THAILAND: Recovery School Farewell

On Thursday all of the team left together to work on the water pipe project for the Akha Hill Tribe, but after waiting for half of the day it was arranged that the pipes wouldn't be available until the next day, so we turned around and drove back. But before we left we ate some delicious Khao Soy. I haven't talked much about food in my posts I think but that dish was one of my favorites. I guess it is Burmese but they serve it a lot in Northern Thailand. {Also I now regret that I didn't take a picture of any of the food I ate, but other favorites include: a chicken&rice dish from Chicken Hut, Pad Prik Pow (a spicy red chili dish), and of course red curry dishes}.

That night we all went up to the Monsaengdao Recovery School because they invited us for a dinner and skit night to say goodbye to the volunteers. After they welcomed us out we ate dinner. One of the dishes was a whole fish that they had cooked over an open fire. I don't even eat fish, or any seafood for that matter, but I tried it and it was really really good. The girls and teachers made all the food for us and prepared dances and a slide show for us. They dressed up in various traditional costumes from tribes in Thailand, Burma, and China. They even invited some of us to participate in the dancing. I was also told to come up to sing karaoke, I tried to resist {because really I did have a good reason- they didn't have lyrics for the song and I had never heard it} but as it always happens, I was called up there anyway. And because I didn't know the words I just stood there awkwardly while one of the girls from the school had to sing it by herself haha.

karaoke

tea leaf dance 

bamboo stick dance 

courtney and mitch  

when we all started to join the circle

Then we did our skit about the pandas that I mentioned in an earlier post, and at the end it we sang "God Be With You Til We Meet Again." Even though they don't speak english it was a good experience to sing that to them because it did mean something to us even if it didn't to them {and some of them are even Christian actually). After all the skits were over all the girls got together in a group and sand two thai songs while one of them played the guitar. It was perfect. I love those girls so much. I wish I had gotten to spend more time with them, so when we were all saying goodbye it kind of broke my heart because even though I wasn't there with them as long as many of the others they still were so sweet and some even gave me around five hugs. They truly are amazing because even through all of the difficulties in their lives they still have hope and they work really hard so that they can have a better life.

dave and mitch wearing the girls' headdresses 

Us (Me, Todd, Krystal, Dave, Mitch) and some of the girls

close-up of the headdress and...dave: one of the country directors.