Surprise celebrations continued all weekend!

Many thanks to all of the kids and staff at JVH. After I posted the last post of my last day at JVH I was invited to a surprise assembly where all the students came in their ties and celebrated the work I had done at JVH.

The primary classes sang a children's song they learned in Japanese. The intermediate students sang "We will miss you" to the tune of "We will rock you". A group of secondary students sang Happy Birthday in Japanese to add to the long list of languages we already sing in: English, French, Spanish, Chinese and German. Click here to listen.

Many thanks to PAC for their wonderful gifts of a REAL tasteful tie as well as a beautiful painting of JVH  by John Cooper. Thank you parents!

I will really miss the natural beauty around the school. A parting shot of visitors at our school.

Saturday evening was another wonderful celebration for staff sparked by Jill Holland's brilliant planning. She took over the Bluebelle restaurant and decorated every nook and corner with a Japanese theme: paper cranes hanging from the ceiling (thank you intermediate students!), kimonos on the wall and candles on the tables. It was a sumptuous evening of tapas snacks, laughter, some great roasting and toasting of Dan as well as great music to dance to (thank you Gary, Sonja, Trish and Patrick!).

Sunday was a lovely potluck goodbye at Argenta meeting, then back for a community farewell at the Bluebell where I sold all of my tacky ties and raised $280 for the JVH playground and the Food Hub.

We are truly grateful for the support and caring shown to us by this community.

Now... We are REALLY off to Japan.