Leaving Xela

Each Friday the school recognizes those students who will be moving on. This week I wad in that group. There is an expectation that you will make a brief statement and I had prepared for this event. I expressed appreciation to my 2 teachers and thanked the staff fir their assistance with various problems. After class I reserved a seat on the 3:00pm shuttle to San Pedro. Orinally I had planned to go on Sunday morning but there were not enough people to justify the 3-hour drive.
On Friday night ICA hosted a Guatemalan dinner party. While the food was not different from what I had been eating - my Guatamamam was a very good cook- we had the opportunity to make the tortillas ourselves and to spend a final social hour together.
On Saturday morning my Guatafamily surprised me with a going away belated birthday celebration. The kids had made postre de la pena, a pineapple pudding-like dessert. So, after a breakfast of quesidillas, the kids put candles in the postre and the singing began. The first verse was a rendition of our traditional Happy Birthday song, but came out more like "happy verday." The second song was the traditional Spanish verse where the celebrants recognize the newly acquired age by counting up. We skipped a few decades so that we could move on to the main act - eating the postre. I asked the kids to help me blow out the candles which they did excitedly.
Later in the morning I had some errands to run and I stopped to pick up a bouquet of fresh flowers for Rosario. She was very excited about her husband's return after a 15-month absence -he was working in the US - and she had spent 2 weeks repainting furniture, scrubbing floors and fixtures, and reorganizing the kitchen. I thought the flowers would add a final welcoming touch. I also gave the family an LL Bean flashlight that operates on hand cranks rather than battery power. I had brought along a smaller version of the sane flashlight for myself and had used it frequently in the evening so that I wouldn't trip on the dark.
After lunch I retreated to my room to read for an hour while I waited for the shuttle to arrive. Jessica and Daniela came in wearing tiaras and holding a small bouquet of plastic flowers. They wanted me to take their pictures. One thing led to another and webwere soon dancing to the Beatles on my iPod. of course, the boys now had to get a piece of the action and Danillo and Marcus joined our little dance club. It wad the most fun I had had with the kids the 2 weeks I was there.
At 3:10 the shuttle arrived. The final hugs were short but sweet and I was off to Part 2 of the adventure.