Heading for home, Friday 28th October

This morning was a slightly surreal affair. A slow farewell.

We were collected from our hosts with all our baggage at about 8am, and went first to the Cathedral, After unloading the heavy luggage, we then headed for a zoo at Stilfontein, so that we would have one last chance to see lions close up. And we did. But time was so short that we didn’t actually enter the zoo. We parked up on a verge on the outside, and peered through the wire fence at a magnificent pair of lions! We then turned the minibus around and drove the 45 minutes or so back to the Cathedral.

We were there just before 11am, when members of the Cathedral’s youth fellowship were due to meet up with us for cold drinks, so that we could say our farewell to them. About a dozen of them came, but since the Isogong YF is in fact an 18-35 group, rather than an 11-18 group, it wasn’t surprising that many of the faces we’ve got to know best (Miles, Kintse, Rorisang) weren’t able to be there. But it was good to see Serame and Boitumelo, who had first met us with Miles and Kintse at the airport a week ago. The two of them, with Tsepo and one other young woman whose name I didn’t catch came on to see us off. We gave them some small souvenirs of our Cathedral, and did a formal thank you to the Dean, Edward Sithole, who has been an absolute star. I hope it might be possible to get him over to the UK at some point, to see how Cathedrals work in places like Lichfield.

Then, after a team photo outside Tsogong Catheral, we (19 of us!) set of, via a Wimpy, in a full minibus of 14 plus driver and an accompanying car of four, for the airport. I think I wasn’t the only one for whom the most emotional part of the day was driving through, and then out of, the township. It’s an extraordinary place, heaving with life and energy, despite extreme poverty. Housing and education are inadequate, and yet there is an inspiring spirit there. I never felt intimidated in the least, or at risk – and if anyone is reading this with the possibility of future visits in mind, even involving younger children, I’d say ‘Do it!’. I was so sad to leave it behind as we turned onto the motorway -- several of us were quietly wiping away some tears as we went.

The meal was our last chance to express our gratitude to our hosts. We reached the airport at about 3pm, in very good time for our check out and there were the inevitable sad goodbyes. Rita (with Peter, host to Ed, Tom and myself), Dean Edward, Raini (host to Helen and Millie) and Mrs Mapefane came to see us off. What lovely people they are. There was much hugging and swapping of Facebook addresses, and promises to meet up again.

Check in was fine, even though I’d misplaced the electronic print out ticket (no-one from Emirates batted an eyelid or turned a hair… my passport was enough to confirm the booking!). We got through security and passport control in no time, and are now spending 90 minutes or so in the departure area, waiting for boarding and catching up on last minute souvenir and present buying.