Despedidas

The final weeks of our service went by a lot faster than we ever imagined they would. We had planned our close of service pretty thoroughly and had a calendar set up indicating what we would be doing each and every day during our last ten weeks in Costa Rica. True to our experiences during our time with Peace Corps, events were added, removed, and/or changed (several times). In the end we worked as long as we could and then we celebrated our time in La Colonia with bingo, actos civicos, karaoke, good food, hugs, and unavoidable tears.

Our despedidias (goodbyes) began on a Friday, during our final story hour with the materno and kinder kids. When we finished story hour we presented each classroom with a book, Huevos Verdes con Jamon to materno and De la Cabeza a los Pies to kinder. They in turn presented us with books of their own drawings and stories. We somehow managed to make it through the presentation, hugs, kisses and photos without tears. It was close though. The teachers had explained that we would be flying back to the United States and so the students bombarded us with questions about what it was like to fly, if we would be scared and how long it would take. Their curiosities curbed the pain of saying goodbye.

One of the drawings from our kinder kids (notice Chris' beard!)

A couple of days later we hosted a Sunday afternoon Adios Gringo Bingo for the community. We had acquired quite a bit during our service and we didn't want to bring it all back to the states with us. So, we sorted through everything - balls, toys, clothes, storage containers, school supplies, kitchen supplies and some electronics and prepared to give it all away. We didn't want to favor any given community member or family and so hosting the bingo seemed like a fun way to say some goodbyes and to thank everyone from La Colonia for their support over the last two years. With the support of our friends Orlando and Alejandra we secured all of the necessary bingo equipment and were able to spend several hours with roughly 150 community members that braved the rain storms to come out and play. Everything that we had prepared as prizes disappeared and found new homes with wonderful people.

Orlando helping to call numbers during our bingo

On Tuesday the tears started flowing. The escuela hosted two actos civicos (assemblies) so that all of the students would have a chance to say goodbye. There were many kind words, each class presented us with going away gifts and we received lots of hugs. We teared up and cried as we said our goodbyes, realizing that after two years we really were leaving the people that welcomed us into their community and their hearts.

Our morning kids

Our afternoon kids

The goodbyes continued that evening as the teachers from the escuela and cole and the school PTA hosted a dinner for us at a local restaurant complete with dancing and karaoke. We had good food and a lot of laughs. Orlando, Maikol, and Alejandra tried teaching us how to dance, we actually sang karaoke, and once again we were presented with little going away gifts. 

Goodbye dinner with teachers and PTA

The following day we packed up our remaining belongings (we had already taken some stuff to Orlando and Alejandra's), said some final goodbyes and then rode out of town. Literally, on bikes. People asked us when we were leaving and we would respond, "now," and they looked at us like we were crazy, shrugged it off, and wished us well. 

We kept saying goodbye over the next several days. We had a final trip to the Peace Corps office during which we had some final meetings, signed off on some paperwork and met up with some friends. We had a last lunch at a favorite restaurant with our friend and nearest fellow volunteer, Rebecca. We met up with a whole slew of volunteers at the Q50 race in Sarapiqui (I'm sure a blog is coming soon-ish from Chris about his latest ultra-marathon). And then, our final and hardest goodbye to Orlando and Alejandra as they dropped us off at the airport at 4:15am (what amazing friends to take us to the airport at 2:30am!).

Chris cooling off in Rio Sarapiqui after completing his 50 mile race

We were surprised to see our friends Nick and Monique at the airport. They were our fellow language group volunteers during training. We came in together, we left together (where were you Ari!). What a journey.

Some days...

...Are just meant to be rest days. Today was one of those days.

Today is El Día de Juan Santamaría so there isn't any school so I thought I would take advantage of that fact and get in a nice long run. I got up a little before 5:00 and was out the door a little after 5:00. It was cool and misty, it felt like it was going to be a perfect day. I decided that I was going to do two loops of my favorite route here, a route that goes through the small community of El Progreso then along Río Sucio and then cuts through a cow pasture before coming back into town. However, about thirteen minutes into my run, before I even got to the turn for El Progreso, my foot, which was pretty tender from running for four and a half hours in my Minimuses on rocky roads on Saturday, made me stop running and turn around to walk home.

When I got home, I poked around on the internet for a bit and then decided to get ready for a long bike ride. One of my cranks has been loose, so I tightened that up, filled my bladder, threw the bike pump and multi-tool in my pack, and headed out at about 8:00. I decided that I would do the La Gata route, the route that I ran on Saturday. The first part of "road" is pretty rough, so I was pretty slow, but after about 6k it got relatively smooth so I was able to get into a good rhythm. I hit La Gata, about midway, in a little over an hour. I figured I had about an hour and a half left (about a half marathon with a bunch of hills). I stopped to put a little air in my back tire and tighten up my crank. I knew that I would have to grind on the upcoming hills so I wanted to make sure everything was in order. 

Things were good for a couple more kilometers then I could feel my crank getting loose so I stopped tightened it up and got after it once again. A little further down the road, I again felt my crank slipping so I pulled over and discovered that the nut for my crank was missing. I walked back down the road a bit, but I didn't see anything. I threw my crank and pedal on rack on the back of bike and started pushing. Luckily this section was super hilly so I could coast down and part way up the hills. Eventually I made it to Los Arbolitos (15k still to go) where I found a popsicle stick and using the Leatherman, I was able to create a fastener that kept my crank on for a few more kilometers. I knew I couldn't torque on the precariously attached crank, so I was still hopping off the bike to push it up hills. One of the times I hopped off, the crank inexplicably fell off, so I threw it back on my rack and pushed some more. Then on one of my bumpier downhills the crack and pedal fell off my rack and I wasn't about to back track for a useless bike part.

About 7k out I decided that I would run with my bike. With a couple of good hills to coast down, I made it back home from that spot about as quickly as I normally do running without pushing my bike. On that last stretch I decided my new mantra is going to be, "I might not be strong, but I'm tough."

So my bike ride that I thought was going to be between two and two and half hours ended up being closer to four with an hour and 19 minutes of actual bike riding, but I did get an extra thirty-five minutes of running in.

I think tomorrow I might just sleep in.

Un Árbol outside of Los Arbolitos