Rice Grains

Wow, what a week! It was my last week to teach English, and it has also been a week full of social activities with friends and quite a few farewells.

SUNDAY: Ruung and I went to the hospital to see Tom and Candice and their new little baby boy, Silas. OK, so this was a first, not a last.:)

MONDAY:
-- hosted my last team prayer meeting and taught my last Monday English class

TUESDAY
-- visited The Well, where they had prayer for me and said goodbye

Mek and Nuch

--taught my last Tuesday night English class using Mark 5:1-20. Pen and Boom hung out in my room till almost 11:00 chatting after class.

WEDNESDAY

--ran errands in Bangkok all day till almost 6:00 pm

--discovered last minute that Noy, the neighbor boy, and his parents were heading to their home province to harvest rice. Took some hasty pictures...

...ran to the store and tried unsuccessfully to get the pics developed immediately (so my friends could take the pics with them), hurried back to say goodbye, scurried back to the front street to order my supper, and then ate in my room. I was still eating when my Wednesday evening students began arriving, also bearing food.

Class ended up being a quick study of the next set of verses in Mark 5 followed by a couple little games, then more eating and chit-chatting. Nui and Yun stayed till after 11:00. Yun had brought his guitar and was trying to teach us a song called Nothing at All . We didn't learn very well, but it was fun trying.:)

THURSDAY

--made the final 2 1/2-hour trek to The Shelter, managing to hop on the wrong bus, thus delaying my arrival there till almost 3:30 instead of 2:30.;) They had invited me to stay for supper for a farewell.

Here are my guys!:)

And here they are, singing a song for me. They are truly a special group of young men, and NO, I am NOT prejudiced.:)

--left The Shelter about 8:00 and headed to Ramkamheng 2 to sleep over at my friend Kwan's apartment one more time. Saying goodbye in the morning was not fun....But I think we will stay in touch.

FRIDAY

--headed towards home from Kwan's about 9:00 am to meet my friend Day for a short bit. Ended up visiting with Won while waiting for Day.

Won

Day

--arrived late at Sizzler's for one final get-together with Lee

--headed in to Bangkok to say goodbye to my doctor, get one last Thai massage, and then meet with Tawan, Payao, Pum Puang, and Anita for supper.

Tawan and Anita, silly gals!:)

SATURDAY

--slept in till almost noon--feeling pretty exhausted physically and emotionally

--went to get my hair colored one time in addition to saying goodbye to my friends there.

--went to Chinatown in the evening with Lek and her friend (hmm, I guess this is both a first and a last--the only time I've gone to Chinatown my two years in Thailand)

SUNDAY

--went with Yun and his girlfriend Nuch to Goh Gret, an island in the Chao Praya River in Nontha Buri Province outside of Bangkok. That may need to be a blog in itself, but not tonight.:)

Here we are!

--got home late for my own party hosted by the landlord's family and Kitti's family

i learned too late that I was expected to invite anyone I wanted for the party, so I did some last minute calling around with limited success. They had prepared a LOT of food, and I felt really bad--it's one of those cultural differences I think. But never-the-less, we had a good time. They love to laugh at how I put words together in Thai. Oh well, what can I say?:)

Dang is one of my last minute "invitees".:) She stayed about 45 minutes, then returned to her house where she had friends waiting for her to come back.

The party lasted till about 8:30. Then I returned to my room and have been working on this blog in between other interruptions. OK, enough for now.