Today is hump day at home. The hump in the middle of the week. We have 2 days left to work at our assigned schools and community jobs. Susan made page 3 in the Cook Islands News with the Takitumu School library system. Elaine is told a boy she has helped has made 100% improvement. Judy’s sure we won’t put any more paint on Te Uki Ou walls as it is still raining! She feels frustrated that one boy she was asked to read with is so far behind. The “twins” Denise and Teresa are working the “swing shift” doing extra projects to compensate for brief times off last week to cheer on the Vaka racers. A must see event here on Rarotonga. Mary, the director of Are Pa Metua wants Lilia to stay on and teach ballet. Several students at Imanuaela pick up litter each morning, all on their own, after Connie told them of the fines sometimes imposed on people who litter in the U.S. But she wonders what will happen to her student Jamie who is so confused in math. Yet, Jamie’s teachers appreciated a math set of fact sheets Connie prepared for him, with Xerox copies for other needy students.
With 2 days left, I asked my teammates what they would miss about Rarotonga and the Global Volunteer program and what they were looking forward to upon returning home.
Most will miss the meals and not having to cook for themselves and family. All agreed they’d miss the spontaneity of people in the program, the Cook Islanders and also meeting people in town and on the bus from all over the world --- the friendliness!
I will miss the ease of taking a swim before breakfast. Susan and others will miss the softness of their skin in this moist setting. Some will miss having to go to their “real jobs” at home, although pedaling to work or catching the right bus to get to and from work has, at times, been challenging.
We will all miss starting the day with Taiana’s smile and her concern that we are all happy going where we’re going and knowing how to get there. We will miss Taiana’s grace and patience!
And what are we looking forward to?
The Christmas holidays with family and friends – though not the consumerism! We are looking forward to going out with friends but not to the traffic we so often have to negotiate to do that. We are looking forward to snow and the warmth of clothes fresh from our dryers.
We realize that at home we are sometimes too connected to others even though we lock our doors that we often don’t do here. We miss our pets, those furry friends so much better cared for at home. We are so fortunate in so many ways.
Along with seeing the vast differences in climate and culture, we have realized the uniting concerns of caring and community as well as issues of health and the environment.
We also may want to remember that sometimes…….less is more and more is less!!!!
Connie