so many goodbyes

yesterday = CRAZY day- i went running at 6am, showered, and met camille in chichigua. OH- this means i walked the cow-path AND caught a public gua-gua ALONE for the first time. (such a big girl, right mom?) ok so i was excited about that.. anyway, in chichigua camille said her goodbyes to everyone (really sad bc she got really close to people after being here 2 years), introduced me to everyone, and explained some of the living situations and relational dynamics. i am so thankful for her desire to fill me in. we had a meeting at 9 so we went to the school and talked about what these next few weeks will look like and what school will be like- SO EXCITED! there is so much to do and i can’t wait!!

after the meeting i went with weston, cristina, and camille to pancho mateo to meet more families and put the kids to their homes and families. one of my favorite boys from last year, lisandro, and his sister walked around with us. i can’t even explain how great it is to hear “ah-sh-leeeee!!” and then see him and his little sister sprinting to me. weston dropped me off at the girl’s apartment (we’d ridden his moto scooter to pancho) where everyone was meeting up. after lunch anne, robin, kate, and i went to chichigua to register kids for school. this process means going into the kids’ homes and asking a few questions (like if they’re coming, have shot records etc). this can actually be tough bc, especially in chichigua, some parents only speak kreyole and don’t understand our spanish. another hard (and really sad) part was that there are many who don’t know their child’s birthday or real age.. all of this was before 2:30. whew!

that night we went to doña luce’s house where weston lives bc they had a goodbye party for everyone leaving. It started at 9:30 though so we were all exhausted. the heat really can wear you out! ..and we have no air conditioning to escape to so it is HOT. the party was fun though. a guy from church made the people leave talk about what they learned and we sang some songs. it was humorous and great. when we got back at like 11:30 we all crashed.

today (21st)
sad day. weston, camille, laurin, and meghan all left. we packed with laurin all morning and then went to camille and robin’s to hang out a little longer. after picking up weston we took them to the airport.. ☹

anne, kate, and I decided we should run errands in downtown puerto plata (partly to distract ourselves from the fact that they actually left) and we took brianna (of the storm family). we searched a few stores for tubs for the classrooms, explored a cathedral, went to the bank, grocery shopped, went to the orange (a phone service like at&t)..