Well, I'm just about packed. Liana is taking her last nap here in Antigua.

Word has gotten around today that we were leaving. I am not really into goodbyes, so I haven't told anyone but the folks here at the apt. But one neighbor told a street vendor, and that was the end of that. EVERYONE knows we are leaving. We went to breakfast and then to the park, and all of the street vendors were asking me to buy something from them since it was my last day. I don't need anything, I have no room in my luggage, but the pressure was so great. But all of the women pulled the trump card on me too. School starts in a couple of weeks. Each child will need 300 quetzales to start school. So they begged me to help them raise the money for their kids to go to school. And could I resist?

I didn't write about the incident in a restaurant last week. It was the middle eastern place that I like to go to for hummus and tabuli. Liana was in a very active/cranky mood. She would not sit still. She was grabbing things and throwing things, and I hardly got a chance to eat at all. Someone at another table held her a few minutes while I took a few bites, but I was tired and getting cranky myself, so we were on our way out when three little boys ran into the restaurant offering shoe shines. They were about 7 years old. One little boy used the "but your shoes are really dirty" line on me when I declined his offer. Liana was behaving like a restless octopus in my arms, and I was getting a little cranky, and so I was a little short with the kid, telling him that insults were not the way to get future business.

And then I noticed. They all had their eyes on the food. The food that I was about to walk away from. Pita bread, a little hummus, some condiments, the lettuce that had served as a bed for the tabuli. I asked if they wanted some. And the mood suddenly turned festive. They were so excited. They each took a piece of pita bread, and discussed ways to get the hummus on it. One went straight for the lettuce under the tabuli, and the others followed suite. They asked about the pickled condiments, and quickly gobbled those up to. Like kids that age should act on Christmas morning or their own birthday parties, these kids were acting over the leftovers that I was mindlessly walking away from.

So when the street vendors talk about not being able to afford to send their children to school, my heart breaks. And this morning they all passed beautiful Liana around for the last time, and wished her well on her long journey.

Tomorrow we wake up in NY.