Today had to come... one last early morning walk with my regular walking crew... Ngọc, Thương, Long, Luyền, Dịu, Katie, Hải and Hiếu. (Tuyền was on board his training ship this week...)
On the way, we stopped and said goodbye to the people we greet every morning. The lady next to me in red is a real character. Every morning she would jump in the air shout out 'Hello!' while the other ladies all laughed at her antics. When I asked if they would like to be in a photo she took off her hat and got all serious!
I made friends with this lady last year!
We walked around the block and said goodbye to Hà near my old house, then found Mr Cường and once again Hải stood in as my translator and we said farewell for another year. We did the same with Thảo, the tea lady and eventually arrived at our bánh
cuốn place for our last breakfast. For once I really wasn't very hungry...
By 10am we were all packed and ready to go and friends started gathering to see us off. They are so dear to my heart...
About mid-morning, I had a surprise visitor... Mr Cường had come to give me a bottle of wine for a farewell present! Trang came out to the corridor to translate for me (my room was overflowing with people...) and when he left she said "Everybody loves you!" I must admit, the others were also very surprised that my xe om had come to say goodbye with a gift...but they didn't realise the three year history I share with dear Mr Cường. I relied on him very heavily during the first 6 months I was here in 2011 when VAIE was left with only one foreign teacher and I worked every class, every day for months!! and he has been my faithful driver ever since. Although I didn't have to call him very often this year because if I wasn't walking, I usually had a ride with one of my dear friends...
With plenty of time on our hands, I pulled out Tenzi (mine and Tuyền's) and eight of them played Tenzi towers for a while...
The losers had to do the chicken dance haha!
When I called to book the taxi the other day, the driver insisted that we should leave at 11:30am, which I thought was pretty extreme, since we didn't need to be at the airport in Hà Nội till 4:30pm for a 7:45pm flight... And sure enough he called around 11 to re-schedule our departure to a much more sensible 1:30pm. But that left us with a room full of faithful friends who had gathered to say goodbye, expecting us to leave at 11:30 (before lunch!) and 2 hours to fill. The HUGE bonus of delaying our departure was that Tuyền and Tiến, who had been on a training vessel since Monday had time to rush over to the hotel after their ship docked in time to see us before we left!
What a blessing to see them when I had resigned myself to having to wait till next year! And there they were, coming down the hallway with big smiles on their faces, having rushed over straight from their ship. No sooner had they arrived, than Tiến and Hải went to buy something for lunch for everybody. They came back laden with bánh
mì and Chả (pork meatloaf), which was greatly appreciated by my patient, starving but uncomplaining, faithful friends.
I didn't realise till later in the taxi that I didn't get any photos with my two navigators today... just as well I have taken plenty over the last couple of months! Tuyền was delighted when I gave him the Tenzi set that Katie brought for him. He and I certainly had many hours of laughter playing Tenzi with friends and I know he'll have many occasions to play it.
All too soon it was time to go. Hiếu shouldered Katie's backpack, and the paintings, then reached for my suitcase as well...that would have been about 45kgs of luggage to carry down four flights!!! I asked some others to help...
Graham and Lee had already said their goodbyes before they went out to lunch, so they were surprised to hear all the noise still coming from my room when they returned hours later. They came to investigate and we got to say goodbye to them again. When we got down to the carpark they called out and waved from their balcony (at the other end of the building), so I took a quick photo, but it's hard to see them.
Last group photos for this year...
and it was time for hugs and kisses and into the taxi and away.
Right about now, I am so very grateful for all my photos and my blog - which I'll print so I will have another volume to add to my treasured series "Annie's Adventures in Việt Nam". In the months before I return in 2014 I will read through my blog book often and cherish the beautiful memories I have of precious friends, old and new, and the wonderful times we have shared.
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