My Girls
I guess this isn't really a moment, but these girls have
grown near and dear to my heart this past year. The first time I met them was
at my first running club meeting. They were shy. They laughed as they tried to
perform the drills I had them do to build up their muscles. They wondered who
this "lekgoa" (white person) was and how would she help them to run
faster. They groaned when I made them do pushups and were typical Jr. High
School girls. As the days went on they became more comfortable with me and
began to complain at how tired they were, how hot it was, or how hard the
workouts were. I thought them the importance of drinking water throughout the
practice and other aspects of sprinting and running. Eventually they became faster and showed
improvement and the complaining stopped because they were beginning to find
some love in the sport of running.
After Running Club
practices they would follow me home, asking for water. I would give them some
and then they would leave. As the weeks and soon months went by, I found they
would come and visit me on the weekends. We would hang out paint our nails and do
girly things. This is where the relationship began to form. Eventually Running
Club came to an end but I found the girls were still showing up at my house.
They told me their stories of home and challenges at school. I helped them with
homework and we'd exchange dance moves. Some mornings they would show up
wanting to exercise with me. Many an afternoon was spent giggling and having
fun, but other afternoons were spent talking about serious topics and issues.
I hope in the short
amount of time I have had with them I have been a good role model and someone
to look up to. I hope they took something from some of the many conversations
we've had about goals, their future, exercise, school, sex, and boys. I hope I
have impacted their lives in a positive way. I will miss these girls when I
leave to head back to the states in June.
Make sure to check
in tomorrow for moment number 5 and if you haven't already done it, check out
numbers 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11!
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