After being here for three and a half months, I have confused feelings about going home again. I know I will miss this place very much because it's so unique and so full of magic but I often wished that my friends could have been here with me to share this extraordinary adventure. Also I think I'm ready to have all the comforts of modern life again (hot water and power).

My last week in Nepal could not have been better. Last Thursday I mentioned to the teachers that I had been planning a pancake party for the next Friday before I leave. They also told me that they had been planning a secret dinner party at the school on that Saturday. So that was the first surprise. The second one came the next day.

I decided to do some rehearsing for next Friday so I spent the evening in the kitchen, making pancakes.  I was almost done when a handful of volunteers from the other main Maya school turned up at our school. It was such nice surprise because although I had met them before, I had not seen them for almost a month.  And what made me even happier was that two of them were UWC alumni graduated a few years ago so obviously we had a lot to talk about.  We made a nice bonfire, cooked some tea there, the boys prepared for barbeque.  By the time it got dark and the food was ready we all set around the fire. Some played the guitar, sang English and Nepali songs and suddenly I just felt so fortunate that I was there, sitting at the fire with great people under the stars.

The next day was even more memorable when the staff came over to cook. It was great fun to cook with those people who are my friends and I also happen to be their teacher. We made some roti (My favourtie Nepali dish. It's like a sort of donut made of rice flour), meat and rice were being cooked in the kitchen so again we had to cook outdoors. I was just so impressed how much effort everyone put into the dinner and at the end it was great to eat together.

After the weekend my last week has begun. It was fairly hard with the kids because they asked me every day how many more days I have and whenever I told them the truth they always seemed very sad, which did not make it easier to me either to complete my last week of teaching. They gave me drawings and flowers on my last day and some of them even cried:( I asked them not to do so but I could not say anything else. They asked me if I will come back and I had to tell them that I really would like to come back one day but I don't know if it will ever be possible again. Obviously my reply did not cheer them up but I don't want to make promises that I can not keep.

What made my week a bit easier was a quick visit to the main school. I thought it would have been a pity if I came to Nepal, spent more than three months at Maya but did not manage to see the main school, the very first school of the mission that was built six years ago so the senior students are in the sixth grade. It is fantastic how big the school has become since I know that it started with a tent. It also put my opinion about our school into perspective because we are only one and a half years old and don't have more than a few bamboo classrooms. Apart from all the buildings and infrastructure what truly amazed me was the student body. I had been told that their speaking skills are quite good but still I was surprised when I had a chance to talk with them. They were so nice to talk to and once again they made me wonder what our kids will become in a few years time.