Its hard to say goodbye in any language
Its always a pleasurable experience saying hello to someone new - and its hard to say goodbye to those that you may have only just met, but you feel like you have known them forever. After the lunch on sunday the 26 people who were there - couldn't bring themselves to say goodbye so they returned on Monday to say farewell again. Out came the leftover food from the day before, more coffee, more cake, more homemade wine and more noise!
It was sad saying goodbye to streets and streena - who had been so kind. Their hometown can be hard to love, its flat, their are many houses that have been destroyed in the war, bullet holes in buildings and landmines still in some of the fields (true!) - but its a lovely place because its filled with the kind of people that have the kindness that streets and streena showed us.
We headed to katies village (about an hour away) - to spend the last day with her brother. More food, and a housefull of people that included relatives and neighbours. all came to say hello and goodbye. we sat down again to a feast and it felt like christmas. the kids had a great time with the animals, bunnies, ducklings, chickens and a dog. I was a bit worried for the day old ducks when the next door neighbour told me that she didn't bother with ducklings she bought them big, fattened them up then chopped off their heads and stuck them in the freezer! I hoped that the kids didn't hear this as they held the baby ducks.
The thing that struck me the most - was that z had a friend from school who came over to say hello. He showed his new house which he has been building, it was a modest house. He was so proud of his house, his village and his family. we asked him if he would come to australia and he said no as everything he wanted was here. he was happy. happier than a lot of people I know.
as we walked through the streets of the village I saw a lot happiness including an old man dressed in a suit, just watching the world go by.
One last goodbye and this time it was to the cemetery to say final farewells to Katie and Lukas parents.
As we drove out of the village to begin our journey home to australia, we saw that old man again still sitting, still smiling. Z said to me "you know if you lived here you would have plenty of time to make lemon butter" How right he is. Dovidjena, ciao and goodbye.
It was sad saying goodbye to streets and streena - who had been so kind. Their hometown can be hard to love, its flat, their are many houses that have been destroyed in the war, bullet holes in buildings and landmines still in some of the fields (true!) - but its a lovely place because its filled with the kind of people that have the kindness that streets and streena showed us.
We headed to katies village (about an hour away) - to spend the last day with her brother. More food, and a housefull of people that included relatives and neighbours. all came to say hello and goodbye. we sat down again to a feast and it felt like christmas. the kids had a great time with the animals, bunnies, ducklings, chickens and a dog. I was a bit worried for the day old ducks when the next door neighbour told me that she didn't bother with ducklings she bought them big, fattened them up then chopped off their heads and stuck them in the freezer! I hoped that the kids didn't hear this as they held the baby ducks.
The thing that struck me the most - was that z had a friend from school who came over to say hello. He showed his new house which he has been building, it was a modest house. He was so proud of his house, his village and his family. we asked him if he would come to australia and he said no as everything he wanted was here. he was happy. happier than a lot of people I know.
as we walked through the streets of the village I saw a lot happiness including an old man dressed in a suit, just watching the world go by.
One last goodbye and this time it was to the cemetery to say final farewells to Katie and Lukas parents.
As we drove out of the village to begin our journey home to australia, we saw that old man again still sitting, still smiling. Z said to me "you know if you lived here you would have plenty of time to make lemon butter" How right he is. Dovidjena, ciao and goodbye.
Well, you saved your best to last. I think I had a tear in my eye for this one. Congratulations on excellent, interesting blogging. Now, you should do it everyday!
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