The fashion show went over great! We got to really promote Tantakuna, and the fashion designer, Jodi Arnold, will continue to keep our product in her store to sell in New York. There’s so many new projects that are underway, including surveying interest in savings/banking, new Tantakuna products, the greenhouse project, possible small loans to the teachers that work at PH, new advertising initiatives, holiday cards, furthered child sponsorship programs, and a microenterprise training program, which is all fantastic, but rather hard since I’m leaving soon. I feel like I’ve finally truly sunk into the community here: I have all my special places- my favorite bread shop, cafés to do work, cafés to watch the world cup, discotecs, bars, produce stands, and park bench reading spots; I have gone to spinning and yoga classes, committed to memory all of the trufi/micro routes, and taken up Portuguese class; and most importantly, I have befriended some of the most wonderfully kind and colorful people both from here and from around the world, one of which even became my “novio”, and it’s all just in time to say goodbye.
It’s funny how much you are able to kid yourself that you have become wise, or at least wise enough. Every trial, triumph, or tragedy shapes us anew, and to think at some point that we have reached a pinnacle at which there is nothing more we will discover about ourselves and the world seems so silly. The more I learn, the more I figure out that there’s actually so much more to know. God has continued to grow and humble me throughout my time here as he has always done and will continue to do, because as long as I am alive I will always fall short, but through mercy and grace that is ok. I am sad to leave but grateful for all the memories I will be taking with me. I trust that there is an hour for everything, including one to say farewell, and as difficult as that can be, I know that with every adieu comes a new adventure that will be as exciting as we’re willing to make it.
Besos para siempre
