School Leaving Ceremony

So yesterday was a sad day.

After a week of getting the reports together, the final signatures and stamps were finished and we were ready to trot out and say goodbye for the last time. When we arrived at the school, a lot of the kids were already there armed with flowers and small gifts that they gave to their various teachers. Usually a teacher would get flowers from the class that they teach and as we teach across five different classes we ended up filling our desk with enough flowers to supply a small wedding. By the time the the actual ceremony started, we had already had a number of emotional hugs and words with students. It was going to be a hard afternoon.

The Grade One kids started by singing some English songs which they had learned during the year. They were quite good and obviously really enjoyed performing. Then there were a few more speeches until we were suddenly asked to stand up. Sanyi, our principal, then made a very nice speech thanking us for our time here but the really touching moment came when Ili got the kids to approach and say a few words in English. It was really amazing. The Grade Ones and Twos said their piece as a group then sent up even more presents, and the Grade Threes and Fours came up in groups of two. It was amazing and we were soon overloaded with even more flowers and gifts.

But Amanda and I were ready for our comeback. For the last four weeks we have been practicing a speech in Hungarian. We wrote it in English, then sent it to our friend Anikó, who translated it for us and helped us practice.

After the ceremony finished, we went around to each of our classrooms and said our final goodbyes to the kids. There were a lot of tears and yet more gifts. It was really amazing. It was so hard to say goodbye to all these children that have meant so much to us over the last two years. We are going to try and keep in touch over facebook and email, but it's still very sad.

- Daniel.