Living here, I realize how American I am.  I have a personal space bubble.  I like to have plans and timelines.  I say what I think.  It takes constant effort on my part to let go of these things and accept that as an American living in Georgia, I just have to, well…relax.

I was reminded of this most recently at a meeting on Tuesday.  The other volunteers in town (Sean, Kelley, Kimberly, Clint and Martyna) and I are working on several events, my favorite being a mini-peer education program for World AIDS Day on December 1st.  The idea behind peer education is that people accept health information more readily from individuals like them – more so than from a doctor, foreigner or, in the case of kids, an adult.  So we formed an initiative group of young people 16+ and are teaching them HIV/AIDS basics, empowering them to conduct their own HIV/AIDS outreach event for their peers on World AIDS Day.  I’m excited.

Our initiative group kids participating in Sean's "Fact or Fiction?" activity on Tuesday evening

I made a big deal out of this initiative group.  I stressed responsibility, commitment, teamwork and leadership.  I made it clear that signing up for the group meant promising to show up on time for all three sessions, actively participate and stay for the entire session.

You can imagine my (totally American) frustration after being told by our counterpart and translator that we really needed to wrap up early because many of the kids wanted to go to a concert.  This, of course, after starting late due to stragglers.  “They should have planned ahead and asked to start the meeting early at our last meeting!” I sputtered.  “This is what I meant when I said they should think about if they could really make the comittment!”

But of course, the kids didn’t know about the concert last week.  (Our host brother learned of it on Sunday.)  People just don’t plan anything – even concerts – ahead of time here.  And arriving six minutes late is actually pretty good for a Georgian kid.

At that moment, I realized that American McKinze was fighting an uphill battle.  Yes, in a perfect world, our initiative group would attend each week (and heck, be the exact same group of kids!), but who am I kidding?  American McKinze needs to relax.  And remember she’s in Georgia, and should be thrilled that 15-ish kids have come two weeks in a row to talk about HIV/AIDS.  The goal shouldn’t – and can’t be – perfection.  Rather, to keep my sanity, it should be most kids, most of the time, doing something.  It’s all about defining success…!