“The best thing since sliced bread” inspired by the market changing, individually pre sliced, then wrapped bread is most certainly a phrase that carries a huge story behind six simple words. In turn, the ‘fill in the blank’ phrase following it must equally match its level of fascination. The best thing since sliced bread, are tiny hands that have the unbelievable ability to turn lives, people, and worlds upside down. Although this may seem slightly absurd, the journey towards this extraordinary discovery certainly verifies this mind-blowing claim.

It actually began with a simple slideshow where kids with bright smiles began a story. With a mere glance a desire was engraved and living without knowing the intricate details of every single sentence these kids had to say wasn’t an option. I signed up without a second of hesitation to a school service trip to El Salvador. I never looked back. Upon arrival, the children were asked to write letters to the “Americans” they were shown in the pictures. Apparently, to them, we were “The best thing since sliced bread.” It was a surprise actually, so when the kids pulled out the letters you can imagine the width of the smile that grew on my face as I looked through colorful papers with drawings of trees, hearts, smiles, and words that were put together with excitement and love. The funny thing is, that if I were to have visitors from another part of the world come visit me I would probably write a “hallmark” version of a letter which included nothing really heartfelt, rather commercial and bland. This is kind of what I expected from the letters. My thoughts were “Kids who didn’t know me were asked to write to me, this is so forced, poor kids.” Somehow I managed to receive the most letters, and as I read them there were several words that were repetitive, “We’ve been waiting for you since we knew you were coming! We’re so excited you’re here!” and the best and worst sentence I read repeatedly was instantly engraved inside the walls of my arrogance that I hadn’t realized I brought with me “You’re the best part of our year and we’re glad you’re finally here!” I put the letters down because I knew that I would have them forever and that the irony was that beyond the two weeks I had with the children, I didn’t know when or if I ever would get to see them again. I picked up my backpack and placed my little letters in their own pocket and zipped it. I then heard the international sound of thunder. The semi circle we were in suddenly silenced. I looked out the wire glassless window overlooking cardboard homes, then down at their school’s dirt floor, then into their devilish eyes. With that memorable look, I instantly knew their eyes were way too jubilant to possibly be accompanied by anything good. They burst out of their seats and without one second to foreshadow what could possibly be next, I felt tiny hands grabbing rest of the group and me, pulling us up out of our seats, then outside into the pouring rain and to the muddiest soccer game I have ever been a part of. Their