Gracelyn Klettner
Anthropology
Costa Rica
Blackfoot Indian Reservation
~Montana, USA
I traveled to the Blackfoot Indian Reservation on a church mission trip. Our "mission" was oriented around helping at risk children by running a free two week day camp. Driving around the reservation picking up the children was when I really felt what it was like to be dropped into another culture. Although it was in the United States, at the time it was a whole different world to me. I had never seen houses that were made of thrown together plywood and scrap metal, nor had i seen packs of wild dogs, but this was their normal. At first I was mortified, but by the end of the trip I truly realized that there is no room for judgement of others for doing or being something different than what I considered normal.
In Costa Rica I saw environmental needs that I had read about in school but thought nothing of. This too was a mission trip which centered around cleaning up a heavily polluted beach. Picking up bag upon bag of garbage and seeing more and more wash up on the beach was devastating. This trip was also the first time I saw deforestation on a large scale. I have been making differences in my everyday life since seeing that beach trying to repurpose trash as often as possible and often times making art out of objects you would usually just throw away.
Most recently I visited Alaska with my mother and brother. During our visit I had the great pleasure of witnessing first hand a group of transient orcas hunt a flock of ducks. I also saw firsthand a very rare and new group hunting technique called "bubble netting" used by humpback whales. Seeing these whales up close in the wild is magnificent, and has given me the conservation bug. Additionally I saw two different glaciers, as well as how much they have receded over the past few years due to climate change.
Twice I have traveled with Santa Fe College on study abroads to Ecuador, and both times I have walked away a changed person. While in the Amazon jungle I had a traditional experience with the Greffa family, with whom I learned more about naural remedies and traditonal healing than I had ever dreamt of. Ecuador is a very diverse country and on my trips I experienced so much from tropical and traditional life, to the highlands, and coastal enviornments.
Alaska
Ecuador
“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.”
― G.K. Chesterton
From a young age I had a thirst for new experiences, always on the move never staying still. When I was Fifteen I started traveling around the United States on mission trips. I couldn't get enough of visiting new interesting places. One of the most profound trips was when I experienced a whole new culture for the first time on a trip to the Blackfoot Indian Reservation in Montana. Since then my whole worldview has shifted and with each new culture I immerse myself into my views continue to grow and develop. Here is a list of some the places that have shaped me into who I am today, and sparked my love for ecotourism.