25 August 2007
24 August 2007
Well, that’s it. Two years have slipped away (and sometimes dragged by!) and our work in these four, small, rural primary schools has come to a close. All in all the week was quite anti-climactic. We’ve said our farewells to the teachers, and sadly didn’t get to say them to most of the kids. But I have found that saying goodbye rarely happens the way I imagine and you just have to take what you get. I felt sad, riding away from those villages for the last time, and am happy to know that in general, my memories of these years will be good ones. The schools have gathered their resources to get us a going away present. One day our Ma came home and asked if it would be ok if the school bought us a refrigerator! No? What about a computer, or a cow?! We thankfully were able to let her know that we wouldn’t be able to take those kind of things home on the plane (much less carry them around Africa for 5 months!), and made the suggestion of a gift of traditional clothes instead. So today we will be measured for our traditional outfits which will be made by a lady in the village. Photos to follow…
These last three or four weeks have been spent mainly on getting the libraries organized in the schools, and holding workshops to teach the teachers how to use books in their lessons and how to manage their new libraries. I want to say one more big “THANK YOU” to those of you who sent books to support this project. We really couldn’t have made it happen without you. I was very excited to get them all into the schools and they were met with excitement from the teachers and students when they arrived. I am confident that these books will be utilized and something learned from them.
It’s hard to look back and judge the work that we have done here. Definitely we have been disappointed with the lack of ambition and drive that some of the teachers have shown and we feel that we haven’t been used to the capacity that we potentially could have been. But I do think we have made some kind of impact here, though it is hard to put into concrete words. This last week and a half will be bittersweet. We are ready to go, but it’s going to be sad to leave this wonderful family behind. I feel a bit guilty about coming here, changing their lives, and then leaving again. Adam and I will go on to something new and exciting, but they will just carry on in their normal village lives, just without us! We don’t know how to say thank you to them, and I don’t think there is an appropriate way, but we will try! We also have the big task ahead of sorting through all the stuff we have accumulated and finding proper ways to dispose of it. Most things we will be giving away, which will be fun. We will take only a backpack each, and then be on our way!
We probably won’t write again until we hit Pretoria, where we will be subjected to all kinds of strange medical tests, and closing interviews. So keep us in your thoughts on the 5th as we leave behind two years of our life and a family that we have grown to be a part of, and as we set off to write the next chapter. Thanks for reading these simple accounts of our time here – we hope you have enjoyed it and learned something from it! Thanks also for the support all of you have given us. We are looking forward to seeing you again in a couple of months. Stay tuned for updates as we travel around the globe…
Go Siame,
Lerato
p.s. this next entry is one that I wrote a while ago, but didn’t ever post. Enjoy!!
Well, that’s it. Two years have slipped away (and sometimes dragged by!) and our work in these four, small, rural primary schools has come to a close. All in all the week was quite anti-climactic. We’ve said our farewells to the teachers, and sadly didn’t get to say them to most of the kids. But I have found that saying goodbye rarely happens the way I imagine and you just have to take what you get. I felt sad, riding away from those villages for the last time, and am happy to know that in general, my memories of these years will be good ones. The schools have gathered their resources to get us a going away present. One day our Ma came home and asked if it would be ok if the school bought us a refrigerator! No? What about a computer, or a cow?! We thankfully were able to let her know that we wouldn’t be able to take those kind of things home on the plane (much less carry them around Africa for 5 months!), and made the suggestion of a gift of traditional clothes instead. So today we will be measured for our traditional outfits which will be made by a lady in the village. Photos to follow…
These last three or four weeks have been spent mainly on getting the libraries organized in the schools, and holding workshops to teach the teachers how to use books in their lessons and how to manage their new libraries. I want to say one more big “THANK YOU” to those of you who sent books to support this project. We really couldn’t have made it happen without you. I was very excited to get them all into the schools and they were met with excitement from the teachers and students when they arrived. I am confident that these books will be utilized and something learned from them.
It’s hard to look back and judge the work that we have done here. Definitely we have been disappointed with the lack of ambition and drive that some of the teachers have shown and we feel that we haven’t been used to the capacity that we potentially could have been. But I do think we have made some kind of impact here, though it is hard to put into concrete words. This last week and a half will be bittersweet. We are ready to go, but it’s going to be sad to leave this wonderful family behind. I feel a bit guilty about coming here, changing their lives, and then leaving again. Adam and I will go on to something new and exciting, but they will just carry on in their normal village lives, just without us! We don’t know how to say thank you to them, and I don’t think there is an appropriate way, but we will try! We also have the big task ahead of sorting through all the stuff we have accumulated and finding proper ways to dispose of it. Most things we will be giving away, which will be fun. We will take only a backpack each, and then be on our way!
We probably won’t write again until we hit Pretoria, where we will be subjected to all kinds of strange medical tests, and closing interviews. So keep us in your thoughts on the 5th as we leave behind two years of our life and a family that we have grown to be a part of, and as we set off to write the next chapter. Thanks for reading these simple accounts of our time here – we hope you have enjoyed it and learned something from it! Thanks also for the support all of you have given us. We are looking forward to seeing you again in a couple of months. Stay tuned for updates as we travel around the globe…
Go Siame,
Lerato
p.s. this next entry is one that I wrote a while ago, but didn’t ever post. Enjoy!!
posted by aliberatinsa at 1:57 AM
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