Off and Away

Today is my last day at the Home of Hope. One more afternoon with the kids, a final dinner with Duku's family by the mill, and one last night on my firm firm bed. And then there's a taxi to Xining, a hostel (with showers! and coffee!), a train to Lhasa... and many adventures. I feel ready to move on (life here can be very slow-paced at times), but there is much I will miss. I hope that I will be able to come back here one day, but I honestly don't know what the future holds. So I will miss these red-and-gray-cathedral-mountains, I will miss my host family, I will miss yogurt and fresh bread, and I will miss these young rapscallions that have come to feel like family. In the spirit of transition, here's a summing up of my experience here in Jianzha in numbers:

Weeks: 4
Showers: 2
Miles walked: ~125
Cups of coffee: 0
Cups of tea: 3,591,004
Bottles of gold-flecked alcohol received: 2
Bullets gathered from the mouths of small children: 19
Instances where I have been confused: uncountable
Sore butts from sitting on really really hard, short stools: 1
Children I have fallen in love with: 72

And thus Miles and myself (aka "Caiden Jashi" and "Lhamou Jhoma," aka "Milen" and "Caits," aka "The Pig" and "The Cat") are off. It's been beautiful. I'm sure only time will tell just how much it has meant.