We finished up work early yesterday and I went back to C.’s bus with her to have a shower. Fortunately her friend came to pick us up, so we didn’t have to drive and could have a couple of warm up drinks.
When we arrived at Irongate the party had already started. The company had arranged some great entertainment – a performer that got people to act out different fairy tales on the stage. It was hilarious, especially getting to see the boss dress up as a fairy complete with a pink tutu and wand. I got to play the mirror in Schneewittchen (or Snow White) and got dressed in a purple cloak and a colorful wig.
Apparently everyone has the same fairy tales, just these ones had slightly altered or „updated“ endings. In one of them, when the princess was woken from her sleep by a tap on the shoulder instead of a kiss, she decided that instead of getting married and living happily ever after she was going to go to University and learn about the world.
The whole performance was a fun way to warm everyone up and because everyone got mixed up into different groups it got everyone talking to different people and really socialising.
Afterwards we kept drinking and got started on preparing a huge barbecue. A few of us had brought special dishes, one of the Vanuata boys made a delicious fish dish and I brought some marinated rabbit to put on the barbecue. Not many people eat rabbit in New Zealand because they are so common that everyone just thinks of them as a pest. They find the idea of farming them silly and are always surprised to hear how expensive rabbit meat in Germany is. Anyway, they were all curious to try it and it was gone in seconds.
We had a lovely night sitting around fires drinking and laughing, talking about everything and nothing. Later in the evening the guitars came out and suddenly it seemed that everyone knew how to play. The big boss B. even got his guitar out and seemed to be able to play any song that people named, of course nobody knew all the words though.
Finally the really sad part came and we had to say goodbye. We took group photos with everyone together for the last time and I promised the gang that one day I would come to Vanuatu to visit.
