It feels like forever since I’ve blogged. Me… the pusher of the blogs has been the most absent for a couple of reasons. Mostly because the kids have surprised me with blogs without being asked to do them… and also because I haven’t stopped long enough to have a moment to reflect. I’ve been so busy living in the moment, the day, the memories that there hasn’t been much time to pause and blog.

Ohhhh but there’s been so many moments that I have wanted to share. Not the moments that one might expect… like the cool things we’ve been doing, but rather the more unexpected unplanned moments.

Yesterday concluded my last day of school. While I am so excited to be done with the school days (and looking forward to the days to wander the city) I am far from being done learning.

One of my favorite things about traveling internationally are the people you meet and the unexpected connections you make. Wednesday I went back to the dance studio I started taking lessons at 5 years ago…. and to my surprise all the kids wanted to go along. So Nicole got a nice nap while we all got to dance. The instructor I had was a student when I first took lessons 5 years ago and he’s now an instructor. Life comes full circle. Also Nicole came to our school yesterday for our food presentation and was chatting with someone and made the connection that she knows my brother and lived at the Finca during the same time my brother was there (small world)

Ugh, the moments. I am trying to convey what the moments are like here. While they seem so simple, they are really pretty magical. To watch the kids being kids with actual human interaction; where clothing, technology, and the latest fads matter not. Where asking them to not be in their phones hasn’t had to happen because they are naturally engaged with each other and the people around them. To see them interacting with others, they have just met and finding common ground with people we would have probably never encountered in any other setting. There are a few families here with interesting backgrounds and reasons for being here. Including a couple of stories of adoptions and one of the girls having been adopted from here and coming back here for the first time. To not have to “parent” or nag them about getting up for school at 7am… because they are getting to on their own because this is their experience, and they want it. We have spent hours playing cards, or doing each other hair, or coming up with games to play, and even studying (Spanish) on their own. Life before technology has returned here…. and I am soaking it up.

The time here is flying by and I want nothing more than for it to slow down.