Farewell Bana Ba Metsi

It upsets me just to even write the title of this post, how has it been almost a year already? I remember it like yesterday when Me and Tim were sitting out on the back of the three ton truck on our way to Bana Ba Metsi for the first time, and tomorrow I will be leaving for the the very last. 

I simply do not want to go, I do not want to say goodbye to anyone, especially the students. I remember being in hospital after the accident when the general consensus was that my year was over. With my injuries so severe many thought that I would not be able to recover quickly enough to return.

But I knew it was wrong, because every night when I went to sleep I dreamed about coming home to Bana Ba Metsi; where I would be working everyday with Children who's lives I was truly having an impact on. The place where you are only 200 meters away from staring out over the Okavango to watch an amazing sunset, day after day without fail. The place where you can stare out in wonder every single night at the Milky Way, beautiful Botswana, the driving force behind my recovery. 

But I guess all good things must come to an end at some point, right? Although it is sad to say goodbye to all the amazing people I have met at this school, whether they be staff or students, I can be happy in the fact that I am a better person for having met them. Saying goodbye is always hard, but we were lucky enough to spend our last few days participating in a zonal sports meet, our last few days with the boys were spent playing sports, what a blessing.

The football team played well but unfortunately got knocked out in the semis, and the volleyball team went unbeaten through the whole competition. Although as most things go in Botswana the organisation of the meet was horrendous, but we had fun with the boys all the same, a nice ending to our time with the boys. On our goodbyes to the boys I was also able to make a few very happy, and converted four into Man U fans, if everything we did here was for nothing, it was worth it just for that.

From now I only have about 6 weeks left in Africa, our plan now is to go and see the Vic falls in Zimbabwe. All before heading south towards Swaziland to meet other Project Volunteers, feel like I deserve a nice 5 weeks just to enjoy life after the chaos of the the first four months of this year. But I'm also hoping that we can help out at other Projects on our way.

End of term

My time is quickly coming to a close at Bana Ba Metsi, with just less than a week left of school before we say our goodbyes to the boys. The boys are currently sitting end of term exams which means that my teaching duties are over.

Although I have not been back at the school long, I have been working almost everyday with select boys who are struggling the most with reading, writing and mathematics. It has been enjoyable for me to watch how the boys have developed even in this short time frame, and I can't help but think how big an impact our literacy and mathematics program will have on these boys lifes in the future.

Through the Program we have seen first hand how boys who were constantly misbehaving in class and showed no interest in learning can turn it all around. One boy in particular told us how when he was youger he was beaten by his teachers for being "stupid". So he ran away from school and never went back, but not before he had thrown a few rocks at them as they left the premises. 

The Program has allowed us to work with this child pretty much on a 1 to 1 basis, and just by dedicating the time to him, and showing him that people do care about him and his education has improved exponentially. Another indicator of why you should never write somebody off, ever.

The saying goes that if you only judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree then the fish will always be stupid. I have never found anywhere where this saying is more applicable than Bana Ba Metsi, while many of these boys will never be great academics, they show everyday how they are intelligent in other aspects of life. My hope is that these boys will have learned enough here at BBM and do well enough in their exams to allow them to attend a practical college where they can learn a trade, only time will tell.