Not surprisingly, the last day, the fiesta, the planting, playing, joking, laughing day was amazing and will not be forgotten for the rest of our lives.
We started out with just a handful of the participants (as per usual) who were all eager to help set up. They immediately got to work helping the volunteers prepare the pinatas, food, and planting materials. They then set to work planting flowers and veggies in the planters that they made on Tuesday, running to water them as fast as they could.
When we thought just about everyone had arrived we ate brownies and fruit and then set to work on the pinatas, forming two big circles of children foaming at the mouth for the candy. We didn't anticipate that the kids would be so zealous at going after that candy and a few conflicts broke out. Of course, they had been waiting for the fruits of their hard work on those beauties for a couple of weeks. We then sat the kids in a circle and talked with them about what it means to be a member of Equipo Verde and why it is important that we work together as that is our one hope at making a real difference.
At the end of the fiesta, all of the participants got their own Equipo Verde t-shirt. We had just enough for everyone there(50). Not ready for it to end, we all decided to go to the cancha and play a couple of games of capture the flag which turned into a giant futbol game with some of the community members.
The kids were literally dragging us back to the field when we were going to leave. It was an emotional goodbye.
They all signed, drew, and wrote messages on our t-shirts and we returned the favor feeling like unlikely and undeserving celebrities.
This week's volunteers were:
Tuesday: Maria (Guapulo), Anita (Guapulo), Nelly (Guapulo) Mark (England), and Charley (England)
Thursday: Maria (Guapulo), Anita (Guapulo), Nelly (Guapulo), Mark (England), Charley (England), Mina (U.S.), Rianne (Canada), Marten(England) and Dan (U.S.)
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