A full day

First on the agenda this morning was the pancake breakfast at the school, sponsored by the Student's Union who were raising money for a school in Romania.
The kitchen was a hoppin' place.


The finished product. We had flavour choices of plain, chocolate chip, blueberry or banana.
Some happy pancakers! And there were likely some very happy organizers because this breakfast was a hot item!
Then, on to the dress swap. Two RAs had found churches this summer who were willing to donate and ship banquet dresses to BFA. The Christmas banquet is almost upon us and it's a pretty big event. If you are a girl, you need (NEED!) a special dress.
So the dresses were organized by size...
...change rooms were created...
...goodies provided...
...last minute instructions given...

And the throngs of young women waiting patiently were let in and let loose - 20 at a time.
It was pretty much at this point that I stopped taking pictures. It was fairly frantic in that room but Katy managed to find a pretty nice dress. With a few alterations, it will be perfect. It was a huge blessing to find something so easily and so FREE! A BIG thank you to the RAs for organizing this amazing gift for our girls, and of course to those amazing churches who made it all happen.
Tonight there was a free concert in a Jesuit church in Basel given by an International Jesuit Youth Orchestra. Here's a bit about the concept of the Paraguayan portion of it:

Sonidos de la Tierra was founded in 2002 by internationally recognized master musician, composer, and orchestral conductor, Luis Szaran.

Szaran envisioned providing kids in underserved and poorly resourced communities with the opportunities to learn how to play musical instruments and, on a more philosophical level, rescue traditional Paraguayan culture and improve the sustainability of local communities by teaching kids skills that can pave the way to higher education and a professional career.

Since its founding, Sonidos de la Tierra (“Sounds of the Earth”) has offered training in the musical arts to more than 8,000 kids in 120 communities in Paraguay through workshops, their “conservatory on wheels,” and the establishment of music schools.
There were young people from Paraguay, India, Tansania, Italy, Germany and Switzerland in the orchestra tonight. The music was fantastic, but the lighting wasn't so my pictures did not turn out at all. Too bad. The "concert" started with a one hour mass, with the music all from the "Guaraní". It was haunting and beautiful. After that we were treated to pieces from India, Nepal, Africa, Austria, Wales, the U.S, Paraguay and Bolivia. We had one regret during and after the concert: our girls had not come along with us. Next time...