MAK BBQ

Last week we had our annual school BBQ. I was expecting it to be like our church picnics, with the most of the activities (including eating) being outside. But probably due to the excessive tropical heat during the hottest part of the day, most of the activities were done indoors.


Our school cafeteria is not called the cafeteria. It is called the MPR. I tried for the longest time to figure out what the letters stood for (Main Pulverization Room?), and finally I had to ask someone. It makes sense once you get away from the idea that the room is not just used for eating. Oh, of course-- Multi-Purpose Room.

In a way, the BBQ was like our church picnics.

There were a lot of Asian parents with Asian kids.
There were water balloons and little children.

There were designated grill-masters and a grilling area. (Can you see them?)

And there were people working in the kitchen.

There was one flaw in my thinking "CBCHC picnic." I dressed the part. UA running shorts, my society t-shirt, and flip-flops--what's wrong with that? Nothing, inherently. But for me, once my scooter hit campus, I had a sinking feeling. I was going to blend in SO well with the students. And I did.

So I mostly hid in the kitchen.

The BBQ was very different from church picnic in other ways. There were TONS more people. Most of them I didn't know. And there were special "craft" activities available in some of the classrooms!

The two places I visited were balloon animals,

and painting. I saw what some of the kids had made and I wanted to make one, too!

I paid 50NT to make my very own picture of oranges. I found out that it wasn't really painting at all. It was more like taking bits of specially-made papers and tearing them into shapes and affixing them in the right places with a glue-and-water paste.

I thought it was pretty cool.

Originally, the plan was to mail my picture of oranges to B. But when I took it home, I discovered that it added a little pop of color to my otherwise bare room. So I decided to keep it. At least for now. :) (sorry, love)

Besides making orange pictures and working in the kitchen, I also met some of the parents of my students. The ones who took initiative to talk to me were mostly not Chinese. They were super friendly and supportive and encouraging. :) I am still scared of the Chinese parents.

Also, displayed on our multi-purpose stage in our Multi-Purpose Room were the 5 mural-boards that the Art department created as a school-wide project. Everyone could contribute, and I painted a flower in one of the squares in the letter C.
Maybe when it gets hung up I'll get a better picture of it. :)

I'm so glad I work at a place that can have a theme like "Grace!" :) God is so good.