It Makes the World Smaller

I got an SMS from Nick last night that said he was glad I was working with new people and will leave with good memories and experiences. How right he is. After all those months and months and months of trying and working to come to some sort of resolution within myself and within the organization I worked with, it really was time for me to leave. Time for me to leave and it was the right time, for me, to leave. Since I've separated myself and have had to deal with the political and emotional backlash, it's been nice "recovering" in a place where I feel totally accepted, free, loved, heard, and of use. I put up with certain things for a looooong time. With all that being said, there are definitely times where I wonder what good I'm doing here, or really what they could need me for. It's silly, it is. I know. This is a job and clearly that's thinking a lot about the experience. It's just there are times I feel as though I've learned WAY more than I've given back to the people I've come into contact with, people I've worked with and strangers alike. Then days like yesterday happen and I'm sent reeling... things become very clear and focused. It's emotional for sure... on so many levels.
For the last few days, a group of visitors from the UK has been touring around the area checking out some of the projects Kodumela has done in local villages. All these visitors are connected to two organizations.... WorldVision UK that partially funds Kodumela's activities (have you seen the sponsor a child commercials? Yep, they're one international organization that has such a program) and CHOKO (people from the village of Chosley in the UK who have started a "community linking" project with Kodumela. CHO=Chosley, KO=Kodumela). It's been a fun few days and I'm glad I've gotten to tag along and see everything. CHOKO has raised some money in their community and sent it to Kodumela to help build up the community here, communities helping communities... what a beautiful concept. We visited the site of a disabled center that is in the process of being built with CHOKO money and saw the new football kits (soccer uniforms) that a team in Enable just received with some of the funds. Then yesterday morning, after some people had gone to vote and although it was a national holiday, a small group of us met up at Kodumela. Some of the CHOKO/WorldVision representatives were going on home visits to meet kids (and their families) they have been sponsoring through the WorldVision program. This is where the emotional stuff comes in. What an experience! I was in a group that Maite (she oversees the sponsorship program at Kodumela) and Solomon (he's a development worker who works in the Turkey villages, he knows the kids and families we were going to see) were taking into Turkey 4, 3, and 2. We were visiting 3 families and had 3 sets of sponsors with us. I watched as sponsors got excited, nervous, and "wobbly" right before they were going to meet up with the children they had written to and seen pictures of. I watched one woman comment on how much the children had grown since her last visit a little over a year ago. I saw the families' eyes grow big when boxes of provisions (mealie meal, sugar, salt, pilchards, baked beans, macaroni) were brought in their yards and presented to them. I saw kids be shy at first and then open up a little the longer they sat with their friends. I saw their eyes light up when they received gifts. I watched as the sponsors asked questions and greeted everyone formally and with respect, standing up and shaking hands, thanking the families for allowing them to visit. It was pretty incredible. According to Maite, the Kodumela office oversees the sponsorships of 4,391 children...3,065 of those are sponsored by people in the UK, 1,326 are from here in South Africa. Those 4,391 children are from Metz, Turkey 1, Turkey 2, Turkey 3, Turkey 4, Enable, Worcester, Butswana, Moshate, Sofaya, and Madeira villages.
This is Anjie from CHOKO with her sponsor child, Saul, and his family. Maite played translator. Saul was really shy and reserved when we first met up with him. A couple hours after we had left their house, we needed to go back for some forgotten things, and Anjie said he smiled when he saw her and showed her how he could play with the yo-yo she had brought him.
This is Tony and Celia's visit with Dennis and his family. They presented him with his very own football and kit! (He looks very smart doesn't he?)
When we got back to Kodumela, I overheard a woman thanking Ledile for such an experience. She said she wasn't sure how to find the words, but that it was such a special experience for her to see the child she's been writing to for awhile now. She kept waving in the air and gesturing, trying to find the words to describe all the feelings she was having... and then she just smiled and said, "It just makes the world smaller, you know?" I was sitting under the Acacia tree watching their conversation and I nodded in agreement. I do know. Two parts of the world were brought together... people supporting each other, caring about each other, and becoming a sort of family.... and I was lucky to be there to see it.