Despedidas

I just finished a delicious goodbye lunch - cuy, of course - with my host family and friends in Cajabamba. This lunch, complete with a scrumptious cake from my sitemates, was the last in what has been a seemingly endless series of goodbyes. Now all that's left is to pack some final items (including a 3-kilo jar of honey, yikes), try not to cry, and get on the bus to Cajamarca tomorrow morning. I am both sad and happy, as this is both an ending and a new beginning, but mostly I just can't believe that two years has already gone by, that I've finished my full Peace Corps service, and that I won't be coming back to Cajabamba for a very long time. 

Goodbye lunch with Sercofe ladies

With Isidora and Filomena, two profesora friends

Made a point of eating shambar this week - my favorite traditional Cajamarcan dish: a thick soup made of semi-peeled wheat, multiple types of beans, pork, peas, and other veggies

Final lunch in Cajabamba: cuy and cake!

Yum!

Last classes

As I have only one more class left to teach here in Cajabamba, this week has been filled with several last classes. At each one, I've told my students where I'm going, why I'm leaving, that I've enjoyed teaching them, and that I'm proud of them. Then, with some prompting from the profesoras, a student or three would get up and give some palabras thanking me for the time I spent with them and wishing me well in the future. My 8th-grade boys even gave me a standing ovation :) All of the nice words, cards, hugs, and well-wishes that I've received this week will hold a special place in my heart, as will the memory of all these goofy kids I've had the privilege to spend two years with.

7th graders at José Gálvez school - the most organized they've ever looked

Goodbye cards from the 7th-graders