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This was a great night. It was long enough before we were leaving that there wasn't much sadness about that yet but I think everybody knew that something special was happening here. We had a lot of friends at this point and everybody was used to coming around to the school and hanging out or playing or learning English. Sometimes it was hard for me and the crew to grab a needed minute or two of peace but it was still a cool place for everyone to be.

There was a craze of photo-taking that night and I don't know what inspired it but everybody was there and everybody wanted to be in the pictures. Even the boys were getting into it. It might have started because Shu Xia's grandmother came around with her water buffalo and the kids started playing with that. It might have been because the sun had just gone done and it was a nice evening. It might have been because Shi Mei's little sister was especially goofy that evening and inspired everyone else to get goofy.

I love these shots but I especially like the one of the girl peeking out from behind another girl in the middle of an otherwise uninteresting photo. That girl was so shy you could almost say she was scared. I think she had some sort of learning disability but the other kids seemed to treat her kindly. She would often come and hang around with everybody else but always way out on the edge and too afraid to get very involved. So it makes me happy to see her here very involved and smiling. I think one of the kids took this picture.

And then you've even got me doing the two-finger salute along with everyone else (by the way, to answer your question, the two-finger salute doesn't mean anything... believe me, I've asked). Anyway, it was a special time. After that the pending departure started to weigh in and every gathering seemed to have an elegiac tone to it. Don't get me wrong, elegiac has its place and makes for some great footage but give me this anytime.