A Grand Finale *Week 22*
To start my last week at Orphanage Emmanuel, I gave Eva half of the lump sum of cash that I took from the ATM last week so that she could help me set up my surprise. Other than it being my last Monday at Orphanage Emmanuel, it was a pretty normal work day. But after dinner, I played volleyball with the Grandecitos house in the gym. Tuesday was also a pretty typical day followed by buying chips and soda for my special needs boys and watching our last movie together in the afternoon. But I started feeling worse and worse about leaving as the day and the week moved on. On Tuesday night, I bought Maycol and Olvin some Bigos for dinner. I wanted to eat the meal with them in the tienda but Felipe said Maycol had to watch over the Grandecitos while they played soccer, so we headed over to the cancha to eat the food. We sat down at a picnic table that over looks the cancha and ate our food quick. When we finished, I decided I’d stick around and play soccer with the Grandecitos, since I haven’t played with them since about week 8 because that’s about when I started watching the movies I bought with each house. I got to play on the same team as Olvin again and had a really nostalgically good time. After soccer I made my way to the small girls house to watch a movie with them, but Erika and Lorena were both misbehaving so they were in bed already. I decided to have a talk with them about their day and why they did what they did, and then I left them alone to sleep. By the time I was done talking to my girls, all the other girls had made their way to sleep. So I left the girls house without watching a movie with them and made my way to the team dinner that had already started without me. I had just eaten Bigos so I wasn’t hungry, so I just grabbed an iced tea and sat outside. I felt very out of place at the team house given that I only had 3 days left at that point. So I left and met up with Jimmy at his house to help him put together a telescope that he’s been asking me for help with all week. I didn’t exactly know what I was doing so I looked up a video on my phone but then my phone died so I had no idea how to help him after that. So I left, and on my way home I passed by the church where the crew was practicing(without any sing sisters😥) so I decided to sit outside and listen to them practice and take everything in. While I was sitting there, Domanique passed by me all on his own and sat down next to me and we had another deep conversation about things he’s been struggling with, just like we did in week 14.
On Wednesday church got canceled for an activity night being held by a one-day team from El Salvador. After finding that out, I was pretty bummed out because I really wanted to have church just one more time before I left. After lunch, I took my mom and Nora into town again for groceries(and I snuck into Bigos while they were shopping). Then we stopped at Matilda’s for chocolate covered bananas, then at Glendas for both my mom and I to say our goodbye’s to her. Since there was no church, one of the American teams decided to host a small circle service for the staff members and volunteers. After that ended, I was invited to stay and eat with the team and then share some more time with them at their devotion. While at devotion they asked me to share the story behind how I ended up here, so I gave them about the same run down I gave you all back in week 9. After I spoke, the team talked about how God moved through them during their trip. While they were sharing their stories, a cat that’s been wandering around the team house all week kept meowing. It was actually so funny because mid-story the cat would just “meoww?” and it was ridiculously hilarious. However, Mamà doesn’t like cats and she encourages people to catch them so that she can release them in town. So, after the team dispersed, I caught the cat and took it home for the night. I took a couple pictures of the cat and sent them to my family and my dad swore to me that the cat was going to poop on my floor. I just shrugged that off and in the morning I checked the room where I left the cat and there was no poop on the floor! Because it was on the bed😅! So I took the cat up to the team house in my suitcase and gave it to Christian who would dump it off far away. I said goodbye to the team and sent two members, Tim and Ariana, off with some encouraging words and then they were gone. I would’ve gone with the team but I didn’t because I had a special grand finale event for the children during the day and then there was a team coming in that same night. I really wanted to do the event without a team here so that it’d be more centered around the kid’s and I’s relationships rather than with a team becoming the center of my grand finale(because usually individual people don’t do what I was about to do and so most of the kids would’ve just assumed that the team put it together).
To start my grand finale, Danielle and I made our way into town to spend the other half of the lump sum of money I pulled out of the ATM last week. Then we picked up the supplies and made our way back to the orphanage. While driving back to the orphanage, Danielle and I got to have a real conversation, rather than just a work professional conversation. It was really a nice time, and then when we got back to the orphanage, Oscar helped me set up the surprise and it was all ready by lunch time. By the time lunch rolled around, I bought two 3 liter soda bottles for every house in the orphanage to enjoy at lunch! But the main part of my grand finale was putting a bowl of Chinese rice in front of all 246 children at Emmanuel. There was even enough rice for some of the houses to have Chinese rice for dinner too. The kids were so grateful and they started clapping for me and thanking me for the time that I spent with them. It was such a beautiful way to show each of them that I care for them, and I wouldn’t change anything about that in a million lifetimes. But all excitement aside, I went to the small girls house to watch a movie with them, and Lorena crawled up onto the couch with me and decided to watch the movie in my lap. After the movie ended it was already dinner time, so we made our way to the comedor for that and then after, I went and played soccer with the Grandecitos again.
On Friday, my last full day, my mom bought me a burrito for breakfast that I picked up from the tienda and ate for breakfast. Then for lunch I went to Bigos for what would be my last meal there for quite some time. While I was eating, a young boy came up to me and asked me in perfect English if I was from the states. I told him I was and he got excited and told me he was too. It was a really brief conversation but I asked him what he was doing in Guaimaca, and he told me that he came from Virginia to visit family. Him, and what I’m guessing was his cousin left right after that. When I finished eating, I walked up to my usual cashier and handed her 20 dollars, and then another twenty to give to my other usual cashier as a tip for all of their wonderful services.
When I got back to Emmanuel, I started giving away a lot of clothes and other items I wouldn’t be taking back to America with me. That took me all afternoon and led up to dinner where I ate a bowl of guacamole that my mom had prepared for the big boys and myself. After dinner I went to my special needs boys house and said my goodbye’s(though I didn’t really get any goodbye’s from them because they didn’t really grasp what I meant by “I’m leaving tomorrow” which is totally fine). Then after walking with them and getting them ready for bed, I made my way over to the small girls house to watch my last movie with them before I left. When I got there, there was only one girl that had been sent to bed early, but unfortunately it was Erika. I asked the leaders of the house if she could watch one last movie with me since it was my last night and they allowed it. So Erika came hobbling over from her bed and sat with me along with Lorena. As I was leaving, I tried to keep the mood as light as possible as I said goodnight to all the girls because I didn’t want to see them cry. After saying goodnight to all the girls I left and made my way home where I pulled out some sparkling cider and toasted to a job well done.
On Saturday morning I woke up and wrote Maestro a card thanking him for all that he’s done for me and then ran it over to him. After that I went to say goodbye to my two brothers. I found Olvin working in the cow barn. I gave him a hug and wished him all the best in case I never got to see him again. Then I made my way to the Grandecitos house to say goodbye to Maycol and all the boys. Maycol was sleeping when I got there so I woke him up to say goodbye and give him a hug. Then I went to the yard where my daughters were and said goodbye to them and the rest of the small girls house as well. I sat there for about an hour until I saw Luis pull up in front of the office. I tried walking down to the office to get into my taxi but the girls wouldn't let go of me… so I walked with their entire house down to the office to get to my taxi. Coincidentally, Erika and Lorena had a family visit at the exact moment that I was leaving. So on my way out of Emmanuel, I made sure to stop by the pavilion they were in to say goodbye. The two of them ran up to me, gave me a hug, and said “Adios Papá” to me right in front of their biological family. As heart warming as that was, it was still my last moment in Emmanuel, though I can say for certain I wouldn’t want to go out any other way.
After that, Luis and I drove up to the gate where I gave the guard my laptop so that he could hand it over to Maestro when he left for the day. Maestro told me back in February that his daughter needs a computer for school but they can’t afford one, and since I don’t need my laptop in the states, I promised to give mine to him free of charge. So I left it with the guard and then I was off to the airport. Once I got to the airport I made my way through minor migrations and then over to the American Airlines desk to drop off my bags. After all that, I stopped at my usual restaurant to get my usual spaghetti meal and smoothie. Then I bought another keychain because I had left my other one with the leaders of the small girls house because they begged me to give it to them in remembrance of me, and trust me, my keychain is very me(“I couldn’t even imagine you without your keychain” -Leah). Then I made my way through security and waited for my flight. My plan once arriving in Dallas was to just pull an all nighter in the airport for my connection in the morning. However, since my flight was delayed a slight 40 minutes, American Airlines gave me a free hotel and taxi. So I got a comfy hotel for the night where I ate Taco Bell and watched Netflix and I will say, I was pretty happy about that. While I was checking into the hotel though, the lady asked me what time I’d like to leave for the airport and I told her 5:30am since I had an 8:00am flight. She was very helpful and told me that she would get me a taxi to take me at 5:30 on the dot. So I set my alarms for 4:45 and went to bed.
Sunday morning I woke up at 6am💀. As it turned out, I had set my already pre-existing alarm for 4:45am but that alarm was only set for Monday through Saturday. However, by the grace of God I woke up naturally AND I had a notification that my flight had been delayed an hour. How lucky is that? I quickly got ready for the day and got myself an Uber to the airport and made my flight with time to spare. I got to Madison safely where my dad was waiting for me and we headed home. As soon as I got in the car, I took control of the radio and the first song I played was Madison’s famous ‘Jump Around’ as my welcome home song. Before leaving Madison, my dad and I stopped at the same market we stopped at in week 4 to get Poke bowls again, and then made our way back home. Upon arriving home I said my hello’s to several of my family members and took a long and well deserved drive around town. It’s really good to be back home, but at the same time I want nothing more than to go back to Honduras.
As a closing to this trip, I’d like to say how thankful and blessed I feel to all those that helped me along the way. It was such an incredible experience and I loved hearing so many stories from so many people that I met along the way. I thank God every day for the children at Emmanuel and I know one day I’ll be back, but for now I’ll get to type this out one last time for what will hopefully be not that much time. To be continued…
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