I finished up at Salem yesterday.
It was harder than I thought.
I´m not even sure why, up until the actual goodbye part I felt pretty calm and collected, and ready to leave.
But they made a big deal of it and made the day special…so somewhere in between the pizza for lunch (a big deal for salem!) and the road trip to the city and seeing the girls delight and fear when using escalators for the first time in Tikal Futura (shopping centre) and eating ice creams in Pollo Campero while each girl took a turn to say nice things to me and realising that there´s a good chance I might never see these people again, my heart started to ache…
And then when they dropped me off at my house late at night and prayed for me and each gave me a hug the tears started, and didn´t want to stop.
And I realised how much this country has taught me about loving people, about living in communities and about taking the time to make the effort to encourage someone and tell them when you appreciate them.
And I realised how much these precious girls have taught me about enjoying each day and making the most of opportunities despite the challenges life throws at us.
And I realised how much they´ve all taught me about generosity as they all piled my arms high with presents from their own limited treasure collections…stuffed toys, yo-yos, posters.
And I realised that children can actually become my really, really good friends, even if they are a third of my age; when I was having lonely-far away from friends and family-moments they gave me so much in the way of friendship and hugs and love and encouragement.
And I realised in spite of all the language difficulties and cultural differences that I have really connected with the people I´ve worked with and come to care for them so much.
And I realised that people and community and family and love really are the most important and fulfilling things in life…even though I´ve missed some comforts from home, like hot showers and carpet and having a car and speaking the language, they just don´t seem as important to me now and I would trade them in an instant for those real, true connections with people if I ever had to.
I have honestly never felt such sadness during a goodbye before…weird, deep, strange achy feelings…
But I am so glad I spent that time there in Salem, and so glad I let myself love these girls so much, and looking forward to opportunities to love more precious kids like this in the future….
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