Well, we finally made it to Nkosi’s Haven. It always feels like coming home. It is amazing to think that these wonderful children were our very first Net Buddies…the very first in the world, to be exact! As we spend time with your beautiful buddies, it strikes me how much you’ve seen them change. You’ve watched their hair styles change, their computer confidence grow and their English blossom. You’ve learned their secret hurts and hopes. You’ve grumbled over frozen vc’s and stumbled over language differences together. You have heard about their days at school, their struggles with friends and maybe struggled with them yourself. You’ve done everything but touch them.
So today, they preformed for us. Dancing in the garden. Cha-cha, rhumba and jive blared from the boombox as a brick patchwork patio filled with children. And then they swayed and twirled, skirts swirling and toes pointing. Oh, what a sight. The joyous freedom of movement set to song.
And all I could think was how you’ve never seen your Net Buddies move…you’ve only seen them set into a small box on a computer screen. And yet, with just that much of them, you have created an amazing bond. A magical bond. Face to face, but never touching. Heads and shoulders, but never legs and arms. You’ve embraced them nonetheless. An embrace so enduring and so humbling.
So, I watched your Net Buddies dance today. They were beautiful.
You’re beautiful, too.
We thank you for what you do. And someday, we hope you, too, will see them dance.
Dana
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