Despedida (Farewell)

Today the Estancia family said goodbye to Tara, a Danli business volunteer, who has just completed two years of service in Danli. Tara had training in Danli, during which she and some friends lead the Estancia students in painting a world map on the wall of the school. Tara was later assigned to Danli for her two years of service and has been visiting the Estancia weekly in addition to her other committments as a business volunteer. She has done several projects with the students involving the map, and some of them now can name more countries than me! She created a few scavenger hunts for the children which were fun and helped me think about more ways to be creative when working with them.

For Tara´s despedida, we gave her a book (above) from pages that the students had drawn and written on. Each student also made her a little heart with sayings on it and their name, and then each took turns giving their "heart" to Tara. We then played a game in which each student popped a balloon and had to perform the task decided by the piece of paper inside. My favorite was the ranchera (country) song a few of them sang to her. Afterwards, we had pepsi and baleadas (flour tortillas with beans and chicken or sour cream).

Students waiting in line for baleadas

(left: Students eating baleadas at Tara´s farewell)

I am sad to see Tara go but there is some good coming out of it...I´m moving into her apartment next weekend! The apartment is in a more central location, which will be very convenient, and it has two bedrooms and bathrooms which is another step up. I am mainly moving because there is a mold problem in the house I currently rent that has been giving me health problems. There is very little ventilation, and the few windows face the dirt road, letting in more dust and giving me more sinus problems. The new place is on the second floor (more privacy) and on a paved road (less dust), so once again, will be a huge improvement.

Okay off to home for the weekend. I hope you enjoyed the update and please be patient with me as I try to make writing on the blog a better habit.

Thank you to my friend Erin who took the above pictures!