Day 14 - Friday July 17

And then it was Friday... The day I had tried not to think about too much... The day I had hoped never to reach... It was my last day of work at the placement in Old England; it was the last time I would be able to walk into the bathroom which we had worked so hard on; it was the last time I could talk with Romario, Shelly, Mr. Watson, Nicaro, Tony, Chevaugn, Ian, Aleem and all the other people I had met at the placement. It would also be the last time I would get to see the other volunteers, since apart from 3 people (Robyn, Simon and Anatole) everyone would be leaving that weekend. Robyn and I got ready and drove to the placement at around 8:30 where we would find that there were only 5 of us left now that Allison, Harry and Charlie had left. Robyn, Thomas, Simon and I worked on the hole that morning, while Alix helped Mr. Walker and the others with the roof of the bathroom. We took our shots at smashing the stones with the axe and the hammer and then cleaning out the hole with the shovels and the buckets. At the same time we were digging the holes, they tried to burn out the tree which was standing next to the bathroom. Because of the wind, all the smoke and ashes got blown down to where we worked, and made our clothes and my hair smell really bad. I sat down underneath the bathroom (to get out of the wind) when Nicaro walked up to me. He told me that he was actually free today, but since it was our last day of work, he wanted to come and say goodbye. We were then called back up to have some lunch. The roof really started to get shape now and the bathroom started to look more and more like a real bathroom. For lunch we got some sausage and rice and drank some Milo. After we finished our lunch, we wanted to get back down to the hole, but Romario told us that we could gather all the materials and get changed as we were done for the day. I took some last pictures of the bathroom when Mr. Walker called from the roof that I had to get up the roof and take some pictures from over there. I climbed up the ladder and was amazed by how good the roof looked from the top. They were working on the steel foundation, where later the cement would be poured onto. I took the pictures and climbed back down. The taxi would soon be there, so it was time for me to say goodbye. I thanked everyone for all the good care they had taken over me and for all their help with the construction work, I shook hands, I gave hugs and I waved these lovely people goodbye for the last time. We then drove back to the office, where I had to complete an online survey about my experience with Projects Abroad, the work at the placement and my time at my host family. We were then given some supervised free time in which we went to the ATM, to the pharmacy (where I bought some canned Ackee to take back home) and to the supermarket. When we got back to the office, I got my Certificate of Appreciation and we had a conversation with some of the staff members until the Care group came to say goodbye. I have had a really good time with these people, so it was kind or hard to say goodbye to them. We took a last picture together and I waved them goodbye as they drove away in their taxi. A couple of minutes later, our taxi arrived as well, which meant that it was time to say my final, final goodbye. I said goodbye to Alix, Simon and Thomas, to the staff members and to Romario and (of course) took some last pictures. We then got into the taxi and were dropped off at Mandeville town where we met Unika to do some shopping. I hardly recognised her at first, since she had just been to the hairdressers and her hair was now short and orange. I thanked Andre, our driver, for all the rides he had given me and we went off to the supermarket. We bought some fries and nuggets for dinner and I bought some spices to take home. When we got out of the supermarket. it had started to rain and since Unika just came from the hairdressers, she did not want her hair to get wet so we decided to take a taxi home. After Unika had finished cooking, we ate dinner together when suddenly the lights fell out. We had another power outage. In the dim light of a candle we finished our dishes and discussed at what time we had to get up on Saturday and how we would get to Dolphin Cove. Since there was no light, no electricity and Robyn had fallen asleep already, I decided to get into bed as well.

#Placement #Digging #Lastdayofwork #Goodbye #Roof #Supervisedfreetime #poweroutage