Chris, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer who just finished his two years of service in Cambodia, offered up an encouraging moment to the volunteers still in service:

I was on my way to the Province that shall not be named. Along the way I met a Khmer boy on his way to this place. He took up the opportunity to speak English with a foreigner and came and sat by me on the bus. I asked him where he was going and he said that he was going to volunteer in the province with some Japanese volunteers on his short time off from University. He then started to tell me about a certain English teacher that he had in high school that had inspired him to study at University and to volunteer. He told me about how great and inspiring he was and how he helped find scholarships and that he had been inspired to study Japanese.. strange advice from an English teacher, but it seems to have paid off. Anyway.. he went on and finally said that he was a Peace Corps volunteer and asked me if I knew what Peace Corps was.. I was blown away. I had no Peace Corps shirts or hats on and I was certainly not expecting to hear about Peace Corps while going to a forbidden province. I asked him who it was and how long he studied with the teacher and he said Teacher Brian and for 6 months. I couldn’t believe how big an impact a volunteer had after only 6 months of a class that was held only a couple days a week.

Sometimes in your two or three years here, you will or have asked yourself what kind of a difference you made in this country (I know I have sooo many times). It is definitely sometimes difficult to see, but every lesson, every semester, every outreach, every conversation has the potential to inspire people.. even if it’s just one person. Maybe it’s students, villagers, friends, co-workers, tutors or teachers. You may not even realize it and maybe you will never get the chance to see it personally, but you are making an impact in Cambodia.

Good Luck, K7s and K6es! Keep going out there and inspiring people.