(SA-la SEN-tlay) Stay well; a farewell, said to one remaining ("Go well" said to one leaving)
I am now back in Canada. The last week passed in a complete blur of reflection and goodbyes...and last minute shopping.
We said goodbye to the Hospice staff, sadly. One of the hardest to say goodbye to was Anna, the cook, who was a hilarious woman and so friendly with us. This also reminds me that the cooks and the driver and the cleaning ladies and the volunteers are all seen as an integral important part of the hospice, never as another `level`or simply as nameless `support staff`as we might call them here.
We tragically couldn`t say goodbye to the patients, because they hadn`t been to the hospice in three days, because the Combi had been in for repairs, and they had no alternate means of transport.....as a final reminder to us of the lack of resources.
In our final group debriefs, we talked about what would happen when we get back. It`s been three days, and already I am experiencing what I`ve been told, that the learning from the trip continues for months, while I continue to reflect and realize things, and how it changes my opinions of people, and my understanding of any world or health issues I learn from now on. One thing we talked about, was that when we get back and speak to people, we have a large power and responsibility, in the way we talk about Botswana. As they said, people will always ask `how was Africa`...and as a girl in my group said " 'Africa' describes a continent, not a culture"
Interestingly, I've already found that people are often not quite ready to listen and hear about Botswana. They either want short anecdotes, or one sentence summaries - which would never justify an entirely different country, culture, people, and situation -- or they feed me what they want to hear. People don't ask how it was, or what the city was like, or what living situations were like, they only say "It was sad. Wasn't it." or "There was a lot of poverty, right?" or "They have very little there, don't they." or "You saw a lot of..etc" I can hardly blame them, for what they've been fed by the media, but this is a whole new type of patience for me to learn. And I read in East of Eden while I was away, that people can really only see what they want to see.
We sent our final donations to Maselo and her family in Mochudi (from the house build), including blankets I bought with donations from family members. She said Thank you and God bless you, and I am waiting eagerly to see pictures of the final stages of the house. Stepping Stones international was instrumental in this project.
On our last full day in Botswana, we climbed Kgale hill again. We left at 5 am to get there early enough to climb in the dark and reach the top for sunrise, and had champagne at the top. It was absolutely beautiful and a perfect ending to our trip.
I can't thank enough, all of our local partners, WUSC, the Hospice staff, SOS Children's Villages, my student group, University of Guelph and our staff coordinator, and all of my family and friends for their support.
This is certainly only the beggining for me.
