February 24th, 2008
A New Year
A question that I'm sure every Peace Corps Volunteer asks him/herself at some point during their service is "Am I making a difference?" I've talked about this before, but I wanted to revisit the question not in terms of individual success or failure, but in terms of Peace Corps as an organization. A lot of people hear two years and think that's a really long time. And it is a long time, for not being able to see friends and family. But with regard to our actual job here, I have come to see why we don't stay for 6 months, or one year.
The truth is that fitting into a completely foreign culture doesn't come overnight, and it doesn't come easy. It's a long, slow process that takes time, energy, and at times a lot of frustration. But the end result is a very rewarding one. And this is why I have come to appreciate the fact that we are here for an extended length of time. If I left after 6 months, or even one year, I'm not sure I would have really felt like I had accomplished much. "Much" in the sense of my work here at school. Don't get me wrong, being able to converse in a foreign language after 8 weeks of training, making friendships with Tanzanians, and being able to live independently in a very foreign country are all big accomplishments themselves.
Yet those are all smaller steps on the way to the much bigger - and also much harder to attain - goal of truly helping people. And in that respect, I feel like my work is truly beginning this year. Did it take me all of last year to adjust to living in Tanzania and here at school? I don't think so, but then again by the time I did feel like I was really fitting in, there wasn't much of the year left. Second semesters in Tanzanian schools are very busy times, due to the national exams, and often it's pretty hard to get much of anything done past the beginning of September.
Yet now, I'm already well-adjusted, and feel like this year is a year where I can make a bigger impact at my school. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about returning to Tanzania after being back in the US for the holidays - even though I was happy here, it's still hard to leave everyone again for a second time. But once I got back to school, and took some time to think about the past year, I realized that I'm really ready to make a difference (or try at least) in the lives of the students and teachers. That kind of heady optimism can lead to crushing failure, it's true, but I have a year's worth of experience to back me up now, and that experience lends me a great deal of confidence in what I'm doing that I didn't have before.
So is two years worth it? From my perspective, absolutely.
In other news, I recently got a penpal project going, between my students and students from my mother's school. My students were really excited, and I hope it will turn out to be a really nice opportunity for them to get to know Americans who are closer in age to them. At the very least, it will give them good practice in their English skills.
Also, I have a new neighbor who arrived almost 2 weeks ago - she's a PCV who transferred from Kenya. As I'm sure you all know, Kenya experienced (and still is) a lot of post-election violence, which led to first some and then all PCVs in the country being evacuated. A small number decided to transfer to Tanzania, and one of them was placed at a school about 20 minutes from mine. Her school is much needier than mine (she's only one of two science teachers for a school of 400+ students), but I hope she'll enjoy it here as much as I have.
And finally, I wanted to say that it was wonderful seeing all of the people that I was able to while I was home. Of course I would have liked to stay longer, but it was still great getting to be with all of you, especially during the holidays. I wish all of you reading this a belated, but heartfelt, happy and healthy new year!