Sarah Fleming, Employee Communications, PayPal EMEA

No words can even begin to describe the last 10 days of my life. As I sit in the Recife airport and wait for the inevitable call to board my plane home, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed by gratitude. The people, the community, the laughter, the passion, the tears and most of all, the love. I knew coming into this experience I would learn a few things but I could have never imagined the level of life lessons I would take back with me. I’d like to share four of the most important with you.

Be thankful for what you have.  

Working on houses with broken roofs, cracked walls, cockroaches, dirt floors and dirty water has made me realize how much I have to be thankful for. The community of Bomba do Hemetério doesn’t have the luxury of some of the simplest things we taken for granted every day of our lives.  My heart broke when I found out that Patricia (the woman whose house I worked on) is pregnant. She doesn’t have a roof that will withstand rainfall yet she has no choice but to bring her small bundle of joy into the only house she can give her. Yes we built her a few walls to increase the security of her house, but in the limited time we had, we could not fix her roof. One of the hardest parts of this trip will be leaving, knowing I am going back to my cozy London flat while Patricia struggles to build a proper shelter for family.

A smile goes a long way.  

I never knew I could feel so connected to so many people without ever saying a single word. Every day I looked forward to arriving at our house to be greeted by Patricia and her mom. Both of them have the most infectious smile that soon you realize you are beaming ear-to-ear returning the welcoming gesture of both gratitude and love. Even though we never really exchanged words other than through a translator, I feel more love for Patricia and her mom than I could ever have imagined. One of the days, Patricia’s mom told our translator that our smiles brought so much joy to her that even when she was having a bad day she immediately felt better. I never really knew the power of a smile until this trip.

Laughter is a universal connection.

If I had 5 cents for every time someone on our team said, “I’ve never laughed this hard in my life,” I would be a rich, rich girl. Every day, no matter how hot the weather was or how hard the work became, we always found a way to laugh. We laughed with our families, we laughed with our Habitat hosts, we laughed on the bus, we laughed at the beach and we even laughed at all the weird noises (or uh, talents?) that each one of our team members could make (monkeys, dolphins, sea lions, beat boxing, just to name a few). After a week of laughter, 16 strangers have turned into my family from 10 countries. Thank you, laughter, for being the bond that brought us together.

Life is meant to be colorful. 

Walking down the streets of Recife, you can’t help but notice all the colors. And I’m not just talking about the color of the houses or buildings. What I mean by colorful is the feeling you get as you enter the community: music playing in the streets, colorful kites soaring high above you, soccer (or football!) balls kicked around by the children in the neighborhood as they chuckle down the street and of course, all the houses on the street that truly cover all the colors of the rainbow. Walking the streets of Recife has taught me to embrace life and to let my colors shine. Even though we were working in one of the poorest places in the world, the people were genuinely happy. Why? Because they embraced the colors of their community and truly allowed themselves to live.

I can honestly say this experience has changed me for the better. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all my fabulous teammates. You will always hold a special place in my life. I will be forever grateful to eBay and Habitat for giving me the experience of a lifetime. I vow to pay it forward and continue to find ways to help those in need. Today, I think I’ll start with a smile.