Right Back

It's nice when I can feel like I really changed people's lives. This definately occured in the Peace Corps when I helped my teaching counterpart travel to the U.S. for 3 months and now it has happened again. Three of the students I've been teaching and mentoring have now been accepted as U-Grad finalists which will allow them to study as undergraduates in the U.S. for one year. This will totally change their lives for the better and they deserve it. The two young women and one young man are simply just outstanding young people. There are not enough positive adjectives to describe them. Their thoughts are big and innovative, their work ethic is determined, and their minds are limitless. They deserve a high quality education that will introduce them to a world of new ideas and possibilities. I especially helped one young woman because I wrote her reference letter, looked at her essays, and prepared her for the interview at the U.S. Embassy. She just found out yesterday that she is going to the U.S. They notified her 3 days after the other finalists- why I don't know. I helped all of these young people with free, three times weekly, TOEFL classes since October. I poured a lot of effort into them and it paid off and they are worth it.
One young man is from a small Uzbek village near here in Tajikistan. His family's business in selling gas in front of their house along the side the road out of a 5 gallon jar with a funnel on top. It doesn't get much more remote or needy than that. I consider this week's news somewhat of a miracle for him and the young women too.