The other side of the river

Last month I hit a wall with my projects... The river trash problem is what it is... How can one fix a problem on a local scale that comes from a problem on a national scale.  My water project fell apart due to a company coming in to buy up all the land... People stopped coming to meetings... it was hard.  I struggled with the idea that I'm wasting my time here, that I am not the type of person that can create meaningful change in other people's lives.  Luckily it was rainy season so I had a good excuse for hanging in my house and giving myself the space needed to get over the poor Kristie mood.  I decided to take a break from the town across the river, and focus on other things that seemed more successful (Books and Trading Books like cards with neighborhood kids).
Wednesday I saw the president of the Junta de Vecinoes of the other side of the river, and he was happy to see me.  He asked the typical questions when one's been absent.. Have you been gone?  Did you go home?  We thought that you went back to your country! and he asked me to come back to the meeting Thursday.  So I did.  Everyone was happy to see me :)  Menga, one of the christian grandmothers, told me how happy she was with my work and how the Teacher had really started to teach this year.  We did a campaign to get him to act more like a teacher over the summer... She said he loved the mural we did at the school and was using it to teach the kiddos.  I got her kid to read me a book (which is amazing considering last summer I was trying to get her kid to identify letters).  I don't know what kind of impact I've truly had but I was proud yesterday.  I'll go back again next week.