This morning we said a very fond farewell to our adopted home in Thailand.
After two weeks of volunteering and exploring our little city, we’ve had a ton of friends, Thai and non-Thai, old and young, to say goodbye to over the past few days.
We finished our work at the nun’s school, having planted watermelon, cabbage, eggplant (or eggurgine as we finally compromised on calling it) and cucumbers all of which the school will be able to use to feed the students in the coming season.
Afterward, a few of us got to sneak back to Dream House under the guise of a supplies delivery (more toys, our mosquito nets and our empty water bottles which can be redeemed for cash) and say goodbye to Vic and the kids.
Things were as cheery as ever at the house, although Vic was contending with the frightening (and expensive) need to hospitalize one of the newest arrivals. Vic has an indomitable spirit that always seems to see the house through.
The kids were almost as excited to see us as we were to see them and we got to get about a hundred hugs goodbye. While we were there we also got to check out the next group’s progress on our bathrooms and drainage system, their group is almost three times the size of ours and many hands have made light (and quick) work on those projects. We also inspected the small garden which was planted on our last Dream House day and is now already sprouting up beautifully, a great sign for the progress of our seeds at the nun’s school, which will probably have sprouted by the time we are back at our desks Monday morning!
There were many hugs and promises to email last night as we said goodbye to our Sangklaburi family, Sascha and Jay even got up at (what felt like) the crack of dawn this morning to say a last goodbye before we boarded our 7:30am bus back to Bangkok. We are all sorry to leave our amazing new friends but, it is safe to say, we are also incredibly thankful for the fact that we’ve gotten to know them and for the experiences we’ve shared as a group.
And now, since our goodbyes lasted longer into the night than was entirely advisable, I will try to join the others in sleeping through our eight hour bus ride to Bangkok…
Shannon Fisher
well done team! sounds like a very successful and endearing trip! good-byes are definitely the hardest, eh?
Hayley Friedman
Can’t wait to hear all about it! Looking forward to having you back!