this week has been a bit more low key. it's really hard to believe or know what to do with the fact that this is my last week here.

i spent a couple days this week helping out at a camp for kids with hiv/aids. it was weird. they seemed like normal kids, except for some had weird rashes. other than that they appeared normal. i kept randomly thinking, man, these kids have aids and it was kind of a weird thought. i was sitting with one girl at one point and she started crying....i had no idea why. it turned out that her chest was hurting her. my initial thought was that she was sad or missed home.....i'm not used to kids just randomly crying because they're in pain. i said bye to the kids this morning and even though i just spent maybe 10 hours with them it was sad. they asked when will we see you again....a common question around here...to which i replied, i don't know.

everyone asks when i'm coming back. random people i don't really know ask. i've started to make some more friends around the neighborhood which is kind of sad considering i'm leaving. i've started talking more with the people who run the colmado on my corner and some of the guys that hang out there. yesterday i made cookies and took some to the people that run the colmado, a new friend of mine and another random guy that talks to me sometimes. i'm really going to miss the colmado....one for its convenience and another for the people.

this past week i also visited wencesla...the cancer patient. it was really sad. i knew that her outcome didn't look good, but i was unsure of what she knew. visiting with her and knowing that she probably wouldn't survive was sad. also, i actually got to hang out with her kids a little which was cool but sad at the same time. a story she told which really hit me....i don't know why was that she wrote a letter to the first lady of the dominican republic asking for help and she never got a reply...her response to this was "i guess there are a lot of people that need help." i don't know why that comment got to me but it did. sitting in her tin roof and shabbily constructed board house....wondering what would happen to her kids was sad. she gave me a thing to hang on my wall that she had made me that i think i'll keep forever.

it's a weird time. i've gained a lot more independance. going to the store is no longer a new and exciting thing. i've even made it out to la romana several times on my own. i've started saying those goodbyes i've dreaded saying since i got here.