And then it happened.

I have been living Chi Phat for the last year, but nothing has prepared me for living IN Chi Phat.

It has been a full week since the third delegation of volunteers came to the village we now call home. As the head of this delegation I chose to come here a bit earlier, in order to try and learn this village, so it has been just about 3 weeks for me. And what 3 weeks it has been…

Maybe I should start with the bottom line: I find it amazing that a place so different from my own home can feel like a new home so darn fast! Me, a city boy from uptown Tel Aviv, with all the luxuries the western life a push of a button away, to come to a place where 80% of the time pressing any random button results in a sigh of disappointment since nothing comes out – and yet feels like not much has changed. True, I was in situations like this before, volunteering in East Africa for a year, but still – it is not only the physical things. Something about this particular place feels like home.

When we just got here, we hit a strike of good fortunes and happy moments. There was the grand party for the

final stage of the community center, and the great party that followed. The farewell from the second delegation was done in as much splendor as possible in this village, and this told me that we are not mistaken in thinking that the community finally starts to understand what we are doing here and why it is important to them.

But that was not the only happy moment. There was the moment where one of our students came to us and asked that we play a movie he brought on movie night, saying that he thinks movie night is important. And there was the moment an 8^th grader came to us with an envelope on which he wrote “for Now Spa Per”. It took us a minute to read the words fast and unscramble the letters into “for newspaper”. But can you imagine the joy we felt to see that after only 2 editions that we put out ourselves of the village monthly journal, someone thinks it’s so important that he will take the time to write an article on his own? And how about the fact that after the playground we built in the primary school several months ago, that was broken by the kids for a while, we found out it was fixed by somebody who decided to take responsibility?

True, it is very far for home. No running water, no electricity, and no cheese to be found, but still – what wonder is it that we feel at home, after the best welcome one can imagine: to be told – and in actions, not words! – that our work is understood and appreciated?

What a great to start!