Day 6

See You Later

 

Today was the day we’ve been dreading since first meeting the students of Centro De Fe. Our short time interacting with them was brought to a close, not without enough tears to fill a 3L bottle of Nicaraguan Fresca.

We started the day off with a French Toast breakfast (bean and rice included), and arrived late to the school due to heavy traffic. Grade-wide devotions were led by ACS and discussions following a clip of The Chosen were facilitated by Lianne and Cameron. It was an opportunity well received to discuss calling and faith. With the help of the translators, Nilda and (Uncle) Gilbert, we were able to encourage one another by telling of how God has working in our lives and continues to show himself to us.

By far the favorite team memory of today, however, was a bilingual celebration through worship. Nichole and Juan blessed us with music once again, and as we were singing Way Maker with the grad class, we began hearing younger voices from the upstairs classrooms join in to create a chorus of praise. This led to Kendra’s uncontrollable crying, starting the chain reaction of tears. The tears were a mix of overwhelming joy, but also sadness as we knew our time with the students was limited to only a few hours left.

Following this, we had one last chance to be tackled through giant waist-high hugs from Elementary children and felt like celebrities as we signed autographs and took countless photos with kids we hadn’t even interacted with much before. Yet, little tokens such as earrings, bracelets, stickers, and hand lotion were still gifted to us as we wandered around to all the buzzing classrooms throughout the school.

The tradition of the ACS/Centro De Fe mural was continued on a wall in the upstairs hallway. The art teacher, Rafael, designed the mural and set out paint supplies for us to add our names to the wall. Surprisingly, most of the paint stayed on the walls and only a few drops ended on places it shouldn’t have.

At this point, with a well-earned hunger, we shared a final lunch with the grad class of Centro De Fe. The younger students at the school had been dismissed because of the upcoming talent show. This meant that the usually echoing commons were now quiet and ready for Google Translate to take over in between bites, concluding our morning.

And so, the talent show began! Acts included a dance to a French pop version of “New Kids on the Block,” Juan tickling the ivories, a traditional Nicaraguan dance, numerous singing groups such as Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, and a beautiful rendition of This is Amazing Grace. We also were given an explanation of how Nilda and Jorge look like the number 10 when standing next to each other, and were given a visit from the Canadian ambassador for Nicaragua: Billy Bob (aka Koen). A detailed description, with actions copied through our translator Gilbert, were presented to a stunned audience of how to properly wipe your culata (google it in Spanish) when you go number 2 in the wilderness. Thanks Billy Bob for making us laugh and thank you translators for putting up with Koenradical’s craziness!

Juan is now Nicaraguan famous as there are pictures of him on most grade 11 girls phones (“tres bonito”). This marked the beginning of the end of the day. We exchanged cards and bracelets with the Nicaraguan students, sang a harmonized version of the doxology as an outstretched blessing to our new friends, and Kendra’s fountain continued to flow at its peak as we said our last goodbyes. Photos were taken on dozens of phones, and social media accounts were exchanged. While the girls shared a large group hug with not a dry eye in sight, the boys huddled and did a loud chant, highlighting the nature of teenage boys in times like these.

Final hugs were given and we headed to the bus, but after loading, convenient bathroom breaks were taken…I’ll leave the discretion in the reader as to if these were legitimate or not.

We decided to not play any more music around Kendra for the rest of the day and told Malia she couldn’t look at any photos from this week until we were on the flight back to Houston, as to not bring up any triggers that would set off the crying of a large sum of girls from our team.

We made a quick stop to our local grocery store, La Union, on the ride home for last minute snacks, chilled at the NC before enjoying a delicious dinner, and had a meaningful time of devotions and reflection from the day. As we write this, the team is running around the dark walkways of the center playing a rigorous game of Mafia, before our “hard” bedtime of 10:30pm. Overall, it was an emotional day, yet it wasn’t all tears of sadness, but rather joy of meeting people that have impacted our lives forever.

Message from Billy Bob: “Always remember to use only one piece of toilet paper when pooping in the forest.”

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