Until last summer I had a very comfortable life: winter vacations skiing and summer cruises. My parents spent a lot of money on a private school, so they could get me into a competitive middle school. Everything was about tomorrow, next year, my graduation. We never had to worry about today. Before last summer I never thought much about the people in the world who live day to day, every day, whose lives are controlled by poverty and hunger. Then I enrolled in a two-week intensive program. We lived in a “ Tribal Village, ” in a hot, dry open grassland in Arkansas, a state of the south-central United States. I am a tribal member in Mozambique , a country of southeast Africa. Every meal, I make the fire for my family, and feel the flames lick up my nostrils as I blow to keep the fuel alive. I cook mush with vegetables. This is all my family is ever given. I feed the hen and three rabbits their dinner. I grow attached to the rabbits, even though I know I shouldn ’ t. I name them. I ’ m not getting enough t o eat; it ’ s time to decide whether or not to kill the rabbits. I feel pain but it ’ s a privileged child ’ s pain because I know I will soon be eating again. That ’ s not true for a lot of other children around the world. Growing up comfortably in the U.S., I ’ ve never had to worry about my dinner, and even though this whole process was only a simulation , it changed my life. Now I believe in doing whatever I can to help find practical ways to defeat hunger. So I ’ ve become president of Roots and Shoots, a group working to improve local environments for people and animals. I ’ m also working to create a program at my high school called the “ Safe Passage ” trip to help young people in the Guatemala City dump. And I ’ ve got plans to do more. I'm often thinking of laboring in the hot sun and the millions who still do. Now, I try to live for today and stop worrying so much about the future. When I eat or feel full, I am grateful for this fortunate life and want to extend the same feeling to others. I believe in offering help to those who need it.