Before I had even arrived at my office on my first morning of work after swearing in back in June, I had already made a mistake. Thanks to my basic language abilities, I missed a change in instructions, and wound up half an hour away from where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there. Oops.

Luckily, it didn’t impact me too much – I already knew the city a little bit, and my sympathetic host father got me where I was going to without too much trouble. Within a few hours, my counterpart had introduced me to at least a hundred people in the clinic and taken me on a big lap around town to spot the post office, the banks, the ATM’s, and other locations that will be of vital importance to me.  I can’t tell you how much I love this city.

The third month (and two weeks) of my time here has been one themed around work, even though the work I did was all to prepare me for real work in September. I interviewed a ton of people, discussed ideas, learned about the history of these organizations, drank a LOT of tea, and wrote close to 30 pages single-spaced worth of analysis about the organizations and the town.

One of the other highlights of the past month was getting to work as a trainer at a Girls Leading Our World and Teaching Our Boys Excellence camp here in Osh. Working with local counterparts, I got to lead lessons on reproductive health, diversity, goal setting, as well as a training on how to teach sensitive topics. This year was something of a prototype, and the other volunteers here and I are already putting together plans for what we’d like to do next year.

My day begins at 6:30, when I wake up, take a shower, and have some tea and bread before I catch a marshrutka into town, about a 20 to 30 minute ride. I’ve been spending four hours a day in each of my offices, which, when you include about 90 minutes for lunch and break, breaks down to a longer day than I used to work back in the US.

That longer day, though, has led me to some amazing projects. I’ve been asked to train the clinic gynecologist in prenatal stretching and yoga to help pregnant women stay active. I’ve been asked to do stigma reduction trainings about HIV and drug use with the doctors at my clinic. I’ve been asked to help diversify funding at some local NGO’s, and at another I help with English and they help me with my Russian. I’m hoping to teach some computer classes at another NGO starting in September, and I’m particularly excited to be involved with the preparation of two Strategic Development Plans for two of these NGO’s, a process which will take up most of this fall.

I don’t think I knew what to expect coming into this, but I definitely thought it would be a challenge to find work, to figure out what projects to do and with whom. But people here are so excited to work with me. So many people have great ideas for how I can help them effect positive change in their community. Even just practicing English with one of these people is helping her be more self-sufficient in analyzing grants that her organization is pursuing.  Even just my presence around my neighborhood has people smiling and speaking positively about the future.

Two weeks ago, one of the NGO’s I was working with had lost the knowledge of how to edit their website. As fate would have it, their website is based on WordPress, the platform I use for this blog (and one of the most powerful and user-friendly platforms. It’s even available in Russian, which is useful here). In about two hours, I was able to train both the director and the IT specialist on how to update the photos page on the website, a critical way that they share news on their events with donors. I also showed him how to find Russian-language WordPress manuals so he could keep teaching himself how to make a website, a skill he can use in many places.

When I saw them again on Friday, they had remembered and practiced how to do it. I was so happy; I had managed to have a sustainable impact on someone. It was the most amazing feeling. Even if it was only a little victory, I take a lot of pride in the fact that I already have achieved my goal for 2015: help one person make a sustainable change. From here on out, everything I accomplish is a bonus.

And there’s a lot more I can see myself being able to help with before the end of 2015. I’m only just getting started.