Wednesday and Thursday, June 9 & 10

Wednesday

I had a pretty easy day. We celebrated Mrs. Lopez and Tad’s birthdays by having cake after school, then we made our last Wednesday trip into town. We stayed there to buy some things and use the internet at Guancascos. Sitting at Guancascos, staring at the beautiful blue sky with a variety of clouds and a hint of sunset and the mountains, I realized how much I was going to miss this place: the tranquility, simplicity. There aren’t mountains in Michigan; it’s all flat. I feel like now that the time has come to say goodbye I want to do so much more, see so much more, take it all in so much more, but I can’t. It’s not like I’m never going to be able to come back to Honduras, but it’ll will probably be a while until I do. Definitely one of those moments I realized that I’m at the end. We headed back up to Villa Verde before dinner because with the end of the week coming, it also means grades and recuperation tests are due to the administration. I feel like there’s so much to do the next few days between finishing final grades, finishing recuperation tests and study guides for three different classes, packing and planning the last minute details for my trip, and preparing myself to say goodbye to my students and the girls.

Thursday

These last few days are very relaxed because I don’t teach as many classes and it’s the last few days of school. My kids had PE, so I was able to finish my grades and recup tests. I turned in my teacher curriculum which meant no more teaching per se. I just enjoyed my day with my kids by playing games and doing fun projects, like making our own planets in science. All of us found out Tulito isn’t coming back next year because his parents are separating. Almost all the boys and many of the girls started crying during the middle of our spelling bee, and they didn’t stop crying until the end of the school day! I felt heartbroken seeing them cry and it almost made me start crying. This also meant I had to say goodbye to Tulito as well as Adolfo because they wouldn’t be at school tomorrow. It was the first of many goodbyes in the next 48 hours. For dinner, all of us girls went down to Gracias for dinner at one of our favorite places, Bella Celaque. They give you so much food for like $2.50 and I was stuffed. We had some good conversations about our year in Honduras, what we’ve learned, what we’ll miss, what we’re looking forward to when we get home. Afterwards a few of the girls went to go get coffee while LB and I did some errands. There was a lack of working mototaxi drivers that we knew, so Laura Beth and I ended up just hailing a random taxi to take us up. It was dark and rainy and we told the guy we wanted to go to Villa Verde, but he would only take us up to the school. So here LB and I are, in the dark, in the rain, walking up the mountain with no flashlight. Sound familiar? Yeah I did this one of the first weeks I was here in Honduras with Jacki and Sarah, too. Full circle...