Instead of soaking up the sun or earning a little extra cash for
college this summer, two of Gilroy High School’s seniors will be
toiling under an African sun.
Instead of soaking up the sun or earning a little extra cash for college this summer, two of Gilroy High School’s seniors will be toiling under an African sun.
Jackson Daley, 18, and Katie Whittaker, 18, don’t really know what they’re in for this summer but they expect an experience to remember. Headed off to the Kigoma region of Tanzania Wednesday for a two month mission trip, the two have already gone through an extensive checklist in preparation for their trip, checking off an inventory of vaccines to prevent against yellow fever, typhoid and hepatitis and stocking up on antimalaria drugs for the trip.
The summer abroad was spurred on by the strength of the their faith, they said. Friends since they were children, Whittaker and Daley grew up together. A digital photograph Daley keeps on his cellular phone shows the smiling duo as small children.
The two spoke of their faith as a guiding principal and both feel the need to give back to a world that has blessed them so greatly. Daley’s faith persevered even through his recent battle with cancer, an experience he says made him stronger. When doctors discovered cancer in his lymph nodes, he was only 16, a junior at GHS. Even when treatments of chemotherapy left him listless and losing his hair, he felt a sense of peace with his plight.
“People asked if I was angry with God,” Daley said. “I wasn’t angry. It’s not like I was being punished.”
Now in remission, Daley said his experience made him a better person.
“If I let it bring me down, it would have,” he said. “Everyone’s prayers got me through.”
A second chance at health made Daley realize he wanted to do more with his faith than just attend church every Sunday. He wanted to do something that mattered.
“You may not have all the time you think you do,” Jack Daley, Jackson’s father, said of the lesson he thinks his soon took away from his struggle with cancer. “It changes your perspective on life.”
A renewed outlook on life along with his unwavering faith has propelled Daley to branch out and look for opportunities to turn his faith into something tangible. In Tanzania, he and Whittaker will be flung into another world, where Swahili is the spoken language, showers are few and far between and modest clothing is required at all times as a sign of respect.
“We are going to be totally out of our comfort zone,” Whittaker said. Having traveled to Mexico on several weeklong mission trips before, she always returns feeling like she has “such an amazing life.”
On her previous trips, Whittaker found herself working wherever she was needed, some days teaching the village’s children, others, mixing cement for construction sites.
“I think mission work is cool,” she said. After having such inspiring experiences in Mexico, she decided to take her next trip one step further, spending the summer in Africa, a destination she’s been meaning to mark off her list. When she stumbled upon the trip to Kigoma, she couldn’t say no.
“This one seemed right,” she said. “Part of me wonders what the heck I was thinking, but this just makes sense to me.”
She doesn’t know what she’ll be doing but she did check the box on the application that asked is she new how to mix cement. “Who knows?” she said with a smile.
Daley is nervous about the unknown but excited, he said.
Happy to be finished with high school and moving on to the next stage in life, Daley will be attending Gavilan College this fall and transferring to art school after completing his general education requirements. Whittaker will head south in the fall for Biola University, a private Christian university in Southern California where she plans to study physical therapy. But before they reopen their school books, they can’t wait for what the summer may bring.
“I really feel like this trip is something that can better not only my faith, but life in general,” Daley said.
