It´s happening. Time is slipping away from me. Life is moving too quickly. I am fighting for those moments when I can take a minute to reflect on what is going on around me. The first volunteers from my group are already home. The first one arrived in the U.S. Saturday morning. I however, had opted (not sure if it was the best decision- verdict still out) to finish my service a little bit later. Us Peace Corps volunteers are given a window to basically get the heck out of their hair and be on our merry way; for us it is between Oct. 21st and Dec. 21st. I elected for November 21st, two years later (to the day) of being sworn in as a volunteer after training so very long ago (or at least it feels like it).
So this leaves me with very little time left in site and the scary feeling that every minute counts. Work wise, this is a little stressful. Closing and finishing projects is never easy. The case is no different from me. I still have things to do! I still have charlas to give! The second annual district marathon took place on Saturday and I can say with pride, went off without a glitch. New t-shirts were made for the teen health promoters and I’d say that we looked hot (I got one of course). There were no faintings, just some tired kids who climbed aboard the ambulance halfway through but overall, I don’t think many kids took in the message about fighting alcoholism but had a good time anyways. It was a nice last public event for the community.
However, while not as stress-inducing but scary to think about are all of the goodbyes that are going to have to start taking place soon. Even contemplating the magnitude of emotions that my last week here is going to bring makes me unable to think about it. I guess I’ll deal with that hurdle when it gets here. So instead, I’ll regale you all of the time spent with my parents when they came down for a SECOND (yes, as in #2) visit last month.
I guess the first time had enough of an impression to warrant a second visit from my padres. However, there would be no Machu Picchu this round- it would be solely Tumbes-oriented. Awesome. I will admit, I was nervous as anything thinking about all of the traveling we were going to have to do back and forth from my site and the traveling through Tumbes city that this would require. My mom had ahead of time booked for us to stay a night or two in a beach town nearby in a place that she said according to the internet, got great reviews and we would therefore be staying there. I wasn’t expecting much.
Turns out, Mom was so right and could not have chosen a better place. I’m not kidding, this hotel was a piece of heaven that God had made for a beach in Bali or Hawaii but made a technical error and it was instead sent to Tumbes. There was an infinity pool. With rocks in it. And hammocks everywhere. And comfy ergo-matic lounge chairs. The list could go on. I won’t even get started on the beds. Just know that I am seriously indebted to mom and dad for paying for us to stay in such a place as this.
The first day of their adventure was spent all day in site. They got to visit two schools and meet the kids and teens I work with. I had made a promise earlier in the week to bring my parents by one of the elementary schools I do a project in. So we went. I was expecting you know, a giant ¨GOOD MORNING¨, quick intro and goodbye. Clearly the kids of I.E. Fidel Oyola Romero were thinking otherwise. They had us sit down, participate in a 20-minute Q&A sesh where the kids asked m parents various questions and then something I really wasn´t expecting. The teacher asked one of the students, Byron, if he could recite a little bit of poetry for my parents. After walking to the front of the classroom, he began to do a very enthusiastic poetry recital, complete with lots of enthusiastic moving around (think swooping of the arms, getting down on his knees…). He was talking about the banana trees and how pretty our town is (which I kind of beg to differ- especially when he mentioned how beautiful the river was…all I could think about was the illegal amount of arsenic contamination floating around). Of course Mom and Dad didn´t understand any of it, but I think they were impressed with Byron´s periodic ¨AYYY!¨´s and dancing. Another student, Yosari got called up and began to sing and while I definitely appreciated the beauty of all of this, I was trying so hard not to laugh because a. My parents had no idea what was going on and b. I told them we would just be shaking hands with the students. Whoops.
Em and Kev also got to deliver a large pack of books, coloring books and puzzles that they had bought in the states and in Lima for the library. The kids were ecstatic and I was too when I saw that my Mom had bought (in Spanish) ¨Good Night Moon¨ and ¨The Very Mean Ladybug¨( a sequel to ¨The Very Hungry Caterpillar¨). ¨Good Night Moon¨ has been a favorite ever since and the puzzles never go untouched. They got to meet Jesús and all of the precious children that I get to ¨work¨(play) with everyday. See facebook for photos.
Finally, they got to see the host fam. Oh I can´t even describe how much I love it when my worlds come together and my two families get to meet. There is a lot of signing involved and my mom usually just busts out some French hoping ¨the romance language connection¨ will allow a few words to translate. Fail. Dad had a little bit more luck but of course the man bragged to us throughout all of our childhoods how he wrote a high school paper on his then-dog ¨Clancy¨ in Spanish. We all went to a swanky (note: sarcasm) restaurant in my town where the options were pig, goat, turkey or ceviche. Mom opted for turkey which I think she found a little hard to eat because unlike in the States, the turkey here comes on the bone with all of the fat and skin included. YUM! Dad and I split a ceviche and I must admit, I was very proud of the man for trying raw, lime-soaked fish for lunch. Albeit, he had continuous intestinal problems for the rest of the trip (while I didn´t, a first!) but at least he got the experience under his belt. Once again, I cried when we all departed my town but I was quickly back on guard again after passing through Tumbes on a Sunday afternoon. Picture: a desolate town, everything is closed, men (I say vago, you say, scary men) are patrolling the streets and we need to get to another part of town to catch a car to our hotel. Luckily I called a guy who owned a car to wait for us so he was there when we pulled into Tumbes. Upon entering the car, he told us that a few men down the street were eyeing him and his car so he promptly hid his gold necklace, his ring, his cell phone and his car radio to prevent further ¨problems.¨ Yep. Gotta love Tumbes.
However, we all got back to the hotel safely and dined on delicious dinner before getting ready to meet the rest of the Tumbes volunteers for lunch the next day and then head down to Piura to meet Chris (yay!) and go shopping in an artisan market, Catacaos (double yay!) It was awesome to have them meet the people that have made my existence here possible and I can´t wait for us all to have a DC reunion with them soon.
Alas, all good things have to come to an end so my time with Em and Kev had to meet its close. Fortunately, these next few months are, like I said, flying by and before I know it, I´ll be with them once again. December 18th baby!!!
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