The week wasn't too eventful before then as per usual except for just soaking up time with Kelley before she left on Saturday. Wednesday we went for a little treat though. We walked to Succotz to go to Benny's which is the place to go if you want authentic and delicious Belizean food. They have wonderful burritos and salbutes! I think I've decided/come to grips with the fact that salbutes are one of my favorite Belizean foods. But anyway, it was quite lovely despite the fact that it was pretty chilly and rainy. It didn't rain on us though! We literally were still sitting down at our table when all of a sudden, it was like someone punctured the clouds and gallons upon gallons fell. And luckily it stopped a little while before we left, so while the walk was wet, it wasn't raining.
So full and happy!
Thursday was a very long, trying day, the kind of day that makes you wonder if you should get on the plane with Kelley and go back to the States. Of course not every part of it was bad and some of it was quite enjoyable, but it was just not the best day for Ms. Melissa. One of my students picked up on this.
"Miss Melissa" by Istvan. While as a whole, he got my attitude spot on, I laughed really hard when I saw this. I also apparently have a disturbing resemblance to John Lennon.
So Thursday ended, thank God. I feel like we did something exciting since we we were trying to live it up every night Kelley was here. What was it? Wow, I truly have no idea. But I promise it was fun and bonding and all that.
Friday. You know, I forget who I was talking to on Friday, but I told them that as I was walking to school that morning I thought to myself, "You know, there are some days that you have to decide to make good days, and other days just come that way." Friday was the kind of day that already came good. It was chilly, but not miserable and the sky was completely void of clouds, Kelley and I had carefully crafted our outfits for the day in anticipation of pictures that would be taken, and it was Friday to boot. It was very easy to ignore the fact that Kelley was leaving the country in about 24 hours. But man, I didn't do a single work thing that day. I just kept saying, "Hey, my day is about Kelley, cake, and Kender." Because it was! Kender is one of our 3rd Formers and his birthday was Wednesday but he's so shy that nobody knew until the very end of the day and when Elisabeth asked him what he and his family were doing, he said nothing, not even a cake. And as silly as it sounds, cake is a really big deal here, like they do cake for everything. Birthday? Cake. Family coming into town? Cake. You're just stopping by? Oh I happen to have some cake. So to not have cake for a birthday is a bit of a shocker. So us volunteers decided we would celebrate with Kender on Thursday. That's also the day he went home early because he was sick. Friday it is then! Right after school Mass we have our break period and so we got Kender to come into the library to surprise him with his cake! He was very shy, but so grateful. Plus who doesn't love cake?
The volunteers (minus a couple) plus Kender in the middle and Evan on top.
And the rest of the day was spent hanging out with Kelley. It's literally all I did. After school, we had our first futbol game so we went to go cheer them on and watch them win 3-0! They actually have another game in about an hour or so.
It was fun to watch and was a great excuse to hangout with Kelley and students before the weekend began. Though even after the game, there was more hanging out with students because one of the classes had a movie night fundraiser that we were helping with. Kelley and I took our usual post by the gate with the addition of Becky and a group of about 8 students which was exactly what Kelley wanted. The walk home was hard though because that was when she had to say her last batch of goodbyes to students.
Saturday was the fateful day when Joe, Jack, and I drove Kelley to Belize City and minus the fact that we dropped Kelley off at the airport, it was actually a pretty fun trip. We discovered that the Belize Central Prison has a gift shop and we stopped for gas at the famous Garbutt gas station. Ok fine, it's not famous, but Monica and I saw it when we went to Belmopan for the awards ceremony thing and we seem to be the only people in Belize who think its funny. Anyway, we also stopped for ice cream in Cayo on our back. I don't what Jack's and Joe's motives were, but I was definitely eating my feelings.
The weekend really wasn't objectively terrible, like if my weekend had happened at any other time, it would've been just a nice little weekend. In fact when students asked me on Monday how my weekend was, my truthful reply was, "Well apart from shipping one of my best friends out of the country, it wasn't too bad." Not trying to be cheeky, it was just true. I did really appreciate how many little consolations I got from the kids though. It made it hard to be sad and ignore the void of Kelley not being there when I was just laughing as students would give me really concerned looks and ask, "Miss, how are you doing?" "Miss, you look lonely." One of them just came up to me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. I loved it! Not the no Kelley part, but just those kids being the precious little weirdos they are, it just made everything better.
So anyway, life's been trucking along here. It is significantly suckier without Kelley here, and even though I got to talk to her Monday afternoon, it almost made it worse. Up until that point, I could just pretend like she was in class or at the boys house or saving the Mount Carmel world like she does. But having to talk to her through a computer? Yeah that was when the reality sunk in a bit. So of course that translates into mega introvert for me, but I promise I'm trying to be a normal functioning person. Which we all know is a challenge for me on any day, so this week is going to be chockful of fun times for me. Ok that time I was being a little cheeky.
Ok well enough about how much I miss Kelley! The days leading up to Saturday were truly so much fun, so let's just end thinking about those. And here is a song I've been listening to repeatedly:
St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.
Totus Tuus, Maria.
No comments:
Post a Comment