So long, farewell, to you my friends!

Hello everyone!

The day I was not looking forward to since the beginning of the trip finally arrived. My last day at Daya Dan. It amazes me how fast my time at Daya Dan flew by, and I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that tomorrow will be my last day in Kolkata, India before I return to Rhode Island. Although I am upset, I've decided that this will not be my last time here in India. Whether I return in the next couple years, five years, ten years, twenty years, who knows? But what I do know is that this won't be my last time here and when I do come back, it will be for a much longer time. Three weeks is not enough to enjoy all that Kokata has to offer, and it is definitely not enough time to volunteer at Daya Dan.

As usual my alarm went off at 6:15 am. However for some odd reason, I woke up with a tune in my head I hadn't heard in years. For all of you parents, students, teachers etc. out there who remember the show "Out of the Box" on the Disney Channel,  at the end of the show, a song was sung which went a little like this "So long, farewell, to you my friends. Goodbye for now, until we meet again..." These same lyrics were stuck in my head during my time at Daya Dan this morning. As I hugged Rama today and said goodbye to him, he looked at me and said "No come back?" to me. My heart sunk, I was very sad to leave him and felt guilty for coming into his life for three weeks and leaving him all of a sudden.. I told him I would come back one day, but it was goodbye for now until we met again in the future. He just nodded, said goodbye and went off to eat his egg curry and rice. I am not sure whether Rama fully understood the fact that I wasn't going to be there with him on Friday, but it made me happy to see him happy and to know that he is content with where he is living. As I walked to the metro station I reflected a lot on the lyrics of the song and my time at Daya Dan and India as a whole. I concluded that there is nothing about my experience at Daya Dan that I take back. Although my heart was set on Kalighat since the beginning, I am glad I said "Daya Dan" after the Sister asked me where I wanted to volunteer.

As I sit here writing these words, listening to the rain outside, I realized how much  I am going to miss Raul bossing me around and telling me to do laundry every morning, even after being there for three weeks. I will surely miss hearing Justice singing, watching Rama dancing lively to "Father Abraham" and I will miss all the joy, laughter, dancing and singing I got to experience with every single boy at Daya Dan. Tomorrow I will say so long, and farewell, to all the friends I've made in India. I will say goodbye for now to India, until we meet again in the near or distant future. My experiences with India and the people of India have just begun, and it fills me with excitement to wonder what it will be like the day I set foot in India again. I cannot wait for that day! As I finish my last post from India, I will like to thank all the audience who have followed us throughout our three week journey her in India, it means a lot to all of us!

Thank you and God bless,

Carlos