A bit of reflection

I was talking with my friend the other day and he asked, saying he knew this sounded about as cliche peace corpsy as you can, but if I have been reflecting on the almost two years I have spent here at all lately? As the end of service gets closer I have been reflecting on things more and asking myself things like, what have I accomplished here? what have I learned? how can I take this experience back with me to America and keep the memory with me forever... Now I didn't say I had the answers to any of these questions, but I have been asking myself them!! I think if somebody told me to tell them one thing about my Peace Corps service it would be this: it's humbling. Not speaking the native language is an incredibly humbling experience. Even two years in, and about to finish, I am nowhere near fluent. It is a crazy level of humbling to go into a classroom of 40 students and teaching for 40 minutes while not being fluent in their language! You are really at the mercy of the students. It is humbling to not have anywhere near the level of control that I did in America, including everything at work and at home. Simple things like my firewood to heat my ger. I depend on several other people to get the wood, then saw it up so I can chop it... it is never something I can just go and take care of myself. So relying so much on other people has been a big difference here. Then even funny things here that I have no control of... I need to shower but have no water... sadly I have put that shower off a day or two far too many times! So what have I done while in Mongolia? You would think in two years I would have like built a new school with smart boards included or something wouldn't you... I wish. I think the impact I have made has been on a smaller scale, but still significant. Batzorig told me that before I came he thought he wouldn't like me, that I would be older and always crabby. He then told me, but your not, you're ok and seldom crabby! haha In my time here I haven't dramatically changed my English teacher's teaching methodology; I haven't put on seminars to educate about important concerns like alcoholism, domestic abuse, eating more vegetables ~things I would have liked to have done. But I think I have gotten a lot of students excited about English, and have gotten them comfortable actually speaking English. And I do think I have developed very close relationships with a smaller group of counterparts and students. My one student gave me a letter the other day that said this... "Hi Allie teacher! You is very clever and good teacher. Thanks for always help me. Mostly people can't live far of their family. But you can. You is brave woman. I spend too much time with you and olympics students. You is my best teacher and my best friend. you have to never forget it. You'll go to America and I graduate my secondary school soon. I'll miss you. I never forget you." She goes on a few paragraphs more and ends by saying, "Maybe I wrote fault (incorrect) sorry." I laughed at that part because she did have a bunch of mistakes that I know she knows that grammar, I'm tempted to read through the letter with her so she can fix those mistakes, but I won't!! Anyways, the point of me writing about this letter is not to brag, but is part of me reflecting on what I really did here. So what have I done here? well I made a positive impact on this student, and hopefully a bunch of others. That is really what I wanted to do in Mongolia. And that is what I want to continue to do when I get back.