Saying Goodbye for Now

The dreaded part of the whole trip seemed to overshadow us pretty much the whole second week. The day we all dreaded was quickly approaching. You could tell that it was on everybody's mind. The dinners became more special with more people included. We went out to eat lunch several times, and for our last night we traveled to the city to barbecue Thai style.

We all loaded up into trucks and headed off to the city. Mr. Korn was directing our truck, and we took a tour of the city before heading to the restaurant. He wanted to take us to see Rusty's favorite weekend spot...a nice 7-11 with an Amazon Cafe (coffee shop). We met Mr. Cool there also who is one of the teachers at the school, and he bought our coffee. I think that was mainly because Scott was with us. He and Scott had a good friendship.

We grilled and ate and ate and ate. I think Scott must have been sitting with the wild bunch. They enjoyed putting all kinds of food on his plate to see if he could eat it. They did some of that to Rusty also. I enjoy being a quiet girl...not so adventurous. After eating, we returned to Ms. Rerai's house for one more night of sleeping on the floor and to enjoy one more refreshing cold shower. I say that seriously because after you get over the initial shock of cold water it can be quite invigorating in a very hot climate.We awoke the next morning and began the ordeal of giving gifts and saying goodbye. Ms. Rerai's family presented us all with some Isaan cloth. We wore our cloth to the school in the traditional way, and I think everybody enjoyed that.
This girl was the spokesperson for her school. She started crying not long after she started speaking. So sad! They thanked us for coming and then each class presented gifts to all of us. Lili received more than any of us (the one the students couldn't believe was 14)...she almost needed her own airplane for all of her gifts, lol.We hated to leave, but I'm sure it will be good for the school to go back to their normal routine.
The goodbyes weren't over yet. We had to walk down this long gathering of students waving goodbye, getting last hugs, and taking pictures. It was a reaallly long walk.We finished packing up and were off to eat lunch together in the city before going to the airport. Even this last meal involved karaoke. We all said the final goodbye at the airport. We truly enjoyed getting to spend so much time with Ms. Rerai and her family. I hope they will come visit us in C.M. before too long.