The end of a long weekend. Well, the weekend was the same length as any other, but it seemed long. Really long.

The "weekend of culture" was awesome, though. It was my idea to have a weekend set apart for the sharing of cultural foods, songs, stories, dances and more. The participants come from 9 different countries, but there are 23 ethnic groups represented. The staff represent another 7 cultures! So, since it was my idea, it fell to me to plan and make it work.

I was really proud of everyone and how they all pitched in to make it work. We gave the kitchen staff 2 days off and each country (or group of neighboring countries) had a chance to provide one meal during the weekend. They also had to help with the dishes and cleaning, and all these things were a real learning curve for some of the participants who come from cultures where men do not come within 20ft of a kitchen, EVER. But everyone pitched in and it all got done.

(With a little help). Although I had everything delegated out, I still had a lot to do, making sure that the groups were working together well and were able to get there work done in timely fashion. In addition to taking part like everyone else and giving instructions/directions, I had also had several unforeseen tasks:

• Like finding and changing gas bottles when one (we were running 4 stoves to make the meals for 32 people) ran out half-way through cooking Sunday-morning breakfast.
  
• Like playing tour-guide to the front-half of our van while we took the participants on a scenic tour of the city of Ouagadougou (the Burkinabé with us sat in the back seat and had a very quiet voice).
  
• Like teaching a man from Mali (who had never held a kitchen knife) how to peel and chop onions.
  
• Like taking a participant to the hospital (he is OK now), running down to the local shop to get more dish soap when the 3 litres I had bought got used up half-way through Sunday-lunch dishes!
  
• Like mediating disputes over the appropriate cultural ways to deal with infidelity and divorce (was an extremely hot topic of discussion that started with one participant sharing what is done in his culture and ended in a 3 hour debate into the wee hours of the morning).
  
• Like opening up the plumbing under the sink to find the source of the blockage!
  
• Like (succesfully) defending the net by myself while the rest of my football (read soccer) team ran up on an offensive break away that got messed up.
  
• Like telling-off the whole group for worshipping God like white people (we had a church service together, and I got right ripped off that they were being too polite to dance. I ripped into them, saying "If you really believe what you are singing about, you'd better let it show with your whole body.
• Feeding the laundry ladies, groundsmen, guards, and even the public-roads workers who were digging a ditch near our compound with all the left-overs! (S000 much good food, it was incredible).
  
• Like explaining 31 times that I don't know how and am not authorised to make copies of the movie "Animals are Beautiful People", which we all watched tonight as a finale to the weekend.

All in all, it was a great weekend, but I'm pretty tired. Not much rest-time. I'll add some pictures tomorrow.