First, Maruge and his family and some friends dropped me off at the airport, said our farewells and I had then successfully gotten on the plane and was headed home. Well actually there was not a direct flight to Santa Barbara or even Los Angeles from the Eldoret airport. I began thinking about the things I had learned. I remembered all the times I had spent with Maruge and tried to come up with the most important thing I had learned. I remember from day one the new faces, games, and dances. The wonderful meal from day two and the taste and smell of the new foods and the women singing in the kitchen. How it was like to go to school at Kapkenduiywo Primary School when I went on day three. The new words in Swahili Maruge taught me on day four. The conversation I had with Teacher Jane and what she had told me about Maruge on day five. Then when I went on a walk with Maruge in the African Forest and had an very emotional conversation with him while he would stop to point out the plants and animals and why they were important in their lives or if they were poisonous on day six. And on the day before I left- day seven when I had seen how some of the villagers make their money by vending on the street but not like in some other places where they beg for you to buy it, they mostly just wanted me to see there work and talent. But then I thought and I realized the most important thing I had learned was determination. I new Maruge was determined from the beginning and from watching the movie The First Grader, but it was much different actually witnessing it and talking to Teacher Jane and Maruge himself.
uamuzi- determination in Swahili
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