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Ashley Hayes ReportingThey built walls, set up computer labs, taught classes, and provided medical care for the deaf.
Two dozen Utah high school and college students did all that in a 19 day trip to Africa. Now they are home safe and sound.
This has been nearly a year long journey for these kids, from applying to the program, to completing 100 hours of community service throughout the city, and finally traveling to Kenya.
We first met up with the Jessen family loading medical equipment bound for Africa. The Sandy, Utah family spent their vacation with 24 other teens and eight adult volunteers on a nearly three week humanitarian effort in Nairobi, Kenya.
Sylvia Jessen/ Before Humanitarian trip to Kenya/ July 11: "We gave up a trip to Germany for the World Cup for this."
We last saw them checking in at the airport. Today they are home in Utah, forever changed by what they've witnessed.
Sylvia Jessen, YouthLINC participant: "They're called street children. They would have a bottle of glue that they would stick behind their teeth. They would sniff that all day so they wouldn't feel hunger."
They captured hours of home video-- dirty streets, unsanitary cooking conditions, and moments shared with handicapped children.
They provided dozens of deaf orphans solar powered hearing aids.
Mark Jessen, YounthLINC participant: "I was there when she had her hearing aid, and put it on, and she heard noise for the first time. She kind of shirked away from it because she didn't know what it was. It moved me quite a bit."
Members from the trip sit together in the family room reliving those moments on their TV. They thumb through photographs and can't help but share what they've learned.
Justin Anderson, Returned from Kenya: "Our culture is I don't have. I don't have a 70-thousand dollar car. I don't have a half a million dollar home. We focus a lot on what we don't have, what we can't get. The Kenyan people are so grateful for what they do have."
Lisa Hunter, Audiologist, University of Utah: "People there are able to handle horrible raging infections in an environment with unsanitary conditions. Only the strong survive in a situation like that."
As destitute as those situations seem, there's not a person in the room who doesn't want to go back.
Mark Jessen: "I mostly miss it. I wish I was still there."
So next year Sylvia Jessen and Lisa Hunter will once again pack boxes and return to Africa.
If you're interested in joining youthLINC for their next trip, the organization is taking applications until the end of the month.
