Well, today was the day.
We woke up for sunrise and spent the entire day on the beach and in the
waves! There was sunshine all morning, and great body boarding waves all
afternoon. It couldn’t have been a better day to say goodbye to this country
and this area that I’ve come to know and love.
I’m thinking that this will be my last blog entry, which is
a little sad because I’ve had such great fun writing it and keeping you all up
to date on the amazing happenings of a family on sabbatical, but at the same
time, I know the writing doesn’t have to stop here. There’s so much more that
will come out of these experiences when I get home, and when you guys get sick
of hearing my stories I’ve got a pen and paper that will soak ‘em all up! There’s
so much that I’m worried I didn’t write down, so much that I’ll forget, so much
that I didn’t notice, and so much that I didn’t take for all that it was.
Despite all of my worries I’m beyond excited to go home and see how my new
found knowledge, love for people, and ideas on the world change the kind of
person I am back home at school and in my city.
South Africa was so different from Europe, not only in
culture and in geography, but in people too. We were able to build
relationships with so many wonderful people, and that’s the bittersweet part
about saying goodbye. The people we’ve met here will stay in my heart forever,
and I don’t think they realize what an impact they’ve made on my life. The love
and compassion of the health team, Karen’s simple gestures of love, Zulu prayers
of boys that brought rooms to tears and people to their feet, every child
without shoes, young men who are the future of their community, the joy of Zulu
dances, little black fingers holding my white ones… Just moments, and things people did, and
things that I saw that changed my life. I don’t think the people at the Seed of
Hope understand how much of a difference they’ve made. The kids don’t
understand how much I loved having them play with my hair or teach me songs, and
the staff don’t understand how their selfless work and love has changed my idea
of the person I want to be. There are so many people who I won’t forget and who
I hope to see again someday, thriving and changing their community, country and
world one day at a time. In the end, I wasn’t there to help them, they were
there to help me become a better person.
There is so much love here, and I pray that I’ll be able to
carry this South African love home with me and share it with the people in my
own community. If there’s one thing that South Africa has taught me it’s that
we’re all people, and the more love you show towards others the better. No
matter their race, age, gender, social or HIV status… Just love.
I’ll think about my Seed of Hope family every day as I wake
up to the snow in these next few weeks, and many days after that I’m sure.
These brave, strong, beautiful kids will be framed on my wall and kept in my
heart as I go home and regain a certain normalcy in my life. Sezwe, and
Sannelisiwe and all of the lovely girls who held my hands and did my hair, they
won’t soon be forgotten.
‘Home’ by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes is my
favourite song ever (I swear I’ll walk down the aisle to it someday) probably the theme song for the trip, and quite an appropriate song for the place I'm heading tomorrow... Home. I’ve heard Lauren hum it many a time,
Adam has the whistling part down pat, and I’m convinced that mum and dad could
even sing a couple lines if they tried. “Home is wherever I’m with you” was
right, as I traveled with my family and we set up little “homes” everywhere we
went. As I’ve traveled, my homes have expanded. I had homes back home at camp
and in Calgary, then I felt like I had a home in Paris, with the language,
history, architecture and writers that I love, but now I feel like I have a
home here in South Africa because of the people who I’ve grown to love so
dearly. I’ll miss them every day, as I head back to my true home, in the ice and
snow.
The pang in my chest and the tears in my eyes are telling me
it’s time to wrap it up and finish packing.
Thanks to all you lovely folk for keeping up with my blog over these four
months. Can’t hardly wait to see you all.
xo
Alanna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHEOF_rcND8&ob=av2e
And so it comes to an end. In order to give the ending a greater effect, I listened to Home while I read the entry. It worked. Anyways, it's been a great ride, reading about your adventures. You're a good writer and have a lot of interesting things to say. So you should say those things more. And this was an appropiately bittersweet note to end things on. I'm tempted to give you a 10, just because it's your last entry. But I'm not going to. 8.6/10.
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