Adios Xela

Yesterday, August 18, was a sad day for many of us as it was our last day in Xela. But before we boarded bus and headed out of Xela for the last time, we had a fiesta with all the teachers and directors from the four schools where we run the basketball clinics.

Since this is Hoops Sagrado, the fiesta included a few basketball games between the teachers and directors of each school with the Hoops folks who worked at each school pitching in. Although there was clearly some questionable play calling and refereing by other Hoops students.

After the basketball each school did a presentation for the students which including traditional dancing and singing. The directors of each school expressed their heartfelt thanks to all the Hoops students for the hard work that they do. Each student was presented with a small token from their schools which ranged from pieces of tipica with their names embroidered on them to hand-made purses and scarves.

For the first time, the superintendent of the school system in Cantel was at the fiesta and made a brief speech. His speech, which was quite emotional for many of us and basically included words along the lines of ..."Guatemala has no courses, Guatemala has no schools, Guatemala has poverty, but the students of Guatemala have angels and many of those angels are the students of Hoops Sagrado."

When the speeches and gift-giving had concluded everyone enjoyed a totally awesome lunch provided by the teachers of Chuisuc, then headed back to their homes to pack up and say their final good-byes to their families.

In what was probably a fitting moment, the bus pulled out of Xela for the last time on a totally beautiful and sunny afternoon.

We arrived in the lakeside village of Panajachel around 8 p.m. and within 5 minutes of getting situated in their rooms, most of the students were in the streets of Pana spending what little money they have left....if you're a loved one of a student on the trip, let's hope they spent some of that money on gifts for you!