The History Behind Mindo in My Life

In the summer of 2008 I traveled to the remote town of Mindo, two hours north from Quito, Ecuador’s capital. At that point in time, Ecuador meant nothing to me, but what started as a promising graduation trip evolved to become a major part of my life! The trip was to an orphanage that was founded by Sister Lucia best known as “La Chia” in the 1970’s. La Chia had the dream of building an inclusive, safe and loving orphanage in rural Ecuador. After 30 years of tireless work on behalf of the school and students, La Chia’s dream, which we refer to as “The Miracle of Mindo” is now a daily reality. Over 600 beautiful students, ages 3-18 now attend the school both as boarders and day students from the town. Although La Chia has now passed away, her spirit and vision for the school lives on through the guidance and ingenuity of the current group of sisters, missionaries, administrators and teachers who lead the school as well as a small, but extremely dedicated group of financial sponsors.
My first trip was lead by my sophomore English teacher, Mark Elman whom I really appreciate and saw as an incentive to go on this so-called “life changing adventure.” Before even considering this experience, the passion expressed by my high school companions who had the experience before was simply indescribable. It was a feeling they couldn’t put into words. As a very passionate person my self, a description of such caliber made my heart race and gave me the courage to “just do it.” Little did I know what awaited me!
The trip was 12 days long, 10 in the orphanage and 2 traditional nights in a luxurious hotel in the countries capital. Going from one extreme to the other was considered the relaxation time after 10 exhausting days of living out of our comfort zone, doing things we never imagined, and being embraced by hundreds of kids with an unconditional love that didn’t completely make sense to us. All of this unknown completely penetrated us when we were hit by a realization of the important things of life and connected with our inner self in ways we never did before.
The slogan of all Mindo trips has always been the words of one of the main examples of all times, Ghandi. “Be the Change you wish to See in the World” was what remained most present in my heart after returning to the comfort of my routine. This particular quote applied to me in every aspect of my life. I realized that to have change we have to begin by being it. Not only in the broadness of the world, but in the particular and personal things such as friendships, relationships, habits, customs, beliefs and everything that makes up who we are. I began everyday trying to live my life by this philosophy and it was then, that I saw a light in my path and was able to acquire enough confidence to live being the change I wanted in the world.
After this awakening and different outlook on life, I returned to Mindo twice more. The first time was to attend the graduation of the class of 2009 where I gave an honest speech about love, gratitude and compassion and wished them a very blessed and lightened path ahead and the second was in June, just 6 months after, where I went on the traditional summer trip with a small group of 12 students. Once again, Mindo was still a learning experience on my new philosophy of living being the change.