Dinner and Drums

I know, I know. I’ve been terribly remiss in my blogging duties. I haven’t even posted any photos lately. Sorry about all that. I have some free time at work right now, so I’ll give you a little update on life in Nishiokoppe. You’ll have to wait for pictures, though. I don’t have any handy.

Last Friday night was our first dinner party in a while. I decided we needed to have fajitas (thanks to all the fajita seasoning mix that Mom brought us). The guest list sort of kept growing and growing until we were looking at feeding about 12 people, including Aaron and me. On top of that, two more Japanese children, courtesy of the two Japanese moms that I invited, would join our two children. This was the largest crowd we’ve had in the house to date. It was cozy, yummy, and oh so very English speaking! I was in heaven. We had Colin (Australian), two Canadians, a fellow from Nebraska, and assorted Japanese friends. Needless to say, the dominant language spoken was English. I can’t remember the last time I was around so many people speaking English!

I cooked up a HUGE batch of fajitas (I had to mail/internet order the meat), Mexican rice, borracho beans, and queso. We topped off the evening with the all American cookie: Oreos. Everyone must have had a good time because the first people to leave were the moms (plus their kids and one husband) and they didn’t leave until nearly midnight. I think Aaron stayed up talking with our overnight guests until about four a.m. A few folks stayed the night and hung around for breakfast. When they eventually headed home, I felt like I had gotten a great dose of English.

Sunday was the Kamiokoppe Elementary School Festival. The kids were really excited and energetic despite the fact that there are only five of them. They sang some songs, did a great little play, and showed us their unicycle stunts. I was excited to finally be a part of something like this. What with there only being four teachers on staff now, they needed some extra hands for the show. Kamiokoppe has a tradition of the teachers playing a few instrumental songs. They tried to arrange it so I could help them by playing keyboard or recorder, but I was finally able to make them understand just how musically illiterate I am. So, I played the snare drum for two songs. I was terribly nervous, despite the ridiculous simplicity of the songs. I haven’t played an instrument since we were forced to learn the recorder in the fourth grade. Everything went off with very few snags and everyone had a lovely time. I also got to help open and close the curtain. I know it sounds like no big deal, but it was a real treat to feel more like part of the staff as opposed to feeling like a guest all the time.

Next Saturday will be the Pre-school School Festival. The boys have been practicing their songs and dances for a while. It’s been a challenge to encourage Ridge to be brave and try his best, but he’s a trooper. I’m crossing my fingers that nothing will go wrong and everyone will have a good time!

Anyway, that’s it for now. Fall is coming without a doubt and the trees are all starting to change colors. I’ll try and have some photos to post later this week.