A Weird Goodbye

Today was my last day at el comedor. I was looking forward to seeing the kids and seeing their reactions to the mural. They all LOVED it! They spent forever looking at all the tiles and searching for their own! But then the strangest thing happened…

We sat down to eat, we ate lunch, and then they all left. They just ate and left—no goodbyes, no nothing. I was shocked. They knew it was my last day (or I thought they did) and they also knew I was THERE, which means the classroom could be unlocked to play with all the toys/books/games.

So I was in the classroom with about four kids and we sat in a circle and played UNO for an hour. Low-key, no stress, no screaming kids, and everyone put away their toys after playing with it. But in reality, no one was really there.

So I told the handful that actually WAS there that we were going on a fieldtrip to find the other kids. I wanted a photo with the kids, the mural, and me and gosh darn if I wasn’t going to travel around the entire neighborhood to find my kids! And that’s exactly what we did. I traveled to four different houses and successfully rounded up a majority of my “regulars.”

We got back to el comedor, and they were cleaning the floor (of course)…so we had to wait. So they played quietly in the classroom and I took quite a few pictures. Then the photo shoot started. Half the kids didn’t even want to be in the photo! It was so disappointing. But I have a few shots of me and a group of the younger girls with the mural and none of the girls wanted to smile for the camera either. So it looks like they were threatened to be in the photo.

Then, to top it all off, as soon as the camera was turned off the kids just ran out! I heard a few “ciaos,” but no hugs or anything. I did convince the two twin girls to give me a hug, so it made me feel a little better, but within minutes, they were all gone and that was that.

The mothers were much more affectionate and I received a hug and best wishes from all of them. Maria even walked me down to the bus stop to chat a little bit more before I left.

But it was a weird goodbye…