And, then, all the sudden winter camp was over...

Where did the time go? We had SO MUCH FUN doing winter camp! When it came time to say good bye, I found myself teary eyed...these kids were wonderful!

So, for the last day, we had practiced a song...^Old MacDonald Had a Farm^, since we had visited a farm and we wanted something orginal. We had all made masks out of the random materials we had with us for whatever animal we had chosen to represent. Then, we sang and presented our song to parents and other students. We had so much fun!

Side Note: One of my students told me I was a good singer. I looked at him and said, are you for real? He nods his head, yes. Wow, I said, no one has ever told me that... I typically don´t sing in front of people, or maybe I should say in a classroom setting, but here, I have fallen into this habit of just allowing myself to be stupid-silly. It is kind of refreshing...

The ending was very touching though...our team (it was me and one other girl that worked with these 7 kids), after we sang our Old MacDonald, they told us to sit down. They presented a group thank you that you could tell they had spent time on and had practiced. That was when I might have cried just a bit, or maybe more than a bit. It always amazes me the gratitude I have received from students...because usually, they have given me more than I feel I have given them... I am so happy I am a teacher!

Another highlight for the week, for me, was a student who had such a big heart. We had chatted quite a bit throughout the week. He asked me one day if I wanted to hear his philosophy on life was...I said, of course! He says, everyday is a day to start a new beginning....I love that philosophy! We had a cooking day this week too and we made ice cream in a bag. When we were done, he asked me what I was going to do with the ziplock bags we had used. I said, well...I was going to throw them away...he says, well, I can I have them? I said sure, what will you use them for...he was going to wash them and reuse them. It kind of reminded me how wasteful my lifestyle can be....and how spoiled I really am!(Working in a run down looking school where every classroom seems to have a broken window, where toilets are tubes that lead to some sort of a septic system I seem to always smell at lunch time, really makes me think I could never again complain about school building conditions...)

So, we were finishing up some things last night before we all left and music was playing. The song was...If I had a million dollars. So, I was signing along quite loudly (since my singing ego is now huge) and I turned to this kid and said...if you had a million dollars, what would you do? He says...I would help the poor people of Chile. Then, I would help the homeless dogs. And, if there is something left, then I will do something for myself.

Gosh! That really touched my heart! I had asked other students what they would do and they had responded with typical responses...houses, travel, school, and whatever else...which is just as good and fine...it is their ficticious million dollars so they can do whatever they want....but, given this kid, his actions, the things he was thankful for, the things he didn´t seem to take for granted, his willingness to help clean at the end of the day, and his anxiousness to learn English...It only added to his character to think of others before himself when the list of personal needs, not even wants, could have been so long. Such a sweetheart!

But, I think the true moment of personal satisfaction-joy for me came when we had three spanish-english dictionaries to raffle off and it came down to the last one.....I reached into the names and the name I drew was his. He was so excited....to me, that was worth a million dollars!

All in all though, the week was great. Yes, the ministry of education is unorganized, yes, the English Opens Doors program is very unorganized...but in the end we pulled it together and had an unforgetable week! That is what matters!

Tomorrow I head back to Santa Cruz via Santiago.