A busy day

This was our last full day in Yasothon and it was packed! We made burritos with the other grade 5 class. Some of the boys became experts at frying tortillas. It's a pretty good recipe for keeping the kids busy. First they have to make the bread dough, then they make the cut vegetables and squish the beans for the filling. Next is cooking the filling and then they roll out the dough and cut tomotoes and lettuce for the toppings. We had three batches of the recipe going so there was lots to have the kids do. Naiyana was back so it was nice to have her help with translation.

The kids generally liked the burritos, but a few weren't big fans of the beans. Can't please 'em all! The boys got into the flour and before you knew it there was a white hand print on the back of a couple of the boys' heads! At least it washes off.

Yesterday when we did the cooking the class ran late and we were left with no helpers for dishes, but today some of the girls volunteered to help. We had a real assembly line going and it didn't take long to clean up.

During lunch break we stayed at the school and got out our jump rope. The kids love the skipping song that starts "Mexico, Texico, over the hils in Mexico..." because there are actions that they have to do (turn around, touch the ground, etc.). At first they weren't too sure about having to do these challenging stunts, but pretty soon, I would be walking through the school yard and the kids would make a motion of swinging a skipping rope and ask "Mexico, Texico?". My hand is not quite blistered, but pretty tender from swinging the rope for them. I left them the words to the song, but I'm not sure if they'll continue without us.

The afternoon was busy too. Nawarat asked us to make pancakes with a younger grade, so of course we agreed. The younger kids were so well behaved! Much less rowdy than the grade fives. The little kids enjoyed our stunts of pretending not to know how to crack an egg. We got out the scissors, and they were all laughing.

Before we left the cooking class we still had to give a puppet play. Yasmin and Roya had practised a play that we found online so we gathered up a bunch of kids and had a little show. The kids seemed to enjoy it, but the younger ones don't understand English too well, so I'm not sure if they got the plot. It wasn't long so I think they enjoyed it in any case.

We rushed home and were in the middle of cleaning up when Goli came by to pick us up. We were going for chocolate cake and tea at a friend of Goli's. Off we went again. The couple we visited have a Chinese background and they had recently visited China and bought tea that was ten years old! They invited us to have some. We were a bit afraid to drink it, but of course we couldn't resist. The tea was good, but I especially liked the cups that they were served in. The cups had blue dragons on the side of them, but when the hot tea was poured in them and they heated up, the dragons turned red! Perhaps I'm easily amused, but I quite enjoyed that.

This was not the end of our day though. We came back home in time to be picked up again. Naiyana wanted us to come to dinner for our last evening in Yasothon. So we all went out to dinner. We had delicious Thai food. Naiyana is an expert in ordering all the best things. I no longer even bother to open the menu when I'm with her. We have complete trust that whatever she orders will be great.

After dinner we went back to Nawarat and Naiyana's house. The moon was full and so we enjoyed it in the garden outside their house. Of course the stories were flying. Naiyana told a couple but the one we enjoyed most was about Nawarat going to Cambodia about 20 years ago when the border between Cambodia and Thailand was quite dangerous. She told of Nawarat being detained for givng Baha'i books out, and how she had to rescue him. I think it was quite dangerous at the time, but as everyone was safely sitting in the garden with us, it was quite funny to hear her tell of getting angry at the Cambodian guards and refusing to pay bribes and then getting mad at Nawarat for getting himself taken into custody in the first place! I thought it quite funny her line about telling him and his friend they were as stupid as water buffalo! Poor Nawarat shrugs his shoulders and grins.

Left to right: Nadim, Nawarat, Ninyan, Christina, Yasmin, Shadow, Roya, Naiyana

Tomorrow we are leaving and it feels like we are leaving behind family. This has been a great month and we have made some wonderful friends. Yasmin and Roya are already talking about coming back after high school.

CM