Our second day at the beach dawned grey and many worried that we wouldn't be able to log the expected hours under the sun. Our fears were for naught as by 8 am there was little shade to be found anywhere. I, having spent perhaps too much time at the beach the day before, spent most of my morning ferreting out the breezy, protected spots. From my post on the terrace, I watched the kids who'd worked so hard only days before, play equally hard in the surf. As I read my book, their laughter floated up along with the sound of the waves crashing on shore. I was hard pressed in that moment to think of a more appealing combination of sounds or a vista I'd admired as much.
Everything about that second day at the resort was so much more appreciated and marvelled at as a result of the hard hours of work we'd sweat through in Zacatecoluca. All of us were still wrapping our heads around the impact we'd had on a group of complete strangers, and their's on us. Talk of leaving was virtually sacrilegious and on numerous occasions veiled threats were made regarding not boarding our flight the following morning.
The kids got massages, drank frozen beverages, scarfed down pizza, club sandwiches and french fries. They lay in the sun, applied sun screen (not enough in some cases), body surfed the waves, and swam in the pool. They hung out in groups, continued to relive their recent experiences and strengthened the (in some cases unlikely) bonds that they'd spent the week forging. It was so cool to see the effects of the trip on their faces and in their conversations. I was so proud of everyone for having shouldered their share of the load, for making the effort to be open minded and accepting of a different way of life, for trying new dishes and a foreign language.
We had one final dinner as a group and Mr. Carpenter closed out the evening with a congratulatory speech -one of his finest! Although I'm not convinced everyone went to bed as we suggested, everyone was up and ready to go by 4am the next morning. We got into the van and waved goodbye to the resort. Checking in for our flight and getting through the excessive number of check points at the airport was a bit of a feat. And this was only the beginning of our epic journey home. To begin, each screen in the San Salvador airport displayed a different departure time for our flight to Houston. We had a very small window of time between connections and I can openly admit to not being long on patience regarding delays. We took off as per scheduled (on our boarding passes) and made it to Houston without incident.
Upon arriving, we waited for quite some time to get through customs. Daren, Chris and Will were selected for random bag search and were taken away by security. They must have done something right as they were released to us shortly thereafter. The last two legs of our trip home were relatively uneventful, with the exception of a few upset stomachs, the result of having gorged ourselves on fine western cuisine at our gate in Newark. We said goodbye to a few students in Moncton and carried on to RNS by bus. Finally, at around midnight, we'd reached our final destination. It was great to be home!
By now, everyone has been reunited with their families and i'm sure you've all relived these stories through their eyes and words. I keep saying that the experience features easily among the top three coolest things i've ever done. I hope that everyone will spread the word regarding their own opinion of the trip and encourage the school to continue to offer these opportunities and motivate others to participate!
Here are a few more photos. We'll make sure everyone has access to all the trip pics one way or another, but these should tide you over in the mean time.
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