Enkosi

Sadly I had to say goodbye to my kids who I worked so closely with since February. My volunteer program has ended and we had to say our goodbyes. My partner and I planned a special day for our last day. 

I started by telling them that this was our last day with them, and that we were very sad that we had to go. I said that we loved every moment with them and that we would miss them very much. But, I said  that today was not a day to be sad because we were going to have fun and celebrate together. The teacher helped me translate this into isiXhosa. 

We started by having a variety of fruits on a plate...pineapple, grapes, oranges, bananas, apples etc. Then we asked a student to come to the front of the class, sit on a chair, and we would blindfold them. Then we would pick a fruit, show the class, and then put it in the kids mouth. They had to guess which fruit they were eating. The kids loved this game and went absolutely crazy over it! We had to start making them take turns by following each other in exactly the lines they sat in on the floor because otherwise they all tried to run up to the chair at once and it was a battle over who got their first. 

After we played for a while we decided it was time to have cake. I had this cake especially made by my friend who works at the bakery. His name is Stefan. As you can see below, it says "Enkosi" which means, "thank you" in isiXhosa. The kids were fidgeting like crazy and the teacher told them to relax. We also split the remaining fruit amongst the kids plates. Before handing out plates to the kids I started going around and handing out napkins. All the kids had this surprised and happy look on their face with BIG eyes, and they were breathing in like, "wow!" and talking to each other. The teacher told me that they were saying that, now this was a REAL party because they had napkins! Who knew the napkins would be the most exciting part of the party? 

After that we played some music, danced around, and just had fun. At the end we had to say goodbye. I got down on my knees to give hugs, but the zippers on my shoes were hurting the front of my feet so I tried to fall back to sitting on my butt. In this moment the kids took advantage and tackled me. They were all on top of me (never wear earrings around children haha), and going crazy. Finally I made it out and was trying to walk to grab my backpack. They all thought this was so much fun that they were working as a team trying to lift my feet up out from under me so they could tackle me again. I have to admit, they worked together and tried hard, but eventually I made it out. 

I will miss them so much. I really love them and my experience there. I could not have asked for a better class. I thought I was going to be extremely sad, but in the end, I am actually just happy I had the opportunity to work with them. I wish I could go back and visit them sometimes, but hopefully they got a lot out of their time with us, just like we did with them, and they can go on to be happy and successful young adults who are not as haunted by racism and the struggle many South Africans have faced in the past.