Fond Farewells 29/10/08

Yesterday was a busy day indeed! Being my last day we had to work hard to fit in everything that we had planned to do but hadn’t quite managed yet….

We started with a waste audit in the morning and took the opportunity to send everyone off in different directions to pick up any inorganic rubbish they could find. We had 45 minutes to find as much rubbish as possible. Not much was found in the HEPA grounds but much was gathered from the banks of the river and also the public roadway which cuts though HEPA property. Many people use both the road and the river as an access for harvesting things from the rainforest. These people leave a lot of litter behind them.

When the groups came back to base outside the kitchen, we classified their findings into different types of waste and discussed why things were classified this way and what could be done with the materials. We found quite a few batteries that were in various forms of decomposition. There is nothing available to deal with these in Vietnam so we had no choice but to send them to the dump along with everything else (that couldn’t be reused or recycled, we wrapped them up as best as we could to at least contain the damage.

While we were looking at the waste from around Miriam and Craig’s house we found….. a baby snake! I was very excited to see a snake on my last day and even though it was a baby it was a deadly variety which was expertly handled and thrown off into the nearby bush (again glad it is my last day..) by Duan who is very experienced with such things.

In the afternoon we had planned to make a mini worm farm for Amalee to take care of so I could demonstrate how you could provide everything worms needed with recycled material. It really was a mini farm as we used a very small (500ml) ice cream container left over from Sky’s treat when we went into Vinh City earlier in the week.

Duan had been thinking ahead since my designing a worm farm session earlier in the week and had gathered some materials in readiness. So after an exciting time finding many compost worms in the kitchen banana circle (in the pouring tropical rain) we built this one together too. This is a practice model to learn about how to manage them effectively before moving onto a bigger scale system to cater for the needs of the whole HEPA property. The mini farm is under house 3 being cared for by Amalee and Rebecca and the larger model is under house 2 being cared for by the students with help from Robert. I will be offering advise from the other side of the world when they need it. Hopefully I have done my job well enough now that they won’t need my help, at least about wormfarming anyway.

Waste Audit and Worm farms complete, I was free to pack my bag and clean up our living space for the last three and a half weeks. I had to say goodbye to Rebecca and Amalee at dinner as the idea of us leaving had sent Amalee over the edge and Rebecca had to take her home before she got anymore upset. This was really hard and we all had a good cry. After dinner we all set off to house 2 where a farewell surprise had been prepared. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the staff had prepared a hilarious slide show containing many highlights of our time at HEPA. Someone cheeky had spliced in some similar pictures of animals in the same poses so it made me laugh and cry at the same time.

Vin lead a speech on behalf of the students which really made me cry and then they presented me with my very own ‘chopper’ a beautiful hand made tool for making mulch by hand. It is made by the mong people in Simacai in the far north of Vietnam and is such good quality that it will last me a life time. Joe would have loved it and I can’t wait to show it to everyone and use it at the community garden. I must remember not to leave it in my hand luggage though! I was so moved by this that before I knew it I was singing (at the front, by myself and in front of everyone!) Utai nga mai, nga waka…..Aue!

Then it was hugs all around and a quick dash to the car in the rain. Tu Kien is accompanying us to Hanoi, Huan was driving and Lauchy came along for the ride. I cried all the way to the next town. I am such a sook when it comes to saying goodbye.

We had time to spare after checking that the bus had room for us so Sky shouted us all a drink at a local café. We got back just in time to throw our luggage in the bottom and jump aboard. It was a sleeper bus with an interesting arrangement of ‘beds’ that were actually very comfortable and for $13 each it was a great deal for a trip to Hanoi (8 hours) and also a bed for the night. It was super clean and we even had to take our shoes off before boarding. Sky was most impressed with the sit down toilet! That was quite a treat for her…..