Tearful good-byes

Thursday, 1 Jun 2006

Hello all,

Today is my final day in Chiclayo. I am pretty sad. This morning was my last day at school in Culpon. I taught English classes when I first got there and then Paty, the social worker led the class in a song, which she dedicated to me. I started to cry, and then Katty, one of the girls in the class started to cry (she cried for the rest of the class almost). Paty and Johana almost started to cry and I think other students were about to cry as well. They were all really secretive today as well, hiding their books from me as I walked past them. When I opened my bag after leaving school, there were all sorts of letters and pictures they drew for me in my bag. I cried again as I read them and I am crying now because these little kids have touched my life in so many ways and it was really hard and is really hard to leave them.

As I left school today I gave my e-mail address and a shirt to the director of the school and then every kid in my class wanted me to write my e-mail down for him or her, even though they didn´t have e-mail. Diana Carolina walked up to me and grabbed my hand and told me that she didn´t have e-mail now but she was going to make one so she could talk to me. They told me that when I come back to Peru I have to come and see them and visit them again. The director was so excited about his shirt and told me I could come back and teach at his school whenever I wanted to and that what we were doing was making such a huge impact in the lives of the children we work with. Anyway...enough tears from me.

Tomorrow we get on the plane for Lima at 9am. We fly into Cusco and then make our ways to Juliaca and Lake Titicaca. On Sunday we return to Cusco for a city tour and then we get to see Machu Picchu on Monday. We will be in Lima on Tuesday and Wednesday. We fly out of Lima at 11pm Wednesday night and should be back in the US on Thursday morning.

Look forward to updated pictures with Cusco, Lake Titicaca, and Machu Picchu in the near future.

Love,
Kathy