Monday, February 25, 2013

Year One Versus Year Two

There are so many differences between the challenges during my first year and my second year in Peace Corps.

The first year was trail and error (many, many errors), and the second year I understood better how things worked. My first year was learning how things worked and where things were, while I knew my way around my second year. My first year was working until 8 or 9 o’clock every night making materials and resources for lessons. My second year is working on gathering available resources to organize them for my partners, of which I’m able to finish during the school day. During my first year, I kept saying “yes” to everything, resulting in me being a little overwhelmed with my responsibilities. So by my second year, I had learned how to say “no”, and now I have free time.

Although my second year has been a lot easier in many ways, there are still several things that had difficult to my last year here. The biggest challenge I face this year as opposed to last is that I have more internal battles about my work here. I often question the value of my work. Now when I take on a project, I ask myself several questions before trying to complete it:
  1. Will my partners benefit from this? 
  2. Will anyone actually help me? 
  3. Will this be something that they will actually continue to use once I’m gone? 
  4. Can I finish this before I leave? 
  5. Will anyone care that I did this? 

So the first year was more of a challenge of accomplishment while the second year is a challenge with my apathy. May I maintain the necessary strength to get me through the last 4½ months.

No comments:

Post a Comment