a perfect ending.

Right now I am in the Amsterdam airport all by myself feeling like I left a part of my heart in Africa. This last week in Africa has been more than I could ever ask for, which makes its all the more hard to leave the people, children and culture that I have fallen in love with. I have so much to tell about this week so brace yourselves!

I don’t even know where to start…maybe I will start with one of the days at my school this week. I bought them a soccer ball and they freaked out…seriously, I got a ridiculous amount of kisses. There was one day at placement that I taught them all about kindness, happiness and love. It was awesome! They got so into it..and I put the rachels challenge idea into play by getting them to make a paper link every time they did something kind for someone else…the goal is to get it around the whole classroom! They were pretty pumped about it. So when we went outside to play…and they were hitting eachother and making each other cry it was super discouraging…so that mixed with the fact that I was leaving and that I cant stand to see my kids cry I started tearing up. As soon as they saw me sad about 5 of them started crying and kept saying sorry and kissing me…then they went looking for flowers and put them on my lap…by the time they stopped I had at least 70 flowers on my lap from my kids.. which of course just made me even more emotional…how was I supposed to leave these kids?

I also went to a new orphanage this week which was unreal. It started by a man named rosman who found a little boy in the streets sick…so he took him in..now like 7 years later he has 45 kids. Him and his wife fund the whole orphanage with the occasional small donation from a local church. The rooms are in extremely rough shape, they don’t even have enough mosquito nets, and they have to squeeze way to many kids into one room…but yet again I was dumbfounded by how happy and carefree the kids were. Not once did they ask me for money or anything…they were just content with my mere presence there. I was so touched by some of the kids..in particularly one boy..I was playing soccer with them and I fell and scrapped up my leg pretty bad since we were playing on gravel. As soon as he saw my cut he took his bandana and gently wrapped my leg with it. now I know that doesn’t sound like much but when you have hardly any possessions and clothing it is a big deal. When I tried to give it back to him at the end…he refused and said that I needed it more.

Good news! Living the little boy who had the burns is out of the hospital! I went to his house acouple times to visit him…and hes doing a lot better

The last day of my placement was particularly amazing. We took all the kids on a Safari day trip! They had never seen a giraffe, elephant, zebra..nothing. So they amount of excitement was so high! The whole day was so incredible! The first time they saw a giraffe they were screaming! And when we were leaving they waved at the animals saying “BYE GIRAFFE” it was great! They kids were so thankful and excited. After Safari was when I had to say goodbye.. it was one of the hardest things I have had to do in a long time.

The day I left I was crazy busy. I did Random acts of kindness all over the community! I bought a bunch of rice and handed it out to people and families, it was a good way to say goodbye and they were all very happy and excited.

Next I went to the orphanage that I painted at to drop my clothes off and say goodbye.. It was so sad! They made a bunch of pictures and cards for me…and sang me goodbye songs…I think I had a 3 minute long hug with all the children…as I drove away in the taxi they all stood outside waving furiously. Gotta love them.

As I was leaving a bunch of the kids from the community walked over the my house to say goodbye to me. Brenda…the little girl that’s my neighbour was crying so hard she was sobbing…she refused to let go of me..I don’t think she will ever know how much I care about her.

Ok I am running out of internet at the airport so I need to wrap this up…I will blog one last time about my trip to close everything up! Now I have to focus on getting home in one piece! A lot of plane rides are being cancelled right now due to weather conditions…so figures crossed that I am not one of them!!

to wrap this post up I will just say how sometimes i feel like my last three months have been a dream because of how amazing it has been...but thats life...life often times if you let it or step out of your comfort zone can take your breath away and change you in ways you didn't think possible

Love you all lots!!

Monica!