Out Of The Village

Farewell Cards From Learners At Mmeshi

Well, I've officially moved away from Mohlarekoma.  On Saturday I said my final goodbyes and took my last taxi ride to Groblersdal to meet up with my friend Pieter who was kind enough to offer me a ride down from site to Pretoria with all of my stuff.  We drove back up to the village, loaded up my two bags and bucket water filter, and said goodbye to the best host family a girl could ask for.

 

This past week was full of goodbyes, all of which went really well. On Friday as I was coming home from town where I was saying goodbye to my friend Yolande, I encountered a group of ladies running up the road in Mohlarekoma, lead by none other than Debrah Makola, my counterpart from the Community Garden and the Women's Health Retreat.  It was AMAZING to see! Some were in "gymming" clothes, some were in their traditional village attire, but all were trotting along up this hill, carrying towels and water bottles.  If that's not a perfect note on which to end my service, then I don't know what is!

Mohlarekoma's New Jogging Group Lead By Debrah! Go Limpopo Women's Health Retreat!

RIP Mugabe

In sadder news, Mugabe, my family's rambunctious puppy dog unfortunately passed away during the first week of January.  However, my farewell was lined with silver once again thanks to Pieter, when he agreed to sell one of his Jack Russel puppies to my family.  It was the biggest dog of the litter, and I think that he'll make it well up there!

New Puppy

Goodbyes happened in a bit of a blur, but the hardest one was at the very end when we stopped by Mashuana pre-school one last time to say one final farewell to Lesego and all the tiny tots.

My Favorite Little Nugget

While Pieter waited in the car, I went in and picked up Lesego who had been sleeping before, and was now smiling groggily up at me with his arms outstretched.  He snuggled into my shoulder as I said a 'sharp!' goodbye to the rest of the kids who came running and shouting "PebetsePebetsePebetse!!!" from their play room.  After about five-minutes I kissed Lesego goodbye one final time and handed him back off to one of the women who was working there.  I said thank you and goodbye, got back into the car with Pieter, and off we drove.

Is this real life???

I've been in Pretoria ever since, and yesterday Doreh, Kristen and I kicked off the official COS process by going to FNB and closing out our bank accounts. It's real now! Today we go to the office to close out our respective VAST grants, and tomorrow the medical portion of this endeavor begins.  All will be finished by Friday morning.

The weather is beautiful here, if a little bit on the warm side. Needless to say I'd much rather the weather be warm and sunny than cloudy during this transition period.  I can't believe next week is Morocco with my Mama!