Leaving Grahamstown :(
02.06.2011
Today is our second last day in Grahamstown, and our last day of work. We are still brushing away tears as we type having just said goodbye to our lovely group at St Mary's. They made us proud by belting out "Can you feel the love tonight", "A whole new world" and "I like the flowers" amongst many others! We gave them chocolate biscuit cake (something we have been making lots of, it is delicious) and they made us a card and drew us a picture, which made us very happy and very sad! We hope we will get a chance to return someday.
A couple of weeks ago we ended up taking part in the Rhodes 'International Parade'. We originally got involved by being volunteered (thank you Hilary) for painting signs and a map of the world, but ended up leading the parade through the centre of Grahamstown - an experience which landed a picture of us in the Grocotts newspaper! Don't worry, we will get a copy of us in our lovely lilac t-shirts.
Last Saturday was the pre-school Sports Day, meaning we were dragged out of our beds at 8.30am after a night on the town. Surprisingly, despite the minor hangovers and freezing conditions, it was quite a lot of fun. We had the very important jobs of holding the finish line in place and catching the children as they hurtled down the field towards us. The look on a child's face when they win a race and land in your arms is very heart-warming, although it's also quite scary when they come towards you at that speed - especially with skipping ropes in hand.
Just had to take a break from writing this because the children wanted to perform some sings for us as a goodbye present. Afterwards we started crying and they started crying and it was all very emotional and we don't want to leave!
This morning at the pre-school we had a feast of cakes, scones and oranges, and two very exciting things happened. Firstly, a company was giving away free shoes to school children, so we had a big shoe-fitting session and nearly everyone went home with a pair of brand new shoes. Secondly, some firemen came in to talk to the kids about fire safety, and at the end we got to ride in a fire engine - a REAL LIFE FIRE ENGINE WITH SIRENS AND EVERYTHING! As you can tell, we were just as excited as the 5 year olds about this adventure.
We kee[p getting interrupted by hugs from people saying goodbye 
Anyway, tomorrow evening we get a bus to Port Elizabeth, stay in a backpackers overnight then it's off down the Garden Route! We've heard so much about it so we're very excited. We won't mention for the sake of our parents that we're doing the highest commercial bungee jump in the world in a few days time ... oh woops ... well we won't tell you till afterwards when we did it!
We hope to update soon, now we're going to go and cry some more because we also have to say goodbye to Roger and Karen and the nuns and Mark. And Pick and Pay and the cinema and the rat and parrot ... we could go on.
Lots of love, Jessie and Ruth xxx
Posted by jessieruth 06:58
