My Last Day in Asia

Well, my last full day in Asia has finally arrived. The trip has flown by really quickly. I can't believe I've been gone almost 3 weeks already. I wish I had more time to stay and work on some more projects but summer school and work is waiting when I get back. Today was a pretty good last day. I left early this morning to go out with M_ and his wife to help them in their village which is about 45 minutes out of town. They have done some work out there in the past and our game plan was to go and visit the elementary school and just see what happens. When we got out there they were having some program because some gov officials had given the school money and so the kids where doing some kind of thank you type of thing. It worked out really well because we got to make some good contacts with people in the local gov over here, which is always a big deal. We did some hanging out with a few of the teachers and they wanted us to go and teach English, so I got assigned to 5th grade. English, especially in the elementary schools, is very limited and since my local language is basically nonexistent I basically pointed at things, wrote them on the board and had the class repeat them back to me. The class was really good at doing things as a group but as soon as I started to single kids out and ask them simple things they got really shy. So I did a lot of talking. We talked about sports, brothers and sisters, pets, and we played "Is this big or small?" Somehow that took up all of the time. Actually I'm pretty sure I went over time by like 10 minutes and the teacher was just being nice and didn't stop me. It would have been nice to know because I was really reaching for things to talk about the last 5 minutes. We went and visited a family that M_ knew for a few minutes and then ate some lunch back at the school. M_ and I left lunch a little early and went and played basketball with a bunch of the kids. It was basically 2 on 20 but it was a lot of fun. The kids kept trying to get me to dunk the ball but they couldn't understand that I can't. They would want me to hold my arms up in the air and then they would oohh and awww because I was so tall. They couldn't imagine how a 6'1'' white guy couldn't dunk a basketball. We had a lot of fun though. Tonight the entire crew went out for a going away dinner. We had some really good food and it was a great chance to say goodbye to everyone. Afterwards A_ and her roommate and I went and walked around for a while looking for things to pack gifts in so that I can transport them back to the states. Afterwards we definitely did get some massages (and yes, that is the 3rd this week for those of you who are counting). Our legs were pretty tight after working in the fields yesterday and I figured since I have a 20 hour plane flight tomorrow I can spring for a $7 massage. So hopefully that will make the trip go a little smoother. Well I've got to jet. It is getting late here and I still haven't packed, which will be an adventure in itself, so I'd better go. See you all back in Texas!