Palmera Projects
Final Day at school
Posted on Saturday, Jan 2 2010
Friday 01st January 2010-01-02
A brand new day, a brand new year. We welcomed 2010 with a lazy morning in, the girls and I felt it was time to treat ourselves to a day of pampering and spent the morning in a massage and spa parlour. I met up with the boys and little Phy afterwards. When I saw him he had the most amazing grin on his face, Ive never seen him this happy before. You see, Phy is studying in my more advanced english class, and as he has missed out two weeks of school, he has been having a difficult time catching up and on top of that, his day to day life is not easy, with school, work and often a lack of shelter.
Turns out that after last nights discussion, the team and I had all chipped in to get him a bicycle so that at the very least he wouldnt have to walk 1.5 hours to and from school. He was so ecstatic! Already a wonderful start to 2010 for me.
At school today, it was fun-day Friday. Thomas and I played various word games with the kids in my class and Thomas was thorougly challenged as he struggled to find a word to hang them on in hang-man. In all the classes the children gave us various gifts, letters, trinkets and well wishes. I became very emotional after realising that this is the last time in a while before I will see them again. At that moment, the waterworks began and through all three classes I couldn't stop crying. I will miss my kids so dearly!
The final straw broke me when my last class decided that they wanted to sing songs for fun-day. They sang many but my favourite was 'take me to your heart'. I think I broke down in tears in front of them. Saying goodbye is never easy but this time.. It was probably the most difficult goodbye I have had to say in a while.
At dinner, we sat and chatted about how quickly this trip has finished up, we asked eachother how we could convey our feelings, experiences and knowledge that we have gained from this trip and concluded that there is no way to explain it to others. You have to be there, feel the enthusiasm, see the smiles, hear the laughter, taste the fight for day to day life that some of these people and kids go through and in the end, still see how they can love without hesitation.
This is a trip I will never forget.