HOME!!!!

Thursday night was our Farewell dinner. It was really nice. It was in this patio area with a bunch of tables and decorations. There was a nice covered dance floor. It started around 8 and we mingled and talked and hung out with our families until dinner at 10. Dinner was delicious!! Mom asked me what we had and I tried to explain it, didn't really work out. Rice, chicken, beef, salad, cheese potatoes, and rolls doesn't really begin to cover the delicatessen we were served. After dinner we had a sort of Secret Santa/White Elephant kind of gift time. They call it "angelitos" (little angels in Spanish). The students knew which family name they had drawn, but the families didn't draw names until we got there. Each person was to buy a small present less than $5. The students were told cookies or candy or something along those lines while the families were told something typical, souvenir type gift. I bought "my" family flowers (they were really filler, white, daisy looking things, but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?). The family that drew my name gave me a pretty bracelet, very typical for the Dominican. When each person got up to give their present they were asked to say something about their experience either with their student or their family. It was SO hard for me to get up there and talk, I was so choked up. I had to quit before I'd really said what I wanted to say because I was crying. When Mami got up, it was waterworks all over again. I'm really going to miss them. Afterwards, we took some pictures and went home. We stayed up for a while talking, as usual. None of us really slept that night, too many emotions on top of a very late night (we didn't get home until after midnight) and Tiffany was worried about her test the next morning.

Friday was rough and kind of dragged on. I got up at my usual time and Tiffany was already off to take her test. I just moped around the house and tried to come up with things to occupy myself. I wound up laying in bed feeling sorry for myself and being sleepy for a good part of the morning. After lunch we took our last nap in the DR (I sure am going to miss those). Then we hopped into the car to run some errands--I really do like doing that. We went to the store to buy a few things for that evening and Mami picked up some Smirnoffs for us to drink and enjoy. Rough translation: "Since we're all going to have trouble sleeping and none of us slept last night, we'll drink these before bed and get some sleep!" She's so cute. Then we were off to get gas for the van. We passed two or three perfectly good gas stations and I asked her if there was some place in particular she was going to get gas. She told me she had had the van converted over to the gas you use to cook with. We were going somewhere to fill up with natural gas. I thought that was SOO cool. She said with $200 pesos (about $6.75) she could either get 2 gallons of gasoline or 8 gallons of natural gas, and that one gallon of natural gas goes farther than a gallon of gasoline. Funny, a undeveloped country has made that form of fuel available to their citizens while a developed country where everyone drives EVERYWHERE hasn't put forth the effort to make this more enviro friendly option available. Hmmmm....

Then we went to the market. Tiffany still needed some gifts for her family. On our way, we stopped and got some Coconut milk. The guy just chopped off the top of a coconut, put some ice and sugar in a cup, poured out the coconut and mixed....right there in the middle of the street. It was really cool to watch. I wasn't really a big fan of the drink. It had a sweet but salty flavor. It reminded me of drinking my own sweat. I felt really bad that Mami bought it for me then I didn't like it, but she wasn't offended. I had tried it and taken several sips to try to get accustomed, but it just didn't work. We tried to stop in and visit her daughter, the dentist, in her office, but she wasn't there. So Mami gave the rest of the coco milk to her secretary then decided the pictures were all hung in the wrong places and needed to be arranged. Five minutes later we were back on the street. It was so funny.

Then it was time to go home to help Ivonne set up for her dinner party. She and 15 other young adults have been planning a week long summer camp for late-teenagers up in the mountains. They're finally done with the planning and getting ready to start, so this was a nice dinner to relax and take pictures and just have fun after so much work. Mami, Tiffany, and I stayed out of the way and just hung out. We started drinking the Smirnoffs and before too long we were all giggly and happy and trying to forget that we'd have to say good-bye in a few short hours. We had such a good night!! Around 2 am we finally decided we'd had enough and tried to go to bed. I had to be up at 6 the next day, anyway.

Saturday was DEFINITELY hard. I got up and got ready ahead of time (who can sleep with so much going on in your mind). So I changed my sheets and set the bed up like it was set for me when I got there. Then I woke up Mami (upon her request) and finished getting ready and taking my stuff downstairs and all of that. Mami was mad at me for not waking her up in time to make me pancakes like she'd promised, but I just couldn't wake her up to make me food when I know she didn't go to sleep until after 2 (there were still people at our house until after 2 and I'm sure she didn't go to bed until everyone was gone and the house quiet). So we loaded the car and we were off to drop me off at the office (where we were meeting to have the program take us to the airport). When we got there Mami dug $5 American dollars out of her purse and shoved it into my backpack and told me to buy myself something to eat for breakfast. It was so cute. Once out of the car, we waited for everyone else that was going to the airport on that run. Neither one of us would look at the other, it was just too hard. Then everyone got there and we had to say our tearful goodbyes.

The airport was just like any other airport experience. It was hard saying goodbye to the people who weren't on my flight and I was grateful that there were several others from the program flying out with me, including one of the directors.

Then it was time to finally GO HOME!!!! It was so nice to finally see Mommy again! We hopped in the car and started our 4 hour drive back to Tampa (from Miami), chit chatting and catching up the whole way. There are so many stories to tell!! We talked all the way home and all evening. One houred my pics and we went through them and all my souvenirs.

It's so nice to be home, although I know I will miss my family in the DR terribly. I had such a wonderful experience! I can't tell you all how much your comments and encouragements helped me while I was so far away from everything "normal." One last thank you and I love you. YAY! I'm finally home!