Two week training completed!

I am having a hard time believing that our class has ended, and that I'm not just having another Saturday between weeks of intensive coursework.
The entire thing went off without a hitch.
Twelve people of mixed backgrounds, languages, levels of education came together in a sacred space to learn the art of healing touch. And, they did...quite well. I don't know how they did it, but after just 65 precious hours together in a temple/classroom, they each have learned to give a full body swedish style massage freckled with some trigger point, reflexology, and thai yoga massage. I'm very proud of my creations (smile).
The photo here is taken from above on the roof of the temple. This is the formation we made with the tables everyday to practice.
The graduation ceremony was during the last hour of class yesterday. We circled around a table, which had 12 certificates of completion named for each of the participants, placed face down. There was a plate of handmade chocolates, one for each of us that had been prepared by some of the members of our community here at Inanitah. They toasted the cocoa pods and ground them down, added tapa dulce (something like raw sugar), and other tasty ingredients and WOW! instant chocolate high, pure and simple. Anyway, I digress.
Each of the participants turned one of the other certificates face up and presented it to them along with a chocolate. We danced, hugged, laughed and cried (ok, I was the only one who cried).
If the local participants are going to go further with the work, they will come here tomorrow and Gaia and I will detail them on the next steps before getting placed for work positions. We are thinking they will have to do around 20-30 clinic hours to continue practicing. This will mean that Gaia will arrange bodies to receive inexpensive massages. (think $3-5./hour). The piddly amount by US standards is actually an almost dangerously high amount of money for Ometepe residents. The standard working wage for physical labor, construction for men or washing clothes for women is about $1-3/hour. Once the students complete their clinical hours, complete with feedback forms, they will be placed at one of the hotels here that is looking for regular massage therapists. There, they will be able to make as much as $6-8/hour. Gaia asked me to return to teach more in the late winter/early spring and I am planning on it.
Now that we have tables to work from, there's lots of possibilities. Thank you.
Justin, our videographer, has taken lots of really cool video of the training and of the local students speaking to you in Spanish saying thank you. I am looking for a place to post these and will hopefully do so shortly.
Love pouring from my heart to yours.
Valerie Hope Cherrin