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| Kelvin and Alfreda |
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| Painting the bathrooms |
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| "One Upon a Caterpillar" |
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| Saying goodbye to Regina |
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| The Security Guards |
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| Goodbye party |
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| Johanese |
The last day at the CRC. I woke up feeling sick- this weird feeling in my stomach. Like I couldn't digest the fact that this was our last day. We went to the great hall for songs before VBS and Kelvin sat down next to me. He looked sad so I asked him what was wrong. He said he didn't sleep well and went on, "I had a nightmare that you were leaving me tonight, and when I woke up, I realized it was coming true." That was not what I needed to hear. Jackie, Steph and I made eye contact and I could tell they were having a tough time, too. We intercepted Tim on our way to the MTC and decided to quit sulking and make our last day the best one yet. Still, there was a weird vibe that day. Things just weren't as lively and happy. I think we all knew what was coming. Alieu was back again and was extra funny today. He would just look at me or whoever else and start cracking up. It killed me. Such a goof. Everyone went to snack together and I sat with Alieu and a bunch of the older guys. We were icing vanilla wafers to make them look like a caterpillar. I handed Alieu a wafer and turned around to get some icing. I said "Ok man, now you're gonna take the knife and ice the cook-" I had almost finished when Alieu looked right at me and stuffed the wafer in his mouth before I could ice it. The older guys got a big kick out of that and Alieu was laughing so hard, clearly tickled with himself and the joke he'd made. It was a great moment. Another fun memory was when Steph and I took a picture with the security guards. I gave one of them my sunglasses to wear for the picture and he loved them. Every time I walked by, he thanked me for letting him wear them- just for that one picture! I ended up giving them to him before we left since he liked them so much. He was so excited and grateful. Yesterday some of the team painted the outside of the bathrooms, so we worked on the insides today. We painted the walls cream and Ganda joked that he was going to paint my hair so I'd be all one color. Les and I teamed up to tackle a particularly nasty boys stall. I went towards the back and was painting when I felt something crawling on my legs. I looked down to see about 8 spiders crawling all over my feet, legs, and the wall. Les and I took a deep breath and painted like mad- I was not trying to stand around in that any longer than we needed to. Throughout the day, I worked on writing letters to some of the kids I was especially close with. It was a good way to prepare myself for saying goodbye. Tim led a Bible Study that afternoon for everyone and did a great job. I also spent some time with my pen pal, Alfreda. She is a reunified student, but she was able to come each day to the CRC and help out with VBS. She is very nice, but like me, is on the shy side and we hadn't had much time to get to know each other. However, she would come find me each day as soon as she got there and hug me goodbye before she left. This last day, she brought me to the kitchen and showed me how they cooked everything over the fire for all the kids and how to prepare cassava leaves and rice. She introduced me to Janet, the head cook, and the three of us talked for a while. It was really nice to finally connect and spend time with her. We also spent some time with Abdulai, who told us more about his housing project and showed off his new laptop that our team had brought him and some of the other college students. He is so careful with it and won't keep it out too long because he doesn't want any dust to get in it. He calls it his baby and even sleeps with it at night. He is so appreciative. Paul was amazing with setting all the laptops up and helping them out if they had any questions. After dinner, we had a guest speaker come and talk about HIV/AIDS in Sierra Leone. He had some startling statistics to share and we all learned a lot. Hearing him talk reemphasized the importance of Mercy Hospital to me. That night, the kids put on their big play. Darlene had worked really hard on the set and practiced with them a lot, and everything paid off. There was actually another group of VT engineers (Go Hokies!) staying at the MTC with us doing a project unrelated to the CRC, and they were allowed to come for the play as an audience. The kids all wore their best outfits and were so excited about it. Kemoh was the caterpillar and main character. I was so impressed by him- he is such a leader and his voice is so powerful. I kept telling him he should become a pastor. Anyways, my favorite part of the play was Aminata's line. Her line was "Don't worry little caterpillar, change happens to us all." For some reason, she could not seem to say "worry" and no matter how many times she practiced on me, it was "Don't hurry little caterpillar." She was really nervous about messing up and sure enough, she said "Don't hurry... don't hurry, don't HURRY little caterpillar, change happens to us all." So close. I wanted to run up there and give her a little hug. The play ended in the kids singing "Marching in the Light of God" which was awesome. I was so proud of them. Afterwards, the kids signed all of our tshirts and we had sodas, goody bags and a little farewell party. Johanese, one of the older boys, was getting reunified, so we had a special gift for him. Aminata and I had one last dance together before we all headed out to say our goodbyes. She told me, "Kathryn, when you first came here, you a bad dancer. When you leave here, I made you good dancer." Love the honesty. I told myself that I wouldn't cry in front of the kids. I was doing great giving hugs and laughing until it came Aminata's turn. I knelt down to hug her and she didn't let go. I felt this stream of wet tears go down my shoulder and I started to tear up, too. Kabela and Idrissa started teasing her for crying and she stormed off, clearly embarrassed. Memunatu came over crying "Kathryn! Don't go! Don't forget us!" I picked her up and patted her head saying "Oh Memunatu, it's ok, I'll be back again. I'll never forget you." She pulled away from my shoulder, howling with laughter. "I got you!" she said. I started laughing so hard- she was just what I needed in that moment. She started mimicking all of us crying- "Oh look at me, I am so sad, I have to go home to de States. Poor me!" She is too much. My boy Tamba smiled slyly at me and asked "So, you want me to botch the tire?" I hugged him and thanked him for considering giving us a flat tire so that we could stay, but decided that was probably not the best idea. It was really difficult saying goodbye to Johanese, as he was having a hard time saying goodbye since he is being reunified. He is so tough and it was really sad to see him break down. I felt so proud of him that night and know he will do great in his internship. After some more hugs from everyone, especially from good friends Regina, Veronica, and Kelvin, I said one last goodbye to my Aminata. She didn't cry this time- she's a tough girl. It was hard, but we slowly trickled out. Momoh, a boy who attended VBS but does not live at the CRC, had been sent home much earlier but walked back and waited outside the gate so he could say goodbye to us. I will never forget the image of him sitting there waiting for us, wanting to give one last hug goodbye before walking home alone that late at night.
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