Another exciting birthday party...

Last week was Tony's birthday. He didn't want his birthday party to be a major event (like Emily's), so it was dubbed "the gathering in honor of Tony." He did, however, mention that we were free to dress up like him or like a Belgian. Matt and a couple of other guys took him up on this in a little different way than he probably expected... While he was out, they went and "borrowed" some of his clothes to wear to his "gathering." When he saw the first guy he said, "I have a shirt just like that." Then he saw the other two and realized that it was his shirt. It was pretty funny. The "gathering" consisted of ice cream sundays and a lot of goofing around. The first picture is Tony with his "look alikes". The second picture is one of the high school guys feeding him ice cream and doing an amazingly good job of not making a mess. The third picture is the boys dropping Tony after having lifted him over their heads.

Spring Recital

The Spring Recital was my last before we leave. I only ended up only having one student in it, since my other students had to leave in the middle of the term. I still enjoyed teaching Joanna and organizing the recital. I will miss my students when we leave.

Coffee Festival

Every year Goroka has a coffee festival. It is a cross between a trade show and a cultural event. The local businesses all have booths where they advertise and sell their products. Because it is the coffee festival and coffee is big business around here, there is a lot of focus on the coffee industry. You can usually see coffee at every stage, from seedlings to the fully processed bean.

The other part of the Coffee Festival is all the cultural exhibitions. The local groups come dressed in traditional costume and do their traditional songs and dances. You can also buy artifacts such as baskets, wood carvings, paintings, bilums (string bags), etc.

I enjoy the coffee festival more than the other events they have in Goroka because it is more focused on the local people and not on the tourists. This makes it less crowded and more interesting to me. This was my last chance to go before leaving PNG. Matt always takes so many good pictures that it was hard for me to pick just a few to post.