During lunch time, I decided to encourage two of the smaller
children write on the board. It was funny
at first, the way they imitated the older children by trying to write the
alphabet. Then it wasn’t so funny as
they started squabbling over the markers, and it turned into a real fight! I pulled them apart, managed to get a
wriggling, yelling child under each arm, and then dragged them over to the
steps. Luckily two mothers came to my rescue! One child had a blood nose and I’m sure the
other lost chunks of hair! There was
much clucking and sounds of disapproval from the mothers, and I felt really
guilty.
Finally it came time to say goodbye to everyone. Parting from the children was difficult, I
hated saying goodbye.
In the shortest of
times, I had come to know them and to be so fond of them. Angry Birds who would get upset so quickly,
but equally was so affectionate. Grumpy
One who blamed everyone else for everything that went wrong. I didn’t need to understand what he was
saying to know what he meant! Baggy Pants,
left-handed and most probably dyslexic, who wrote laboriously, but was very
deft at marbles. Big Boy, who refused
to go to Real School perhaps because he was bullied there? Angel Face, with her winter pyjamas always
tightly buttoned, who wanted everything neat and clean and just so. TomBoy, so unco-ordinated that she would
skip wildly, arms and legs going everywhere, and never get past the count of
three!
I was still feeling sad hours later as the plane left Siem
Reap. I had a last beautiful view,
looking down on that amazing lake, a small fishing village and the setting
sun.
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