This feels like the longest goodbye.
If I felt emotional leaving job, family and friends in the UK 2 months ago, it´s more intensified saying goodbye here as chances are we may not return (although we want to).
But before I get to the sad bit, I´ll tell you about the rest of my week in the run up.
Thursday: Went into school (again, a little lie-in, as no 5b; although I did feel bad when they ran in to say goodbye, waving cards and sweets for me on Tuesday at the end of my last class with 5a), this time with Florencia, my house ¨sister¨.
I had to make up a lesson for these kids, all about useful phrases for a basic conversation, as the clever little blighters had finished all my planned work ahead of schedule. I was looking forward to the help and support of a native Spanish speaker in Flor.
In the end, though, this is how it panned out: 6b were the naughtiest they´d ever been (high on sugar and pop, and excited about end of term), and all Flor did was stand in the corner and make notes...!
Bloody psychology students, thinking they know it all!!! If I´d have known I was going to be subject to scrutiny and analysis, and Flor was not going to do anything to help, I´d have said no to her request. It was extra pressure I really didn´t need, and today´s was very unusual behaviour, and a tad embarassing as a result. I half-joked that she should have been in yesterday´s class when they were angels if she´d wanted to simply observe a class.
At one particularly rowdy moment, she looked coolly over her notepad and observed, somewhat needlessly, ¨It appears you are losing control of the class, Sapna¨.
¨So help me calm them down! Don´t just stand there taking notes, *do* something!¨ I hissed.
I handed her a particularly naughty boy to take to the Oficina whilst I dramatically dropped the confiscated 2-litre bottle of cola-style pop he´d been drinking through a straw under cover of his desk, into the bin from a height so the closed bottle fizzed furiously.
I knew how it felt.
With that example made, I reigned the class back in with a very fun game of good old hangman again.
In the last few weeks I´ve been making it more challenging by combining adjectives and objects and adding to their repertoire of new vocab week on week, so they have to search their entire notebooks for help, not just that day´s words (e.g. a green crocodile, four blue shirts, long curly hair) to try and drill home the fact that the order of these two elements are swapped round in English (Spanish would be e.g. un crocodilo verde, cuatros camisas azules, pelo largo y enrulado).
I did therefore find it particularly funny this week when some of the kids who gave me cards had still written that I was a ¨very girl cool¨.
Thursday pm: spent the arvo drawing Felipe...he´s a funny looking thing (a chihuahua) with huge ears (we call him bat-dog) and a face that only a mother could love, but he´s weirdly cute, with a very sweet, bouncy personality.
In the end, I thought that drawing was actually technically more accomplished, but we all had to agree, Cami is the cutest dog ever (I will post these pics, promise!). I put them into clip frames, we wrote ¨Para (names), Gracias por todo, Besos¨ and signed them before I headed into town to get V´s photomontage printed up (3 pics from Marcelo´s party in Sampaka; one of all us voluntarios, bar Ali - John, US Kristen, Fin, Leanne, C, Oz Kirsten, Tom & me; one of V & Marcelo and one of me & C with Norma & Fernando, V´s parents) with the message ¨Los mejores voluntarios en todo el mundo!¨ and our names and then I went to meet US Kristen for a couple of glasses of vino at Alex´s and to rest my weary eyes.
We remaining 6 of the original posse (Tom, John & Ali had long gone...sniff!) had decided to give V this framed pic, signed on the back by us all along with vouchers for a great restaurant in Posadas, Las Cavas, which we´d all been to for Ali´s last night.
That last Thursday night about 24 of us went to the largest and oldest restaurant in Posadas, La Querencia. All us voluntarios leaving (Oz K, US K, Fin, Lea, C & me); Gen (the exasperating one I had to stop blogging about); Meredith from Colorado, a newbie who´d arrived that day who had moved into Pilar´s where Oz K was staying and doing the same conservation project (an excellent, fun girl and irritatingly as stunningly beautiful as she is nice!); plus assorted friends and family; Aida, Silvina and Flor from our house (no Mariana & Cesar unfortunately due to M´s toothache), Laura from Oz K´s house and her mate; Dani, the voluntaria who fell in love with Posadas 2 years ago and stayed and her boy Fernando; and of course, Veronica and Marcelo (no Norma & Fernando as unfortunately for us, they had guests over).
Great meal, great night, Aida actually nearly cried when I gave her the pic of Cami (Flor said no volunteer had ever, or would ever do anything for her which would touch her like that again...sweet!), V also had an emotional moment apparently after we gave her the picture & vouchers.
C & I also decided to get our family´s meals as a thank you, and then I suggested we 6 leavers all pitch in for V & M´s, which was a nice way to go.
If you´re thinking we were being a little splashy with our cashy what with no jobs and all that: what with the gorgeous mains, tonnes of wines and a few coffees and desserts for good measure, the cost per head was 45 pesos - or about 7 quid a head.
I have a fab shot of us all outside the venue, I will post later, again.
A few of us went onto Alex´s to say goodbye and ended up staying out till about 3am drinking ridiculously strong cocktails and knowing I would regret it the next day.
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Friday. Getting out of bed was a chore, I´d left it so late I didn´t have time to wash my hair...but it was my last day, so I obviously had to go. For the first time in 2 months was 10 mins late for class...eek!
4a had obviously been worried I wasn´t coming, because as I rushed into class with a flushed face and a ¨Lo siento¨, they erupted into a huge cheer, clapping their hands, jumping up and down and chanting ¨Sapna! Sapna! Sapna!¨ over and over again at top volume.
My head hurt, but what a reception!
We whizzed though a lesson learning La Comida (food), which I did for both 4a and 4b, along with a few photo opps to get the last classes on my last day in Posadas, especially my two fave boys, Thomas and Johnathan from 4a. Cuuute!
Again, lots of sweets and cards and *massive* long hugs and big kisses (at one point, I had about 15-20 kids all wrapped around me in the biggest group hug of all time...I wished I could have got someone to have a pic, but no one was there and besides, my bag was squashed to my side in the melée!
After lessons, I got called into the Oficina - but not for being naughty!
Graciela and Fabiana gave me a large gift bag with pics of Iguazu on it (so I wouldn´t forget Misiones), and inside, a gift-box of typically Argentinian sweets, a certicate thanking me for my time there, and also, touchingly, a souvenir T-shirt which F said was ¨en tu color favorito¨. I looked down and realised it pretty much matched the one I was wearing, a sludgy army green, which I guess I *do* wear a lot of when travelling! I was touched by the thought that had gone into these presents, returned their tight hugs and kisses and thanks, and tried very very hard not to cry.
In all the emotional goodbyes in the playground, from the kids pouring out of school for lunch, I somehow managed to leave my presents in the office - and when I went back to get them, it was locked up. Bugger! There was only one thing for it: I walked to F´s house, knocked on her door, explained my predicament, and so her son Lucas, 11, grabbed the keys and took Junior, their fluffy mutt to accompany me on the walk back to school.
On the way, Lucas informed me he´d transferred to this school as from today and is now in in my former 6a class (remember he went to a private school and hence had excellent English?). I didn´t ask why the change, but I suspect F simply couldn´t afford it any more. Apparently teachers here earn only 500 (125 quid) per month, and although F is a deputy head, I´m sure it wouldn´t be much more. She supports 5 people and a dog on that. I´m not sure what her husband does, but it appears she´s the main breadwinner.
What a shame about Lucas though, I thought, as the educational levels of those kids were markedly less than his, and his progress is bound to be affected.
Lucas also told me that there had been a big fight (he mimed huge punches) in 5b today. So glad I ditched that class!
Before we headed back to F´s, I popped into La Cueva (the café where I´d often get lunch after school for the last 8 weeks) on request of Roberto, the owner, to say goodbye. He gave me a massive hearty hug and kisses and wished me Mucha Suerte on my travels and hoped he´d see me again in Posadas.
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Once at Fabiana´s again, she unexpectedly asked me to join them for lunch before I left. She´d already dished out a plate of a creamy-looking spaghetti dish, but as a veggie, I was horrified to notice it had *ham cubes* in it.
I tried to get out of it politely, but F was insistent and the whole family were sat there, Lucas, her husband Paulo, her 2 nieces, Yamila and the gorgeous little Macarena, eagerly waiting for me to join them before they could tuck in - in the end, I had no option to say anything but thanks.
As I ate, I gingerly swirled the spaghetti and tasty cheesy sauce round my fork, trying to surreptiously wind my way *round* the ham pieces. It was futile: there were tonnes of the little buggers, and sometimes they got caught in the strands.
There was nothing for it: I couldn´t pick the cubes out without looking really really rude. So I opened wide, gave the spaghetti only a cursory little gentle chew (rather like you do with oysters) to avoid choking on the longer bits, was really careful to avoid biting down on the meat cubes, and swallowed. GULP!
I think F noticed my reticence, because she then casually mentioned to her husband, Paulo, ¨Sapna es vegetariana¨.
But if she *knew* why did she serve me processed ham!?!? I awkwardly confessed, yes I didn´t eat meat, but then relief hit as the truth came out and I realised I could delicately pick my way round the rest.
Before I came out to Argentina, I had been open to the possibly of breaking my 21-year of vegetarianism with perhaps an excellent organic and cruelty-free Argentinian steak if I really had no option. Luckily, Aida´s cooking meant I could keep things meat-free.
I had no idea it would be broken like this with 2 tiny cubes of processed ham!
But then I rationalised, it was two tiny cubes in two mouthfuls, under duress, not out of choice...and if I didn´t chew or taste them, does it actually count?!
I decided it doesn´t.
_____
As she left to go back for the afternoon session, we said our long goodbye´s again. F said I could always come back and teach English there full-time, (although I´m not sure they could afford me, really).
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After lunch at F´s I walked into town and went later met Oz K and C at Alex´s for one last ¨Submarino¨ (fantastically, chocolate bars which you dunk and stir into a large beaker of hot milk yourself to make into a hot chocolate - and Alex´s were actually submarine-shaped! An excuse to play with your food!), but in the end we decided it was too hot (typical the weather goes great as we´re leaving) so we asked Alex if he could do us milkshakes. So he got his man to create quite the most pretty and fantastic vanilla milkshakes, specially for us as they weren´t on the menu, before again offering C & I jobs at his expanding empire on the Costanera if we were to return.
Then we said by to Oz K, and C & I left to get a cab and go back to El Hogar refugio to await the 3pm delivery of the furniture we´d ordered that previous weekend. Amazingly they turned up about 3.15, which C said was not bad for Argentina-time, but I observed was bloody brilliant for anywhere, considering all you get in England is an AM or PM delivery time, so you take the day off to make sure you´re home for noon and they still don´t turn up till 5.30pm.
You may remember they had a broken table-top (split down the middle) and too few seats which meant mealtimes, some of the kids had to eat standing up or sat on the filthy floor.
We signed the table tops ¨Buena Suerte, Paul y Sapna x¨ and ¨Con Amor, Paul y Sapna x¨, helped the bigger kids set them up on their trestle-legs, and took pictures of the kids that were there sat at their new table. The kids and lady who ran the orphanage (first time I´ve seen her!) thanked us wholeheartedly with hugs and kisses.
As we left the kids for the last time, we both had tears in our eyes, soppy things that we are. And as I said to C...we *have* made a lasting difference, and every time they have a meal, they´ll hopefully think a little bit of us.
On a further soppy note: I was sorry to not have had the chance to say goodbye to little Augustin & his sisters Diaina and Romina, but it was for a good reason, their mum had taken them home for the weekend. C had said he´d managed to see him earlier that day, Augustin had looked really cute in his little white shirt, dressing up to see his mummy, and C had lovingly straightened his little collars, before saying goodbye.
_______
Then we went back ¨home¨, met the new voluntaria (a very softly spoken and slightly naive 19 year old called Emily...oh my god I thought, her & Gen in ¨Hogar¨ will get eaten alive!), tried to prepare her with the help of C´s photos, then bobbed over to Norma and Fernando´s to give them the picture of Felipé. Fernando, the soppy old goat was welling up as he hugged us goodbye, and Norma was holding the tears back too and said they would miss us greatly as we were such nice people.
Backatacha, Norma.
Then, C & I went out to get two photos printed out for the boys in Samapaka of the night they´d put the party on for us. They´d asked for us to email those pics, but I suggested to C we could go one better and give them the prints themselves.
Even the man in the design shop, who I´d only met the previous day, was keen to wish us suerte for our travels...everyone´s so lovely here!
So after a lovely farewell/hello (for Emily) dinner in which Aida cooked some of our favourite foods (yes, including C´s sausages) and we drank lots of wine and tried not to get too emotional about (hard, when Aida insisted on dining with my drawing of Camila on the table beside her!), C & I headed at about 11.30 to Sampaka to say goodbye to the boys.
Unfortunately, the gorgeous Mario wasn´t there, but Carlos was, with a few mates, playing cards, and he leapt up to greet us warmly as ever and pulled up two chairs for us and grabbed some beers.
We still had to pack, so we´d deliberately left our money at home, but Carlos was having none of it and said ¨No importante¨. Drinks on the house! C said it´d be rude not to.
We gave Carlos our presents - the photos and C´s England footy top, which Carlos asked us to sign - and then were surprised when their DJ ran off and got us two promotional scarves (quite nice black ones actually, that´ll be handy in wintry B.A. when we get there) and CDs of his mixes. Cool!
As we said one more emotional goodbye, Carlos said that we would have jobs any time if we were to come back as these boys had plans for Sampakas 2, 3 and 4. (Although I´m not quite sure how these boys are funding the expansion, the bar is always pretty empty when we go in (location, location, location), I´m more and more inclined to go with Oz K´s theory that it´s a front for something else.)
Anyway, that´s 3 more job offers than I have in London. There´s nada at the Telegraph post-cull, and, sat at an internat café today in Rio, having check my email, I hear from a recruitment consultant that media in general is going through a slump. I´m really not sure I want to go back at all.
We left at about 1.30 and didn´t get packed for Rio till 3am.
I think we were both not wanting the day to end as we really didn´t want our experience in Posadas to come to an end.
We´ve fallen in love with the place and the people, and have vowed we will go back (just as soon as we have jobs to fund it!)
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