This phrase
in Peace Corps is usually used with a negative connotation. When no one comes
to a meeting planned months in advance. When you leave with all the intentions
to get a few house visits in and none of the moms are in their homes. When you
want to get back to site at a certain time and there happens to be no cars to
take you... This week, though, I was pleasantly surprised by my Peer Educators.
In our program of “Pasos Adelante” (Steps Forward), we spend the first year
training a group of students in their confidence, self-esteem, and leadership
skills so that they are comfortable enough to go into classrooms and teach
sex-ed to their classmates. At 13, 16, heck probably not even at 18 or 20 years
of age would I have been comfortable teaching about STDs and contraceptive
methods to a classroom full of my peers. But it’s our job to get 10 students to
conquer this universal stage fright and “step forward” to the task.
The
volunteer I replaced never was successful. Numerous volunteers I talked to from
my year who were ahead of me in the process, told me about how difficult it was
to get the kids in the classroom. Our health program team assured us it will be
hard but doable. I was dreading this step so much, doubting my group would ever
be ready, expecting they would need a month of preparation before they stepped
into the classrooms. Nope. In one of our weekly meetings, I announced that they
would be giving replicas this month and now was the time to prepare materials.
They excitedly talked about who would go into which grade, with whom they would
present, and got busy making their materials. Then two groups told me that they
wanted to present the next day, because they had a free period. I assured them
that if they were ready, of course they can present tomorrow but next week is
also a possibility. No, they wanted to do it ASAP. The next day, two groups
killed their sessions on STDs. I’m pretty sure that was the easiest thing I’ve
done so far in Peace Corps! And it felt awesome! I felt so proud almost to the
point of tears watching these teenagers (who right before, did ensure me that they were nervous) stand in front of their
peers. I elatedly received complements from the teachers who told me my work
with the kids definitely shows. I was happy so see the other students listening
attentively and asking questions to my “student leaders” who answered tough
questions with confidence and accuracy.
Many of the
results of our work in Peace Corps are hard or impossible to see. But sometimes
there come special times when we do see clear, significant, and (do I dare say
it:) life-changing results of our hard work. And those “that didn’t go as
expected and I’m so thrilled” moments make you forget all of the “that didn’t
go as expected and I now I want to give up” moments.
