I just wanted to give a recap of Friday!
We woke up, and Mrs. Lundy made potato pancakes for breakfast! Molly, Olivia, and I went into town to get some souvenirs. Earlier in the week, Karissa told us we could get manicures and pedicures for an extremely reasonable price! Olivia decided not to get hers done, but Molly got her toes and fingernails done, and I just got my fingernails painted. It of course wasn't as great as getting them done in the US, but $10 for both a manicure and pedicure was pretty hard to pass up! When we finished, we took a cab back to the hotel, because it was raining.
After that, most people either ate lunch or started packing up their bags to leave. Molly, Jacob, Daniel, and Martin went out into town to have lunch at Cafe Tortuga. They got crepes, which they said were good! Our vans were scheduled for 3 pm, but we wanted to have our bags ready by 2:30, in case they were early or something. We also wanted to say goodbye to the kids, but most of them don't get home from school until about 1:20.
Since Alex and his mom were ready and packed, they went up to the orphanage to hang out for a little bit. The rest of our group eventually trickled up there. We took a picture for the Independent newspaper back home, and we played with the kids for the last time. Since Karissa wasn't able to be there (she was at the hospital trying to save the life of a baby who is only a few days old), she wrote a letter for Kayla to read to us. She immensely thanked us and asked for us to come back; it was really sweet and touching.
After that, Kayla brought out grub worms for people to try! Not everyone did, but those who did mostly agreed that the taste wasn't too bad, but the texture was the bad part. A few of orphans ate some, and to them it was just like any other food! After the grubs, we got to put our handprints on a tree that they painted for all of the volunteers that come down there! A few people still needed to finish packing, so they went back.
Since Olivia and I were packed, we stayed to get pictures with all of the kids! Their lunch time had already been postponed, and we didn't wanted to keep them waiting any longer, so we decided to leave. We said our final goodbyes, and I hugged all the kids one last time. It was very hard to leave them with how close we've gotten. According to Bless An Orphan, the kids have already been asking when we're coming back. ):
After leaving the orphanage, we walked back to the hotel to wait for the vans. We took a few more pictures while we were waiting too. Finally, the vans arrived, and they started loading the luggage. This time, only one of the vans had a luggage carrier on top! We had a little less luggage than when we came down here of course, but we definitely still had a lot! Somehow, they packed it all in just fine though! We got into the cars, and they were actually REALLY nice! They looked brand new, were very clean, and they had air conditioning!!
When we were all ready, we finally left and started heading out of Tena. We stopped really quickly to air up one of the van's the tires, but then we were off for good. Since these vans were much nicer, the ride through the mountains wasn't as bad! The drivers this time weren't as crazy either, which helped. We stopped one time towards the end for a bathroom break. It was pretttty sketchy. There was a restaurant, but the bathrooms didn't have toilet seats, toilet paper (which is a little more common), and you flushed the toilet by pulling on a wet string.
For the last hour of the car ride, the sun was starting to set. It was really pretty, but sometimes the mountains blocked it. Finally, we got to the airport!! We went to check out luggage, but they told us we couldn't check in until 9 pm (it was only about 7 pm). Our flight didn't leave until midnight, and there was still another flight before ours. Eventually, they decided to let us go ahead and check them anyway!
After checking our luggage, we went to eat at Johnny Rockets. A few of us didn't want food from there, so we decided to go through security to see what other restaurants were on the other side. Their security was WAYY more laid back than it is in America. You don't have to take your shoes off, and they hardly even stopped the bags on the conveyor belt to look more carefully at them. It was kind of nice honestly!
After security, we got food and looked at the shops. They only had a few, but one of them was a chocolate store which was really cool! They gave out free samples too! :) After everyone made it through security, we all started writing little affirmation notes for each other. Olivia came up with this idea, and I'm glad we ended up doing it! It was kind of nice to hear what everyone thought after being together doing hard work for two weeks.
After awhile, we went to our gate to wait to board. We boarded on time, but once we were onboard, we had to wait a pretty long time. There were other passengers who were on a flight from Guayaquil, and their flight was delayed, so ours got delayed a little too. Our airplane was really nice though!! We all got movie screens, remotes, cup holders, pillows, headphones, ear plugs, eye masks, and pretty nice fleece blankets. Plus, the plane was big! There were three rows (2 seats, 3 seats, and 2 more seats).
Around 2 am, they served food. I guess it's customary to serve food on international flights, but it was kind of a weird time for people to get a full dinner-like meal! A lot of people ate it though! Because of our late start, we landed about 30 minutes late. The good part is that this didn't affect our next flight, because we had a pretty long layover in Miami.
In Miami, we went through customs, rechecked our bags (which was actually just giving it to a guy who put a new sticker on it), and went through security again. After security, we went to our gate. Someone found a place that was serving real breakfast already (it was 6 am now), so most of the group went there. A few of us stayed back to sleep. I was actually sleeping a lot of the time at the airport, because I still wasn't feeling well, so I'm not sure what everyone did. I know some people walked around and looked at the shops, others used their phones, and a lot of people slept. And of course, we did one last word-of-the-day!
Around 9 am, we boarded our plane for the last leg home! The flight left on time, and it even landed a little earlier than we had anticipated. We got off the plane, and while we were walking to get our luggage, a few of the family members were standing there waiting to welcome us back! It was really cool, because there were cameras flashing like we were celebrities or something haha. As we walked further, we saw Mr. Hart's wife, Mrs. Diehl, and my mom. We all got our luggage, said goodbye, and headed to our cars to drive home.
I just want to say thank you to everyone-- those who read the blog, those who supported us in any way, those who prayed for us, and anything else that anyone has done to help make this trip possible. It took a lot of preparation, but there is no way that we could have done it alone. The trip has opened all of our eyes. We know that we take a lot of things for granted and should appreciate what we have more, but seeing firsthand the way people live without some things we consider necessities is just so real. It has been an experience I hope none of us ever forget.
I hope everyone enjoyed the blog. Thanks again!
Kaitlyn
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