Plucky

(Note: today is election day in America. No, I'm not addressing it.)

Sarah decided to go live in Uganda for four months. She was 20 years old and determined to change the world in a good way.

But, "All my plucky self-assurance quickly deflated when I saw that poverty was far more complex than I had imagined from the air-conditioned safety of my American home." She came home burdened and discouraged because her work didn't change the community in Uganda.

On her next trip to Africa, she tried a different approach. Instead of assuming that she had all the answers, she spent a lot of time listening to the Congolese and discovered people who were changing their communities from the inside with their good ideas.

Looking back on her Uganda effort, she went with good intentions "But in putting myself in the role of hero, I missed out on the dignity and worth of the very people I was trying to serve."

(from http://www.povertycure.org/missed-trying-play-poverty-hero-sarah-ann-schultz/)