celebrate the small stuff

They say that in the Peace Corps, you learn to celebrate the small victories.  They say that you will affect people in ways that you might not see, maybe not until twenty years from now.  Indeed, our Education Director was taught by a Peace Corps volunteer many years ago in high school, which inspired him to eventually work for Peace Corps Lesotho.  

They also say that you will fail.  Many times.  Unfortunately, I think I’ve already failed quite a bit.  It’s hard not to get upset, because I had this spectacular idea about all the things I would accomplish in Lesotho before I arrived.  I planned on changing the world.  I’ve come to realize, slowly and depressingly, that I won’t do that.   

But I am celebrating the small stuff.  In particular, three great things have happened to me this week.  And it’s only Tuesday.

I guess I’ll start with the first and the biggest.  One of my schools had several boxes of children’s books donated to them several years ago.  The boxes had been sitting in the principal’s office collecting dust, because no one had bothered to take the time to even tear off the packaging tape and peek inside.  When one of the teachers mentioned that the boxes were filled with donated American books, I was shocked to imagine that someone from my home country had taken the time and effort to organize and package these books, and they were sitting around useless in a dirty office corner.  The teachers didn’t even know what kind of books they were. 

I knew that unpacking these six-foot tall boxes would take at least three weeks, but I had to do it.  No one else would.  So two weeks ago, I opened three boxes and organized the books on a dusty locker shelf.  That Friday, I was spending my last day at that particular school and wouldn’t be returning for another week.  One of the teachers unpromisingly mentioned that he would try to help out with arranging the books.  I thanked him, but was severely doubtful that anyone would even glance in the direction of the book corner while I was gone. 

Yesterday, I came back to this same school.  I walked into the office to find dingy, dented locker shelves neatly piled one on top of the other, completely filled with books.  The cardboard boxes were nowhere to be seen.  I couldn’t believe it.  I don’t think I’ve smiled that big for awhile.  The teachers said that they wanted to have it finished by the time I came back to visit their school.  They were so proud to have assisted in something that was so important to me.  Now, I’m organizing the books according to reading level (easy, medium, hard) and color-coding them, which seems to ring more clearly with the Basotho people than a Dewey Decimal system. 

Accomplishment number two: I grew a pea!!!  My first ever pea.  I was just out at the garden this afternoon, pulling weeds and flicking grasshoppers off the beanstalks, when I reached over to pluck away a wilted pea plant.  I have to admit, I’ve been neglecting my peas.  I’ve got some troublesome bugs that keep gnawing away at the stems of the plants, so I had all but given up on any peas for this season.  BUT!  I noticed one decently-sized pea just dangling from the end of the plant.  I hesitated to eat it; I wasn’t sure if it would get any bigger or not.  But I figured, better me than the grasshoppers.  It was so sweet and crunchy.  I didn’t even wash the dirt off.  I just ate it there right next to the garden. 

Accomplishment number three: my cat jumped on the bed.  Did I mention that we celebrate the small stuff in the Peace Corps? ;)  I’ve befriended my host family’s cat, Pumpkin, in hopes that he’ll eat any rats that manage to creep into my hut this winter.  I’ve also heard that just having the scent of a cat around your home will deter rats. 

So every morning before school, I let Pumpkin into the house and give him a little bit of condensed milk from an old tuna can.  After he’s finished eating, he’ll usually hang around and let me pet him, or just follow me around the house while I’m getting ready, trying to rub himself against my shins.  I guess I tried too hard to domesticate him once, because when I picked him up and plopped him on the bed, he freaked out and ran outside.

But today after school, Pumpkin and I were just hanging out… I was reading on my bed, and he was walking around and rubbing his head over anything that would give him a good scratch.  He walked over to my bed, hesitated for a second, and then jumped up.  He even made himself comfortable in the crook of my legs and took a nap!  These are the kinds of things that make me happy these days.