Saying Bye

Braai with the teachers!

On Friday I said good-bye to my students and a few of the teachers.  The teachers I said good-bye to on Friday was not that difficult as I did not spend a lot of time with them. We did have a little braai at the school with all the teachers for a good-bye for Jonas and I.  He leaves tomorrow (the 29th).

Lihle and I

With my students I had been telling them for about a month giving them warning that I was leaving. Though I know they did not really understand what I was really meaning by that. Friday I was mentioning again to them that I was actually leaving and I had my one student Lihle look and me and start crying asking me “Miss, who will teach me?” This was difficult for me because I honestly told them that I did not know. I know Alision (the new SALTer) is coming but that would not be for a while and she wanted to know like for next week. I asked Lihle not to cry because if she cried I would and sure enough she did. The rest of the students were then confused about what was happening because we were both crying. I then herd one of the other boys start talking and telling the other students to cry as well. So sure enough 3 of my other students started crying…not knowing why they were crying! Ha it was actually funny but sad at the same time. Especially because the kids were laughing while having these tears down their faces. I realized then who were the fake criers! Ha!

Nokubonga and Me

I spent that day just trying to take in moments with them. I am sure they might have been board most of the day as some of those moments they were just sitting at the table talking and I sat there too just talking with them.

My weekend was spent with a whole variety of people. I had two of my students come and spend time with me. Lihle and Lincoln both live on the farm so they came to see me. The rest of my time was either with myself packing in my room or with teachers. 

Siya, Nokubonga and I

Friday evening was spent with Lihle which was a surprise. She showed up with her mom in the evening and while her mom went to the church service Lihle hangout with me. Her and I watched some of Cinderella and the Lion King. She could not decide which movie she wanted. After supper I watch a movie with Philile, Skhumbuzo, Siyabonga and Admire. Later in the evening I was able to have a phone call with Tyla. This was so nice as I had just needed my best friend to talk to and she just happened to be close to her phone and not working when I texted her to talk.

Me and the guys (and a random old
man!)

Saturday was also a good day, but different then what I was expecting too. I had to say bye to Skhumbuzo in the morning because he had to go into PMB for the rest of the weekend. The rest of the morning there was really nothing going on. I spent it in my room packing as I was not sure where people were and what they were doing. Then after lunch Lihle came back for a second visit. This was good but saying bye to her was really sad. She first told me I am not going home. Her mom came and got her and at first she was playfully saying she was not leaving then all of a sudden she just started to cry knowing I was actually leaving. Her mom then picked her up and she cried as they walked away and she kept turing and looking to see if I was still there. Saturday evening I watched a movie with Esnath, Philile and Nokubonga.

Saying good-bye (for now)

Sunday ended up being pretty perfect! I went to the Zulu service and of course they made me say good-bye, which was okay because there are only like 20ish people. After lunch we took some pictures with some of the guys. Sunday lunches at the beginning of my term were mostly with Nigel and Trish, we had not had many lunches with them for a while but on the last two weekends we did. It was a nice lunch and a good way to end the term. The best part of my Sunday though was after lunch all of us from the farm all sat up by the shop out in the sun (trying to warm up a bit) and just hanging out. I just kept thinking I am so very blessed! Those people that were there were Esnath, Philile, Nokubonga, Admire, Siyabonga (the tall one), Siyabonga (the short one), Jonas, Lincoln (my student) and his mom. We were just missing Skhumbuzo who had left earlier. I am not sure if any of you read this, but I am so very blessed by each one of you and I hope you know how terribly blessed I am by each one of you!!!

Picking out lunch from one of the gardens!

Once James and Joan showed up I ran to my room to get my things with Lincoln, who once we got to my room asked me “Miss, are you going on an airplane?” I told him I was. He then proceeded to tell me “Me too Miss!” I just kind of smiled. Thinking he did not actually understand. But when I went to go and put my backpack in the car before I gave everyone a hug good-bye, he was ready to get in the car too. It did not take him long to realize what was happening after that. He too got very up-set.

Birthday supper for James and one of our partners

Saying good-bye to everyone was hard, but because I know I am coming back it was not as difficult as I was thinking it would be. I cried more leading up to this week of saying bye.

I also had to say good-bye to Lily kids and volunteers. Which again was good but because it had almost been a month since I had been there I had been okay with saying bye knowing I was going to be back soon.

After saying bye we were in PMB for a day and a bit then we headed to Swaziland for a bit. There we met the partners MCC works with and also had some relaxing time. Where we stayed was in a game park so we often woke up with some kind of buck, warthogs or zebras outside our doors! We have now just arrived in Johannesburg where we will spend the rest of our time in South Africa. Tomorrow James and Joan head off to Canada and we will say good-bye to them. We are spending this week with Pros touring around Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Until next time… Make sure to behave otherwise your supervisors might feed you to the crocs! :)

My Last Week

My current class (We took like 20 pictures and this
was the best one)

There are days I thought this time would never come, but today I am shocked at how quickly this year went! Tomorrow (by the time I post this it will be today) is my last day at school teaching my little kids. I know they are not my kids but they are. I asked one of the girls today if I could take her home to Canada with me and she gladly said “Yes!”  I then had about 3 or 4 others who over heard me asking said, “Can I come too?” “Miss, I want to see Canada!”

My class from last year! Watching them grow has been
wonderful!

As I sit here reflecting on what tomorrow will bring it makes me quite sad. Not only am I leaving my students, but at the moment the school still has not organized a new teacher for them to take over… It’s even harder for me to leaving knowing they don’t have someone who will make sure these guys succeed.  I know the new SALTer, Alison, will come and do a great job. But she does not come until September and I am worried my kids will be left in limbo for too long. My fellow teachers who I am close with have promised me they will try to take care of them, but I know they all have their own classes to take care of and love too.

But I am keeping strong because I know I will be back in a short amount of time to see how much they have grown and learned! Which I am so excited to see.

I still have 3 more sleeps (will be 2 by the time this is posted) at the farm.  I am going to be spending these days with the people I have grown to cherish over these last 10 months.  Their friendships have meant a lot to me and I am going to miss hearing them laugh and joke about silly things, watching soapies together, visiting over a cup of coffee or tea, sitting in the sun on a Sunday afternoon to warm up or going on walks through the sugar cane.

From our picnic

This week started outwit two days of holidays. There was no school on Monday or Tuesday because Tuesday was Youth Day here in South Africa.  So I spend my time here on the farm with the Philile, Skhumbuzo, Esnath and Siyabona.  These will be times that I remember and will hold dear to my heart. 

They all got balloons to take home

Today with the grade Rs and grade ones, Ms. Zondi and I had a picnic.  The kids had lots of fun.  Just playing and being outside.  They played a few games but mostly just ran around and jumped on the trampoline.  This was really great.  We fed them hot dogs, chips, soda, and ice cream! I had bought fruit but totally forgot to had it out so tomorrow they will get something healthy! :) We also blew up a balloon for each of them and they seemed to love that. I was thinking we would play a game where they stomped on each other balloons, but then thought about all the crying that might happen if we did that. So instead they just took them home. 

I am going to miss them!

Once I have started what will seem like a long journey home I will post another blog, as I reflect on my year and the time that is to come.  I also plan on continuing on writing on my blog while in Canada and then into my two years back here in South Africa. So hold on to this address because just because I am coming home does not mean that my adventures end there!

Until next time…imagine feeling happy, sad, confused, frustrated, excited, anxious, disappointed, grateful, and I am sure there are other various feelings in there and you will get about how I am feeling this past week.

My time in Kenya

All of us at the conference (minus Michelle)

My time in Kenya was great!  I was going expecting to go to a conference where we sat a listened to one person talk for the whole week about education.  And yes, education was the topic the whole week but it was more of a conversation. Have you ever heard of Edcamp?  It is a conference formate that gets people  involved and sharing ideas.  Where participants get to choose the topics of the conversation.

Our trip to the school in Nairobi was great!

Before the conference even started we were given a list of possible topics and then we were to e-mail the person in charge to add any other topics we were interested in hearing more about or we wanted to share about.  Once the conference started we were given the list of different topics everyone wanted to talk about. From there we were told to vote for 5 of the topics. From there the topics with the most votes were the ones we started off with. There would be someone facilitating the conversation and then some one writing notes. Over the period of the week we would re-look over the topics and revote to see if what people wanted to talk about was still relevant. If you want to hear more about Edcamp feel free to Google it or to check out the Edcamp website.

Me taking pictures of the 3 and 4 year olds

The conference it’s self was really good and informative!  It was also good to be with fellow MCCers and to be able to have formal and informal conversations. I had also met some of the participants at Christmas time when the Southern Africa MCCers got together for a retreat. This was really great to catch up with them and to also meet new friends.

They were so beautiful!

The place we were staying was right across the street from a mall so in the evenings we would often go across and either walk around the mall or just go and drink coffee. There were 3 different coffee shops in this mall.  I tried 2 of the 3 and they were good! My favourite was The Nairobi Java House.  There was also a movie theatre in the mall!  So Michelle Potts and I went over on the Monday night to watch Pitch Perfect 2!  It was good, and funny, but I still think I like the first one better. Then on the last day there was a few of us who went to go and see Spy with Melissa MaCarthy. This was a good one too…though the language was a little sour.

Joan and I stayed an extra day in Nairobi to be tourist! We ended up going to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. This was such an amazing experience. I would defiantly tell others to go if they are ever near Nairobi. Not only is it an incredible experience but they also do such good work!  After the orphanage we went to a Safari Walk. Which was good, though it was not quite what I was expecting. It was almost like a glorified zoo, the good thing about it was that all the animals that were in the enclosures were all animals that had come from an animal orphanage and were not able to set back into the wild. We also had ourself a guide, this was good as we probably would not have seen half the animals if he was not there pointing them out. The one that shocked me the most was the spotted hyena and how big it was! My favourite one was the leopard. What a beautiful animal! We finished off our excursion with a nice lunch at at restaurant and shop where I might have bought some things for myself! :)

Joan took this picture of me in the lounge

Our trip ended nicely with us in the Johannesburg airport in a nice lounge. You know those ones that you always walk by in airports and wonder what they look like on the inside! It was nice to feel like a millionaire and be able to eat or drink what ever I wanted for free! :) Thanks for share this experience with me Joan!

Until next time...