Final Goodbye

Last photo infront of our home of two years.

We wore our matching shirts that the village council made us.

The last day came, like any other day. I couldn't believe it had the nerve to just appear and pretend like it was just some normal day. We woke up after our few hours of sleep, Greg with a cold and me with tears to say our final and last goodbyes. We headed off to our respective schools for goodbyes and exchanges. Greg's best friend George drove out to pick up Greg (since our bikes were in the school storage for a latter raffle). Greg's school had a feast for him and gave him a beautiful cuxtal. Emails were exchanged and Greg's assistant principal offered to drive Greg back, and then escort us to the junction with our bags. I stopped in each class, said a little speach about how I loved and learned from each of them and that they must work hard to make the best of themselves.

Goodbyes to the students of Silver Creek R.C.

Saying goodbye to our little Godson, Devon(in my lap) and his preschool class.

I had a little bag from my staff gift and in each class kids would silently come up with neatly folded letters and notes for us to read on the plane. Several kids brought letters from older siblings in high school, over 60 letters total when the day was done. My school surprised me with a second pair of maya earrings...a tiny pair that I am still wearing (three months later). I couldn't believe it!

Surprise gift from the staff...tiny maya gold earrings!

Mrs. Delphine had to re-pierce my second hole, while Mrs. Susana admired them.

The Hardest Goodbye

Our final day had been mainly tear free, we shed a lot the night before so I was beginning to think perhaps I was cried out. Then I went home and Cecilia and I just stood in the house sobbing. Santiago came in and told us both that we had to be strong but I could barely hear him. It hit me, we were done and going, and this little hut in this little village would never be our home again. So many emotions were hitting me as Greg came home with Mr. Requena. Meredith came just in time to snap a final photo with our 'parents' of two years before we were hurried into the truck so as not to miss the bus at the junction. It was a quiet ride, with sniffling and small talk to the junction. We were unloaded, given best wishes and then sat for the final time in our little bus stop in the hot sun. Chris rode his bike out to say his final goodbyes and keep us company. It felt crazy, insane to be sitting here to go back to America. To not wake up and wash in the creek the next day. To sleep without the hum of insects.

Our ride to the junction...the end and the beginning.

You might be able to see me sobbing uncontrollably in the back.

We spent the rest of our 4th anniversary (19 hours of it) on school busses sitting shoulder to shoulder. After a relaxing few days of luxury in Mexico, thanks to our friend Erica's welcoming parents, we headed back to America forever.

Welcoming party at the RDU airport.

Our luggage. Two rice sacks, a bucket, backpack, and duffle.

Last Night: They Threw us a Party

The 'parking lot' at our house at the start of our party

The Village Council Party

The last full day in our village also happened to be Belize's 30 anniversary of independence. The area representative gave money to each village for a village party. I had to pull myself away from packing and cleaning, and pull away my Commadre (Orianna's mother) who had been helping me scrub and clean all morning, to go to the village feast of chicken and rice at the chairman's house (Andres).

Santiago walking with Greg to the Independence Day feast

There were many hugs and talks of leaving. Women would rotate beside me taking their turns saying goodbye while the men were much more loud and vocal hailing greg from different ends of the house until Greg came to them. The chairman, who was standing at the rain barrel filled with ice and juice bottles would just announce to the whole party, "Eat Kevina! Eat Greg! It will be a long time until you eat food like this. We will miss you, what will you do when you're gone??" He would go off on little rants like this every few minutes or so. After we finished eating it was back to our house where the preparations had already begun for the second feast and party. You see, the village council met and decided to throw us a going away party. The picture below shows some members of the village council hanging out with greg, after the village party, waiting...or really not waiting for the second party to start.

The after party, or perhaps the pre party, so I guess the in-between party

My sisters

Ricky, Fermin, and Junior

Chatting with Sheldon's Godmother

Brother's unite! George and Cicley stopped by for final goodbyes

The Choc family came by (most of them) to bring us a sign the

two eldest daughters and mother made. It says Goodbye

Mrs. Kevina and Mr. Greg. We hope to see you soon.

Both our Godchildren and our Commadas were there all day and night. Evericio, Deyvon's father, had a funny story of our Godson. They went into town that weekend and Deyvon was insisting on a pair of 'shades' or sunglasses. His father had said no until when Deyvon perssisted by saying, "Like Wiyosh!!" (like Godfather). His father said he couldn't help but give him it then. Later on the bus in the evening he took off his shades and gave them to his dad. Evericio said he just folded it up and put it in his pocket. Deyvon complained, "no no like Wiyosh!" as he pointed to his collar for his dad to hang the glasses on his shirt like Greg always does. He kept the shades on the whole night of the party too.

"Like Wiyosh"

Our Godchildren Orianna and Deyvon

With Saturnina and her boys, Steve (with Greg) and Sheldon

Oh Morpheous

The night of the party, our house empty except odds and ends, the children had full rein of the space. Helmets were worn by different children all night. Lindsford wore the shirt Greg gave him, and it was common to see goggles, or our socks or any other little odds and ends walking around the party, usually worn incorrectly. Most times when I would stick my head in my house children would be running in circles, crawling under the bed, or sitting on the floor playing cards with helmets on. One time my door was shut, and I was sitting outside eating when the door opened and a sleepy faced 3 year old looked up at me rubbing his eyes, the bed (an old rice sack) in the middle of the floor. Babies were hung in their lo'pops from our rafters, it was no longer our house.

Just like his Godfather

Presenting us with our gifts:

Late at night, okay like 8:30 (our usual village bedtime) the village council rounded us up to present us with a 'small token of appreciation.' Since this party was hosted by the village council everyone who was there were our very bestest friends. So looking out into the crowd that gathered for the presentation I was so happy that they did this for us so that I could see all my best friends under one roof one last time. Evericio, our Compadre, was the Secretary of the Village Council and so presented a little speech and our gifts. They thank us for helping raise up Silver Creek, for teaching their children and them, and for bringing computers and internet to the village. They thanked Greg for his computer doctor skills, and for all the help he's given to Silver Creek and Big Falls, how he never missed a fajina (village clean up) and was always helping the men planting or with whatever they needed. They then presented us with matching professionally made shirts that had happy 4th anniversary, Silver Creek Village Council, on the front and the Belize independence day on the back. We also got matching hats with Belize on them. We both cried and Greg managed to say a thanks and how much we'll miss them. I however, couldn't even get out a little squeak so just left it at that.

Our Compadre presenting us our shirts and hats

I took a picture of the crowd looking at us

Accepting my shirt and hat

Greg accepting his

They had these shirts made for us!

Talking to Mr. Santiago and Vera about trying to live in the states

Let the dancing begin!!

After the presentation the focus became dancing. Mrs cecilia looked over to me and said, "Come Keveen, lets go dance." So we danced, and danced, and cried (but kept dancing) for two hours. We danced cumbia, Mrs. Cecilia's favorite and stood facing each other swaying back and forth like the traditional kekchi dance. At one point Cecilia started bawling I quickly gave her a hug and she just kept dancing and crying. I told her we could stop dancing but she just shook her head and swayed to the music with big tears falling on her cheeks.

Greg joined us for a little bit

Dancing with my Goddaughter

Dancing with Cecilia and Morpheous

Dancing the traditional harp dance with Steve

I will miss my little sister!

We danced until late late at night. The party went until the last beer was drunk and the last soda was passed out. People started to say their final teary goodbyes and slowly the party started to come to an end. Children littered the floor, sleeping from exhaustion, limbs flung akimbo with helmets, and socks on their hands. Greg suggested we slip in our house and go to sleep. At that point no one even noticed, it was 10:30. The party ended and the last thing I heard was my host dad, Santiago crying and sobbing, "Oh but brother Greg! Brother Greg is leaving us!" and Mrs. Cecilia consoling him and bringing them inside their house for the night.

Village First...GIRLS SLEEPOVER!!

Sleepover behavior- a universal truth

Trying to do three things at once

To ease the transition (especially with the older girls) over to Meredith, and to spark a future girls club Meredith had the great idea of a Standard VI sleepover! Feelers were put out with parents, girls got excited, and official printed invitations were passed out. We had a meeting with the girls explaining that without their mother's signature they were not allowed into the house, and they must translate everything to ketchi! They were told to bring a dish, cup and some sort of thing to sleep on (most villagers sleep in their clothes so that was really about it).

Sumo fighting

Day of the Sleepover:

I was returning from Belize City from exit medical exams and so Meredith was on her own until I could reach from the junction, grab my hammock and pillow and peddle as fast as I could to help her. The girls were told to arrive after they ate dinner (so we only had to cook breakfast for them) and when I got there they were all there, bouncing around, looking EXACTLY like any other sleepover party!! This was the first time ever the girls have done anything like this and they loved it! They danced, giggled, pillow fighted and talked about boys. I showed them how to do hair wraps and ended up doing all 7 of them. I was just amazed and kept telling Meredith how crazy it was that it was the same as any sleepover, girls will be girls I guess.

Group shot

A Few Little Differences:

There were a few things that were different. First we slept 7 girls and two adults on one full bed, 1 regular sized foam and 1 toddler sized foam and a hammock. Instead of funny jokes keeping the girls up, the girls were making pig noises that they thought were just hilarious! We slept more like hamsters, with me swaying above them in the hammock. They all insisted on keeping both fans (one girl brought her fan) so we did get chilly in the night. In my slumber I reached down and pulled up a blanket, then I woke up to a little mew/moan from the shivering Darlene below me! I gave it back. Secondly we were asleep, all giggling finished, by 11:30 which was way way later than most of them ever stay up on any regular day. One girl, who's family wakes very early and usually goes to bed by 7 or 7:30 was sleeping on the bed at 8:00 unashamedly. Also, Meredith's new neighbor, my host sister Virginia spent a majority of the evening leaning in through the window watching 'a sleepover' and giving ideas and mainly staring at the spectacle of it.

Silly shot number 47

Giving Cynthia her hair wrap

Meredith and I with the girls

Up With the Chickens:

I heard the girls stirring, Larencia (whose family wakes early) was up at 4:30 and I got up a little before 5. Some of the girls slept until 5:30 but by 5:30 we were all awake rehashing stories from the night before, sweeping, cleaning and then making breakfast. The girls pretty much made breakfast, swept, and straightened up without any of our direction (another difference from an American sleepover) and they elected Darlene to fry the eggs (they are all skilled cooks for large groups by around age 10...these girls are 12-14). By 8am they were all home, the whirlwind was over, and we had a few hours to ourselves before the Independence Day celebrations began. We wrapped the girls hair in red, white, and blue for their 30th Independence Day (they have the same colors as us but they say 'blue, white, and red'.

'Supervising' breakfast, darlene with the eggs.

Tortillas and eggs and chocolate drink all made and cleaned up by the girls

Last Two Weeks in the Vill

Let the Goodbyes Begin!!!

Greg being a boy with the boys...

Visiting: A Whole New Level

Our last few weeks visiting was our full time job. Every night our house was packed with people coming to visit and say their goodbyes. Women who usually don't walk in the village came over! We were showered with so much food we couldn't even begin to eat it all. People were walking to our house as soon as our door opened to bring us tamales, ducanu, bread, doughnuts, tortillas, and my favorite from Mrs. Cus a fried fish dinner!! Our earliest visitor was 5:00am and our latest 10:00pm. Our last two weeks we only cooked 2 or 3 meals for ourselves.

We didn't have enough seats or hammocks!

Mrs. Cus on the right who brought us a whole fried fish

dinner, there are 3 more ladies standing outside the door!

8:30PM Bedtimes were thrown out the window our last week!

Amy came after Megan left. Amy and I love each other's

villages so everyone was delighted to hang out with both of us!

Greg chasing Margarita around IN OUR RAFTERS!!!!

Lynette and I were watching and laughing below.

Not only were villagers visiting us like mad, but we were visiting them too. Greg and I decided to split up to maximize our visiting (and his guy friends are mostly single or work late and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to go visit too). So Meredith and I set off each day from sun up to sundown (past sundown some nights) to try to visit as manny families as possible, me to say goodbye, her to say hello. We developed quite a little routine together. Switching off on jokes and talking about the three big topics, the earthquake (a small one) that we felt, the first Prime Minister's death, and my leaving. We managed to walk to around 50 households but unfortunately I didn't make it to the last 16. Many of those ones came to us the last night though to say goodbye and they said it was no problem and they understood.

Late night visiting with Ms. Choj who speaks no English

Me: "Ma ta wa picturic?" Do you want a picture?

Ms. Choj: "Nenow ta...marray?" I don't know...maybe?

Me: "Us us, kim sa'in, tao! Bar ta wa?" Good good come here, lets go! Where do you want?

Much combing and greasing of hair was done before each picture. Often times there was a wardrobe change too. Everyone wanted pictures. I chose a few of my favorites. I must thank Meredith for taking them for me (her camera is very nice) and also I would not have done this visiting by myself! Thanks xMere!!

The little Pop girls who LOVE Greg!!! Every time we walked by their house, "Hi Mr. Greg!!" or sometimes, "Bye Mrs. Greg!!! Bye BYE BYE MRS GREG!!!" from the young ones.

Myself and Meredith!! So glad she's my replacement!

Two of my best friends, Consuela and Fransisca!

Last dollar for ice cream...

Double scoop with a dollop on top, no extra charge for his #1 customer!

Last transaction with Greg's favorite person, the village ice cream man. Every day two buckets of ice cream, always different flavors, always 1 dollar a scoop. He used to stop and wait if our door was open, I had to go outside and tell him Greg wasn't home! When Greg told him we were leaving he put an extra scoop and a half on his cone and gave him a handshake. He said he was sad to see us go and that he will miss Greg.

Baby holding...my favorite!

The newest baby in the vill!! A little girl 8 pounds!

Antonio and Ludrick's family...they gave me flowers that smelled soo sweet!

And now a look at 'man-visiting'

Greg could barely leave the front step because all his best friends (who also happened to be most of the village leaders) were always coming by wanting to give greg a final Beliken. Most houses I visited the men were at the farm or work, but two houses the men specifically requested Greg come back and say bye. Mr. Saki said that Greg "was one cool guy. I just want to shake his hand before he leaves us." Another one treated him to a free coke at his shop and thanked him for all his hard work.

One house I was visiting had two other visitors from the neighboring village of Hicattee. We were all chatting about the earth quake and how I'm leaving and have been here for two years when I hear one of the visitors ask, "Ani Belom? Ma Computer Man?" (Who's her husband? Is it the computer man?) I piped up and said yes that was my husband. Greg had fixed their son's computer and always pointed greg out to them when he wrote his bike to school. They never met him but knew him as the, "Computer Man"

Chatting with Jessica and her little sister!

Goodbye lunch with our Commad and

Compad, our Godson and Seynida!

Vera, Cecilia and myself...my favorite washing companions!

I think I posted this picture before but this was a main topic while visiting the women. Common sayings while visiting, "Oh but Keveen, you will miss the creek!" or "But how the river Keveen, you will miss it?" Yes yes I will!!! The last week I barely had time to wash so Lynette was sent to help me wash. She obliged happily and we swam and played while scrubbing and chatting. I will miss her stories each night about high school and the rude boys.

I made a little photo board for the library (above)

and the school (didn't think to take a pic).

Goodbye lunch party from the Silver Creek R.C. staff. My favorite meal (I got to choose it like my last supper or something) of cahoon cabbage and stewed chicken with fresh lime juice and CAKE! They also got me a second pair of gold ear rings, the smaller size that I always wanted!! Mrs. Delphine put them in my second hold and EVERYONE was beside themselves with how 'beautiful' I was. I did not expect such a lovely gift! They also presented a certificate and a picture of the winning football team that took first place in the nation!

Greg's school planned a surprise going away party for him, however, since they didn't tell him (and we weren't going to school our last weeks) he missed it!!! They had another one and presented him with a beautiful cuxtal and food and many exchanges of emails! His best friend George, who also works at the school, wanted to have another goodbye party at his house but the time wasn't there...so he came to our going away party.

PUNCH BOARD!!!

We wanted to only take a small bag each home so we had a lot of little stuff to get rid of. Giving it away, as a past vollunteer warned me, can cause striffe with the villagers because obviously we don't have one thing for everyone in the village. Soooo...we decided to have a punch board, a belizean fair game where you write an item or a try again saying ("have a nice day" or "try again") on slips of paper, roll them up and shove them into peg board. Since none of the 4 villages around us had a punch board we made one from bristol board. My good friend Megan, from a neighboring village, came to help. Megan and Meredith were like our daughters for two days, cooking and cleaning for us while we packed and organized. Megan also helped tremendously once the punch board got underway, which was a crazy mad house!

The kids giving tips and critiquing my work!

Here are the children watching from the windows while we set up. We sold 90 items at 50 cents a chance (with about the same amount of 'try agains') making 97 dollars for the school which was used to buy two inks for our school printer! We did all of this in 47 minutes! It was madness inside and megan and I were moving non-stop the entire time. We ended up having to make a line for the children and a line for the women and took turns. Ofelia (my host brother's wife) at one point was yelling at me, "don't forget about your SISTER!!" trying to get her chance, while all my commadres were yelling, "don't forget your Comad!!" There were some funny moments, like when an 11 year old boy got nail polish and when little Morpheus won my rain boots and he could barely hold them up! As I visited the days after the punch board every home I went to had my item, freshly scrubbed, and displayed in a prominent place. Our Godson Devon won a picture frame and when we went there for lunch he had the picture from his baptism in it and took it with him as he played and to the table when he ate. He would look at it and point, "hehehe Greg!" *another bite of food* "Heehehehe Kevina, hehehe me!" It was very very cute. AND we got enough ink to last through report card printing and some of exam printint!

Which one will it be?

All of our 'big items' our bikes, stove and tank, fan, crock pot, toaster oven, big drum greg won, a camera, flip video camera, watch, etc we donated to the school to provide items to do raffles for several years. They plan on raffling 3 items per raffle and that should help get some money going into the school. Since I've been there we've had one fundraiser and my principal pays for the electricity and water out of pocket most of the time. I had a bunch of standard 3, 4, 5, and 6 boys come help me bring stuff to the school for storage and it turned into a little parade. The boy carrying the drum led the way (banging the drum the whole way) followed by a boy riding my huge bike, then one after the other caring assorted items as villagers came out to stare or peer from their windows at the goods soon to be for grabs. Belize loves raffles so I hope it brings in some good money!