1:30 pm

So I haven't blogged in four days, giving you a bit of an idea of the full schedule as of late. Today is our last day in KM, and everyone is feeling the full week AND the different diet. Three of our team were too sick with the stomach flu to do much of anything last night. We think it was something we ate.

The weekend was definitely a success. Saturday evening became a culmination of the week with a mini Party in the Park - all the fixin's! Providing authentic hot dogs was a bit of a challenge, but Joseph and I hunted around till we found the necessary supplies. Still, the catsup was thick and spicy and the buns were really small loaves of bread. We wanted it to be an authentic redneck picnic for the kids so we thought we'd give them the opportunity to roast their own hot doggo. What happens next is sheer chaos, but at the end of the ordeal, well worth it, to see lots of mini-Crimeans having their first outdoor FSJ-syle picnic. We even found (after much searching) a marshmellow-type candy, that with bated breath, we hoped would roast like a marshmellow - AND IT DID! Had to be the hit of the party.

So we had the food, and the crowd was growing. Now we need live music, and Joseph is happy to fill the air with some lyrical, folk-music-blended-with-Johnny-Cash sounds. Luke and I take turns on the djembe that we bought for Maxim and Jhenya's church.

Next, we needed booths and activities and this is, just like home, an all hands on deck affair. I get relegated to the facepainting booth :-). And experience on a small scale what our facepainters experience back home. For the first 15 minutes or so, whenever I offer to paint I get awkward looks and rapid shakes of the head as first one, then another rushes off to another booth. I guess I'm kind of intimidating - rough shaven baldy with a paint brush wanting to do art on their faces. But as these things go, it only takes one or two to start the flow and soon I can't keep up. My popular designs are flowers and rainbows and Jimmy's name in big letters.

We close the night out with the best country dance yet and for the first time, the young men join in as well. It's a flat out riot. And I'm telling you, the same atmosphere as PITP back home. Ever since coming to KM, it's been a dream of mine to do a PITP here, and we've finally gone there.