Our little town of Rümmingen (how still we see thee lie - sorry, I could not resist the Christmas in June reference!) had prepared and set up booths and tents for the Brunnenfest this weekend. Early on Saturday afternoon, we heard sirens (those great European sirens, you know, the one's you hear in all the eurofilms NeeNah NeeNah NeeNah). We heard them go by, and thought "well, someone got too rowdy, already". But no. One of the booths had caught fire from the grill, and before they could get the portable extinguisher going, the propane tank caught. They quickly left the booth (wise choice) and the tank exploded, engulfing the entire booth and scorching a nearby tent. Here is the aftermath (after the Feuerwehr guys did their thing):
you can just make out the flattened charred remains of the booth over the boys right shoulder. The damage to the tent is rather obvious. Praise item - NO ONE WAS INJURED! and the house next door was not even touched! wow. If this had happened two hours later, there would have been MAJOR injuries to a lot of people.
We thought that would be the end of the food from that group (which would have been a bummer, as they were making the gyros), but strike it up to German ingenuity and efficiency, there was a new booth on the same spot (they removed the damaged tent) within 45 minutes of the clean-up. So we were able to have our gyro lunch on Sunday (woo hoo). It was amazing to see those folks get it done.
Which brings us to Sunday. The Ki-Ku Club (Kinder Kultur - or children's culture - club) was handling the watergames, face-painting and picture-drawing contest. The theme was "Under the Sea", but the face painting was whatever the kids wanted. I (Paul) got into it as one of the "Profismalern" (professional painters) for the Schminken (face painting, actually "make-up"). Actually, I was volunteered, but that's quite alright (Madge can handle the next program!). The first customer (Kunde) was a young lady who just happened to ask for the most complex face in the book (the lion)! I figured, well, if I can do that one, the rest will be easy...
Tigers, pirates, faeries, and a shark were to follow. The other Profismaler in the group (who is also the Ki-Ku organizer) did ladybugs (Maikäfer), zebras, and undersea-scene faces. It was fun!
Wils, of course, got soaked in the Wasserspielen. Pictures say more than words, right?
So here goes:
Kinderschminken und Haarbändchen (face-paint and hair-wrapping combo)
Maler at work (ein Tiger)
Art for art's sake
Wasserspielen! Note the waterballoons (Wasserbomben) about to be unleashed. What joy!
The best part of my day was holding the mirror up for the kids to see their faces after they were painted. Their eyes would light up, and invariably a smile would erupt when they saw how they were 'transfigured' by some colour and simple brushwork. All in all, a very rewarding day.
*Brennen - literally "burn"
3 comments:
Like the gotee.
We call that food balckened in LA, don't through it out...raise the price and sell!
I always thought those sirens went "HeeHaw HeeHaw HeeHaw"
That was "blackened" and "throw" in comment 2.
It's late.
ewwww....blackened gyros, no thanks.
i DO miss a nice blackened tuna steak, tho. Are we going to Flounders? or Crabs tonight??
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