Today was the last day of Las Aguilas Church VBS and it was a long day for sure. The past few days we have been helping out with VBS from 10am to 1:30pm and then playing soccer for about 2 hours after that. By the time we get home we’re pretty tired, but we can’t resist the urge to play cards together until about midnight because we want to enjoy our final days together. Today was similar to the other days of VBS except today was Sunday and we had a church service as well.
I woke up today around 8:45 and got ready for my last day in Las Aguilas Church. This was a crazy thought to think about because it felt like we just got here a few weeks ago. I dressed in black athletic wear today and in an odd way I felt like I was preparing for a funeral or some sad event. While I am happy to get home and enjoy my own culture again, see my family, and my friends, I am very sad to leave such great people here. After only two months and only visiting a few times in Las Aguilas, I’ve made some close friends here.
After we arrived at VBS it was a pretty standard day as we helped out with the games session from the start of the day to the end. Usually we end VBS by having singing time at the end of the day so we helped out with that by doing the motions to songs like “Father Abraham” in front of the kids. Throughout the week I’ve been dancing a like a robot during this song and so today I had a small fan group that kept saying “Move like a robot, move like a robot!”. It was fun to entertain the kids with my weird moves and I’m glad they enjoyed it. I kept trying to get them to move along with me but they just wanted to watch. It’s things like this and later when a kid hugged me and said “No te vayas!” (“Don’t go!”) that makes it so hard to leave the people here.
Later after VBS was finished, Kay took us out to a local restaurant called “El Porton” and I got to eat pollo de adobado (my favorite dish here) and sopa de fidello (my favorite soup here) for the last time. We left around 4pm and got back to the church around 15 minutes later. Around 4:30pm they started the service and pretty soon I got to see my first and only baptism while I’ve been here. I took a video of the baptism and I’m glad I’ll be able to remember this really cool event from my time here. I hope that a lot of the jovenes in the church here and in Huehuetoca follow this example in the future.
After the baptism the preacher spoke about having humility and what it takes to live a life with humility. When this was over we cleared the room for our going away party. Once everything was set up they let people back in to the room and once everyone was situated the pastor said a few words about us interns. He talked about what a blessing it was to have us here and said that he hoped we could all come back soon. Then he prayed for us all in front of the whole congregation individually while lifting up our individual requests. Following his prayer we were each given time to stand up and say something to everyone as our last speech.
For my farewell speech I said that I came from the South of the US, which is known for being hospitable. I said that I thought I knew hospitality, but that here in Mexico I’ve learned how to be even more hospitable from the people I’ve met. I finished off by saying that many Mexicans are very friendly and that God would bless them all. I almost cried through much of this but I was able to hold back the tears. I felt glad to be able to share my feelings with everyone and I enjoy making speeches so this was a nice way to say goodbye to many of the people. Following our speeches they cut up the cake and we started eating while enjoying the company of our friends.
While people ate each of us interns were given a large personalized card with our names on them and with people’s farewells written inside. This was really special as this will help me remember the people here and remember how much they cared for us. Once we got our cards, we talked with the friends we had met and took pictures with everyone. I felt like a celebrity as one person after another asked me to write them a note or give them my information for Facebook so we could stay in touch. Once again I was hugged repeatedly by my friends and with sad eyes many of them said their goodbyes.
Finally the night came to a close and we walked out of the room after many hugs and many wishes of wellbeing. Once we got back to the house we played cards as usual and enjoyed our time together for one of our last days in Mexico.
