Wednesday, March 11, 2009

An Emotional Day

When I was here in 2007 I spent a lot of time with a boy named Peter. I had understood that he had returned to Guyana with his family so I didn't look for him this time. Today he came into the classroom going to see the other teacher when we looked at each other and recognition dawned. He yelled, "Mees, Mees, it's you, it's you" and rushed into my arms. We just stood there in a major hug for a long time. You can imagine how I felt.

Then this afternoon another former student came by my apartment. He is now in high school. He said he was passing St. John and saw me painting the wall and wanted to know if I remembered him. He was one of the kids who helped paint last time.

This morning on the way to school, I passed a little girl filling her water buckets at the tap at the end of the street. A great big black man with a huge stalking tiger on his tee shirt yelled at her, "Hurry up, girl, you only have 5 sedconds left." A mature lady was also passing by, and she stopped and berated him, "Help the child, you can't expect a little child to carry that load - you take two." The two of us grandmothers stood there looking up at him. He stood there looking down at us. He blinked first, but just turn his back on us and walked away to the other corner where his buddies were standing. The little girl tottered off up the street with her buckets of water.

Quite an emotional day. So I went and had a huge coconut ice cream cone!

Exactly a week left. It really is nuts that just when I get settled, organized, and get to know the shop keepers, street vendors, neighbours, children, et al that I have to leave.

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