Saying goodbye

I'm really struggling to keep up with the blog now. We have only a week left in SA and I feel as if I am on an emotional rollercoaster. Had my leaving do last Tuesday evening with the guys from work. They took me to The Food Room in Wynberg, the brilliant kitchen run by Kate George that I have been to several times for fun and boozy evenings. However I've always missed Kate's Easy Asian nights and Dot knew that, so she had organised a private party just for us. Kate demonstrated the dishes, plied us with wine, let us join in with the cooking and then fed us a delicious meal. Keith made a lovely speech which made me cry. It would have been sensible to go home at that point, but Sue, Keith and I went on to Jake's all the way down at Steenberg for a few more drinks. More tears were shed, and suddenly it was nearly one o clock in the morning. I had a seriously sore head the next day, but it was all worth it for a really lovely send off I shall remember for a long time.

Lottie and Libby have finished school now. Lottie skipped out, very much looking forward to going home. Libby is struggling but being very brave. She spent the last day 'being treated like a princess' at a class party, though she was in tears for most of it. She's really aware that this is goodbye and has been writing a poem to her old classmates. She has a photo of the class by her bed. However she is also looking forward to seeing old friends again and to doing new things in England.

We went to Kirstenbosch on Sunday, probably for the last time, and I really felt that almost physical pain of knowing that we'll be leaving so much that's amazing behind. Of course South Africa has huge problems, and most fundamentally of all it isn't our home, but it also has so much to offer. I'm really glad to be coming home to friends and family, but I'll miss the mountains and the sea and the beauty and the richness and the character and the lifestyle so very much.

We've started packing boxes and cases so the house is strewn with piles of things to take on the plane, give away, ship. The bigger items are being shipped and the packers come in next Wednesday, the day before we leave for Namibia. I'm working right up to the last moment, and will continue to work for AVSA for at least a month or two after returning to England, which I am really pleased about. Still it won't be the same as being with this amazing bunch of people. I've loved being part of the team here, it's been like Added Value was in 1997 when I first joined.

Anyway, enough feeling sorry for myself. It is the right decision to come home and there is much for us all to look forward to. But I have to admit that there's a very definite bit of me that wishes we could stay.