You’re greeted in the bare classroom by hordes of children, cheering and yelling at your arrival. They swarm around you, grabbing at the unique hair on your arms and hugging you. Through the doorway you see children peering in from outside. They cannot afford to come to school, but come anyway because it’s somewhere to be. There is no hot water, scarce electricity and you sleep beneath mosquito nets every night.

Not amazing, not life changing, but “emotionally intense and eye-opening” is how second-year music student Kayla Burke described her trip to Sierra Leone, Africa.

For the first time, students from the DePaul School of Music traveled to Sierra Leone, an impoverished country still recovering from the civil war from more than a decade ago.

Three DePaul students traveled for two weeks during winter break with students from Lawrence University. They visited four cities and taught music to elementary and high school students.

Burke, a music education major, called the trip a “great opportunity, not only to teach, but to teach in a completely different culture.”

Music students often have difficulty studying abroad, Burke said, especially when they must be consistently enrolled in ensembles.

“(The Sierra Leone service trip) was music related, but something we could do and still be on track to graduate,” Burke said.

The trip was organized by music professor Cathy Ann Elias and her son Kyle Simon, who lives and works in Sierra Leone. According to Elias, she proposed taking students to Sierra Leone after visiting last year and teaching schoolteachers how to play the recorder for their music classes.

Dean Donald E. Casey of the School of Music was “100 percent” supportive, Elias said. “(The trip) wouldn’t have happened without him.”

In addition to teaching music, Burke said the trip taught her about the significance music has in other cultures.

“A huge part of the culture is music. It’s more a part of their culture than it is here because all through school they sing. It gives them hope. It’s something that isn’t material that they can have, love, and enjoy.”

“Bringing more of that to them was … I mean it was amazing,” Burke said.

Burke’s reaction is precisely what Casey and Elias hoped for.

“My hope was that these students and faculty would come to see their own privilege as just that, and begin to feel more strongly compelled to contribute positively to communities and cultures in genuine need,” Casey said.

Sierra Leone’s tumultuous political history discouraged some students from taking the trip at the last minute.

“The fact that a lot of people are afraid of going to Sierra Leone is perfectly reasonable,” Elias said.

“I think people are a little afraid of the country for its history,” she continued. “It’s pretty calm now … There isn’t any kind of extremism. People just want to get along.”

“Traveling to the Third World always seemed like something that was too dangerous for me to do,” third-year jazz studies major Liam Coussens said.

“Once we got on the ground however, and started to interact with the people, I realized that it was just as safe -if not saferas any poor area in the United States,” Coussens said.

“(Sierra Leone) is probably safer than Chicago,” Elias said. “The people are fabulously wonderful. Getting attacked wouldn’t happen now.”

Burke wasn’t worried so much about her safety as her health.

Burke had fitful nightmares about swarms of bugs in her room during the final nights before the trip. Before departure, Burke paid about $400 in medical expenses for shots and medication to prevent diseases like yellow fever, typhoid and malaria.

Jenna Przybysz, a second year jazz studies student, said she didn’t have any significant expectations for what the trip would be like before they left.

“I’ve grown up my whole life with running water, electricity and a fridge full of food,” Przybysz said. “I just had to go with the flow (and) live in the moment mentally.”

Burke said she had difficulty seeing the children’s bloated, malnourished stomachs and watching them be physically punished by teachers.

“It’s (heartbreaking) to see the difference between children (in America) who are so happy with material things and then look at …children (in Sierra Leone) who just want a cup of water,” Burke said.

“What stood out to me the most was that even though their living conditions were incredibly low, the people’s spirits were extremely high,” Przybysz said. “Everyone was incredibly welcoming, happy, and thankful.”

Casey hopes that trips to countries like Sierra Leone will be a component of education for every DePaul student in the future.

“I trust that as time and resources allow, this initiative will be pursued and expanded in the future,” Casey said.

“Only through such experience, I think, can DePaul students truly become world citizens and capable people in a global society.”