final farewell
Greetings Earthlings,
We cannot believe this day has actually arrived.... The final blog post! Even though it was the beginning of the end, our last week was arguably our busiest. We spent the last week wrapping up with teaching, proctoring exams and lots of time painting and hanging out with the kids at Ruimveldt.
On Monday morning us girls headed over to the centre to get the majority of the mural painted before we got the kids to add their glorious finger painting! We added a big tree in the centre of the wall, and lots of wild grass all along the bottom. We painted in clouds and a big blue sky to round out the image, and one of our favourite parts was the Dr. Suess quote that we included. It reads: "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." The kids love reading with/to us, so we thought it would be perfect for them!
On Tuesday we all taught our final lesson at RBI, and got showered with beautiful goodbye notes from our students. It was sad to say so many goodbyes at once, but so rewarding to know how appreciated we were! In the afternoon we made it back to Ruimveldt to mix up some more paint and get messy with the kids! Paint and paintbrushes were flying, and in the end lots of laughs were had, with a colourful array of hand painted birds, flowers, fruit and critters left behind now dotting the wall. We all met met up at the radio station to discuss peer pressure on air for our final radio show segment. We answered lots of callers questions, and had so much fun chatting with the host Frederick once again.
We spent the better part of Wednesday marking our form 3 exams (our largest class by far) and completing some final administrative QHO paperwork. The boys taught their last lesson at the Red Cross, and then we spent the evening on the sea wall watching the sunset and saying goodbye to the Ocean.
On Thursday morning we had our final segment on television with Reyaz, we spent the entire time on camera taking calls and answering his questions about ourselves, Canada and QHO. It was our last time seeing Reyaz, so yet another sad goodbye was had afterwards. We rushed from the TV station to Chase academy, where we proctored our final exam for forms 1, 2 & 4. With the exam completed, we were left to power mark all three sets of exams so at we could submit them to the teachers at Chase the next day.
On Friday we had intended to be busy with running around and lots of goodbyes, but the rain struck again overnight and well into the morning, creating extremely flooded streets. We were able to drop off all the exams at Chase, however school was cancelled so we couldn't say a final goodbye to many of the kids. We managed to run a few last minute errands and made sure to eat our final lunch at our fav restaurants Steppers, loading up on Blackeyed Stew, Choka, Bora, and fresh passion fruit juice. The Berbice team arrived in Georgetown and we were able to spend some time together before some of them came to Ruimveldt to meet and hang out with the kids with us on our final day. In was a weird feeling showing up to the centre knowing it was our final day, but we made the most of our last afternoon. We played some "kick it", took lots of pictures and some of the older girls plaited our hair.
We can't even put into words how " once in a lifetime" this experience has truly been. We are so happy to have been able to spend the last 7 weeks together- getting to know each other, getting to experience Guyana, it's incredible people, and it's diverse culture. We have forever fallen in love with the new friends, food, and music that we have been introduced to. We won't soon forget the unmatched hospitality that we have been shown, as we have felt so at home in a country that was so foreign to us at first. While we came here to impart our knowledge on others, the amount of growth and learning we experienced as young adults has been incredibly eye opening and rewarding. I don't think we could have asked for an experience that was more positive or fulfilling as we sit here reflecting in the airport.
They are just beginning to board our flight which will soon be enroute to Toronto, so here it goes one final goodbye from your 2015 G-Town crew!!!!
Big love and thanks to all of you who followed our journey, see you in a few hours CANADA!!!
Wooohoooo we out!
Anna, Maddy Ali & Jesse