doing

I have been having a great few days. For the past three weeks, I have substituted for a colleague of mine because she had to refresh courses for teaching. Yesterday, I told my students that I would not be teaching them for a little while (teacher wants to give me a break from them), and to my surprise, they were surprised. It was the first time in the two months I have been at the Planet of Happiness and felt wanted.

I hear about what other volunteers are doing at their schools, and I continuously search my brain for a reason of my presence at this school. Why would a school with privileged children, who all have access to private tutors, the best teachers, and international experiences, need me, an American, a Peace Corps Volunteer? On a bad day, I wonder, what possible impact does my presence have on students who vacation in Switzerland and Thailand? What can I offer a student with the world at his or her feet? Some villages have bad textbooks, bad heating, bad chalkboards - on a bad day, my school has everything. Happiness has blessed this school.

And this week the fog began to clear. I feel in my brain a reason brewing that connects my role at school, my job here in Dnepropetrovsk, all the people I have been meeting on Friday nights... it's a small buzz going. I'll report back with more thoughts from my brain-hive soon.