Photo by Photo by Megan Bell

Kathryn Pedroza, 10, tells her story of staying positive during a trip to Kenya

People say a smile can change the way you think and feel, and if you smile, you will be more positive. I think it also affects the people around you in a positive way. This summer, I got the opportunity to travel to Kenya for a week-long trip. Our group of 15 rode on a 20 hour plane ride, stopping in Qatar for six hours. During that time, we didn’t change our clothes or sleep much leaving us smelling bad, hungry for real food and grumpy.

We landed and went straight to Kibera, the largest slum in Africa. Once we arrived, we split into two groups, and I got assigned the group that would walk the farthest into the community. Then we started our trek down. Slipping in brown sewer and trash, we walked downhill past any kind of shop or business you can imagine. More than 100,000 people live in one and a half square miles, which makes it look like a mini-city. When you live in the slum, you have to get creative with what space you have and what materials are available, so you can imagine the colors we saw.

Photo by Kathryn Pedroza

On the mile hike down to our destination, we passed about three schools full of small children, some on recess. We would smile and wave and try to speak the little English they knew.

“Hi! How are you?” They would say over and over again trying to connect with us.

We smiled and kept walking, but they followed us, yelling at their friends to come see us. After that day, I realized what a treat it was for them to see visitors. One smile at them and they would run and tell their friends that we were there. Just smiling at them we would make their day or even week. Of course a few were scared of us because they don’t see white people that often, but most of the time, they would come running after us because of the smile.

I learned something from those people in the slum.

A smile can change someone’s day. You don’t know everyone’s circumstances or thoughts, but you can give them a positivity boost by smiling. You could turn someone’s bad day into a good one, or give someone the motivation to finish the day. I also realized frowning keeps people away from you. In Kibera, whenever I would remember that I hadn’t changed clothes for 40 hours or that I smelled, I automatically frowned, and when I did, the people would give a scowl back or creepily smirk at me. After that, I quickly learned a smile is much better for me and the people around me.

Photo by Kathryn Pedroza

Because you never know what positivity can do for someone, keep smiling.