This may not be my primary project but I'm so proud to have brought this resource to a community that did not have a lot of education about HIV prevention. I have been asked by different Local Leaders throughout my time here to educate them about HIV prevention and treatment and have been told by my Health Center that they get asked about this a lot too. I am so happy to have brought Prepex to a more accessible location for my fellow citizens of Muyongwe. 
One of the big things I learned from this is that 2 years is not a lot of time. Going into a work environment like this where I pretty much had free reign over what my projects could look like (I'm hoping it'll be projectS) I thought I was going to be able to do so many things, make tangible change etc. You quickly learn that yes you'll do a lot of things but they most likely won't be tangible. However they will be even more meaningful. Everyday when I get up and go to work I try to be there 110% and yes some days are much harder than others. Sometimes this results in me working in the pharmacy all morning, packing pills into little baggies, sometimes it involves me working in the pharmacy, weighing babies, writing reports, running in between them all and then doing community visits in the afternoon, or sometimes it's more of a hybrid. Overall I'm either put to work or I put myself to work because that's truly what makes me happy. However, there are plenty of days where I look at what I'm doing and wonder if it's worth it, or if what I am doing is enough. The majority of the time, whether you're a PCV like me or even at any job, you aren't celebrating big accomplishments everyday, I wish it worked that way too, but what I've realized lately is it's those days where everything seems to go wrong, or the days you work 16 hrs instead of 9, or the days it hasn't stopped raining for 24 hours straight and you haven't had electricity during that same time that you take steps towards those achievements and impacting the lives of those around you. Maybe you've heard this time and time again but it's something to remember and something I've really been trying to focus on lately. 
Like I said 2 years is not a lot of time but what is a long time is the time after you leave whether it's a job, college, an organization. If you work as hard as you can and put everything you have into something the effects after you leave or after many years will most likely surprise you. Just the other day I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw a post from a girl I went to college with. She was posting pictures of the Residence Hall Association (RHA) conference they had just attended and that they won 2 awards! For three years of my college career I spent an ungodly number of hours working on RHA related things. It was a roller coaster of highs and lows and when I left I wondered if all the work I put in (literally blood sweat and tears
) was worth it. We may have never won an award while I was there but looking back at where the organization was when I joined and where it is now 2 1/2 years after leaving I know that my work wasn't for nothing.
) was worth it. We may have never won an award while I was there but looking back at where the organization was when I joined and where it is now 2 1/2 years after leaving I know that my work wasn't for nothing.
All in all whether you're a PCV like me, a lost college student or even someone who has there life together and a career try to remember that everyday you should show up 100%, work hard, and work with passion because on the days you get to say "Look at what I/We accomplished!" you'll be so happy you never stopped believin.
<3 Erika <3
No comments:
Post a Comment