There are plenty of little things that can happen in a community that make a volunteer happy and satisfied that they have done something good in their service. I have had plenty of those moments mainly in the last year and more in the last couple of months. Every time I see a woman from my shampoo group get excited about trying to sell their product to a new client, I'm like a proud mother. When I see the youth in my youth group get excited about a project idea and follow through with leadership, I jump with joy. When I see kids wanting to practice reading, wanting to plant a tree, or wanting to be involved, I am thrilled. Even people showing up on time gets me a little giddy.
Today I participated in something that I wish had happened at the beginning of my service, but was still great to see towards the end of my service. My (newly elected) town council had a meeting that included leaders from all groups/organizations in my community. There were male farmers, youth from my youth group, women from the health advisory group, teachers, representatives from the Catholic church and Evangelical church, just to name a few. It was the first time that I saw the community gather the leaders (representing quite nearly everyone), under their own volition to talk about needs of the community from everyone's perspective. The meeting wasn't perfect and wasn't completely time efficient, but it got lots of things on the table and really animated everyone to get working on projects.
I wasn't involved in the planning or execution in any way, I just went to put in my two cents and see what evolved. However, I had some proud moments in realizing that I had worked with a lot of the people in the room and that I had in fact created several of the groups represented in the meeting. Plus, I like to think that my own assertiveness has rubbed off a little bit on a few of the parties and allowed them to speak up indicating true needs of their group and the community. And it was just so nice to see people working together to prioritize projects and take the development of their community into their own hands. Good moment.
On another note, I am working diligently on a coloring book that I started a few months ago. I have all of the drawings done, scanned in, and touched up digitally. Now I am about halfway through adding text and details. Soon I will be sending out the book to get corrections from peers and some native Spanish speakers to make sure everything makes sense and it correct. Then I'll be working with a publisher to get them printed. So exciting! (Below are a few samples.)
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