Time to say Goodbye (Day 14)

At camp we had our final presentations. After camp, during evaluation that we do everyday to make the curriculum more effective, we were asked how they went. I honestly did not know what to say because I had NO IDEA what specifically happened in the presentations. I take it for granted that I am able to understand limited Spanish during meetings and presentations at school. I have never been so clueless as to what was happening. The students though seemed to enjoy the presentations and the teachers were a joy to watch. they laughed and giggled as the kids interpreted them and talked about taboo subjects like sex and HIV.

During the week we had been collecting student pencils at the end of the day reducing loss and saving time sharpening 100 pencils with a 10 cent hand sharpener. Because of a crazy day, we never got to use pencils and our students did not get theirs. I cound’t leave these students without giving them the pencils they have been promised. So after presentations I motioned to me kids to follow me. That was my first mistake. I could hear the thunder of 100 feet and when I glanced back over my shoulder half the camp was following me. I grabbed our bag of pencils and you would have thought that I was passing out gold. Every child within eyesight rushed over to me jumping, pushing and yelling as they tried to ask for and then grab a pencil. Hands were everywhere. Thankfully before I was crushed under the weight of the pencil pushers my Field Assistant Chris came to my rescue. I had to toss the pencils over the kids heads, a hail mary pass, into his outstretched hands. And then safely back on the bus, the pencils distributed to our students, he tried to give them back to me. And back they went high over volunteers heads just beyond awaiting fingers. Some children who followed me to the bus and were banging on the window holding their fingers up and asking for just 1!! Thinking back it was am unimaginable experience reminiscent of video clips of people in war torn areas begging for food. That was how precious these brand new pencils were to these students. Can you imagine kids in American wanting a pencil so bad. My students loose pencils like they are nothing, because they are always available. To these kids a bag of a hundred pencils was just as uncommon and exciting as gold.

I always find that it is hard to say goodbye to my class at the end of the year. With those students I know that I can check back with them in just a few months. I can see how they’ve grown and check in with them about their lives. Today when we wrapped up camp it was an entirely different type of goodbye. I have only known these kids for 4 days, but we have discussed some really personal topics and I have grown attached to them. As we pulled away in the bus I was left with the knowledge that not only would I not be able to see these students ever again but I can never check into their lives. They will go on and grow up, and I will have no knowledge of who they become or if their experiences with me made the same impact on them as they did on me.