The mural I'm working on for banquet is coming together quite well, but I feel like working on it has taken over my life. Nearly every moment I'm not at school I'm there working on it. Today I had 30 minutes between teaching at the primary school and doing middle school choir and I went down to check on how it was coming along. A few people have helped with some of the painting, but I've done the majority. I'm blown away by the massive hours of work that so many people are putting into this banquet. They have built small buildings, a fountain, a maze, a bullring, a cathedral, I could go on and on. And I've heard a little bit of the show as they've been practicing it and I'm sure it's going to be hilarious and well done. Today I also got roped in to doing a few people's hair - a friend who is in the show and the 12th grade daughter of a woman in my bible study.

And after the show...

Friday night we went along with about 100 other people to watch the couples arrive to the Banquet - our equivalent of Prom. Some of them arrived in unique entertaining ways, like a rickshaw pulled by slaves, a parade with horses and candy, or an armed police escort.

Saturday night was the banquet encore - the show from banquet for the community. They had lots of jokes that made fun of Ukarumpa,the town I live in, and they put in little pidgin phrases at amusing times like "Em nau!" which is an exclamation that means something like "Amen" or "I totally agree with what you are saying." So it's all over now - kind of sad to say goodbye to my mural that I painted for the last time. I was at school when they tore it down.

My roommate Christiane and I had a barbecue on Saturday in honor of my birthday. We didn't count how many people came but it was probably between 30 and 40. It was interesting having my friends from different settings all there at the same time - teachers, singles, and bible study people. It sprinkled a little bit at the beginning but then was nice and sunny.

Now we're back at school - it was a fun weekend, but it was hard to get back into work again after having that much intense fun.

We're done with school on June 20, so we're in the home stretch but still have longer than y'all. I've got performances of various kinds coming up on June 12,15, and 17, as well as report cards to write for a few hundred kids. But once it's all done I get 5 weeks vacation!