Service Completed

On the 6th of November, 27 months of service ended. Last week we spent saying a great many goodbyes, to students and teachers, to neighbors, to coworkers, to friends and even dogs. Overall it has been an overwhelming, happy, sad, and exhausting few weeks. Of course the full signficance has not yet set in, we still seem to think in the back of our minds that we will soon be returning to our community, house, and friends of these past two years. Even though we were ready and excited to leave, we still felt a strange sense of dread crossing the border out of Nicaragua the other day, leaving a world that has become so familiar for one unknown. I guess that fact reveals that we truly achieved what we set out to accomplish, integrating into a world that at first was completely foreign.

We leave feeling satisfied, in our work and our relationships. We received many thanks and heartfelt goodbyes, and of course made many promises to return soon. Our last night we spent together with our entire group, now to a diminished 11 volunteers, marveling at how far we've come and how close we became as friends. One of the unforseen regrets of leaving is the dispersal of our group across the US upon our return.

The two of us now head out on a 40 day tour of South America. After enduring strong urges to cancel our flight to Peru and head home instead, we made it to San Jose, Costa Rica for our one-night stay. Of course the we had to fight an even stronger urge to fly home while waiting for our connecting flight in Miami. At last, we made it to Lima and as we hoped we would, got into the traveling mode.