And in conclusion...

So our days at GSD have officially come to an end. I'm not sure I've ever been more sad about leaving a group of people. Eliza and I made some very close friends at the school and saying goodbye was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do. In our last weeks we had a lot of fun though! Exams happen quite early so the kids have a couple weeks to just clean-up the school and kind of relax; in that time, we had many going away/Christmas parties. It was a little bit weird to be decorating for Christmas while in t-shirts and flip-flops, but it was still a lot of fun.

In the last week, we had what is called a Prize-giving Ceremony, where all the teachers give awards to the students in each of their classes for various achievements they have made. It was so nice! The kids were so excited about it and most of the parents came that day to take their kids home afterward. All the  kids had items to perform as well which were so cute! They are all so talented. Here are some pictures from our last couple of weeks!

saying goodbye to nester

sarote, saying thank you to nester

my class getting ready for our christmas party

raurenti

william

kevin

shivneel

my class

nassoni

bweiti

raurenti and william

our newest student, nina

petero

me and my class

being silly

in tully's village eating some fruit that i've never heard of before

just drinkin' some coconuts

mela loves coconuts

tully

its hard to tell from this picture, but this tree is amazingly multicolored, purple, green, pink, blue. it was super cool

heading down the road

gifts from the village!

the start of the hostel christmas party

the next five pictures are scenes from skits the kids did at the christmas party

one of our deaf hostel staff showing off her hidden talent

my class eating lunch on a typical day at school

sanimere at prize-giving day

the little muchkins

una and olivia

class 8 item

making the manger scene

petero as a pink angel

poems

nassoni leads his class in reciting a poem

prize-giving with me and isi

the little ones with their prizes

group photo

saying goodbye to nassoni

yes, i am crying. saying goodbye to petero.

liza and her girl, rotiira

liza and vitila

vitila, me and mali

liza saying goodbye to koleta

me and koleta

liza and some of her girls

liza and her class