Our last day and we were determined to go out with a bang not a whimper by throwing a wild party for the children.  Tony had cleared out the $ stores back home of party favours and balloons, masses of them.  I made the romantic red and white heart shaped decorations and the grand plan, which was to have no plan. With the exception of their favourite game of Duck Duck Goose, there would be no formal games just a mad exciting 90 minutes of pure mayhem.  Ice creams cones provided a nice calm start.   We had no choice, one of the parents had volunteered to pick them up on her way in and we had no refrigeration.  Had there been, there would have been no guarantee of electricity  to run it

Let the good times roll.  We bombarded them with balloons, regular, shaped, punch ball and their favourite the flying screechers.   The fusillade continued with bubbles, steamers and a real crowd pleaser aerosols of projectile putty----what a mess!

Order was briefly restored while we had some fruit and a drink, followed by a long boisterous session of Duck Duck Goose, it's also a favourite of mine as there are no winners or losers, just a good time for all.  How very Canadian of me

When it was time to eat and close down the party it was decided we should just serve the Valentines cake and pack the food into bags they could take home and share with their brothers and sisters who along with parents and grandparents were crowding into the doorway and peeking though the windows

 The sight of the cake sparkling with candles sent them all off into a chorus of Happy Birthday Tee-cher Sue, so much for my Valentines day theme

The time we were dreading had arrived, time to say goodbye.   I sat in the circle one last time and read from the book  "Good Morning Zoo"  featuring the children of Thaketa School on a trip to the Zoo.  With apologies and gratitude to Peggy Rathman whose little book 'Goodnight Gorilla' had been the inspiration for our Zoo trip and many of our games and activities over the past months.    Apologies also for the quality of these photos, they were taken from a video

Entrance to the hotel, formerly the British built Yangon Rowing Club         

The seven course dinner included a glass of champagne                         

We choose to end our working week on Thursday February 14th so we could be here in time for the Valentines Day Celebration Dinner at the poolside garden.  It was a lovely setting with a soft cool breeze off the lake for the best meal we had in three months

We danced an old time waltz under the stars to the accompaniment of 3 violins, a guitar and keyboard with percussion.  Their repertoire was firmly routed in the 1940's and 50's but that's as it should be as the whole country was 60 or so years behind the times and the hotel clientele mostly around our age.  We were the only Westerners present, which was a shame

For the next two days we were reluctant to leave the hotel grounds.  We had another marvellous dinner  at the 'Nuts" restaurant in the hotel, a fixed four course meal this time and way more than I wanted or needed but having been so deprived of good food, I couldn't resist