After getting ready for the morning, I headed to the Comedor to walk the toddlers back to their house (where they wait for school in the sala with a movie). Outside their house was a strange bug that I took a picture of...the girls seemed to be really scared of it and said it bites hard! I am not quite sure what it is, but thought it was quite the interesting creature, worthy of a picture.
Today's movie was Spirit, and honestly that is a movie I have never seen before in its entirety. Unfortunately for me, we were only there for 40 minutes, so that is what I got to see of the movie...the first 40 minutes. We headed to school and Brithany and Sara took my hand all the way to school, chatting with me along the way. Last year Sara really didn't talk too much, but this year she is cuter than ever, using her words to the best of her ability.
When the elementary school kids get to school, they have to line up just like the high school kids do. This morning, they sand the national anthem, then another song (not sure what it was), then recited a passage (again, not sure what it was...a pledge of some sort?) before they were able to get called to their classrooms. When the courtyard cleared of all of the children because they were finally in their classrooms, I headed back to the Girls Volunteer House. Anna and Olivia had been up most of the night packing, til the wee hours of the morning, yet another demonstration to of how different humans can be as I typically prefer packing the day before and only keeping out the essentials that I will need the next morning to get ready for the day. They were out and about saying their goodbyes throughout the morning, and Noah was walking around with the girls and John. Luis (the "Uber" driver) was waiting up by our house to pick up all 3 volunteers to take them back to the airport, so after the goodbyes, away they went. And thus began my morning of cleaning.

I washed the last of Anna and Olivia's breakfast dishes, then swept and mopped the bathroom, long hall, dining room, living room, and kitchen area. Because of all of the arm motions involved, my Fitbit said I had 10,000 steps by lunch time! I don't think I had that many "steps" however I did work up quite the sweat this morning because there was a LOT of area to cover in this house. Around 11am, I headed to the Tienda, but saw Graciela sitting outside the old big girls Comedor (when each house had their own Comedor), her girls were making tortillas. We sat for about a half an hour chatting and the girls brought me a tortilla filled with beans, eggs and cream (almost like a sour cream). It was delicious. Then I headed to the Comedor to eat, where we were served beans, potatoes and a tortilla.
After lunch I spent an hour with the small girls in the yard and gave Nora a plastic gun that blows bubbles to use with them (I bought 3 from the Dollar Tree back home), but then got back to cleaning the house, scrubbing down all 3 sinks in the bathroom, finishing up the laundry (bedding) that Anna and Olivia had thrown in the washer, folding it and putting it away, and wiping down the kitchen table and cupboards. It made for a long day, but it was so well worth it to have a house that actually FELT clean. With open windows and doors all day, stuff gets tracked in and along with the dust, it accumulates. So it's nice to be able to spend one day a week doing a deeper clean.
With the entire house mostly clean, I headed to supper and had some good chats with Oscar. He had asked for more lemonade packets that I had brought down, so I took him another container. When in town last weekend, I had bought most of the ingredients to make the kitchen crew guacamole, but unfortunately I wasn't able to find avocados or cilantro. So at supper, I let Noah know that if he made a casual run into town this week (because it seems he goes more than the "average" volunteer, due to working in the wood shop with maestro and needed unplanned for items), he should try to look for those 2 things. I am hoping to get a huge batch made within my next 2 weeks here for the kitchen crew because I know they look forward to that each year. And it is my way to say thank you for the meals that they have prepared me.
Yep, I said it...2 weeks left. It hit me today that 2 weeks from today will be my last full day here. I really want to be able to fully appreciate that and take in everything with an open heart because since 2008, this trip has been filling my bucket and I am hoping that continues at least as many years into the future.