Banquet Preparation

This past week Kevin and I  had the opportunity to go to Kenya to visit with Justin at RVA.  Each year the junior class prepares a banquet for the senior class.  They create the set, come up with a play and music, and prepare the food.  The weekend before banquet, parents of the junior class are invited to come and help.  We worked hard each day helping to prepare for this event.  At the end of each day we were so exhausted!  It was so much fum to visit with Justin and get to know his teachers and classmates.  We are so thankful for this school and the opportunity it provides for MK's all over Africa. 

A few weeks before banquet the guys are allowed to ask the girls to banquet.  They always try to come up with some special way to ask the girl.  Above is  a picture of the things Justin used to ask his date Sara.  He attached these notes to her throughout the day with clothespins without her seeing who it was.  Then finally, he attached the last one which said, "Find the matching clothespin."  A bunch of his friends were around her but all had different colored clothespins.  Justin had the matching clothespin.  When she found him he asked her to banquet.  

Kevin, Wade, John, and Mark built the platform where the couples would walk down to and be announced to the crowd.  It should have taken just a couple of hours but when you have all these strategy guys together....well, it took basically all day!  After a little sweet tea that Mark brought everything came together!

 

Justin and Kevin 

It was so much fun to see friends that we had not seen in a long time.  Here is DeeAnn and Wanne waiting on their husbands.

The theme was Pirates of the Caribbean.  The kids are all so talented to create this set.  Here are a few pictures at the beginning.  The stage was made into a ship.

Over to the side was a town, Tortuga.

a sunset

behind the ship was a beautiful moon

With the platform finished some of the kids practiced walking down the steps.

This is Nathan and Rachel walking down first.

out in front of the cafeteria

out in front of the cafeteria-a place to hang your mugs for chai time.

Justin and his friend Nathan

Each year the senior class has something built and donated to the school.  This clock was donated by Zach's class a couple of years ago.

On Sunday, we got to go into Nairobi and visit The Village Market.  It was fun to rest a bit and have fun.  

Justin is enjoying an ostrich burger.  He said it was really good!

Justin enjoyed the waterslide with his friends.

I enjoyed working in the kitchen with some of the other ladies.  Above, is a picture of the spinich feta puffs.  They were delicious!

Here is one of the 27 pies that were made!

After tackling the platform, the next day the guys decided to work on the walk through.

This was a big job but the guys did a great working together.

Matthew Dina helping with the walk through.

I also helped paint the sunset.

Later in the week the set is really coming along.

finishing up the walk through.  They later put a tarp over this and this was used for the kids to walk through as they entered the banquet.  All year, the juniors keep the theme of the banquet a secret so the seniors will be surprised.  In the walk through or tunnel they put different things up from the past and maybe some clue of what the theme is for that year.  It isn't until they walk into the banquet hall that they know for sure what it is.  I think they really liked the end result.