Thrift Shop Friday

Even tireder tonight but let's see how I go. Friday is my favourite day in the 4 1/2 days of Thrift Shop (including set-up and take-down, we actually only open for sales for 10 hours over two days unless you volunteer for more than four hours than you get to shop during the set-up days). But Friday has a pleasant community feel. Only PTA members can shop and it has a delightful carnival flavour. 

I took these two photos at 2pm, after the lunch rush. It was a perfect sunny spring day. The courtyard area provided mottled sunlight under a mixture of Sakura blossoms and vibrant green leaves.

 It was wonderful to stand to one side of the busyness for a short while while I ate some cherry pie and ice cream (fundraiser for our son's senior class ministry trip to Thailand next year). You can see there are various groups of people chatting, this is the hallmark of Thrift Shop Friday. It's a great opportunity for many missionaries who rarely get the opportunity to see one another to spend time together. I was very much on the business end of running the event inside the gym for most of the day, but the pace was mostly gentle and there were many conversations. 

School only goes till 12 on Thrift Shop Friday, then the kids come in to shop too. Many of them really look forward to this. 

Here we have some high schoolers who lead a middle school youth group trying on gear for their traditional post-Thrift Shop dress-up youth group on Sunday. You can see how much this event is part of the fabric of the lives of so many in the international community here, it's not just about raising money. 

One of our high school son's best friends. It took me a few moments to recognise him!

This is an interesting Japan-Western hybrid. Is there anywhere else in the world that Taco Rice is a dish? It has all the fixings for a taco plus crumbled taco shells or corn chips on top of rice. My lunch. Yum!  

Our eldest son unsuccessfully hiding from the camera. He, along with many of his classmates, were hard at work manning food stalls to raise money for their class ministry trip to Thailand next year. And no, his nose wasn't touching the sausages. 

Tomorrow is the business end of Thrift Shop as the local community invades our gym. It can be very intense. I'm a checkout chick for the whole four hours we're open and usually speak a lot of Japanese during that time. Then we get some free shopping on what's left (those who are staying for cleanup). After that we clear out the gym and put all the hardware away until we do it all over again in October!