Traveling to a new state would make anyone nervous–but, when it’s a new continent, it is a whole new world.

Asher Inclan, a senior at Elkhart High School, had the opportunity to visit Africa this past month as a missionary. During his time there, he helped townspeople and spread the word of Christianity–even getting the opportunity to visit a local prison and talk to some of the inmates. “There were people there who were wrongly convicted–people our age!” Inclan exclaims. “It was really an eye-opening experience. The prisons there are so different compared to the ones in America,” he explains. “Though they look worse, they treat their prisoners with much more respect, and call them ‘clients’ instead of ‘inmates.’”

Obviously, visiting a different continent, one has to expect some sort of culture shock. For Inclan, it was the toilets. “It’s a shack–literally just a hole in the ground–and this is normal for them!” Adding, he confesses, “I never got used to it.”  But, of course, this trip wasn’t all about the different toilets–Inclan notes how different citizens acted towards each other, and how odd it was seeing this compared to the American interactions he is used to. “The people are so kind.” He admits, “They would ask me questions about America, and what people here would think of them. I told them that people honestly wouldn’t know they were foreigners, considering how diverse our country is.”

Mzungu was a term Inclan heard used towards him frequently. The term loosely translates to “white man,” or “white skin.” Though one may think this term would be used harshly against foreigners, it is truly just a descriptor of people who are not African. “It doesn’t matter what color you are,” Inclan begins, “if you’re not African and don’t look like them, you’re white.” He explains further: “Many kids would yell at me and call me a mzungu, but in a kind way…they were really just excited to see a foreigner.”

Though Inclan went to teach the people of Africa, he also learned a great deal from them. “We have so much here, but we’re worse off,” Inclan asserts. “The way we act towards people and treat people is so unkind,” he adds with regret. “But, being in Africa, I’ve seen how little they have but how much better off they are compared to us in America. Their level of faith and hope for things is so much higher than ours, so they do a lot better.”

Seeing this constant kindness everyday made Inclan truly realize the entirely different worlds people around the world live in. The kindness that is shown in America is very limited compared to the kindness Inclan saw in Africa–but despite this, he has hope that that could be changed…that America could learn more from this “different world.”