I totally understand where your coming from and this is why Personal Statement

I totally understand where your coming from and this is why - Personal Statement Example Thus, the red menace acted like a buffer in keeping the arms race going on and in keeping the business of the two Super Powers from running out. It is as if the two countries had a great degree of understanding in planning and executing the way the Cold War progressed. Indeed, it looks like a game played skillfully with an ulterior business motive. As Eric Berne observes in his book Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships, â€Å"War is the grimmest of all games† (50). It is interesting to think what the history of the last half of the twentieth century would have been like, had Roosevelt been alive a little longer. Perhaps Hiroshima would not have been destroyed. Perhaps the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan would not have been necessary. But these are idle thoughts, not of any consequence. It is hard to buy the notion that the US disinterestedly spent billions for the ‘reconstruction of Europe’. It can only be as true as philanthropy is for h elping the poor. It was politically and commercially motivated and the red menace provided a pretext for the maneuvers. The projected pretext ultimately melts down to a joke with Russia joining the NATO in 1992. Today it matters little whether the red menace was notional or real. What is important is whether its contribution to the world was good or bad.

ECONOMICS AND GOVERNEMNT Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ECONOMICS AND GOVERNEMNT - Assignment Example The federal government’s other transfers include Equalization and Territorial Formula Financing programs which help less prosperous provinces and territories. These provinces have comparable levels of taxation as other more prosperous provinces. Thus raising tax rates is not feasible. 5. The Great Depression was decade-long economic downturn that was witnessed by practically every country of the world. It is considered to be the deepest depression of the 20th century. The long contraction and agonizingly sluggish highlighted the need for an expanded role for government. Hence the Great Depression is linked to the growth of government in the developed world. 6. ‘If the prices are right, people will respond correctly’ indicates that if people feel the payment that they will shell out for a product or service brings in commensurate benefits to them and is thus of value to them, they will go ahead and buy that product or service. Thus right here means ‘fair’ and ‘correctly’ refers to the decision to buy. 7. Global warming refers to the constant warming up of the Earth’s atmosphere due to increase in the levels of the greenhouse gases. This increase in temperature has occurred as humans continue to use more and more fossil fuels in their day to day lives. While this usage helps in business and trade, there is a cost involved, cost that neither the buyer nor the seller bears, but we as a nation (for that matter, the World) collectively bear. Thus global warming or climate change can be termed as one of the biggest market failures as the market forces did not allocate scarce resources to generate the greatest social welfare. Failure to adopt stringent emissions reduction targets, excessive deforestation, adoption of technology at the expense of the environment are all market failures relevant to the problem of global climate change and relate to the world-level policy failure regarding global warming. To correct the problem, the world has

Critical thinking Essay Example for Free

Critical thinking Essay 1. How does critical thinking affect you as a reader and writer? How can thinking critically improve your writing? Critical thinking affects a person as a reader and writer in that it is essential to be able to absorb and assimilate knowledge from the environment as well as organize one’s own thoughts and express oneself in a clear and comprehensive manner. It is important to consider critical thinking as being a twofold process. As a reader, one is able to utilize critical thinking as a tool to analyze information being taken in from the outside. Not all information is useful or truthful to a person, and critical thinking is a method of filtering out what is incomprehensible or untruthful and absorbing what is meaningful and valid. As a writer, critical thinking is used in relation to one’s own personal creative thoughts, coming to subjective conclusions about what one believes about the world and expressing these beliefs through writing. Critical thinking is able to improve people’s writing in that the ideas one wants to express become central to the writing process, to develop the perfect way of stating what one desires to say. It is essential to utilize critical thinking in both reading and writing, so that one is able to take in and organize the information from the external environment and make personal judgments and assertions about what one believes. All situations and experiences are both objective and subjective, in that people experience events within the context of the external world. It is important to be able to digest and process information from the external world in an organized fashion, so that one is able to accurately describe and share one’s experiences with others. 2. Read the following Discussion Question response written by Owen, a fictional student. Identify areas of vagueness and ambiguity and discuss how you might clarify the e-mail message using the writing principles addressed in the text. In the response written by Owen, the writing style is such that the reader is not able to clearly understand what is being said. There are instances of vagueness and ambiguity in the writing, and Owen is left appearing as if he does not truly understand what he is supposed to be writing about. For instance, Owen states that critical thinking affects him in â€Å"all ways†. Although this may be true, there is not enough information describing in which ways he is affected. It is important to include enough detail in writing, so that the reader is able to fully comprehend what is being claimed. Owen goes on to say that clear writing is the â€Å"hardest thing in the world†. Although Owen may be having difficulty with his own writing, clear writing is not the hardest thing in the world for all people. Instead of generalizing and making blanket statements, Owen should be plain and honest in saying that clear writing is difficult for him personally. Further on, Owen claims that critical writing is like business writing in that they both need a certain amount of structure, yet then claims that â€Å"structure is harder†. These ideas are simply uncorrelated and do not logically proceed from one another. One cannot compare two styles of writing as being similar and then immediately state that they are dissimilar, at least not without a clear explanation and transition. Overall, Owen could improve his own writing style by paying attention to explaining himself in detail, by taking the necessary time to organize his own thoughts before writing them down. It is vital to express oneself in a clear and comprehensive manner, so that other people are able to easily understand what is being conveyed.

Gastric Acid Resistant Capsules Are Enteric Biology Essay

Gastric Acid Resistant Capsules Are Enteric Biology Essay Generally, the active pharmaceutical ingredients are delivered using two-piece capsules, which are filled with the drug, capsulated and taken orally. These capsules are made with materials like gelatin, hypromellose etc. The capsules release the encapsulated drug in the stomach by dissolving in gastronomical juices. However, some of the drugs affects the metabolism of gastric juices and are irritants. In these kinds of drugs, post gastric delivery is expected being intact in the stomach. In order to achieve these several investigation lead to development of acid resistant capsules called enteric capsules. Enteric Capsules: The capsules which are designed for intestinal delivery by being intact in the stomach are called as enteric capsules and this property is called enteric property. To achieve the intestinal delivery the capsule must be strong enough to resist the acidic environment in the stomach. Apart from the reason that the capsules may effect the gastronomical metabolism, some drugs require past gastronomical delivery to treat some local diseases like ulcerative collitas, irritable bowel syndrome (Crotty and Jewel, 1992) and to absorb polypeptides in the intestine (Davis, 1990). The endogenous enzymes are less in the colon and the transit time is long which will favor the absorption of polypeptides (Davis, 1992). The capsule dissolution time cannot be determined exactly in the capsules which are released in the stomach as the residence time is highly irregular and depends on the several factors like the size of the fabricated capsule, fed or fasted state of the stomach etc (Wildey et al., 1992b). If the colon is the desirable and perfect place for absorption of therapeutic polypeptides, which are orally consumed then there is a compulsory for enteric capsules which can target the colon release and can withstand the acidic gastronomical juices and state of gastronomical duct (Hardy et al., 1987, Van Den Mooter et al., 1992, Rubin stein et al., 1992, Lloyd et al., 1994). For several decades these enteric properties are delivered to the capsules mainly by coating the hard gelatin capsules using acid resistant chemicals such as anionic polumethacryalates (copolymerasite of methacrylic acid and tither methul methacrylate or ethyly acrylate (Eudragit), cellulose based polymers such as cellulose acetate phthalate (Aquateric) or polyvinyl derivatives such as polyvinyl acetate phthalate (Coateric) ( Ewart T. Cole et al., 2001), hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose phthalate, sodium alginate stearic acid etc. These acidic polymers have very low permeability in their unionized state in low pH environments and when they reach high pH environments they ionize and resulting in increase of the permeability. As a result, the capsule erodes and releases the underlying drug. These kind pH variations can be seen in the stomach and intestine respectively. These enteric coatings showed a great advantage that it is independent of the encapsulated material. This advantage re sulted in the decrease in the extent of research to develop a formulation, which is enteric by nature itself irrespective of any enteric coating applied. Gelatin is the major polymer base for manufacturing capsules for many years. These enteric coatings are applied on the surface of these gelatin capsules. However, due to several considerations alternative materials like hypromellose are opted in some specific cases. Hypromellose has several advantages when compared to gelatin capsules regarding their response towards organic coatings, aqueous coatings, storage, structure etc. Hypromellose capsules over gelatin capsules: Gelatin and Hypromellose are used to fabricate capsules, which can dissolve in the gastric juices of the stomach and release the encapsulated material. Inorder to incorporate the enteric properties to these gelatin and hypromellose capsules different coating technologies are invented and acid resistant polymers are coated. From several years enteric coated hypromellose capsules are of very high importance in dietary supplement industry. Hypromellose is a vegetarian supplement to the gelatin capsules (Ogura et al., 1998). Hypromellose proved their efficiency when compared to that gelatin capsules when regulatory, manufacturing, religious and dietary issues are considered. Previous studies proved that the hypromellose is more capable in case of polymer adhesion. Gelatin capsules when coated with organic polymers they are very sensitive and embrittlement of the shell material is resulted (Murthy et al., 1986). The gelatin surface is very soft and adhesion of the coating material require some friction on the surface of the of the capsule body which is which is less in case of soft gelatin capsules. So enteric properties of these gelatin capsules are not up to the mark (Thoma and Bechtold, 1992). Secondary techniques like application of pre coat are required to coat these soft gelatin capsules. The interactions between the organic polymer and gelatin surface are controlled by applying a pre coat on the surface of the capsule. However, application of precoat is highly time consuming and costly process. Considering the ecological impact of organic coatings, aqueous coatings are preferred (Cunningham and FEgely, 2001; Wheatly et al., 1997).. These aqueous coatings make the gelatin capsules more sensitive because of aqueous solubility of gelatin. Hence the processing time is very long for aqueous coating of the gelatin capsules resulting in high fabrication costs. Hypromellose are advantageous in case of aqueous coatings when compared to gelatin capsules. For hypromello se capsule sealing of body and cap is required prior to coating to restrict the leakage of the encapsulated material through the merging part of the body and cap of the capsule. This sealing can be done manually using gelatin solution (Felton et al., 2002). Liquid encapsulation micro spraying technique can also be used for sealing the capsule. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of gelatin and hypromellose capsules, hypromellose can be effective to deliver enteric properties to the capsules. Development of formulations using hypromellose as the base polymer and enhancing with other acid resistant materials can yield better results. Enteric hypromellose capsules: The technology of enteric coating has undergone through several fundamental improvement in recent years due to their potential advantages and ease. Several promising technologies like sugar coating technique, film coating process using organic and aqueous solvents are designed. The process of application of enteric coating has several steps which involve lot of labor and time ultimately effecting the economics of fabrication. Apart from the coating process proper attention should be taken such that the coating materials is capable enough to adhere and coalesce on the substrate. The coating material must be able to loose moisture immediately so that the core penetration and dissolved coating material can be minimized (Els Mehuys et al.,2004). Aqueous coating cannot be applied to ingredients which are active towards moisture (Mehta, 1996). The coating techniques are effected by several factors such as spraying rate, spraying temperature, pressure, volume and dimensions of the coating equipment (Els Mehuys et al., 2004). Lack of proper attention towards these control variables results in non-uniform coating layer and upscaling. Many other techniques are developed to overcome these disadvantages of the coating process and reduce the process time. Obara et al., 1999 developed a dry coating process. This process involves spraying of dry enteric powder on the capsule followed by curing and drying. Pearnchob and Bodmeir (2003) developed another dry coating process in which they used ethylcellulose as the enteric coating material. Holroyd (2004) developed another process called Phoqus Process in which an electric field is created to induce partial positive and negative charges to the capsule and enteric material, thus resulting in adhesion due to electrostatic attraction between the compounds. Though several innovations are m ade in the field of enteric coating all the process require supply of energy in the form heat or electricity is required. Even though several promising innovations are made to overcome the defects of the coating process, still these coating process proved to be disadvantageous in large scale production. The main impacts of coating process during large-scale production involve brittle capsules, environmental pollution, safety, cost of the process, process time etc. This will induce extra cost in fabrication of capsules when manufactured in a bulk scale. A formulation designed which has enteric properties inherent can solve the extra cost and time due to enteric coating of the gelatin or hypromellose capsules. The previous studies showed that hypromellose shows some inherent enteric properties. Thus by enhancing these properties by using acid insoluble compounds like sodium alginate in the formulation itself can exhibit enteric properties. So additional coating can be prevented by optimsing these kind of formulations. Enteric formulations using hypromellose as base polymer: Certain formulations using hypromellose as base polymer are designed in which the HPMC acts as bulk film forming material. A gelling agent is added to the formulation like gellan gum such that it performs gelation action and help hypromellose to develop a solid structure and hold its structure firmly during moulding of the capsules. An acid insoluble tertiary polysaccharide (sodium alginate) is added to the formulation to induce and enhance the enteric characteristics to the formulation. Some pharmaceutical excipients such as lubricating agents (polyethylene glycol) , chelating agent (EDTA) and tonicity agent (Sodium Chloride) are added to the formulation. By considering all the above stated materials following formulations are designed: FORMULATION HPMC % W/W GELLAN GUM % W/W SODIUM ALGINATE % W/W NACL % W/W EDTA % W/W PEG % W/W 1 19 0.1 0 0.1 0.1 5 2 18 0.2 1 0.2 0.1 5 3 17 0.2 2 0.2 0.1 5 4 15 0.2 5 0.2 0.1 5 5 15 0.2 7.5 0.2 0.1 5 Impact of formulation and process variables on the drug release: Formulation variables: Polymer Base: Hypromellose is used as the polymer base material. There are several grades of HPMC that are commercially available. Generally different kinds of hypromellose is due to variation in the content of hydroxypropyl and methyl groups present in HPMC. In the present case rapidly hydrating grade hypromellose is used. The viscosity of the hypromellose depends upon the composition of hdroxypropyl group and methyl group. Improperly hydrated results in dose dumping as the gastric fluids can easily penetrate into the capsule (Dow pharmaceutical ecipients, 1986). The viscosity of the polymer effects the mouldability of the formulated polymer base into capsule. Hypromellose also decides the mechanical characteristics of the capsules. Hypromellose layers with high viscosity have a greater capability to withstand the diffusion of gastric fluids into the encapsulated material thus help in extended release of the drug (Nellore et al., 1998). Higher viscosity hypromellose will reduce the swelling prope rties of the capsule thus resolve the capsule separation problem. Hypromellose (C32H60O19) Gelling agent: Gelling agent like gellan gum is used in this formulation. Gellan gum is of very high importance in pharmaceutical industry in producing oral dosage forms like gels and capsules (Kubo W, Miyazaki S et al., 2003). Gellan gum shows effect on the release of the drug so it is used for controlled or sustained release (Alhaique F et al., 1995). Hypromellose in the presence of a secondary polysaccharide like gellan gum have the capability to forma strong structure and retain the structure during mouliding of capsule. The compounds containing aldehyde groups can combine with gelling agent like gellan gum to form cross links making the capsule insoluble (Digenis GA et al., 1994). Gellan gum is categorized based on the proportions of polysaccharide, the percent of o-acetyl substitution of polysaccharide and protein content. Gellan gum with high acyl condition has to selected for this formulation because gellan gum with high acyl content is capable of formation of soft, elastic and non brittle gels. On the other hand gellan gums with low acyl forms brittle and non elastic gels (Kelco Biopolymers, Gellan Gum for Pharmaceutical Applications rev. 10/99, 2004.). Gellan gum induces temperature dependent gelation. This gelation is caused due to series of activities in the order of formation of double helical junction zones and then gellan gum aggregation of these segments resulting in formation of three-dimensional structures by complexation and hydrogen bonding. The structure of deacetylated Gellan Gum The variation of amount of gellan gum in the formulation effects the gelating nature of the polymer base. The hypromellose and gellan gum has a biphasic nature. The percentage of gellan gum will result in phase change. Stabilizing agent: Sodium alginate is used as the stabilizing agent in these formulations. Sodium alginate acts as the tertiary polysaccharide. Sodium alginate imparts its acid insoluble properties to the hypromellose formulation thus making it enteric. Sodium alginate also acts as gelling agent. The amount of sodium alginate effects the gelation and acid solubility properties of the capsule. Sodium alginate Addition of plasticizer: Addition of plasticizer to the formulation decreased the water absorbing nature of the capsule. The major obstacle is the capsule separation due to the swelling of the capsule by absorbing water. Poly ethylene glycol (PEG) is used as the plasticizer to decrease the water absorbing nature of the capsule. Excess of PEG resulted in formation of brittle capsules and also effects the dissolution properties of the capsule. Addition of lubricating agent: Lubricating agent is added inorder to facilitate the dipping process. Addition of lubricating agent like PEG helped in easy removal of the capsule from the dipping pin. In absence of lubricating agent the capsules deformed while inverting from the dipping pin resulting in irregular shaped capsules. Addition of swelling agent: Addition of swelling agent is done inorder to achieve differential swelling between cap and body of the capsule to prevent capsule separation. Swelling agents are added in such a manner that swelling of body of the capsule is more when compared to that of cap. This will result in tightening of the capsule and can restrict the capsule separation. Process variables: Capsule size: Capsule size has a major effect on the release rate. For different capsule sizes with same aspect ratio and constant volume, the release rate decreases with increase in size of the capsule. This is due to the change in the surface area. The diffusion pathways are longer in longer capsules when compared with that of smaller ones. So the drug release with respect to time is much larger in smaller capsules when compared to longer ones (Siepman et al., 1999b) Capsule shape: The surface area of a capsule depends on the shape of the capsule. The capsule which have high surface area for a constant volume has potential exposure to the acidic environment in the stomach and the drug release rate is high. Capsules with near spherical shape have less surface area compared to other shape (Rekhi et al., 1999) These kinds of capsules are recommended for controlled release characteristics. Variation in the aspect ratio of the capsules can effect the drug release. By varying the aspect ratio of the hypromellose capsule the drug relase can be modified (Siepman et al., 1999b). Moulding temperature: Viscosity of the polymer base changes with temperature. At higher temperatures, the viscosity of the polymer base is less, so when the dipping pin is dipped in the polymer base at higher temperatures the thickness of the polymer attached to the pin is less due to the lower viscosity. So by altering the moulding temperature the thickness of the capsule can be controlled. Capsule Thickness: The generally assumption is that the encapsulated material release is through the capsule wall. So a thicker wall can control the release and slow the drug release. Thicker wall can also withstand drastic acidic condition in the stomach. Apart from the dissolution rate, the capsule thickness also effects the structure of the capsule. Dissolution of the capsule highly depends on the thickness of the capsule. Capsule thickness effects the swelling properties and mechanical properties of the capsules like strength, puncture force etc. The capsule thickness is controlled during the moulding of the capsules by proper attention to viscosity and temperature of the hypromellose polymer base. The dipping can be dipped twice or thrice according to the target thickness if required. Mechanism of drug release in hypromellose and gelatin capsules: The solubility of gelatin and hypromellose capsules in aqueous media is different due to difference in their permeability characteristics. This has a great effect on disintegration and drug release mechanism in both the materials (Nagata, 2002). The drug delivery is due to absorbance of water and hydration of the capsules by which the capsules dissolve and release the encapsulated contents. Gelatin dissolves in the fluids at body temperature. Further decrease of temperature ( Comparative studies of dissolution of hypromellose and gelatin capsules revealed that the dissolution of HPMC is independent of temperature but gelatin dissolution is highly dependent on temperature of solution. The release characteristics of HPMC showed that the drug release takes three times the time required for the drug release from gelatin capsules (Chiwele et al., 2000). Hypromellose capsules results in extended release of the drugs. Dissolution is only effected by first breakage of the capsule and start of release of the drug. Once the drug starts to release, the release does not depend on the capsule material. The dissolution studies proved that the HPMC capsules have longer lag time (Honkanen et al., 2001). The first rupture in case of HPMC takes long time but once the rupture takes place, the capsule disperses uniformly through exposing the drug completely to dissolution media. Gelatin capsules splits near the ends and dissolution takes place through the ends of the capsule s for a long time (Podczeck and Jones, 2002). The dissolution characteristics of gelatin capsules are almost same for all the capsules as the sources for gelatin is almost same from all the providers. In case of HPMC, each provider has its own formulations patented and specific characteristics are delivered for their gelling systems. The diffusion of gases through HPMC capsules is more when compared to gelatin capsules. The gas diffusion occurs through the gap between body and cap of the capsule, the sealing between cap and body of the capsule is weak in HPMC capsules when compared to that of gelatin capsules.

Gullivers Travels :: essays research papers

The Evolution of Gulliver In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, the main character, Gulliver, embarks on numerous journeys bringing him to strange lands and affecting his views of the world around him. His response to each voyage differ as do his ideas and reactions to the environment in which he is residing. Gulliver begins his expeditions with a very social and open behavior while possessing a general acceptance of any newly encountered beings. But by the end of the fourth voyage, Gulliver leans toward a more anti-social attitude which was derived from the hatred and disgust he has for human beings, the “Yahoos.';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As for the first voyage to Lilliput, Gulliver acts very sociable with all of the different creatures he comes in contact with. Once he arrives on the unknown island, he begins to explore the land around him. After being brought into the city, Gulliver remains subservient towards the Lilliputians by staying chained up near his hut without acting out and attempting to break free which would have most likely been a successful attempt. This subservience created enough trust of the “Man-Mountain'; by the Lilliputian king that it was declared that his liberty hath been granted when he could have easily crushed and killed these little people. Gulliver is also very eager to be able to interact with the creatures and this is evident when in a few weeks he “made a great progress in learning their language'; (68). He is also quite helpful and there are two definitive cases of Gulliver displaying this helpfulness in the country of Lilliput. The first occurs when he obeys the orders of the king to destroy his opposition’s navy and ends up stringing up the navy of Blefuscu rendering them helpless. Then he saves the fiery palace by relieving himself onto it, extinguishing the flames. As you can see throughout the first voyage, Gulliver was very sociable and friendly to those he came in contact with.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  An anti-social behavior is then exhibited near the end of the last voyage, after he leaves the country of the Houyhnhnms, because of his new found disgust and hatred for the rest of the world especially the “Yahoos.'; This is evident almost immediately when Gulliver first encounters natives on the new island. Unlike previous encounters with new people, he “made what haste [he] could to the shore'; to quickly retreat from an impromptu meeting (333). His sole purpose after leaving the Houyhnhnm land was “to discover some small island uninhabited, yet sufficient by [his] labour to furnish [himself] with the necessaries of life, which [he] would have thought a greater happiness than to be first Minister in the politest Court of

Sport At School Should Not Be Compulsory :: essays research papers

Sport at school should NOT be compulsory. Sports training and PE take up time that could be better spent learning other subjects, and PE and Sport are not as important as other subjects like maths, science etc. It is also my belief that it students should have the right to choose whether or not we do sport/PE, because we are allowed to choose the subjects that are more important, so why are we not allowed to choose whether or not we do sport?Every year in PE, we do the same sports and the same practice drills, so after year 7, there is no point continuing to do PE, because the you are just doing the same things that you have done in previous years. 2 periods per cycle are spent on PE, 2 periods which could be spent on subjects like foreign languages, which are only allocated 4 periods per cycle or English or Science, which get 5 periods per cycle. These subjects are more important than PE and time the two periods given to PE would be better used if distributed to these subjects.As well as PE, we spent up to 3 hours a week at training and another 3 hours on Saturday for competition. Can you imagine students' academic performances if we were to spent 6 hours a week doing homework or study? And it is not only the actual time you are at training that counts, because often, after training you are tired and cannot be bothered to do homework or study, again dragging down our academic results.If sport was optional, then the people participating in the teams would be the people that wanted to be there, the people who wanted to play and win. But instead, there are people in the teams who are not interested in the sport, not interested in winning and are only there because they have to be. These people drag down the team and ruin the sport for those that want to be there.

Education reform Essay

MSU essay choice #2: Describe a significant experience from the past two years which required you to interact with someone outside of your own social or cultural group (ethnic, religious, geographic, socioeconomic, etc. ). How did this impact you? What did you learn and what surprised you? During my junior year of high school, I went on a mission trip/volleyball expedition with my club team. We traveled down to Nicaragua because this was a new experience for everyone involved. When we first got off the plane it was a completely different atmosphere than what any of us were used to. As soon as you leave baggage claim, you are greeted by a large sea of people. The only thing keeping the two of you apart is a tiny glass door which leads to the streets you exit from. After we left the airport and checked into our hotels we were on the road to do our first part of community service. We met in this large dusty field with make shift bases and a small pitcher’s mound. We later found out that it was home to a youth girl’s kickball league. The girls were from the ages of eight through sixteen. You could tell that they didn’t have much and kickball was there whole life, but they always had a smile on their face and made the best of everything. When we were playing with the girls, we got to talk with them a little bit but there were some barriers because they couldn’t speak English, and we didn’t know much Spanish. Despite that, we were able to laugh and joke with the girls. Seeing the way they smiled and how they were able to make the best or most out of everything showed me that you don’t always need the material things in life that you can be alright and still find happiness. On our next mission trip, we were split into groups to do different assignments. My group was assigned to an elementary school out in the countryside to work with preschoolers. The drive out was very far from town and the smell of animal waste and disease burned your nose. When you finally arrived to the school, it was the size of a traditional school house from early pioneer days. When we walked inside, we learned that it wasn’t only a school for preschoolers, but it was also class rooms full of kids from first to sixth grade. Each classroom was divided by age to try and keep kids learning as much as possible. When we took the children out to play, they looked surprised yet fortunate. I had never seen such a bright smile on a person’s face till I got to play with those kids. When the play time was over and we went to donate the school supplies we brought down for them, they gave us big hugs and much gratitude. At first I didn’t realize why someone would be thanking me for an eraser and five pencils, but then I later realized that theses were all of the school supplies that child would have for the rest of the year or even the rest of their school career. When it came time to leave, not only were we sad, but so were the kids. Later on through the day, we found out that since that school was so far from the main town we were staying in, they never had any visitors and they hardly ever get donations. The school only went up to grade six because by that age, kids could either continue to go to high school, or start working. Hearing all of that made me realize just how blessed I am to live in the country and have the opportunities that I do. Those children may have no say in whether or not they can finish up schooling and go to college to live successful lives. Not every person in life has the choice to better themselves or to change their social status in life.