[WATCH] Stranded China teachers are home!
"We thought they were never going to make it because their flights were delayed and they had to stay overnight at the Doha airport."
OR Tambo Airport was awash with emotion when the last batch of the young people who had been stranded in China arrived safely on home soil.
After a tormenting two hours waiting for them to get through Customs, their parents were overwhelmed by the first sight of them.
Read the initial article here: [WATCH] 35 of the 50 ‘teachers’ stranded in China are Krugersdorpers
“My child, my child,” Lorraine Theron yelled when she saw her daughter, Timoné, walking through the international arrivals gate.
Photo: Bianca Pindral.
Both she and her daughter cried with relief while holding each other and swaying ever so gently from side to side.
“My baby, you’re safe at last,” Lorraine said while drying the tears through her smeared mascara.
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Fifty young South Africans went to China to teach English, and were held by the Chinese government after the agent who arranged all their travelling details was arrested for fraud.
Timoné and seven other South Africans landed at about 10am on Thursday, 28 June at OR Tambo International Airport. They were part of the second group to land that day and all of them agreed to wait for the third and final group to land.
The airport branch of the Wimpy restaurant offered them free breakfast while they waited. And the youngsters’ smiles showed both exhaustion and relief at the sight of ‘normal’ scrambled eggs and milkshakes.
“We thought they were never going to make it, because their flights were delayed and they had to stay overnight at the Doha airport,” said Lorraine.
Timoné said that it wasn’t that bad, because the hotel they stayed in was ‘super fancy’ and they were treated very well.
But at the end of the day, they just wanted to go home.
The 50 teachers want to remind the public that not everyone was lucky enough to be able to return home – two of them are still in China. The two South African recruiters were held for questioning and are still being held by Chinese immigration.
Photo: Bianca Pindral.
Charl Venter, spokesperson for the group, said they’re now doing everything they possibly can to get the remaining two home.
“We will be reopening the BackABuddy fund to raise money to fight alongside the government and get the last two home,” said Venter.
For more information about this issue, visit the Facebook page ‘Our abandoned kids in China’ on https://www.facebook.com/Our-kids-are-coming-home-597876493944165/
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