Well, its a partly a homage to those who have gone before me - to inspire the next, as those fore-runners have inspired me. To add color to the American view of a black-and-white world. Change will never come from Washington, so it has to come from grass roots, from the classrooms. And maybe from adults who can influence our children, our next generation of leaders.
The world cannot be a better place for all its inhabitants as long as the world's greatest power remains ignorant of realities - the reality that all humans have pride, that all humans have a right to live in peace and prosper, that we are part of the same race, share the same planet, share common dreams and aspirations. That we need to learn from each other, that teaching is not a one-way thing. That when an American gets killed, he/she is not the only one with children and a family - those that are killed by Americans also have children, a family, and are equally loved.
Flip the coin, and show the world that the average American too desires peace and equality, that American foreign policy really is divorced from what the average American would want, given all the facts.
But most of all, because a moment spent in another country, interacting with another people is priceless - it cannot be bought or sold, cannot be taken away, and whether the experience is good bad or mixed, it changes you for the better.
As Alistair Humphreys writes in his Moods of Future Joys, "An accident of birth has made it all so easy for me, so hard for them".