It's Goodbye Again

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November 17th 2008

Published: November 18th 2008

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smithlights

Alice

...in the snow

Yesterday was our final show. Last one for this run. Wow.

Honesty, it was a bit anticlimactic. If Albuquerque, as a whole, was anything, it was slow. Food was slow, load in was slow (though the ME and sound guy were on top of life!), service anywhere we went was slow. The day was sort of drawn out, all of us wanted it to be over, but no one wanted it to end. It was sort of weird because the chaperons are all staying together and staying with the kids, and just the 5 of us (Kyle, Jenn, Sarah, Craig, me) were leaving. Sarah will be back with them in a few weeks, and Craig as well, but we had to deport both Jenn and Kyle. Kyle will be back in 2 months or so, but Jenn… it was rough. Last night, she told the children that she would not be returning in January.

The show went pretty well, though. The kids danced with power and sang like crazy. Kyle kept telling the drummers they needed to be quieter, but by the time the drum solo came along, they were WAILING! And Mirembe and Claudio were grinning ear to

Florence

...makes the best faces

ear.

After the show and load out, the 5 of us went out to eat. It was a good time of reminiscing and laughing and things. Then, we all hung out in Sarah and Jenn’s room, partially not wanting to separate, partially because Kyle wanted to stay up late so he could sleep all day on the flight, partially because my room key didn’t work our whole stay there, so Jenn, Sarah and I had a slumber party in their room, which is becoming a last-night-tradition.

This morning we all got up earlier than anyone wanted, but we wanted to have time together one last time and to see the kids before everyone took off. (We didn’t have this time in the spring, which sucked.) We went to one of Kyle’s favorite place, and somewhere he’s been begging to go for weeks, IHOP, and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. But we had to go pack the van and meet the kids and chaps at breakfast to bid them farewell before taking our friends to the airport.

It was hard saying goodbye to them all; maybe harder than with Base Choir. It was roughest on Jenn, as she

Joshua B

may or may not ever see them again, and the rest of us will in a matter of months. I was a bit caught off guard when I saw a few of them crying. I assured them that I would be back soon, and that I’d bring Uncle Kyle with me, and we’d all go back on the road again. Though, a few of our adults won’t be back with us. This team is drastically different than that of the other Choir, and leaving them was much different, plus we got to actually have time for that.

When we took the immigrants to the airport, we did all we could do to avoid goodbyes. Then Sarah and I headed out for Colorado Springs. The drive was fine, just another drive. We got here and were ready for a nap, but we got Slurpees and went to see the Garden of the Gods, which, in fact, isn’t a garden- it’s a bunch of big rocks. And it was starting to get dark, so it was big, dark figures, looming in the background. Then we hit dinner at quite a dive, and went to a movie- The Secret Lives of Bees.