My Despedida

Wow...I am almost done! The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions, parties, going, seeing and doing things for the last time. This past Saturday I had my despedida/going away party with my hogar. Despedidas for hogars are a big deal here on the ranch. Volunteers sometimes take their hogars to water parks, into the city to go to the movies, take them out to eat, go to a park, etc. I chose to put on for my girls “An All-American Banquet” slumber party here on the ranch. I spent quite a bit of time preparing. Over the past couple weeks I have been sorting through pictures, donations, and my old clothes and belongings deciding who is going to get what. I pre-ordered 15 pizzas from Little Caesar’s and 45 beautifully decorated cupcakes. I bought gift bags for each of my girls, including the ones who passed to older hogars back in February. I also set-up transport with a ranch vehicle to help me bring everything from Tegucigalpa back to the ranch. Everything was going according to plan, until Saturday morning, the day of my despedida. The night before we were in the city having a despedida cena/going away dinner for Saily, who is the coordinator of the special education department. We stayed at the Nan Kin on Friday night and on Saturday morning I called Annemarie to confirm transportation later on that day. Well, she said that she totally forgot about it and plans had changed and they were no longer going to be able to provide me transportation. What?! Now, I am solely responsible for carrying 15 pizzas, 45 cupcakes, 10 bottles of pop, plates, napkins, cups, etc. back to the ranch?!! Thanks a lot! Instead of arguing and stressing, I decided to rent a car and do it myself. Twenty-five bucks a day, whatever at this point. So, Kris and I went to the airport and rented the trusty Chevy Aveo. We made our rounds across the city and were successful in picking everything up. The car was full before we headed out back to the ranch with all of our purchases.

Tess had been very helpful. She is now working as the visitor coordinator. During the month of August there are many visitor groups coming to the ranch. She arranged for one of the groups to help me clear out the room I had reserved to save me some time and energy. When I arrived to the ranch, I quickly brought the group over to Salon Don Bosco to begin clearing it out. Upon entering, however, I found that there was lots of luggage all over the place. It turns out that there was a group of bomberos/firefighters visiting the ranch and the room had been double-booked. This is when I thought I was going to lose it. We proceeded to clear out the room and go on as normal, until one of the tíos came up to me and told me with a machismo smirk that I would not get to use the room because the bomberos were staying there. Hell no!!! This is my despedida. This only happens once, ever. It is the culmination of spending a year with my hogar. I had already done so much to prepare. There was no way I was going to let some visiting bomberos ruin this for my girls and me. Ryan, who was nearby came to my rescue. We called up Pati, the temporary house director and explained the situation. To make a long story short, the bomberos were moved to a different room on the ranch, and I got the room...ha-ha!

Once the bomberos evacuated all of their belongings I began setting up for the party. I hung up Christmas lights, set up seating, had a projector screen, made a party playlist, finished filling all the goodie bags, got dressed up, and began heating up the pizzas. At 7:00 my girls arrived. I had music playing when they arrived. They were all so excited and giddy. They set up their sleeping arrangements and danced around while I finished heating the pizzas. My tías helped me repartir/pass out the pizzas and pop. The girls loved the pizza! After dinner the tías told me they had to go out looking for three girls who escaped the party. They asked that I wait before continuing on with the rest of the banquet. Okay, no problem I thought. Well, 45 minutes later being the only adult with over 40 girls, I just could not wait any longer. I sat them all down and put on a 15-minute slideshow. The slideshow included pictures of all the girls throughout the year to memorable music. After the slideshow the tías had still not arrived. I decided to continue on and I handed out the cupcakes. The girls loved them! My hands were covered in frosting after handing them all out and some of my girls (Wendy and Suyapa) thought it would be funny to put their frosting all over my face. Oh well! Each girl had a second round of pop as well. Finally the tías arrived and let me know that Deisy, Digna, and Yeni would not be returning because they were castigadas/punished. Supposedly they were found in the Buen Pastor/boys’ side of the ranch with their “boyfriends”. They were sent to spend the rest of the night under lock and key back in the hogar. I was a little disappointed that they would not get to partake in the nights’ festivities, but I understand what it’s like for 13-year-old girls!

When the tías arrived we watched the slideshow a second time so they could enjoy it. Afterwards, each girl’s individual picture appeared on the big screen, one-by-one. When they saw their picture, they came up to the front of the room where 45 gift bags were awaiting. Each girl took her turn finding her gift bag and afterwards Diana took our picture together. Each gift bag included something of mine, a photo album with three pictures, and many donations from my aunt Mo’s fourth grade class (hair ties, toothpaste, toothbrush, chap stick, barrettes, pencils, etc.) The bags were by no means equal, so I was a little nervous that the girls would be fighting over this or that. However, they were so appreciative and happy for all their goodies...phew! After all the bags were distributed, I unveiled the grand prize...two stereos for the hogar. Courtney brought them with her back in June. They belonged to my sisters and me when we were younger. The girls freaked out when they saw them!! They were so excited. My tías had asked me months ago if I would be able to find a stereo for the hogar. They were just as surprised as the girls.

Afterwards, we got ready for bed and I put on a movie on the big-screen, Finding Neverland. It was a perfect movie to show my girls. It calmed them down and was beautiful to watch. Some fell asleep, but a few made it to the end around midnight. We all slept together and the next morning at 6:00am we all woke up and the girls helped me clean, sweep, and mop the room. At 9:00am we had our despedida misa/going away mass, where Ryan, Monica, Kris, Dani, and me all received our “con gratitud”/with thanks plaques.

This weekend marked one of many despedidas for our group. Wow, it is going to be hard to leave this place.