To project or not to project

When I first got here, after talking to volunteers who were leaving and those who still had a year left, the consensus seemed to be that if you complete one major project during your two years, one project where you have to wait a coupe months for the grant money to come through and when it does is more than you make the entire time you are here, then you can call your service a success.

And I think that’s the expectation of most people back home as well: build a school, build a health center, build a water pump. Leave something behind so people will still know that you were there.

And now, I find myself here: Nine months left of service and no large physical projects to remind my village that once upon a time, someone named Emily lived here.

It’s not that I haven’t tried. Circumstances led to one project being ruled out due to cost and one project being stopped before it could start due to changing policies.

So, the question becomes, if there’s no physical remainder of my existence after I leave, will the nonphysical be enough?