th to 75 percentile of the SAT scores of admitted students are between 1920 and 2290.

Few universities give legacies to children of graduate and professional school alumni and Duke is not one of them to my knowledge.

Duke appears to be more interested in class ranking than GPA as it requests that class rank, rather than GPA, be used on http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com from which the other statistics in this answer are also taken.

I know its late in the summer, but I was on a 3 week mission trip to Zambia around spring break. And ever since then, about once a month, I will read the journal I wrote while I was there, cry, look at my pictures, and cry some more. It really feels like home sickness times 100. I feel like crap living in a nice house, while I remember what I saw people living in there. And how my clothes are clean, and yet 5 year olds wear the same clothes for months. I really want to know whats going on!

Happiness is not simply defined by what one possesses, like clothes, cars, television etc. It is a feeling of being at terms with what one has, making do with it, being loved and respected by family and friends. Money simply makes life more comfortable.

If you feel like something is missing after your mission trip to Zambia, it may be because you feel the need to help others, for whatever reason. It does not have to be guilt. But, you understand how those people in Zambia live and would like to help.

See if there is a charity in your area where you could join and help people, speak to your teachers, to your church leader to help you find something meaningful in your life. And be grateful that you are in a position to be able to help others.

I want to go somewhere out of the US, during my Spring Break to volunteer. I am not apart of any religion so from what I understand about mission trips, it can’t be a mission trip.

I want to go into medicine (not dental), so I would like my volunteer trip to reflect my interests.

What organizations should I contact if I wanted to do this?

You will want to volunteer in a Spanish speaking country, since the language is so important among Latino patients. A Spanish translator in a typical walk-in clinic in Queens NY for example, is absolutely necesary, Not to speak of Texas, Florida, and California, the states where most of the residency spots can be found.

You don´t need to avoid religious organizations as long as it is related to medicine. For example, I heard of a Canadian group that travelled to Mexico City, to the slums to hold masses and people lined up to recieve the only medical care that they often would have had in their lifetime. In Guadalajara, Hospital Civil Viejo, the oldest hospital in the City, actually started off as a mission.

There are many volunteer organizations like this, Volunteers for Peace is one of them. http://www.ivsp.org/vfpsearch.aspx
Just google this site and they have a description of each place. Make sure it is sort of medical related, and start off by gaining a basic first aid course, and Spanish courses in University. But if I had another chance, I would look up University websites in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and find a chance to volunteer from these sites. In either case, all the best.

Dr Tomas Ungar MIP (Medico Interno Pregrado) Guadalajara Jalsico, Mexico.

I’m going to mexico with my cousin in a few weeks for spring break.. all my life she’s been the one that’s always one step ahead of me. (i’m older) everyone is always saying she’s so pretty and skinny, She’s more pretty, has the better car, has a perfect boyfriend whose already on a mission, gets perfect grades and is just all around perfect. she’s beautiful… i need to figure out ways that i could be better than her. and for my trip i need to loose a few pounds just so i can look like her… any ideas?

Stop being jealous. Quit trying to be like your cousin…it’s kind of pathetic. You can only be you.

I’m doing a project on the novel A Salty Peice of Land by Jimmy Buffett, and I need ten items for a project that describe the novel, it’s kinda hard :/

Here’s a summary of the novel.

A Salty Piece of Land brings back the character of Tully Mars from Jimmy Buffett’s previous novel, Tales from Margaritaville. Tully is a Wyoming cowboy on the lam. The ranch where he lives and works has been converted to a poodle ranch run by a universally hated woman by the name of Thelma Barston. After Tully throws a massage table through her plate glass window, she uses her political connections to trump up charges and have a warrant issued for his arrest. Tully takes his faithful steed, Mr. Twain, and decides he wants to see the ocean. With bounty hunters on his trail, this begins a series of adventures for him that will take him to the Alabama coast, Key West, Mexico, Belize, Cuba, and the Bahamas.

Tully is a kind soul, hard worker, and a quick learner. He befriends a shrimp boat captain named Captain Kirk who teaches him his first lessons about the ways of the sea and transports him and Mr. Twain to a remote part of the Yucatan peninsula called Punta Margarita. He also meets and begins a budding friendship with a musician/treasure hunter/pilot named Willie Singer. Tully lands a job as a fly-fishing guide at the Lost Boys fishing camp in Punta Margarita. It’s run by a man named Bucky Norman who leases the land from the manager of a country western singer named Tex Sex. The other fly-fishing guide is a Mayan shaman, Ix-Nay. In the remote outpost of Punta Margarita, Tully feels like he can leave his past behind and try to figure out where his new life will lead him. On a trip to the Mayan ruins at Tulum, he’s stranded when he totals a Jeep. While waking a from a ganja-induced dream on the beach there, he sees a beautiful schooner coming into the bay. Its captain is 101-year old Cleopatra Highbourne, and she’s on a mission to find a fresnel lens for a lighthouse she wants to refurbish on the Bahamian island of Cayo Loco, the salty piece of land of the book’s title. It’s an endeavor that will eventually involve Tully and his friends, but first he must make a trip to Belize to find a Land Rover to replace the Jeep. A man on the run from the law with a fake passport and bounty hunters in pursuit must be careful. Which is how Tully ended up in the middle of a wild spring break party with a couple hot college girls.

That’s a quick outline to the plot, although the plot is not that important. It serves as the vehicle to further the adventures of Tully and his new-found friends. Some of the chapters in this novel are letters from Willie Singer as he searches for a fresnel lens while island hopping his way across the south Pacific in a seaplane. Each adventure is just plain fun as Tully finds out what’s important to his life, and that answer is invariably a sense of ethics, a lot of fun, and good friends you can count on anytime. It helps that a lot of these friends are very wealthy and can come to the rescue at the drop of a hat. Tully continues to find like-minded people, often making instant connections as if they share the same karma. Karma and mysticism play a recurring role in A Salty Piece of Land, from his father’s friend and Indian medicine man, Johnny Red Dust, to Ix-Nay the Mayan shaman, to an odd religion on a forgotten South Sea island.

A Salty Piece of Land is a fun ride through Jimmy Buffett’s idea of paradise, and you get the sense it’s a place he’s visited often. Many of his own loves, flying, sailing, and fishing, are featured prominently in the novel. It’s a world where drink, ganja, and fun are pleasant additions if not done to excess. It’s also a place where the dark forces of greed, corpocracy, and pollution threaten paradise. A disdain for tourists and resorts and an affection for indigenous people who’ve learned to live off the land runs strong through the novel. Even Cuban baseball, played for pride instead of greedy contracts, plays a role.

This is not a literary novel and A Salty Piece of Land has no pretensions that it is. There will undoubtedly be those readers put off by its lack of any real drama or suspense. At times it’s predictable, but it’s a comforting predictability at that. You know the good guys will win, the friends will be there in the time of need, and all surprises will eventually be pleasant ones. That doesn’t distract from the enjoyment of the novel, but adds to it instead. Jimmy Buffett’s prose easily transports the reader to the different settings in his paradise. I don’t fish, I’ve never sailed a schooner across the Caribbean, or flown a plane. By the end of this novel, I wanted to do all three. Therein lies the charm of this book: its easy access to warmth and beauty of many types

teehee…anyways, i already have a Jimmy Buffett shirt because he wrote the novel and a poodle because Tully gets transferred to a poodle ranch, I’d LOVE some help!

Thanks:)
~Miss

How about a schooner, lighthouse, seaplane, fly-fishing rod (all miniatures like from a craft store), a miniature island (just cut out a small roundish shape from a piece of cardboard and glue sand on it with maybe a palm tree), a stick with feathers for the Indian Medicine Man, a passport (just make a small cardboard replica), and maybe cowboy boots and/or hat?

It’s spring break for my school… But my boyfriend left to go on a mission trip and that means I dont have any communication with him for the entire time… Im really down about this situation.. Please give me some song suggestions

Raheem DeVaughn – The Love & War MasterPeace
Ledisi – Turn Me Loose
Joe – Signature
Slique – Rhythm & Ghetto Soul
Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea
Melanie – The Bridge
Angie Stone – Unexpected
Maxwell – BLACKsummers’night
Brian McKnight – Evolution of a Man

I’m leaving for a mission trip to El Salvador soon and all we’re allowed to bring is a carry on bag fro all our clothes and necessities. I can’t seem to find any good duffel bags or regular luggage cases. I need help with finding a good one. It has to be less than 14in X 9in X 22in. As well as cost less than $50. Please help. The trip is over spring break.

Wal-mart has a cheap one, it is perfectly durable enough to take for a trip, I got one after thinking the other one (a better brand) was about an inch too big for Delta. The price was about $25. You can wear a coat or jacket, bring an umbrella, a book, and perhaps even wear a scarf or something else that would save you space in that carry-on. I always put things in the pockets too.

Sometimes I feel intimidated about making choices. I’ve read a few books and have listened to a few tapes but there are moments where I wonder what life would be like if I had everything I ever wanted.

If I was in a position in where I never decided what I want, then I would constantly think about wanting everything. Then I look at what I have and ask if I really even want all of this.

I think about wanting to be happy. I think also about wanting other people to be happy as well and how I can contribute. But I feel selfish by wanting them to be happy. Then I sometimes do feel a type of guilt when I can’t keep others in that state. Sometimes I wonder if every encounter with negativity can be talked about and resolved only by talking?

Who knows?

Nice day today outside. I might go out to the side of the lake by some trees in the park. With so many subdivions in my area, I find that my freewill can allow me to make it a mission to relax when I need it and take in all the scenery in it’s own wonder. I am also looking for some ways to make additional income. It never hurt to be a working man. I might even plan a trip to Florida this spring break or maybe in another hemisphere. I’m going to also have to fix my MP3 player because it has a mind of it’s own sometimes. Technology can be pretty amazing.

A big weekend ahead, and I have a couple things i must start. Valentine’e day even. Maybe we will all find a gift that makes someone feel closer to the heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6slibTD9MF0

I rush many times when I shouldn’t either. There is a time to rush and a time to wait. Hope your weekend goes great.

Godspeed.

I am going to gulf coast Mississippi, to help with the rebuilding of homes damaged by Katrina. I am leaing over spring break and it cost 600 dollars. Please dont tell me that if I have to ask for money I shouldnt go, becasue God doesnt just drop 600$ at your feet. And also please dont respond with, well non christians dont want to be asked, because its false, I went on one 2 years ago and most of the money was from non believers in my family.

talk to local businesses for a charity donation, make sure to mention it’s for charity.