“They send you to a training center for three months, where you live with a family during the evening and nights. You learn Spanish, the culture and you learn your technical specialty, at least how it applies in the country,” Daniels said.

The Peace Corps is an American program through which members volunteer all around the world, helping out in many different scopes including education, technology advancement and hunger.

Since Daniels had majored in civil engineering in college, he worked with engineers and health promoters to design water supply systems in Ecuador. These systems vary anywhere from gravity water supply systems to pumps.

Daniels and his coworkers would ride motorcycles to the tops of the mountains, ranging from 10,000 to 12,000 feet tall, to survey water supply systems in the mountain communities.

These trips were some of Daniels’s best memories because he saw how kind the native people were. The natives were grateful for the help and very welcoming to the engineers.

“Eating with them and working with them, that was the best part of working,” Daniels said. “Traveling with my friends was great, but working with the indigenous people was pretty special.”

Working in the office was also fun for Daniels because his coworkers would play games after work. Wednesday afternoons were soccer days, and Friday was for volleyball.

However, not everyone had such an enjoyable experience as Daniels. Many trained medical professionals had to teach people how to wash their hands. After about six months, several of these workers had to leave, mainly due to the onset of diseases and illnesses. Even after taking many shots, workers could still get sick when abroad. Out of the 200 workers, about 50 left.

Despite the likelihood of falling sick, Daniels had a great experience in Ecuador.

“I learned a lot. I learned Spanish, and I learned mostly about the culture and the people,” Daniels said. “People were very relaxed, especially on the coast. They were very laid back, took their time and worked hard during the day. But at night, they cleaned up and often came out to dance and have a party late at night.”

For Daniels, adapting to the culture in Ecuador wasn’t hard because it was so exciting, and he was learning so much. It was harder for Daniels to come back to the United States.

“To go from here to there was eye-opening, exciting and educational, but coming back from Ecuador to the United States was almost traumatic,” Daniels said. “I went from a land with very little, very few things and few choices in the terms of food and clothes and came back to the United States where there are so many options.”