...especially when loved ones are going to leave the country and we don't know when we will meet again.
Last farewell was six years ago (for @imabby17 ) and it can take us more than a year to travel from one state to the next inside the same country.
Anyway, we made the best of the time we got and it was time to go back to our routines.
Mondays tend to be heavy days. Yesterday felt especially heavy.
We tried to hug and say as many good things to each other as possible.
We played some domino.
And shared meals. @imabby17 wrote a note to her step-sister and mother to go with cute bracelets she got for them.
I was not feeling too good after all the walking, the heat, the rain, etc. and by now I thought I might have caught a cold.
They wanted me to go out with them to run some errands (return the party gowns), but I decided to stay in the apartment and pack.
We divided the mangoes my uncle got us.
And I made sure the cocoa pod was not left behind (that was the only thing @manujune wanted me to bring to her).
After we ran out of excuses to delay the inevitable, they called a taxi and we headed to the terminal. My bus was schedules to leave at 5:30 pm.
When @imabby17 had to go to Caracas because of the passport issue she missed her bus after arriving a few minutes past that hour. They allegedly don't wait for anybody.
Well, we had to wait for them.
The bus arrived about 30 minutes late.
And this terminal, despite being the main bus terminal in a city with 1st-world malls, is not a place you want to wait for anything or anyone too long.
The weather got crazy again and even though the sun was shining over half the town, a thunderous rain hit that party of town all of a sudden.
It was very hot inside the terminal.
We wandered around not sure where we could see if the bus arrived while getting some fresh air.
No air conditioner, of course. The taxes the big businesses pay or the fees they charge bus companies and travellers will never be enough for local authorities to invest in this sort of facility.
I took as many pictures of my girls as I could and my bus finally arrived.
It was a very painful moment.
All the love and fear, the uncertainty of our next reunión, the ghost of past suffering and the shaky future of our country and the whole región rained down. 🥹
We can only wait and try to learn from life lessons. We can only use this feeling of uprootedness and separation to value every moment and use time wisely to keep families together and the love that makes that possible alive.