The following post features student writing.
I don’t know any puns that involve despedidas, or goodbyes. Sorry folks, I’m slacking. Today we were awoken by a somewhat irritated Alia. That was because I (Alex) didn’t fulfill my duties as daily leader, because I had overslept by 20 minutes. It ended up being a loud, chatty morning, until we shut ourselves up by shoveling Gretel’s cooking into our faces.
After breakfast we split to finish our independent projects. Charlie and I (Eric) went up to Laura’s house to help her with some landscaping in her garden, Dylan and Julia went off with another local Biolley resident, Jimmy, to put up more signs, and everyone else finished up their projects in ASOMOBI. Cody, Lizzy, Sophia, and I (Alex) drove to San Vito to buy vegetables, cereal for tomorrow morning, snacks, and other minor things. For lunch we had canelones with rice and plantains.
Two of our group members, Ally and Mila, have been working on their independent project “Humans of Biolley,” inspired by the social media phenomenon, “Humans of New York”. Ally and Mila have been going around Biolley for the past couple of days interviewing and photographing different members of the community. Because it is our last day in Biolley, we wanted to add some of the beautiful pictures that they have been taking. If you are interested in taking a closer look at their project, or reading some of the stories of these amazing people that we have spent the last month with, check out and “Like” the Facebook page.
We will leave tomorrow, so all of us were packing our bags, cleaning up, and trying to enjoy our last day in Biolley with all of these wonderful people. At 6 we had our despedida party, emceed by Samanta. We ate dinner and were presented with a dance performance by some of the local children. The kids taught some of us the steps after they were done dancing. Samanta told us that, though those in Biolley may not have the resources to travel to faraway lands, that by visiting we allowed them to experience those foreign cultures. A bit later, the three women who cooked for us (Laura, Vera, and Gretel) thanked us and hoped that we would remember and carry the experience with us. They were very appreciative of what we have done for them, although I’m certain that they have done more for us and affected our lives much more deeply than we have theirs.
As people filed out we said our tearful goodbyes, to Samanta, Gisele, Miguel, the three aforementioned cooks, and many more, until only we and the local teenagers, who stayed a bit longer, were left. After they went home as well we had our nightly meeting and went to bed.
Adios a ustedes y a todos nuestros amigos en Biolley,
Alex y Eric