Goodbyes . . .
Two important goodbyes had to be said this week.
In chronological order, the first was to the last of the toad- and frogpoles that have been living in the tank in the kitchen. By last Saturday they had all developed into miniature adults and the time had come to put the tank away for the year. We let five go on the last morning. After last week’s debacle, I chose the boggy area of the pond as the release site. The children obediently said “goodbye” and then shot off to do other things. I sat and watched for a while as the tiny little creatures made their way into the undergrowth. I hope that they meet with better fortune than that poor little blighter from last week.
The second, and more important “Goodbye” was to Aunty Sara. On Monday night we put her on a plane to Madagascar. She is off for six months to do VSO work for a charity based in Maputo. I’m going to miss her.
We do have Sooty to look after however. Sooty is a venerable glove puppet from the eponymous television series. In her hands, he has been a magical figure. The children both know that he’s a puppet. But when she is manipulating him, they interact with him as if he was a real person. The link with Sooty is so strong that they used to ask to speak to him on the phone and would always if he was coming too when she came to visit.
Sara will not be completely incommunicado however. She is going to get Skype downloaded onto her computer and we will also be in email contact. Eldest Son is planning to send her homemade postcards as well – we’ll see if that happens. . . .
Sara was most amused to see that her ticket (organised by VSO) was charged at a special “Missionary” rate. It is a charming archaic reference and you wonder how it has survived in a world of “aid clients” and “units of need”. It set us thinking about the way in which travel has changed. When we lived in Bahrain in the late 1960s, the only economical method of communication with our parents when we were at boarding school was a letter.
(It has just struck that the toilets at Stoke Row Primary School were installed during this period – and havn’t been upgraded since. That’s over thirty years ago! I’m now feeling totally outraged! But more on this subject another time. . . .)
The children are growing up in a world in which instant communication is available almost everywhere. The original missionaries who travelled to Africa and beyond in the nineteenth and even the early twentieth centuries could be out of contact with family and friends for months and even years. In Maputo, the capital of the fourth poorest country in the world, there is mobile phone service, internet cafes and wi-fi.
Youngest Son did a lovely drawing of an aeroplane for her which she has said that she will put on her wall when she gets to her new home. Eldest Son has discussed with her where she will be in relation to Madagascar (which he knows from the Disney movie). He is clearly “cool” about her trip and we hope that it will encourage his interest in the world and the way in which other people live. Youngest Son however, has been more anxious. In the days before she left, he kept raising the issue of “Aunty Sara going away from her house . . . but she will be coming back again, won’t she?” Time is a tricky concept when you are not quite four.
Two important goodbyes had to be said this week.
In chronological order, the first was to the last of the toad- and frogpoles that have been living in the tank in the kitchen. By last Saturday they had all developed into miniature adults and the time had come to put the tank away for the year. We let five go on the last morning. After last week’s debacle, I chose the boggy area of the pond as the release site. The children obediently said “goodbye” and then shot off to do other things. I sat and watched for a while as the tiny little creatures made their way into the undergrowth. I hope that they meet with better fortune than that poor little blighter from last week.
The second, and more important “Goodbye” was to Aunty Sara. On Monday night we put her on a plane to Madagascar. She is off for six months to do VSO work for a charity based in Maputo. I’m going to miss her.
We do have Sooty to look after however. Sooty is a venerable glove puppet from the eponymous television series. In her hands, he has been a magical figure. The children both know that he’s a puppet. But when she is manipulating him, they interact with him as if he was a real person. The link with Sooty is so strong that they used to ask to speak to him on the phone and would always if he was coming too when she came to visit.
Sara will not be completely incommunicado however. She is going to get Skype downloaded onto her computer and we will also be in email contact. Eldest Son is planning to send her homemade postcards as well – we’ll see if that happens. . . .
Sara was most amused to see that her ticket (organised by VSO) was charged at a special “Missionary” rate. It is a charming archaic reference and you wonder how it has survived in a world of “aid clients” and “units of need”. It set us thinking about the way in which travel has changed. When we lived in Bahrain in the late 1960s, the only economical method of communication with our parents when we were at boarding school was a letter.
(It has just struck that the toilets at Stoke Row Primary School were installed during this period – and havn’t been upgraded since. That’s over thirty years ago! I’m now feeling totally outraged! But more on this subject another time. . . .)
The children are growing up in a world in which instant communication is available almost everywhere. The original missionaries who travelled to Africa and beyond in the nineteenth and even the early twentieth centuries could be out of contact with family and friends for months and even years. In Maputo, the capital of the fourth poorest country in the world, there is mobile phone service, internet cafes and wi-fi.
Youngest Son did a lovely drawing of an aeroplane for her which she has said that she will put on her wall when she gets to her new home. Eldest Son has discussed with her where she will be in relation to Madagascar (which he knows from the Disney movie). He is clearly “cool” about her trip and we hope that it will encourage his interest in the world and the way in which other people live. Youngest Son however, has been more anxious. In the days before she left, he kept raising the issue of “Aunty Sara going away from her house . . . but she will be coming back again, won’t she?” Time is a tricky concept when you are not quite four.
posted by Susan Darnbrough at
11:55 am
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