Sunday, March 4, 2018

A Final Goodbye

Had a nice thing happen on my second last time to the dump. I went and gave a bag of apartment things to a woman who lives on the edge of the garbage in the swamp area with her husband and one armed little boy. There was a group of 6 people sitting outside her home. We talked for a bit. One of the men started to speak to me in Thai. I thought at first he was asking me for money but realized that was not the case when I tried to give him some and then he told me “No its ok, not need it”. He then spoke to me for about 2 minutes. His accent was rather heavy but eventually I realized he was thanking me. He knew I was leaving that day and simply thanking me. Thanking me for all the work I had done in the dump. He was very sincere in his thanks, very honest. It was beautiful and rather moving. I patted him on the shoulder and said thank you.

This group knew I was not coming back, knew I was not returning. And instead of asking for extra dollars or extra things, he simply thanked me for all the work that had been done. A wonderful moment I will keep with me on my return to Canada. The picture below was made at that time, the man in the white shirt is the one who spoke to me.
Final Group Photo