The mood is quieter now- everyone is quieter now; students and host families. There is an ever present cloud hanging about and none of us really know how to deal with it quite right. If there even is a right way. There are, of course, wrong ways. What presses against us is the continual recognition that this is our last week here with our host families. We are soon on our way home. And what will that be like? How will we be able to exist back in Canada? How can we talk about this place? And then, this is probably the last time I will eat papipollo at the market, drink Fiora Vanti, peel papas with Maribel, sing Old Macdonald with the kids at school, walk to Cayambe, drink jugo de piña, pay to use a public washroom, put my backpack in a locker, see Mount Cayambe, play futbol with the neighbourhood kids, and so on.
We leave our families Sunday morning, sometime after breakfast. We then go to Quito for a bit of a debrief and then some of us leave Ecuador on Monday morning. I am one of them. I was hoping to travel for fifteen days, but there has been much difficulty with flights and visas and all that awesome stuff, that it is much easier and less stressful to just come home on the second. A bit disappointing, but not too much. It will be good, I hope, to get back. Show off my beard and such, you know? Haha, it is a sight. I have not shaved the entire three months I´ve been here, so, its interesting. There has been moustache trimming, so, do not get too frightened. In any case, as you can see, my method of dealing with this last week is to talk about other things- silly things. I know that I am often near to tears now and this coming Sunday is going to be possibly the hardest day of them all.
my body still quivers when I think of that Sunday. But that last morning I spent with my family could not have been more perfect...and I am thankful for that
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