I recently hit the one year mark at my job. The company I work at is called 4life, and the best way I can describe the company is that they sell health supplements. It is an MLM (multi level marketing) company, which means people sign up to be able to buy and sell the products themselves. Utah is somewhat infamous for this type of company, with one of the larger examples being Nu Skin. For anyone outside of Utah just think Mary Kay or Amway. Luckily, I work somewhat detached from the business side of things, and instead work for their non-profit charity organization, which is called Foundation 4Life. I do a little bit of everything at work including writing, Spanish translation, online marketing, work with international offices, and help track donations. For my one year mark I received a certificate and $25, but the best part of the year so far has been traveling to places that I otherwise would not have gone to, including Costa Rica, New York city, Dominican Republic, and Philadelphia. Each of these places provided unique experiences and a chance to meet interesting people.
In Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic I was there because 4Life was helping to oversee the donation of meal packs which people had purchase and then donated to impoverished areas around the world. The meal packs then are distributed to different feeding centers where young children can come before and after school to eat. The great thing about providing these areas with food is it takes pressure off of families that often have to choose between sending their children to school or work. In both Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic children are living in conditions that would make most Americans depressed, yet happiness still abides. The most fun interactions are kids clamoring to have their picture taken and then see the image on the cameras small screen. I imagine most of these children have never really seen what they look like. New York was just a layover on the way to the Dominican Republic, but luckily we were there overnight and were able to see a few things. It was December so the weather was cold, but it was a great time of year to be walking through the middle of New York. There were Christmas decorations and tees abound, including some interesting window displays at the Macy’s department store. That one night we did a quick walk through of Time Square, Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building and Grand Central Station. Last there was Philadelphia. I was there for an entire week for an annual convention that 4Life puts on in different cities. The most interesting part of that trip was interacting with two teenage boys visiting from Honduras. Foundation 4Life sponsors a woodworking school in their home town and they were there to talk to people about the program. They had never been to the US before and you could tell everything was a new, and at times overwhelming, experience. For me the best part about traveling to these new places is experiencing the unexpected.Every new city is a chance to learn about new things, new sights, new sounds, new smells and new people, and each of them helps me see things back home a little differently.
2 Comments
monica tucker
7/4/2012 02:22:58 am
awesome narration Kevin!
Reply
Kevin
7/4/2012 09:15:45 am
Thanks Monica, I'm glad you liked it.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
June 2013
Categories
All
|