“I am only one, but I am one.”

“Are you going back?” family and friends have asked in the four months I’ve been home from volunteering with Global Sojourns Giving Circle in Southern Africa.

“Of course I’m going back,” is always my response. “I couldn’t not go back.”

Just 72 hours after retiring as chief communications officer for a county in Southwest Washington, I boarded a plane for Cape Town to visit GSGC founder Priscilla Plummer.

Priscilla had told me months before that the results of the Giving Circle’s decade of grassroots work were becoming more and more apparent. More girls wanted to join the clubs. Alumnae were starting their own clubs. Girls were not only graduating high school but going on to higher education. “Someone needs to write these stories,” she said.

I’d worked as a print journalist for 29 years before my eight years in the public sector; writing was one thing I could do. And as someone approaching that magic age, thoughts of retirement were starting to creep into my mind.

For years, I had this quote by author, historian and Unitarian minister Edward Everett Hale taped to my work computer:

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

Why not do what I could for GSGC? I would be available in retirement; I wanted to see what I’ve heard about for so long; and I have the skill Priscilla needs. Before long, I had committed to two trips to Southern Africa for a total of nearly four months.

I enjoyed 12 days soaking in the beauty and richness of South Africa before flying north to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I’d talked on the phone with Smokey “Prince” Dube, GSGC’s on-the-ground program director, before I arrived, so our embrace at the Victoria Falls airport was only natural, and our friendship grew quickly.

I spent hours with GSGC-sponsored club members and their aunties — local women who start the clubs and guide the girls — and mentors — local men who head the first GSGC-sponsored boys club — in and around Victoria Falls and in Livingstone, Zambia, just across the Zambezi River.

I introduced some of the girls from the clubs to journalism and the crucial role it plays around the world. I was thrilled when they brought me their stories to edit and wanted to learn how to improve their writing. I was proud that they tackled tough issues.

I worked with others to expand their English vocabulary in order to pass their O Level exams and go on to the last two years of high school. They were shy at first, and I was touched when some began calling me by name or greeting me with a hug.

I documented the boys painting their new meeting space. Their easy ways and the occasional arm over my shoulder made me feel like their big sister, not a visiting senior.

I listened for hours to the aunties and mentors talk about what moves them to do the hard work of guiding adolescents to think differently in a deeply male-dominated society racked by poverty, disease and political corruption. Their comments were consistent: they want a better life for young people, more opportunities for everyone, and a culture where all are valued.

Each felt they had something to offer, and so, as Hale’s quote suggests, they offer it. They offer it for the betterment of each person and the good of their country.

Of course I will return. I might have taught vocabulary words and how to write a better sentence, but the girls and boys and aunties and mentors and all those who support them teach me so much more.

I will return for lessons in how to face each daily difficulty with grace, patience, humor, hope and a gentleness that is in stark contrast to the problem.

My life has been enormously enriched by my time in Southern Africa. My journalism skills have taken on new meaning. My community — my circle — has expanded, permanently. For that, I am grateful.

In the Giving Circle, what goes around, comes around.

— Holley Gilbert