A dispute about time in Riverside: another visitor, sitting on the verandah of Ruth's house, looked at her watch and pronounced it to be 4:30 p.m. Ruth asked,

And that is what many of the watches in Riverside said: five o'clock. Officially, Kawthoolei is in the same time zone as Rangoon, but many people have their watches synchronised to Bangkok. Everyone makes their own choice.

Time to go. When I left, they held a prayer meeting at Bartholomew's. Moses gave a short speech; I was presented with full Karen dress, and put it on. True Love wandered in wearing battle fatigues, realised that there were formalities in progress, hurriedly went into a sideroom and borrowed a Karen shirt of Bartholomew's to dress himself properly. Fragrance had made me a garland of flowers. The Boarders, all in new uniform of white shirts and trim green dresses, performed a hymn composed for the occasion by Charlie. Great Lake did not attend.

The next morning I walked to the frontier with True Love, the neck of the ‘bent guitar’ projecting from my rucksack. There was a pickup passing through and I hitched a lift.