OUR FINAL WORKWEEK

Our final workweek is only a few days away and we use this time to organize all the paperwork we have accumulated over the past 5 months and get the RV ready for the long haul back home.
We invite a few friends for a BBQ and get ready for the final group of volunteers for the season. 

It's a very small group of four people. Dan, from Portland, Oregon, who also participated in November, sponsored by GROW, (the banana people). Pat from California, who has been with us several times before and her daughter Diane and her son Sean, from Chicago. 
Our activities this week will be slightly different  and likely less tiring.


We start with Spanish lessons, followed by salsa and Guagamole making lessons from Doña Meche.

We have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to deliver a complete set of soccer uniforms to the local team of which our scholar Cande is a member and this is it.


Finding enough Jerseys of the same colour for a group of adults of which we don't even know the sizes is a challenge, but with a little bit of luck, this will work. We walk to the soccer field where the players are waiting for us. After a bit of trading here and there everyone is fitted with shorts and jersey.





We still have some work to do at the Hacienda. After a brief explanation, everyone finds an area in which they can help.
Diane and Sean, place labels in the books Pat brought. Pat take an inventory of the volunteer t-shirts and Dan sorts some donated clothes.

This week is Ted's birthday. Ted hates birthdays and insists that there is no fuss made over it.

Well, if the birthdays of our volunteers can not be ignored, Ted will also have to suffer. 

Lunch is at Doña Meche's today and Anilu has invited all staff members. She also arranged for a birthday cake. Ted is too smart however to allow Ramiro to put his face in the cake.

With the majority of staff members on site. We arrange to have a little farewell presentation. The three of us have put together a basket full of goodies for the staff to share and in return we are presented with a large plaque.
It's not easy to say goodbye to everyone who have helped us so much making this season a success. We appreciate their friendship, their support, and patience, when I tried to communicates in Spanish and in turn tried to understand them.

Other than several book deliveries, our volunteers participate in the weekly homework class and visit the home of our students. I take Pat and Sean to Cande's humble home, where I finally get to meet his mother. What a proud mother she is. Two of her children are our most active scholars and both are a delight to be with.

We have one more opportunity to visit the children at Queseria, and prepare some games and a Piñata. We know many of the children don't even know when their birthday is, let along having a birthday party with a Piñata. 

We stuff the cavity with all sorts of candies and find a vehicle in which the Piñata can be transported.






While Ramiro and Joe hang the Piñata, Pat leads all the little children to the field where we are going to blow bubbles.

 

I have one more opportunity to hug all my little angels. Who knows which one will be back next year. I have gotten to know quite a few of them and they have gotten to know me. I am delighted to hear them call my name. I never thought they would actually remember.

   When it's time to start with the Piñata, I all of a sudden have 30 kids around me all wanting the first turn. It's a good thing Meastra Tita is there to keep them all in line, and once we have a system going, the swinging of the stick is going in a very organized fashion. 

They hit that stick as hard as they can, and after almost all of them had a swing at it, we make it a bit easier and let them break the Piñata. As soon as the first candies fall out they all dive to the ground.



We have one more activity planned. In the other classroom, Francis - our special ed teacher - has arranged to have a little theater play for all of us and the children. Ironically it is about eating candy and tooth decay.  Ah well, they can eat their candy as long as they brush their teeth. Cesar is playing the child who eats the candy and drinks the Coke. He does a great job.

On the final day of the workweek Beto takes the four volunteers to the coast for book deliveries and lunch at the Hamacas.
Joe, Ramir and I are staying behind, but I am pretty well done with all my work and ready to leave. I am getting restless. 

We say goodbye to Jorge and Lety, who have both been wonderful helping us in everything that has to do with the students; Arranging for visits between the volunteers and their sponsored child, searching for bios and organizing the homework club and home visits, and providing information to satisfy my curiosity and help me learn all about the way the scholarship program works. They have been wonderful.




We have also said goodbye to Anilu, who has been the biggest support; the housekeepers and Tina our cook, but there is one more person we need to say goodbye to, and that is Diego. He also turned out to be a great friend. He has driven us and the volunteers to all the places we needed to go to. We will miss him and all the others.

And now what? It's Friday, we still have our farewell dinner with the volunteers tonight, have all day Saturday to finish packing, and are not scheduled to leave until Sunday. 

 
There is a place we like to visit one more time and that's the beach. Joe is all game and Ramiro has no hesitation either. We hop in the car and within 1 hour and 20 minutes we are at the coast, where we enjoy a long walk at the beach. When the volunteers are scheduled to arrive at La Hamacas, we show up and surprise them.
Well, surprised they are.

That concludes the 2010-2011 Work Week season. What a great five months this has been; We coordinated 150 volunteers for 9 work weeks. Delivered thousands of books, played with hundred of children. Made dozens of new friends and experienced so many wonderful events.
It's been fun and it has been tiring, but we'll do it all over again next season, but first we need a rest.