The Last Days

As you can probably imagine, we haven't had much time lately for blog entries. I am actually sitting here writing this at 5am on the morning we are leaving the village. It's been an emotional past few days and I don't expect today to be easy. As much as possible we've tried to keep our normal routine over the past week to keep ourselves from feeling like it was the end. But now we've just slept our last night in our little home in Kgobagodimo ... it's going to be impossible to keep up normal today.

We are saying goodbye to our best friends, and not just moving to another city, we're moving around the world. When we came to South Africa with the Peace Corps it was hard saying farewell to our families, but we knew we would see them again. Now we are leaving our home with no certainty of ever coming back. Not only is that tearing us apart, but we can already see the impact on those we're leaving. When I saw my best friend Andries off at the bus stop yesterday morning on his way to Pretoria, he wouldn't even make eye contact with me. He basically ran and got on the bus to keep our last confrontation as short as possible. He had never had to say this kind of goodbye before.

It's hard to think of what our next week is going to entail. Not only are we going to be in Pretoria finishing up our last few things with the Peace Corps, but we are going to be in different places around the world. Next Sunday I will be walking out of a terminal in Chicago while Rachel starts a week-long visit with Melanie in Barcelona. Our lives are going to be so different, so overwhelming and exciting, for the next few months. But this morning here we sit facing the most emotional day of our lives. (Maybe if I just keep typing I won't have to deal with it :)

Here are some pictures of what our last few weeks have been like. I wish I had time to write in more detail, but it's just not going to happen.

We went out to Chanda and Jacobus's farm with Paul and Jessica. We gave them aprons as a gift for hosting us on several occasions.



Just before we got started with our braai on Sunday night, the rains came ... and they came hard! We got stuck in the bathroom at their camp on the farm. We stood under a leaking roof and watching the wind literally uproot trees just outside the door.



In order to get back to the house, we had to take off in the jeep while it was still raining and lightning. It was one of the most amazing storms I have ever experienced.



The damage at the house was unbelievable. A tree that has been the centerpiece of the family property for over 50 years had fallen during the storm, as well as 45+ other trees on the farm!



Every year when the rains come, we have one or two nights of these nasty flying termites. They swarm the outside lights of our house at night and then we find thousands of wings on the ground in the morning.



On our last trip into Ellisras, we took Matome with us for a special treat.



She will probably be the hardest person to leave as we say our goodbyes today.



Here she is holding Caden, our friends Stephen and Jolene's baby.



We were invited over to dinner with the Ditsela family. It was our last traditional South African meal, and a perfect farewell get-together with good friends.



Tebogo leaned over at the end of the night and whispered in my ear, "I'm going to miss you so much."



Paul and Jess came over to spend a few days with us to wrap up some things at school. They will be visiting our school every so often when we're gone.



It was also Paul's birthday yesterday (our birthdays are only 8 days apart) and we made the most amazing chocolate cake. We may as well have just taken spoonful of sugar directly from the sugar container. Not a single one of us finished our piece because it was so rich!



Hanging out with the kids in front of the house. Since it's the beginning of the December holiday, more kids are at the house now. From left to right: Matome, Nhlasi, Gaefele, Lerato, Matlatse, me and Khutso.



Just for kicks, we did a sort of documentary on the cockroach population in our pit toilets. If we had a faster connection, I would upload our video footage. Watch for it later. I know this photo is small, but just for the record, there are 18 cockroaches visible. You couldn't believe the sound that hundreds of these guys make!!