So Long Speech!

Today was a pretty big day, because today, I said goodbye to my very first Nam Friend.

I met Speechless (who, for the record, is anything but) a couple of days after arriving in Khorixas. He did everything possible to make this strange place feel like home. He dropped by my old flat for visits, introduced me to everyone he knew, invited me to help out with weekend soccer tournaments and volunteered to assist me with after school programs.

He was hardworking and enthusiastic—not to mention the fact that he was really fun to be around. He was the youngest facilitator at Camp GLOW in 2008, but he was also one of the best. The kids loved working with him and he took his job as a role model and team leader seriously. He encouraged everyone on his team to work hard and do their best. And he expected the same from himself.

Last month, when my family came to visit, he and Boois organized the cooking crew for our braai without even being asked. Speech spent most of the night hunched over a fire, and seemed more than happy to do so.

My point is—Speech is amazing. And now, he’s gone.

Today we said goodbye. He headed off in a taxi for Windhoek, where he’ll board a bus and cross the border to South Africa. He’ll spend the next year there as a SCORE volunteer.

I was sad to see him leave—he was my first friend here in Khorixas and one of my best friends in Namibia. But I was also excited to see him go. Excited, because he’ll be leaving the country for the first time, moving away from his family and friends and the place he grew up, and heading off to new experiences in a new place with new people and a new culture.

I was excited, because I know exactly what that’s like. And while it’s hard to say goodbye (and I imagine even harder when you’ve never left before), in the end it’s truly worth it—for every friend I’ve made. For every story I’ve ever told here.

I know Speech, and I know the lives he’ll touch, the kids he’ll inspire and the message he’ll bring back to the people of Khorixas. I know that while he was sad to leave and nervous to go, he’ll grow more in the next year than he has in any other. His world will get a little bigger, and the lives of those he meets will get a little brighter.

And while he may still miss Khorixas, something tells me there’s no place a soccer fan like him would rather be than South Africa in 2010.