About a Boy...an Australian Boy.

I am currently at the airport in Johannesburg from Manzini waiting for my flight back to London...Its a 5hr airport waiting time. I have already had an express massage (head shoulder back and foot) and i am currently having lunch at the News cafe. I ordered a chicken, bacon and mozzarella wrap which ended up being very dry and not so tasty. I also ordered a skinny latte which equally tasted like crap. I am very fussy about food so yes...that was a waste. Anyway the highlight of my News cafe experience was meeting an Australian woman. She sat opposite me...tall, lovely fashion sense, blonde and well toned. I could tell she works out a lot. Her stilettos were cute..i noticed it when she crossed her legs to use her pink ipad. This woman is probably in her late 30s or early 40s.  As i waited for what ended up being a horrible order, i saw her crying...awkward. So what do i say to a stranger sitting opposite  me with tears streaming down? At first i thought it must have been  man issues...i mean only men can make a grown woman cry in a public place.  I couldn’t just ignore her because as you will come to find, i am an absolutely caring individual. So i asked what the problem was. She told me she was a teacher and she just learnt from facebook that one of her students in Australia had been beaten  to death by a gang of men near a pub. This was unprovoked.

I rushed to her side to console this blonde stranger. She wasn’t expecting that and kept apologising if her tears made me feel uncomfortable. She told me he was 19, bright, young, and just got a scholarship to University. She taught him Maths, English and Science. She saw him everyday and got to know him because according to her, when kids are given assignments, they pour out their hearts and so you kind of know about them from what they write. I was very happy for her to cry on my shoulder and tell me about this young man who had his bright future taken away from him by a bunch of drunk men probably. She couldn’t understand how in a country thats so developed, a privileged young man got killed just like that. I thought to myself...he was just a victim ..in the wrong place at the wrong time. This got me thinking about TIMING and how peoples lives could change in a matter of seconds ..but thats a story for another day.

After the sad moments we got talking about what we do and where we were travelling to. She is a teacher thats carrying out research to change the education system in Australia...IMPRESSIVE. She said the current system is outdated and hasn’t evolved...that kids that can cram get more credit and this shouldn't be the case. She feels that students need to be graded based on creativity...not just regurgitation. I couldn’t agree more. She said the problems in the world keep getting more and more complicated and what we need are creative students that can think out of the box...not a bunch of zombies.  After this she spoke of her work in Rwanda and Tanzania and how every time she travels to any African country, she never wants to go back home. She misses her flights on purpose because she learns  a lot from Africans. She said she learns how to LOVE from Africans.  She expressed how in Europe people just walk around like zombies and have no family values or sense of togetherness and she finds its the opposite in Africa. She said she LEARNS a lot from Africans...not the other way round...she learns how to LOVE and how to be human

Immediately it hit me. This woman was like me.  She is not disconnected from the realities of this earth. She is a researcher who teaches and finds a way to balance her passion for research and the scary world out there. She doesn’t get carried away by grants, what funders want, or just getting published for the sake of it. She is PASSIONATE...thats what drives her...and she cares a lot for all her students...she told me she loved every single one..but as a teacher you cant tell them that directly because its wrong to do so ( i doubt anyone wants to be accused of ‘flirting with a student’).

The last thing she said to me was she finds it terribly difficult to go back home when she sees the poverty and suffering going on in Rwanda. I felt her pain. That moment i realized there are inhumane issues happening all over the world. That’s why an innocent and privileged 19yr old Australian boy can get killed a couple of blocks away from home.. and a Rwandan girl gets raped and gets HIV and a child which she ends up abandoning. There are issues everywhere in the world and it takes passionate people like this blonde lady to solve the problems. I think Career paths should be chosen by passion and not grades. if that was the case i feel the world we live in would be very different.

R.I.P Dear Australian Boy.