You say goodbye....

It was two days ago now that Andrew and I drove two other MCC service workers to the airport to see them off, along with a few others who went along for the ride. It was a sad goodbye. Adam and Sarah were here a year, arriving just a few weeks before we did. Our team of 9 volunteers plus two small kids is now down to 7, although we'll soon be welcoming some newcomers this August. I guess this is the nature of doing service work in another country - you make as many local connections and friends as possible, but there is a certain comfort in the small community of other extanjeros that are going through the same experience of being a foreigner; living and working within a different cultural context. And the community by nature is ever changing as new people come and other people finish their terms and leave.

Adam and Sarah will be missed by us, but also by the host families that they spent the entire year with, the organizations they worked for and the churches they attended. This experience continues to teach me the value of community... sometimes I still feel isolated here, but am always grateful for the small MCC community here, as well the slowly deepening feeling of community we have with our local church and friends here in San Pedro. We are social animals! We all need a herd! But more than just "being" around people, community is sharing food, ideas, concerns and hardships, questions, struggles, how we experience the divine, and of course the occasional random chat.

Maria and Sarah at Sarah and Adam's farewell pizza dinner... their "despedida".


Sarah and Adam with all their stuff packed and ready to head to the airport. Adam holding up fairly well despite the fact that he had dengue fever at this point and was advised not to travel.


Andrew and I with our friend Julia from Tegucigalpa (capitol city of Honduras). She spent a week with us while she was on vacation from school: fun for us, perhaps a tad boring for her as we go to bed a little earlier than the average university student.