Today, August 7th, was our second to last day in Riobamba and our last free day. We started off our day eating breakfast at our local place, Nativa. Once we finished, we had a meeting going over our appreciation letters for our sponsors that made this trip possible for us. After rewriting our letters it was finally time for all of us to split into groups and explore the city one last time. That allowed us to bond with each other on our last full day.
Towards the end of the day we all had an emotional but enlightening afternoon saying goodbye to the students that we taught for 6 days. During their graduation, all of us Glimpsers got to see the big smiles on the kids’ faces as we handed them their diplomas. We got to take pictures with our kids, eat snacks and play soccer with them one last time. This was such a big moment – not only for the kids – but for us too because we got to be part of teaching them a second language and bonding with them at the same time. After their graduation, we headed back to Hotel Mashany to start packing until dinner time. We had dinner at Nativa which for our last favorite meal we had mashed potatoes and breaded chicken! As our daily routine after dinner we had our nightly meeting which was short but heartwarming because we got to pass the last torch and say our last big loves. Of course, the boys ended up playing basketball which is their last game…and Brooklyn won. This is a bittersweet time because, while we’re eager to get home, we want to savor the last few hours we have together.
