Starting to say my goodbyes

Last day at San Lucas

It is amazing how fast these 6 months have gone by. And now I am already saying my goodbyes. The peruvian government moved forward all of the schools' vacations because of the swine flu. They are taking all the precautions necessary to try and avoid any more cases. The end of July and the first part of August are some of the main holidays for Peru. It's kind of like their winter break as well. (Yes, it's winter here.)

With the vacations being moved forward my last day came a little bit faster than I expected. My time helping teach at the school has really opened my eyes how important it is to educate our children, how important it is to have competent teachers, and how important it is to have good structure in the school and in the classroom.

I don't like being critical, especially of a country that doesn't have all the benefits that I knew growing up. But, this can be said for all societies. For me, to have a healthy society you must have smaller, healthy groups that make up that society (e.g. the work force, the police force, the school system). If these groups of people do not possess high moral values, good work ethics, and relationships built on trust; how can society as a whole bear resemblance to such qualities?

All of this boils down to the smallest unit of measurement - the family. Families must be full functioning and healthy. The family is where we come from. We grow up from children into members of society. If a boy can't trust his mother or father, his sister or his brother in his own home; how will he be able to trust his classmate at school? And when he grows up, how is he to trust his coworker?

We depend too much on each other not to be able to trust one another. So parents, my message to you is to love your children and want what's best for them!