Seeing Change...even a small change...is a gift

   Much of the time I do not feel like I'm doing anything of importance or making much of an impact here. I love my village and my life here now, but at the same time it can be difficult not seeing anything change. It is easy to get wrapped up in the sadness and pain of what I hear and see and forget that even though my role here is small, I am making some sort of impact. Today I experienced one of those rare moments during which I could literally see change happening.
   I was walking to one of the primary schools in my village this afternoon to prepare for the first Standard 7 PACT club meeting of the new school year and check in with a couple of teachers first. Classes were still going on when I saw one of my PACT students talking with another student who I only knew from coming to play soccer after school once.I overheard this other student trying to convince my PACT student to dodge afternoon classes. I simply said "Hello, how are you?" and waved as I walked by. A few seconds later the PACT student said to me "PACT club today?" , and I told her yes. Then I heard her tell the other student who was continuing to try to get her to dodge classes with her something along the lines of "Nyaa PACT club kgantele!" (No, PACT club is later!).  I intentionally walked slowly to give the PACT student a chance to catch up and walk with me if she wanted without embarrassing her in front of her friend. I then heard footsteps behind me and when I turned around the PACT student was there and so was her friend, and both of them walked to the school with me. Not only did they both attend the PACT meeting  after school, but they also both payed attention and were involved in the discussion and answering questions. I know it seems so small, but to me seeing a student speak up to another student and convince her to make a positive decision is a huge deal. I was so proud of her. It also is kind of cool that PACT club helped to motivate them to go back to school because truancy and students completely dropping out of school are both huge problems in my  village.
   This is one of those moments I'm going to try to remember whenever I feel discouraged here, and I'm grateful for it.