When I met Kiki and Sol on a Sanitation Project in the community of Loma Vieja, they were shy teenagers who were neighbors but acted like siblings. They had never left their rural community and didn’t know a world outside their slice of the green hills. Their community received 16 new bathrooms in 2016, built for the families most in need.

These were families who didn’t have bathrooms at all, or had thrown together makeshift outhouses using branches and plywood scraps. Kiki’s family was one of these.

He and Sol helped us build a bathroom outside his abuela’s house, where he lives, and then they showed up to work again with us every day, building bathrooms for all their neighbors.

When the project came to an end, Kiki asked me if he and Sol could join us on another project, to keep paying the good forward.

A few days later, they both packed their bags and traveled outside their community for the first time to serve another community in their country.

This summer they traveled to serve again with us, this time on a water project. You don’t need much to pay forward what you’ve been privileged, just a willingness to keep showing up.