Leaving Hle Bee Part 2

On Friday night, our dear friends from Hle Bee rolled up to the DK Hotel to take us to the bus station, which some of you may remember ended in us staying an extra day last year because we missed the bus... That couldn't happen again, could it? No, 20 children and adults from the Hle Bee School community came in the pick up truck to collect us. We were deeply unhappy to learn that though some of our friends were allowed up to our rooms to collect the bags, one of the lovely young teachers was told to leave the hotel by a member of hotel staff. Why? Because she is Burmese and the Thai people often look down on the Burmese. Very sad and the young woman was very embarrassed. Hmmm....

So we got to the bus station really early for the 9pm bus and were happy to see 2 Bangkok buses in. Unfortunately neither were ours and nor were the next 3 that came in. We were told one was our and the 4 of us (Sheila, Geoff, Fiona and Louise) said weeping goodbyes to our 20 friends only to be told that wasn't our bus!!!! Fiona was saying, 'We have to go tonight. I can't say goodbye again.' Finally 90 mins later, our bus rolled in and we said our final weeping farewell. These people are so hard to leave. We then set off on a very uncomfortable 8hr journey to Bangkok. Poor Geoff, he found it like torture.

We thought the bus station might be quiet at 6am - oh my goodness, there were hundreds of people getting into hundreds of taxis. We ended up going in 2 taxis and forgot to tell Geoff and Louise the name of the hotel. Fiona and I were so relieved to see their taxi roll up behind ours. Breakfast and collapsing into bed, we slept till noon.

When we woke, we phoned Guardian Angel. He told us, 'Hle Bee (most staff live there) hardly slept last night. I can't tell you how sad they feel.' Our partnership has bought us so close to our friends and they to us, that parting hurts a lot for us all. Fiona Vacher has been a basket case all week and says she's cried more here than she has for years.

Anyway, we set off to the Grand Palace of Bangkok via taxi and river bus at noon and enjoyed looking at the beautiful Thai art and buildings. Louise was very impressively photographing the decor and buildings for her 6th year art project. Back to the hotel and Fiona gathered her luggage together and left in the taxi for her flight which we hope and pray left on time at 8pm Bangkok time. Strange to say goodbye to Fiona. She worked so hard at Hle Bee, trying to help the staff become more effective in teaching the massive kindergarten. However, she is of course very excited to be returning to Beth and Gavin.

We are now back to being a wee family again and are off to Trang in South Thailand for a few days. We will post more writing and photos (can't find the packed cable tonight!) there about our last 2 days at Hle Bee and about the challenges ahead for Hle Bee and the plans we have for future working. I (Sheila) now feel completely shattered. It's been hard work for a fortnight and I still need to recover from the end of Forthview term so a few days in a very quiet hotel will be great. ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

A note to end - Louise is sitting in this beautiful bedroom saying what we are all feeling today. 'I find it hard to think about how much we have, how much we waste and how ungrateful we are compared to what they have in Mae Sot. I'd give up all this to go back to Mae Sot.'

We all would.