DAY 10: FINAL REFLECTION

Hello friends and family!

We are James and William, the leaders of the day. After a day of fun at the beach, we woke up at a very early 6:20am in preparation for our long bus ride back to Panama City. After bringing down all our luggage, we had a delicious Panamanian breakfast of Hojaldre (Panamanian Empanada), sausage, cheese, and fresh strawberry juice.

After breakfast, we had our final (and longest) seminar of the trip. We started off with some energizers in order to wake us up fully, and then we begun our seminar, where we talked about what new things we should start, what things we would continue, and what things we would stop doing once the trip was over. Then, we did a more personal Big Love circle, where we all wrote down things we loved about each other on pieces of paper. It was really emotional and the words that everyone said touched our hearts.

We were then surprised with one last free time in Chitré, where we all went out to shop around and buy items one last time as a group. Then, we came back to the hotel for lunch. We ate a delicious Panamanian lunch of chicken rice, plantains, and salad. After lunch, we said farewell to the wonderful hotel staff and boarded the bus back to Panama City. The bus ride was very long and most people caught up on lost sleep on the way. When we woke again, the bus was cresting over the lush green hills to the glittering skyline of Panama City. After some traffic, we arrived back at the first hotel we stayed at during our first day here in Panama. The working TVs had never felt so good.

We all got dressed for our fancy dinner, where we were served a very exquisite meal of burgers and fries. Afterwards, we had our nightly meeting, where we held the most emotional Big Love session of all. Everyone had positive words to say about each other, and after it ended, we continued to embrace one another for the final time. Now, we are ready to come back home as changed students who have a new perspective on the world, the environment, and on each other.

Our experience as group leaders was hard, but we perservered through organizing and keeping track of everybody. We felt so many emotions today, not just from the long and tiring activities, but also from the love and gratitude that we recieved. It was amazing being the leaders of the day, and we are excited to exercise everything we’ve learned once we are back in California.

We can’t wait to see all of you soon in the San Francisco Airport! Thank you all for reading this blog and we will be seeing you very soon <3