Avoiding the Goodbye

(L-R) Lynette, Mary, Cinaida (Snidah.. Todd I thought of you) and Abigail.

Today was my last day at Humble Hearts and it was a lot tougher than I had thought. It is hard leaving and not knowing if I will ever return. I spent the morning taking everything in, from the stands we pass on a daily basis, to the faces and voices of the children. Nothing is easy in Kenya, especially saying goodbye. We spent the morning leading a professional development session for the teachers at HH, finishing up the library and playing with the kids. Abigail (in the photo above, and the little girl who cried when I woke her up from her nap on the first day) was very lovey today so I spent a lot of time carrying her around. She is one of the deaf children who is beginning to learn her signs so a lot of our time is spent just hanging out. There were a few hours of down time before our goodbye celebration so we played Duck-Duck-Goose, a game they had never played. We had to change it to Head-Head-Shoulders because the deaf children were at a significant disadvantage the original way. Playing with them may have been one of the best moments of my trip. All of them were so excited to run around that sometimes they would go around 3 times before remembering how to stop running. After playing with the children we gathered in the main room for their goodbye celebration. Each class prepared a song, poem, skit or dance for us and it was amazing. Fanta and Mandazi (kind of like Indian fry bread) was for lunch :) My words cannot describe how touching these performances were, but hopefully I can upload the videos so you can see for yourselves. I have been touched by the children at Humble Hearts and I am so thankful.