Making a Difference

As a part of our school's CAS hours (Community, Action, Service) each 11th grader is required to put in so many hours working on a project of their choice. I've had several students work with me on various projects so that they could see what's all involved in the planning and execution of a school event instead of just participating in it.
Today, Anna and friends (including me) helped make Kuwait a better place. At least for a couple hours.
It's no secret that Kuwait's standards of cleanliness in their parks and streets are, ah, not exactly the same as North America. To be blunt, there's trash everywhere. One sort of gets used to it, which isn't an easy thing for me to stay. I appreciate that people have different standards of living but I will never understand why people can't throw garbage in the garbage cans when provided.
So for her project, Anna decided to clean up a park that she spends a lot of time in with her friends. She even encouraged four friends to help her. Two of the friends actually helped, the other two weren't quite able to manage the act of picking up garbage and placing it in trashbags. They believed their skills were put to better use getting coffee and water for the rest of us...for two hours! Oh well, everyone has a different way of looking at life, I guess.
Actually, I only lasted two hours myself...the "excuse" I had was that I have grades to do (which I STILL DO and shouldn't be writing on this blog instead!)
When they were finished, I know they were proud. There was a considerable difference in the park.
I am very proud of my daughter. Proud that she had the idea to make a difference. Proud that living in this lifestyle/attitude of "Why should I bother with cleaning it up when there are people who do that for a living" hasn't fully affected her. And I'm proud that she was able to work at it for four hours when her mother whimped out after two.