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Many of you were wondering how my experience ended. Sorry for the delay! I've been sick w/bronchitis for the last two weeks! Not fun...and I'm still a little sick. Well, my last week was sad. The kids at the clinic grew more attached than I thought they would. I went around the room hugging each of them...some of them had a harder time letting go of me than others. I think the older ones are just used to volunteers leaving. As for the orphanage...it was definitely one of the hardest "goodbyes". My second to last day I took toys/activities that I had brought from the states. They were so excited. A few of them used the items I took to make cards or draw pictures for me. One girl (the girl who was a troublemaker at first) made a card for me that said something along the lines of, "Thank you for everything that you have taught. I will remember you for the rest of my life. I hope you have a happy life and never forget me because I will never forget you." I cannot remember what else it said...but man it made me cry. Another girl made a necklace and earings out of beads for me. It was cute. And then...my "mini me", the troublemaker lol, begged me to take cake for them on my last day. At that point...I would have bought them whatever they wanted! So I didn't ask for permission...I just showed up the next day with lots of cake for the girls. It was a great last day! I didn't teach English...we all just sat together eating cake/drinking hot chocolate, taking pictures, and video tapping the moment. I posted a video on here. It's a little blurry at first. The girl that is sitting at the table asked me to say, "hello" to my dad. Then randomly she told me that she cared about me a lot. I got a little choked up. Then the other girls joined in asking why I wouldn't be there the next day. The little one that gets into the basket was one of my favorites. Her name is Paloma but I called her "Palomita" (you hear me scream it haha). She and I used to play one on one volleybally every day. She never let anyone else play with us. And I always let her believe she beat me! hahah When it was time to go....four of the girls walked me out...one of them gave me one of her stuffed animals so I wouldn't forget her...another gave me her e-mail address. And then my "mini me"...wanted a picture of me...so I dug thru my wallet and found one of my friend and me so I gave it to her...she wanted to cry. Hugging her "goodbye" sucked the big one...I had to let go right away because holding my tears in was too hard. And now I miss them so much! They were such great kids. Then my last night with the family couldn't have been more perfect and we all agreed. The daughter had been talking about Cusco's pizza for days so we decided I had to try it before I left. OMG! Best pizza ever! Instead of using ranch to dip the pizza they use mayo that has a little bit of garlic. It was delicious! We had a good dinner then went back home and stayed up till like 2 am just laughing and laughing. I'm not kidding...people thought we were drunk because we were laughing so much. But we didn't care...we just kept laughing. I think that is what I will miss the most about them...we all had such a great connection with each other. We came from different backgrounds, cultures, countries, and half of the time couldn't understand one another...but we were a family.:) The mother made me want to cry...I couldn't even say what I wanted because I had a lump in my throat. She told me that the two weeks with me there brought her happiness and she would miss nights like our last night. She said that she would wait for me to return. Then I flew to Lima. I won't even get into my day and a half of hell in Lima because that was a mess! I was sick and my hotel was a disaster! But now I am home...I finally moved out of apt in NJ as of Sunday and I am longer a Jersey resident!! Now I'm just hanging out until I hear back from Seattle University and United Nations Volunteers (or a job, of course). Other than that life is good and hopefully sometime in the next few months I can make another trip to Peru!
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