My Friday
Today was an interesting day with a variety of places to go and people to meet. I met Lee and the Thais involved with Abba House (the preschool for slum children where I used to help) for lunch today. They were celebrating the first anniversary of the school. We went to a nice Thai restaurant on a Thai navy base overlooking the Chaopraya River.
Prior to eating, Lee presented Rin with a thank you gift for her year of teaching.
Here's the group just outside the restaurant.
Guess you know who this is.:) Maybe it'll show up on my facebook profile sometime.
After being dropped off at Big C Samrong, I decided to use the occasion to do my grocery shopping, so I didn't get home till between 3 and 4 pm.
At 6 pm I met my friend Pen out on the street corner to eat supper together, then headed to the Mast residence where we were having a farewell party for Raul. Raul leaves for Costa Rica on Monday. He will be greatly missed.
At the party quite a few Spanish songs were sung.
The REACH team sang a song for Raul in Spanish (I THINK they changed the words to a familiar song to fit the occasion.:)
Raul opened a gift from the REACH team...
...and Eliza modeled the wrapping paper.:)
I'm not sure what time I headed for home, but as I was walking down my soi to my apartment building, I stopped to chat with a gal sitting by herself across from the little restaurant/bar. I found out her name is Mint, she is 18 years old, and she has been working at the restaurant less than a month. Before I knew it, Mint was ushering me into the restaurant. Oh my, I wasn't hungry--I had already eaten two suppers, one with Pen and the other at the Mast home.
I ended up ordering soda--one for me and one for her--and we sat chatting together or listened to the live music. I like being there. I know most of the workers, so it feels a little bit like home. And I teach English to the wife of one of the singers, so there is a link with the singers too.
This is a very poor video, but you can hear the musical style. I kinda like it.
The gal on the right is my new friend Mint; the lady in the middle is the owner of the restaurant, and the guy on the left is another worker. His name is Tua Lek, which means "little body". He truly is a tiny guy.
When I finally checked the time it was 11:30. Oops, time for me to go home, though the singers invited me to stay till 3 am (closing time:).