Changing of the Guard, Pt 1

Big changes here this week. The new volunteers have arrived and made it through their orientation, and this weekend it's time to say goodbye to the folks that I've spent the last six months with. Naturally I'm closer with some more than others, but I know I'll feel everyone's absence in some way. The first order of business was an assembly in the cafeteria. All the kids had an opportunity to say goodbye and thank you. It was pretty rough seeing how upset the kids were, they really get super attached after a whole year together. Obviously the volunteers were taking things pretty rough too, but they kept on their happy faces as much as possible in front of the kids.

Here are nine of the ten old volunteers, waiting for the kids to start

Each of the sections put on a little dance for their volunteers. Here's Especiales doing a traditional dance

Check out their costumes! Here's Lupe (who doesn't like me much), Patti and my buddy Emerson.

Best smile in all of NPH :)

Here's Casa de Bebes doing their dance. They dragged their volunteers out to dance with them. Now I have something to dread for the next six months...

The older girls did a floor show...

And then the Anos de Servicios did a scarf dance. Estella's there with the yellow one

They also pulled their volunteer up. God I hate to dance, ESPECIALLY in front of a group of 400 people.

This year the volunteers had a surprise for the kids too. They'd been practicing their OWN dance all week long in our house. Here's evidence of a secret practice session:

The dance went over really well, the kids loved it. After the assembly we watched a slide show of the volunteers and kids together which was really rough to get through. The volunteers said their final goodbyes then and we headed back down to our houses.

Luckily, going away parties are a great excuse to get smashed together, so that night we all headed out to La Familia for a final night of excess.

Here's Bianca and I

Some of my favorite girls

There was a lot of dancing

At some point during the night, Nathan took a broom as a dance partner. It's also worth noting that the dude in the black shirt is a stranger who kept dancing with all the female volunteers. I got roped into dancing several times in order to protect them.

Over the following few days, the volunteers left one by one to return to their home countries. It's odd to think that I'll never see some of them again, and others I'll only see if I travel to their countries one day. It's also strange to think that in only six months I'll be in their shoes, packing up my bags and cleaning my room for a new person to take my place.