Big Love All Around

And just like that, our trip is almost over. Today, we had our final reflection meeting, a birthday party for our chef, Ilka, and a long ride back to Panama city, which turned into an absolute jam session thanks to our Michael, who along with Laura, are taking the role of PC in this very last leg of the trip.

After waking up and eating breakfast, we began our final reflection. This began with creating “journey maps” – multimodal representations of our Global Glimpse journey. This was a lot of fun, and definitely was a great way to recap the trip. Really, it seems like the visit to the goat farm was a month ago! Then, we did “touch someone who. . . ” where small groups alternated walked around, tapping the shoulders of those who impacted their trip, as prompted by Meyleen. Some notable prompts were “touch someone who you will never forget,” “touch someone who was always willing to share their snacks,” and “touch someone who you think is a great leader.” Personally, this was my favorite exercise of the day, because it showed us that others see things in us that we may not see in ourselves. Finally, we closed out the final reflection by shouting out Big Loves to everyone in the group. Warm fuzzy feelings all around.

After this, we had our final meal cooked by our lovely chefs. It also happened to be Ilka’s birthday, so of course, we sang happy birthday and had some cake! She was like a celebrity as we all hugged her and thanked her for her consistently delicious food. She’s a gem, I tell you!

Then, it was time to leave Las Tablas and our amazing PCs, Paco, with amazing hair and a permanent smile, and Heyling, who has a heart of gold, remaining positive even after some of the long and taxing days we’ve had. Saying bye to them was emotional – they were such amazing guides on this trip, and really served as role models for many of us. We cant thank them enough.

The bus ride back to Panama City was long and sleepy at first, but then, per student request, the amazing Michael put on some tunes, adding “DJ” to his resume, and making our final long (6 hour!) bus ride a memorable one.

We ended the night where we started, at Hotel Ojo del Rios, with the same meal – cheeseburgers, at the same table. This time, though, we were like family, celebrating the time we shared together. At the end of the day, its not so much what you do, but who you do it with, and we couldn’t have chosen a better group of people to share this journey with.

Tomorrow, we start our day early for a long day of travel. We’ll see you guys tomorrow in Boston at 10 PM!

• Nyron and Samyam