Isang Linggo Pa Lang

Seven days.  That's all I have left to spend with my neighbors--no, my Filipino family before I head off to Manila for three days of 'processing out' and four days of waiting for my flight. 

I've been slowly preparing for this for weeks by this point.  I've cleaned my house and organized all the junk I've collected over the past two years.  I've taken some of the good stuff to school for the teachers to claim, I've given a lot of art supplies and toy-like things to the neighbor kids, and I've left a lot of the random, not-so-great things at a nearby waiting shed for passersby to pick up (and they have).  I've sorted through my clothes many times in the last few months and have given about half of them to Ate Yhen, my neighbor and best friend at site.  My big, blue duffel bag is packed full of mementos, souvenirs, pasalubong, and other things I just don't want to leave behind. I fear it's already too close to the fifty pound weight limit but luckily I still have my backpacking bag to pack with essentials: a couple days’ worth of clothes for Manila, toiletries, sketchbook, dog food, etc.  I’ve sold the crate I bought for Bern at the very beginning (which he never used) and I’ve sold my laptop with a delivery date of Saturday September 6^th.  I’ve worked with Bernardino to help him become comfortable in his travel crate and I think it was a success since he crawled in there during the last two thunderstorms.

As far as projects are concerned, the library is finished but I’m still working on one last project for Ateneo.  Last week, I took individual pictures of all pupils in grades 3-6--those who are eligible to borrow books--and this week I will be helping the teachers change the file names to the pupils’ specific identification number.  It’s tedious but it probably wouldn’t happen if I didn’t do it now. 

The Dela Cruz house is still waiting for the electricity to be initiated, which I’ve been told will happen on Tuesday.  I’ve heard that story so many times already so I’ll believe it when I see it.  And I hope I’ll be around to see it.  Other than that, the house is finished.

Candy and I finally had our last meeting with the JCFI kids who worked on the children’s book project with us over the summer and into the beginning of the school year.  We presented them with their finished products and allowed them to autograph their work.  Candy is looking into making more copies of the stories to distribute to more places since there are remaining grant funds, but I’m now finished with that project. 

Tomorrow I’m meeting a friend for a goodbye lunch then heading to Gift of Love for Arnela’s birthday and what will be my last visit to my favorite place in the Philippines.  I’m emotional just thinking about it.  With the help of my family, I have a couple gift bags prepared for Arnela and Rosalinda as ‘remembrances’.  They’ll each be getting a variety of art supplies, a sketchbook where I transformed the first few pages into a scrapbook with pictures I’ve taken of us over the last two years, stationary and pre-stamped envelopes with my address, and a gold necklace with a pendant the shape of the U.S., courtesy of my Nana.  I’m excited to see the girls’ reactions but I HATE that I won’t be back there again.  Those two girls have been such an important part of my life these past two years and it is really breaking my heart to know I have to say goodbye. 

Despite having so much to express lately, I know I’ve been avoiding the blog—and some conversations--recently in an effort to keep the sadness and the reality of leaving at bay.  I’ve also been spending a lot of time with my neighbors playing UNO and Skip Bo, chatting, and making Facebooks for those who don’t have them yet so we can keep in touch.

To be completely honest, I know you’re excited for me to come home (and so am I deep down) but I need you to know that right now, my heart is breaking about the fact that I have to leave this place and these people.  And no, I don’t want to talk about it yet.  I just need to live these next seven days in the here and now without any talk of what's next.  There will be plenty of time for that.