Last Days in Somoto

One last picture with Ena Sofia, Adriana and Akhnatito...

The last few weeks in Somoto were tough. Matt and I spent a lot of time saying our goodbye’s – to our host family, our neighbors, our colleagues and other Peace Corps Volunteers. As much as we had tried to make sure that all of our projects were done, we ended up working down to the end. It felt weird to be in Somoto and not go to work, so that’s what we did.

Taeko (Japaneses health volunteer with whom I worked), Rubenia (my primary colleague), me and Noehmi (head of nursing)

I finally finished up my Partnership project, spending hours and hours on end working with teachers who volunteered their time to review my books and painstakingly explain the finer points of Spanish grammar to me. The books are at the printer as we speak and will be helping Nicaragua secondary students in the coming academic year. Thank you again to all of you who contributed financially and emotionally to making the project a reality.

Matt spent the last few weeks making sure that the transition of projects would go well for the volunteer that will be replacing him at the health center when we leave. This involved a week showing her the ropes and a week coordinating on the coming year’s project with the Irish University group that visits Somoto annually. For those of you who read the blog regularly and know of Los Quinchos, you will be happy to hear that they have decided to make themselves a more sustainable center and are going to be setting up their own garden and chicken shed to help cover the costs of feeding their students. The Irish group will be helping them to build these things in July and the new Peace Corps volunteer will help them coordinate with local contractors.

A picture with Enrique at a 15 year-old's party that we were invited to in our last week

Staff from the health center where Matt worked after they threw us a going away party

The last meal that we made for our host family - an American-style breakfast to say thanks before going away.

So our work wrapped up, Matt and I set to packing up two years of our lives for a transition back to the states. But after our time in Somoto, of going through really tough times and really special times, it was harder than we thought to pack up and leave. In the end, we didn’t actually pack much. We left the vast majority of our Nicaraguan possessions to other Peace Corps volunteers, to local schools, libraries and neighbors, including English/Spanish dictionaries, children’s books, clothes, shoes, the futon that we had built by hand, the eggplant and chile tire gardens, the bed and fridge, sheets and plates. All of it was left to someone to be put to good use. We packed a suitcase a piece, two guitars a dog and a cat. Our last two days in town, we had a number of despedidas or going away parties. The health center and health department where I worked gave us both certificates and appreciation and said heartfelt words. Tears were shed, hugs given and email addresses exchanged with promises of staying in touch forever. It was hard. But it made us realize that we had impacted people and we knew that they had impacted us.

Matt and Aknatito saying goodbye (in their own special way)

With things packed and ready to go we set off to bridge our two worlds, spending our last week in Nicaraguan showing it off to great friends from home.

Ringing the bell, a Peace Corps Nicaragua tradition for all volunteers who have officially finished their service