We All Cried

I cried. They cried. We all cried.

The night before I left, my family had a going away party for me and all my brother’s friends came. Basically, I borrowed all of his friends the whole time I was in his home. At the party, we had food of course there was dancing, then we all sat in a big circle and had a discussion (i.e. everyone said something nice about their experience with me!). And it took everything in me not to cry. It was so sweet of them.

The next day, my family decided to drive me to my new home, which was so generous and made my life 1,000 times easier. But my brother Marco wouldn’t come…he said it’s because he had to study, but we all know it’s because he didn’t want to CRY.

And thus the good-byes began: I went to say bye to the neighbors, who were like another family to me, and as soon as I walked in the door to say good-bye I started crying.

Then I had to say bye to Marco. So I cried again.

Marco sent in his place my OTHER brothers: Tony, Kenneth and Coco. And we traveled about 3 hours to my house. When we arrived, they all came into my room and tried to fix it up because clearly they are all SUPER worried about me. So the boys climbed around and fixed my mosquito net and my mom fixed my bed. And they told me to BE REALLY CAREFUL.

Then they had to go. And my sister and I bawled. And then my parents cried. And then the boys looked at me with lots of sympathy and said “Don’t worry. We’re going to talk soon. And we’re going to visit you.” And then they drove away.

Then I went to church. There is a church practically in our front yard so I thought it would be better to go to church than to cry all night long.

And here I am. I am here in my new home, and I am starting all over, and I hope that in three months, I love this place half as much as I love my first Costa Rican home. And to end on a happy note, I AM SURE I WILL LOVE THIS PLACE!