Personal Narrative: My Journey To El Salvador

I have seen many airports in my travels, but none as small as the one I landed at in El Salvador. As the plane approached the gate, I said to my grandparents “This must be the smallest runway I have ever seen”, while thinking to myself “I can’t believe I’m in another country!”. The moment the plane landed, was the moment the greatest adventure of my life began. I traveled often as a child, for my mother’s family is from Missouri, so we took family vacations back to her hometown. I knew how security worked and could do it with my eyes closed, as many times I was half asleep going through for a 6 am flight. Put your items in the bucket, take off all metal from your body, take off your shoes, and walk through the metal detector. However, none of my experiences could have prepared me for going through customs. They say that all baggage check is random, yet at every opportunity, I was the only one in my team to get checked. I do not speak Spanish well, and many of the men working did not speak English, so communication was difficult. When they opened my luggage, I was so scared I would be arrested, even though I was certain none of my items were illegal. Thankfully they looked, zipped everything back up, and sent me on my way. …show more content…
Sure enough, I look around the corner and see familiar faces. They had found our five translators who are native Salvadorans. Out of the twenty-nine people that I would develop relationships with throughout this week, my grandparents were the only people I knew getting off the plane. The other twenty-two were complete strangers to me, due to them being from a church in Missouri that I had only visited once or twice and the translators whom I met leaving the airport. Although being very confused in first meeting everyone, I wish I had known what strong relationships I would make with these strangers in such a short amount of