"What has been your biggest accomplishment in Malawi?" my fellow volunteer friend posed a question yesterday.
It got me to think...
I thought of all the little projects including income generation activities and building of preschools and many more things that I started; but I don't feel like calling any of them as my biggest accomplishment.
As I was practising my daily ritual of listening to BBC news on radio through my cellphone last night, I realized that I do have something I can proudly call as my biggest accomplishment.
The numbers of death from HIV, malaria, malnutrition and so forth, now means something personal. It does something to my heart, just like when you hear a news about your hometown in another country.
When hearing news about hunger and malnourished children, spread of HIV, illiterate villagers, and fear of malaria, I know exactly what they're talking about. I can vividly visualize my preschools and children there. I can remember the faces of my friends from positive living club (those who are HIV positive) and their life stories of how they got HIV. I can feel the pain and fear of getting malaria or loosing someone important from malaria. I can remember the smell of villages and the color of beautiful sunsets in Malawi...
Though it may sound strange and I can't express myself well enough, I somehow feel proud of that.
May be this whole development work or volunteer experience is all about this, being able to relate the sufferings and events that happen in other side of the world. Or is that too selfish of an idea??
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