Anyway, enough of that...today is the day Noah leaves back for the States. He has been her 5 months and most kids (and staff and tias) are going to miss him. I am not guessing, they told me so. Everywhere I went all day today, the first topic of discussion was Noah and that he was leaving (or already left as the day went on). What shocked me was that Noah was all packed with time to spare!!! When it came time for him to move out of his shared bedroom in the States and pack to come down here, we had to wait on him because he took longer than expected, and the clock was ticking and we were afraid we would hit nasty traffic and he would miss his flight. Noah brought me a few of his extra supplies that wouldn't fit in his 2 suitcases (he was pretty much maxed out at 50 pounds). These were things that either I had given him filters for the PUR water filtration system I had brought down in April, shoes) and then a few things that we typically keep in our suitcases from year to year like (night light, sunscreen, DEET, etc).
Noah also made his rounds saying goodbye to everyone as well, since he has a late afternoon flight, so his taxi wasn't coming until 10am. He took a few pairs of pants to Hector (and Hector told me later in the day when he saw me to say "Thank you" to Noah from him), a bluetooth speaker to a kid and a few things to others. He finished up by spending his last hour with the small girls in the yard in front of the Girls Volunteer House. I was working on math all morning and made it my goal to finish as close to 9am as possible...and 9:01am was my permanent finish time. Now 8th, 9th, and 10th grades all have decent lessons with adequate examples and the homework all worked out for their teachers for the next unit. About 9:45am, I went down by Noah who was still with the small girls, and the taxi came about 10:15am. I walked down to where the taxi was in front of his house and waited while he said his goodbyes. And in the end, all the small girls decided to walk down with him to say their goodbyes. I reminded him to let me know when he got to the airport in Comayagua as well as landed in Dallas.
After Noah left, I went up to the house to clean the 2 pairs of size 14 shoes that I brought down for him in April, which would NOT be staying down here because absolutely nobody here has feet THAT big! I will take them back with me and sell them, since he no longer wants them. I also chatted with Bob for a bit before it was lunch time. When I got to the Comedor, so many came up to me to talk about Noah, including Oscar who said Noah never came to say goodbye to him.
I walked the toddlers back to the toddler house and then headed back to my house and since the office was locked (where Nora works on Saturdays), we chatted for a bit. I only have 2 more full days here before I leave and then she will be in a situation like Noah where she will be in this house for a few weeks yet all by herself. I believe we'll be cleaning the house tomorrow, although since it's just been the 2 of us, it really hasn't been all that bad!
About 2:30, I headed back to the toddlers as they should be up from their naps. Brithany came over and sat next to me as I chatted with some of the teens from that house. The toddlers took their showers and got into their pajamas, and as they were putting on their shoes to walk to the Comedor for supper, it began to rain...HARD. So we waited a bit, put their raincoats on, and then made a run for it! They told me I would get soaked, but it wasn't too bad. After supper, they headed back to their house, and I headed to mine and rested for the evening. Even though I didn't live with Noah on this trip, it sure does feel different with him gone. Through the past few weeks I could hear the kids shouting for him and hear his voice every time he passed by...he will definitely be missed by the kiddos here!
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