First in a long list of Goodbyes...

Yesterday was my last day volunteering at Boys and Girls Club in SE DC. It was very sad to say goodbye to all the little 5 and 6 year old rug rats that I have been tutoring all year. They even sat in a nice little circle and listened to me read "Green Eggs and Ham" which they usually openly loathe. I think they just thought it was cool because this time I let them each read a page, and Dr. Seuss is something they can definitely read with no problems. Although I think some of them just had it memorized. Either way, it was adorable and they were unusually well behaved.

I then had the fun task of telling all the kids that it was my last day and answering at least 15 different "why?" questions. It is always hard to tell these kids that you are leaving because so many volunteers and other people come in an out of their life and never seem to stick around, it is hard to know that you are adding to a sense of abandonment. I explained that I was moving to West Africa and showed it to them on the map. They all seem pretty impressed, especially Tobi and Ernie who moved to DC from Nigeria a couple years ago. A couple of them thought about it awhile and Siamayha piped up and asked "if I was married, did I have kids?" I laughed and told them "no, I'm too young." Tobi was contemplative for a couple minutes and looked up at me and asked "so you're going by yourself?" combined with a look of disbelief. It was actually pretty cute and funny(I mean this is coming from a six year old) and what is sure to be the first of many looks that I will get because I will inevitably fail to live up to the West African ideal of a woman - lacking the kids and the husband and all.

So it was sad say goodbye to all of them and was compounded by Ernie following me out the door and saying he wanted to come with me. I will definitely miss the random hugs for no particular reason and them all begging for help with homework, not because all of them really need it but because they want one-on-one attention. These kids are awesome and hopefully they will still be around when I move back to DC and can start volunteering again.