Today was a very bittersweet day. We managed to completely finish the lunchroom cantina construction a day early, which means that in our free time tomorrow we get to drive down to the Belize zoo! After reading The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw earlier this year, we are all super excited to see the zoo and meet Sharon Matola (hopefully)!
Even though we were excited about the completion of our construction project, finishing a day early meant that today was our last day at the school and our last day with the kids. These kids have stolen our hearts in the few days we have been with them; they have the most cheerful and bright personalities and always can put a smile on your face. As we loaded our stuff up in the van to head back to Corozal, the reality that this was our last couple minutes with the children really started to sink in. A couple mini soccer games got going and hugs were had all around. There were very few dry eyes as we said our last goodbyes, removed some stowaways from the van, and watched them run after us as we drove away.
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| Amanda, Maggie and Cynthia |
Besides the fact that it was our last day at Chan Chen, everything else was very upbeat! Breakfast was bright and early this morning at 6:30, and then we went immediately to the school to start setting up for our classes and the health fair. The students wrote pen pal letters, worked on computer literacy, made a collage of healthy and unhealthy life choices, learned about healthy relationships, and were taught an at home ten-minute workout.
After the morning classes we had a quick break for lunch and then it was time for the celebration! We had a bunch of different game stations (water bucket relay, cake walk, water balloon toss), fun with the piñatas made in arts & crafts class, and even a live DJ! The students performed their Cha Cha Slide dance which they learned in PE class earlier in the week. Parents of the children we had in our classes came out to the school to watch their children and interact with us volunteers. The celebration lasted 3 hours and was a blast, although I was so exhausted afterwards I could barely think straight and I'm sure others were in the same boat!
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| Pinatas for the children's party |
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| Chan Chen Celebs |
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| Hugs goodbye |
At the end of the day, we powered through the finishing touches on the lunch cantina, and I have to say the structure looked pretty nice when all was said and done! We even were able to paint the Boise State logo on one of the walls!
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| Boise State logo inside the cantina |
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| Children lining up to play games |
We had dinner at Tony's, which is a nice resort about 5 minutes from our hotel. The resort is absolutely gorgeous and right on the water, and they had turtles we could feed some lettuce to! Principle Carlos surprised us and showed up at dinner, and a good time was had by all.
Having to leave the school and the children after forming such strong bonds with everyone there was, in my opinion, the hardest part of this service trip so far, and the most memorable part of the day. It was definitely an emotional car ride back to our hotel, and we all will dearly miss our friends at Chan Chen Elementary. However, in the words of Winnie the Pooh, "how lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," which is so true!
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| Hitting that pinata was fun |
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| Group pic in front of the finished Cantina (2 years in the making) |
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