Goodbyes

I still can't comprehend that in 36 hours I'll be on my way to the airport. This past week has been full of Christmas, goodbyes, and too little sleep.

Two Fridays ago we had a goodbye volunteer potluck for me. Everyone brought a dish, and to be honest, we all really came through. Given the food that usually happens at our houses, the banana bread, fried yucca patties, brownies, mashed potatoes, and creamy cilantro spaghetti were unprecedented and completely delicious. We had a really nice time, though that became the beginning of my goodbyes.

On Monday I went to my last tutoring session at Carlos' house. His family had bought me an entire sheet cake from San Pedro to say goodbye. 

Tuesday night was the first night of Hanukkah. I celebrated by attending the staff Christmas party at our house. The entire school faculty showed up with food, we ate, and then we awkwardly gave gifts in front of everyone to our Secret Santas. Dulce, my classroom aide and the person to which I had been giving gifts, told me that the pack of fruit snacks that I had regifted to her (from one of my kids) was gummy vitamins. Oops.

Wednesday was my last tutoring session at Hernan's. He fell asleep midway through the tutoring, which had never happened before. I guess in some way it must have been symbolic of our learning together.

Thursday night Hernan's family held a going away party for me. They invited all the volunteers, served us enormous plates of delicious Honduran tacos, and hung out with us for hours. We made it home around midnight and woke up for school a few short hours later.

With this week being the last week of school before break, Christmas was in full swing. We made ornaments and played with bubbles. I finished all 30 pairs of foam antlers last weekend for our Christmas performance, and Tuesday's antler fitting went well. During our Thursday dress rehearsal, complete with antlers, tails, and red noses, my kids started sort of actually singing the song.

Friday: my last day as a Prepa teacher, my last day with my kids, and the last day of school before Christmas. When I walked over to Prepa before school began, one of my girls was already in tears over the fact that I was leaving. As I held her for a solid four minutes I fought back tears of my own. Later in the morning, I was summoned back to Prepa. When I walked into the classroom, all 30 of my kids jumped out of their seats and hugged me at once. As they hugged me, they said the phrase that had been newly taught to them by an aide that morning, "Miss Eliza, thank you for teaching me," and that about broke my heart in two. I still can't believe they learned that. We had a cute surprise goodbye party for me, ate cake and a meal, played outside, hugged, and took pictures. Hernan bought me a donut. The kids were absolutely thrilled with the Christmas bags I'd made for them. After an extremely unproductive and hot Christmas pageant walk-through, the day was done. Teaching is over.

Later, the Christmas pageant only started 45 minutes late. Somehow the first act, my kids were damn cute.

The evening then consisted of taking pictures with kids, watching mediocre Christmas performances, serving tamales to families, and holding back tears. And that was the end, I guess.