Leaving the kids at the orphanage literally broke my heart in two. I knew it would be hard, but I had no idea what I was in for. The kids that I work with in the “casa de Amarillo” (the yellow house) are all ages 4-6 years, and they made me a mural with their handprints on it. It was so cute. They also sang me a farewell song which I luckily have on video (let’s hope my laptop doesn’t crash from so many pictures/videos from this trip). It was also hard for me to leave some of the older kids. After they had bullied me for the first couple weeks, we had actually built relationships through jokes and sarcasm as I built up on my Spanish vocabulary. I was told that the older kids have a hard time when volunteers leave because they have more of a vivid memory of the time shared then the younger ones.
I had one close friendship with a 16-year old named Belen. Belen has some really serious attitude problems, but somehow we built a friendship through boy talk (it always works to start a conversation), and I listened to her tell me stories about school and the drama going on. The last few days before I had to say goodbye, she began to ignore me completely. The women working in the house told me that it was because I was leaving and that she was just really hurt that I was leaving her. I felt awful. :( On my last day I was just about to leave and I lost it (I had lasted the entire day without crying) and Belen asked me what happened, the first thing she had said to me in days. She ended up walking me to the bus stop with my 2 English friends (Roxy & Lucy) and gave me a note and a painting. The note told me that she hopes that God watches out for me now & forever, and that I was the best friend she ever had and that she would always miss me. Although it was really hard to leave, I was glad that I had made connections with the kids, and impacted their life in a small way, especially Belen. She’s definitely one of the ones I will never forget.
Belen & I
The Wednesday before I had to leave, my host parents had a goodbye dinner for me (and early Birthday dinner). Matias, Mike, Nati and Pat were there which was really nice. Adri (my host mom) made “Disco Pollo” which is an Argentine tradition. It’s basically chicken cooked outside on an open fire with rice, vegetables, and lots of spices. It was deliciousss! It was nice to have one more dinner as a family (we ate lots of meals together, my host parents, Mike, Jimena & I. I’m really going to miss our dinner conversations, especially when Mike and I became able to contribute to the conversation in Spanish.
Mike & I, and our host family :)
On Thursday, a bunch of us went out to learn Salsa at a club. It was really fun! Matias was also teaching a bunch of us since he’s grown up with it. We also got to watch a salsa competition at the end which was amazing! It was good to go out with everyone one last time, but really hard to say goodbye. Friday I spent the day getting my things together and then with my local Argentine friends at Matias’s house. It was terrible saying goodbye. I haven’t cried that much in awhile but I think I was tired too which didn’t help. Before I left on Saturday morning, Adrianna (my host mom) gave me a note and a rosary. The note was lots of motherly advice in Spanish, and she told me I’m always welcome to stay in their house if I can come back. She also said that when I have kids someday, they have grandparents in Argentina :) . I know 3 months doesn’t seem like a long time to feel that close to people, but I really felt like I was leaving my family and friends in the USA behind (and thinking I was never going to see them again). I’m just grateful that I have such an awesome experience to be upset about leaving (if that makes any sense).
Okay now onto the beginning of Peru…
No comments:
Post a Comment