The consensus seems to be that it feels like we've been here a month, however, now that we're leaving TOMORROW, it feels as if we just got here. Our only goal today: to make the best of these last hours in El Salvador!!
We were set to have somewhat of a free day today to further explore this majestic country, learn more about it and take it all in for one last time. We loaded up the bus and headed a little over an hour to an indigo farm. A variety of plants have provided indigo throughout history, but in El Salvador, it comes from the Guatemalensis plant.
Most natural indigo is obtained from tropical countries along the equator, like El Salvador. El Salvador has the perfect climate to grow Guatemalensis and is currently the biggest producer of indigo in the world.
We even got to experiment with the plant and make our own piece of art to bring back home.
We learned the long, tedious process of making indigo ink, and then got to become artists ourselves and make our own indigo masterpieces. If you're lucky...this might be your souvenir!!! ;)
We rang out the access indigo, removed the rubber bands and marbles from our attempted designs and revealed for the first time what our shirts ended up looking like...skeleton ribs, uniboobs, bullseye's and amebas... Not exactly what we had in mind, but a good time nonetheless!!
Finally, we headed towards La Casa to visit with the kids one last time. On the way there, we stopped off at an artesan market to pick up a trinket or two to take with us to remind us of our time here in El Salvador.
When we arrived at the house, we debriefed a bit with th fingers of La Casa and then split up to conquer! Some of us stayed to play ping pong, while others went down the street to a nearby park to play basketball. If basketball was anything like the ping pong tournament we had at the house...it was pretty intense!!
After sharing great conversation over one last meal together, it was time to say goodbye. One of the girls that is studying to be a teacher wanted to say a few words to us and thank us for a wonderful week, the time we spent together, for helping build their house...their future...and for all the ways we've enriched their lives while being here.
We also wanted to share our thoughts and feelings with them, as this had been an unbelievable, eye-opening experience for us. We expressed to them how much we enjoyed getting to know each of them as individuals, sharing our love with them. That for whatever reason we were chosen to be part of this team and upon arriving here were looking forward to blessing them with any and all resources we had, but in reality, we were the ones that received the blessing. As we leave tomorrow, we will be carrying each and every one of them with us in our hearts, wishing for them a continued road to a great future.
What we've experienced here this last week and have had the opportunity to do is still all floating in pieces throughout our brains and hearts. Most of what we've done and seen here has been like no other experience we've had before in our lives. But what's next? What's the next step? What does this all mean for us? Only time will tell.
As we leave this beautiful, yet poverty stricken country, let this not be goodbye forever, but only goodbye for now.
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