Las Despedidas.

The closest word for ¨despedida¨ in english would probably be ¨to say farewell¨. In french, ¨dire ses adieux¨. It´s something I really do not like doing, especially when it invovles people I´ve grown to love. The first despedida I had to make was at the hospital on Thursday morning. I said my goodbyes to the nurse there who took care of me and Janice. She was always so good to us and concerned for us. She was a real sweetheart. Then I said goodbye to the social worker. It´s so hard to leave these people, knowing that I´ll probably never see them again. Thursday afternoon I said goodbye to my adult English class. They were such great people. Then I said goodbye to the younger kids from my other English class. It was a tough day all in all. All these despedidas really made me realize how quickly this experience is coming to an end. This morning I has to do my hardest despedida so far, the day care. I gave all of them a little surprise bag with stickers and candies, which they were all very grateful for. Then all of a sudden it was noon and they were giving me hugs, saying ¨adios señorita Doucet¨. I didn´t expect it to be as hard as it was. On my walk back home, I cried. The thing is, they´re probably too young to realize that I won´t be coming back on Monday. They´ll probably ask the day care worker when I´ll be back, and she´ll have to answer ¨never¨, because that´s the truth. We come and go, us Intercordians. We have to go back for university, we have to return to the real world. But what about these people, these kids whom we get to know and then never see again. One of the hardest things for me is not knowing where these kids will end up. Will they get through school? Or will they end up marrying and having kids at 14? Will they become good people? Or will they get caught in some gang and get in trouble? It´s tough, I hadn´t expected how hard this would be.
Now all I have left is one full day with my host family. I leave Sunday morning. It will be very hard to leave, but at least I´m coming back after traveling to give them my cell phone and for a proper despedida. Initially, I really didn´t want to come back here after traveling, I felt terrible to go on vacation, spend a bunch of money, and come back to them. I still feel that way, but I also really want them to have my cell phone and I´ll need it to travel so it leaves me no choice but to come back.
Here goes, two more sleeps and I´m off. It´s so surreal to me that I´m leaving this place I´ve been living in for 3 months, a quarter of a year. I still haven´t processed everything that I´ve seen, witnessed or experienced here. It´ll take a while I´m sure. For the moment I´m just very pround and happy to have gone through this. The past three months have been hard, heartbreaking, eye-opening, but most of all, rewarding. I´m a changed person, and I owe it to all the people I´ve encountered here, who have enriched my life by simply being themselves.