This is one of my favorite expressions here in Rwanda, and it was never truer than in the case of the startup of our new Voluntary Savings and Lending Group program.
On Monday I will have been in Rwanda for four months, and today I attended the initial share purchase meetings of two of our very first groups in Gihembe Camp.
The group that you see here consists of 16 people, a mix of men and women, and the Management Committee is also gender balanced, with women in the positions of President, Treasurer and Money Counter. They will meet twice per month, saving between two and ten dollars each per meeting. I think that they will be pleased and surprised at how quickly their savings accumulate.
Sometimes the work here takes a lot longer than you think that it should, and that is when it is good to let go of the concept of time.
Yes, we need to work according to our plans, in order to accomplish what we have set out to do in the big picture. But by giving ourselves the freedom to work according to the needs and capacities of our groups—instead of an arbitrary schedule—we can feel liberated, motivated and much less stressed out.
And we are able to appreciate what we have accomplished rather than feel frustrated by what we have not yet been able to do.
It can take time, but it is worth every minute.
