Heartfelt Goodbyes

In November, we said some very heartfelt goodbyes to two of our volunteers in the After-School Programme. Matt Kellen has been a volunteer with us for about a few years now. He began as a Young Adult Service Corps volunteer and just couldn’t leave. His attention and care for our children was clearly obvious when the kids gave him beautiful cards of their own creation as well as a beautifully framed collection of photos from the boys for whom he became a real role model.

Matt not only taught in our After-School Programme, but he took the boys on hiking trips, biking and even ensured some tickets for the children for Festival. He was also very active in spreading knowledge and enthusiasm for the Reading Camps throughout Grahamstown as well as ensuring the grant of the One Laptop Per Child for us. He is passionate about education and about children.

During part of his time here in South Africa, Matt attended a course sponsored by the Liverpool School of Medicine in refugee work. That is where his heart lies. Eventually, he would like to do refugee work. For now, he returns to Washington state to teach. We will all miss him a great deal.

Elizabeth Haney, a junior from Boston College, has been tutoring the little ones during her year-long study of history at Rhodes University. Her compassionate and caring presence has been a wonderful source of encouragement and support to all of us in the programme. We so enjoyed watching how this year has affected her this year as well. As she wrote in a blog, “Despite all of their disadvantages, these children want to learn, they want to do a good job, they want to be able to get a job or go to university. They are funny, sassy, and the most resilient people I’ve ever met.” She returns to Boston to complete her undergraduate studies.

Two others who have been so helpful in our One Laptop Per Child programme were Drew Stinson and Steph Boones, from Gettysburg University in Pennsylvania, are also departing in December after having completed a term of masters study at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. They have come once a week to the After-School house and have offered weekly instruction, ideas for creative use of the compact computers and technical support, with even a little pumpkin pie for the children on the US Thanksgiving week. For some of the children, it was an acquired taste, but a new experience nonetheless.

With such volunteers as these we can only be enlivened by what we are doing for the children here at the monastery and for the volunteers who come to us. We wish them all many blessings as they continue their future journeys.

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