Boarding school???

I was having cuddles with a delightful 6 year old girl the day before yesterday. She and her family were starting their trip back to Zambia yesterday and we were talking about school. I asked her if she had enjoyed school here in Australia - she had started preps. She said she did, but the thing she liked most was that she could come home every day.

When she goes back to Zambia she will be going to boarding school with her 3 older siblings - it's not SOOOOO far from where they live so they will go home for a day each weekend and then there is half term.... but it isn't the same. I know..... I've done the boarding school thing.

I went to boarding school when I was 10 - and because my family was so dysfunctional, in many ways it was a relief for me... but sometimes I wonder, if I had stayed at home and gone to day school, whether my mental health problems would have been dealt with sooner?? You can't go back and undo things, but my heart went out to this little girl and to her parents who are caught between what they believe is their calling, and the impact this has on their family.

She is a confident, outgoing, charismatic child and I'm sure she will make good friends and I trust she will have nurturing dorm parents - which is more than I had. She said she will write me emails - I will need to get her address from her oma, once the kids get back to school. She will be 8 when she returns to Australia next.

Mmmmmmm, it is all very difficult.