A Rainy Farewell

It was the morning of our last day in Taiyuan.

Surprisingly enough, it was also raining.  

The children were scheduled to be picked up by their parents beginning at 8:00, and we knew it was our last chance to see our babies.

Even though we’d stayed up til unholy hours the night before, Alex, Jenessa, and I dragged our half-dead carcasses out into the rain so that we could wave to our students as they drove/walked/cycled out of the gate.

We ended up helping our friends, the school guards, collect the students’ ID cards as they went out, which is usually the duty of the Chinese teachers. Because the guards love us, they saw that we were cold and gave us their shirts and hats to wear.

We were quite a sight.

My heart was blessed and I felt like I had more closure with my students.

I got to tell Ginger and Connor I loved them again.

I got to high-five Amy, Grace, and Daniel.

I got to hug Hellen.

And I got to hold my dear Fabio’s hand one more time.  

Miss Love, Bill, and Miss Alex

We even got a picture with the school’s grumpy grandpa who gives me about as many warm fuzzies as Ebenezer Scrooge.

The guards thought we were so funny that they even started speaking some English to the students as they left.

“Gooda marning!”

“How ah you?”

“I lofa you!”

“Can you dance?”

“Bye bye, see you!” 

Later, Gerry (our Foreign Affairs Official) told us that a maintenance person had seen us out there and commented on how touched they were that the foreign teachers would come out in the rain to say goodbye to their students.

My heart is full.