My last couple of weeks in Ciudad were definitely ones that I’ll never be able to forget. I decided that as there was such little time left, I would spend my weekends working in Sonrisa with my older boys. The look on their faces when I turned up to work on the first Saturday morning nearly made me cry. They came running up to me, jumping on me and I’ve never had such sloppy kisses. I spent the day playing with the boys, them showing me all their new toys, cuddling up with them to play memory cards etc. It was just such an amazing day and I think that I used to really take for granted the little moments that I got to spend with them. I also for the first time showed people (Elsa and Maribel) the completed version of the Ciudad video project that Laura and I have spent the last 3 months doing. It’s a 20 minute long video with videos and photos of all the houses in Ciudad, events that they do and what goes on inside the walls. I have to say, I’m very proud of it and luckily they really liked it too and wanted a copy! I’m going to try and get it onto Youtube so that everyone can see it but I’m not sure how to just yet.
Even though during the last week I was trying to keep it out of my mind that we were leaving, it was pretty hard. As news spread through the boys that it was our last week more and more people came up to us asking why we were leaving, whether we would be coming back and why can’t we just stay. Difficult questions to answer, especially with the younger kids that just don’t understand. We spent the whole of the weeks breaks packing up our things, doing a final big clean of the apartment and the ludoteca, trying to get a copy of our dvd round to all the tutors.
Our last weekend was absolutely amaaazing. It started on Friday which was a religious holiday so our boys didn’t have school. We decided to take them on a paseo (field trip) to a park around a 10 minute combi ride away. (Off note – I’m writing this in Miami airport and I just got seriously asked if i’m going to London to compete in the Olympics HA). The park had playgrounds, football pitches, sandpits, basically any 3-6 year olds dream. I’ve never seen the kids have such fun. They just ran around kicking footballs, chasing bouncy balls, falling off monkey bars, running up slides etc. I obviously had to join in. When we left there were no combi’s that went past Ciudad so we had to do the 45 minute walk back along a dirty, nasty side road all holding hands with their partners. It was like an extension of the trip with the kids having races at certain parts, avoiding the dead dog in the path and splashing through the puddles. So much fun.
When we got back we were told that there was a visita (normally where a group comes in and gives stuff/plays with the boys) at 4pm so we had to shower the muddy kids straight away. This is where my density came in useful. There were so many signs, yet I didn’t know that this ‘visita’ was actually a party for us leaving, until we got right to the door and saw all the other volunteers, Nino Jesus, Sonrisa, San Antonio and Anita saying “SORPRESA, ES PARA USTEDES” (SURPRISE IT’S FOR YOU GUYS). Literally didn’t have a clue so it was the most amazing surprise. There was a huge banner in the room with all of our faces on saying ‘Gracias Jesus’ and a huge chocolate cake that they made in the Ciudad bakery with a poster of our faces on it.
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| Cake made for us in the Ciudad bakery |
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| Huge poster of us found on the wall |
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| Pinyata Pile-On |
So, at 7:15pm I went to Sonrisa to find all the kids outside with Rosanna and Miriam playing games. I went to join them, then Maribel leant out of the window to say that it was ready so we all went back around the front, they blindfolded me and Rosanna, we went into a dark room then they all yelled SORPRESA as they turned the lights on. They had decorated the whole place with balloons, put up posters on the wall saying thank you and there were two tables covered in plates of sweets, popcorn, juice etc.
I can’t even explain how much it meant to me that they even invited me along after leaving and changing to Nino Jesus. They led us into the centre where we sat down and the games commenced. First they had ties a string with 6 balloons with either sweets or flour in them. They blindfolded me again and Maribel walked me to the line where I had to try and pop the balloons with a ruler. She spun me 3x then I went for it with all the boys shouting ‘mas alla’, ‘no mas aca’. I don’t know if they realized that I couldn’t see where here and there meant. I ended up whacking the line down instead. Me and Rosanna had a couple more goes then the boys had a few goes which was funny. Specially watching Ricardo, the smallest boy jumping up and down blindfolded swinging a pointy ruler around his head.
The next few games were where you tie a balloon to your leg and try and pop everyone elses, where you had to race to a chair and pop the balloon by sitting on it and pin the tail on the donkey. All with hilarious endings. After games we handed out the food to the boys and some of them gave speeches saying thank you and wishing us well. Diego’s speech was so cute. He talked about how Rosanna is like a flower growing inside their hearts and developing. I don’t know if he wrote it but it was adorable. After speeches came dancing which is always fun. We got to see the boys salsaing, getting down to reggaeton etc. Alex, my biggest boy, kept coming up to me and pushing all the other boys away so that he could grab my hands and dance with me. At one point I was dancing with all of the boys that I had last year which was so nice, like being back at the Christmas visitas dancing with them. At the end of the night the boys gave us the blessing and then a present each of a bag with a really nice Inka key chain and a card with all of the boys names in it. It was easily one of the best nights of my life.
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| Decorations and Guillermo about the introduce the night |
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| Rosanna being directed to the balloons |
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| Dancing time |
On the Saturday Hannah and I went into Nino Jesus to play in the morning. At about 10am we got a call from the reception saying that something had arrived for us. We went to find a huge envelope each with the Ciudad address on and our names on with the most amazing card inside. Anita and Elisa had made a card in the shape of a heart, beautifully decorated, with the kids fingerprints, and with around 7 pages all signed and written on by nearly all the staff in Ciudad. Got to admit I got a little teary when I saw it. Reading everyones comments made me realize how much I’m going to miss even the people that I don’t spend all my time with but see on a daily basis.
In the afternoon I went into Sonrisa again. I played a lot of football with the boys and a lot of checkers. I even played Maribel but she whooped me. That night Hugo took us all out for a meal which was lovely. We went to an Italian restaurant and he ended up telling us a lot about his life, how we became a monk etc so it was really good to find out a bit more about his life. After the meal we went for our final trip to Café Z for a few piscinas (fish bowls) with all of the volunteers.
Sunday was mainly a day for packing and sorting all of our stuff out. I’d finished around 3pm ish so went to Sonrisa and sat with the boys to watch a film. The only boys that were left during the visit were Alex, Andrew, Quimper and Jean Pierre (all my last year’s boys) and each one of them snuggled right into me which was so nice. During our final Mass we typically got asked up to the front so the whole of church could give us the blessing. Nice, but always a bit awkward. When we got back to Nino Jesus after the kids all came up to us one by one to say bye. It was all going fine until Angels (gorgeous 3yr old) turn. You could see him welling up then once he’d hugged us both he burst into tears which made me get teary. Once we’d said our byes to them I headed to Sonrisa for my final goodbyes. I was feeling fine about it at the time, until I had Andrew on one side and Gerardo on the other side who both wouldn’t let go. Alex made me feel better though cracking jokes to lighten the mood. Man I love those boys. Then came the time to say bye to Maribel and Elsa. We first gave them the flowers that we’d bought them, then they wanted photos with us and the flowers which took a bit longer, then Maribel wouldn’t give me a hug to say bye and instead we walked to the lavanderia together, chatted for another 20 minutes until we finally had to say bye. I’m normally a wreck so I’m quite proud that I kept myself together pretty much the whole evening.
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| Elsa and Maribel, my Sonrisa hermanas |
We left Ciudad at around 7.15am Monday morning, prime time for the school goers so we ended up passing San Antonio and Sonrisa walking to school meaning a couple more hugs but nothing else. Then, we were on our way to BOLIVIA.
I can honestly say that this year has been the most amazing and challenging year of my life and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
I’m about to board my flight back to London now so Bolivia will have to be saved for another day.
I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M ABOUT TO GO HOME! WHAAAAAT!
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