Goodbye barberton and a confession
Trip Start
Feb 05, 2007
1
16
25
Trip End
Apr 28, 2007
Barberton,
South Africa
Thursday, March 22, 2007
before i go any further I have to make a confession. When I had 'binki' write down her name and address for me, it turns out her name is actually pinkie. i have been calling her binki the whole time, and i swear the accent here makes it 'pinkie' and 'binki' sound exactly the same. i considered keeping her name binki, but i decided that re-naming people would be wrong on a lot of different levels. so binki is actually pinkie.
In the first two weeks here if you told me I would be sad to leave Barber ton I would not have believed you, but I am sad to go
binki and her grandmother
. I feel like I have spent enough time here to get o know the people and kids I am working with, feel comfortable with what I am doing and able to do. I feel guilty leaving, and on my last day I was just thinking of all the things I could have done in my time here with the kids that I didn't. I suppose it's reassuring to know that I will be able to take that knowledge with me to my next placement. I am curious to see how different my project will be in Swaziland, I will be working at an orphanage there by caring for the babies and children. I also think that I will try and get involved with digging trench gardens and building classrooms that our projects are working on. I wanted to do it even before our project leader talked about how great it was a boy was coming so those things could get worked on... listening to conversations like that are so annoying. digging holes in the ground a couple times a week sounds fantastic, and i don't like people assuming i can't do it. nothing like telling me i can't do something to get me motivated.
on the last day i brought the kids candy, pinkie a card, and a box of chocolates, and some things for the classroom. any boxes that arrive for the school will be given to her, because i know some people did send things.
goodbye party
i am planning to keep contact with pinkie so that i can continue to send her all the things that she could use in her classroom. when pinkie explained to the kids that it was my last day and they wouldn't see me again they all looked really stunned and mxcolisi actually cried. again, i feel like i have been her long enough to make connections, and now i am off for something else to do the same thing. i also realize that the kind of projects i am working on are great and being able to be an active part of the community is valuable... but it is also more valuable when i am permanent part of the community. this is a nice reminder of what i should be giving back to the schools that are near whitman.
Swaziland is only a couple hours drive away, and yet has a very different history than south Africa. i am looking forward to the more relaxed racial dynamics, and the culture that swazis in swaziland have been able to hold onto. i have a feeling i will get fewer questions on my relationship with snopp-dogg in swaziland. swaziland is also a more desperate place than south africa, the only real things going on there for work are farming and tourism. i guess it was a really dry summer, and most farmers don't have an irrigation system, so it will be even tighter than normal. Swaziland also has the highest percent of HIV/AIDS infection rate in the world according to some statistics. a lot of these kids i will be working with will be AIDS orphans. they are also suppose to be the friendliest people in sub-saharan africa.
i am going to a drum workshop this weekend. i thought it meant i would be making drums, but i guess i will actually be drumming on drums.
it is strange to leave a place for forever... but i am looking forward to this next placement.
