Those kids sang and sang and sang! (And as Corey pointed out, a mere 50 of them can out-sing many of the Lutheran congregations we have attended... with the exception of one or two Singers concerts I have been fortunate to have taken part in.) They were having so much fun, and so were we - singing and clapping and dancing. Corey later accused me of having some real and serious fun teaching and singing with those kids - he says that there's a real light and joy in my eyes as I've been working with them, and he finds it a very beautiful thing. (Okay, dear, if you say so...) We showed them the "fruits" of the spirit (cutout fruit with one of the Galatians fruits written in Creole on each one), then passed out the bracelets, new pencils, and candy. A few of us got into tickle wars with them - Sarah and Corey and Vicar and myself among them. The Vicar has been especially good with the kids - he just has a gift with them, and they love him. Right now I am watching Becky singing duets with one of the locals on his guitar. They sound really good, and they seem to be having a lot of fun.

Most of this morning has been totally unproductive. We've watched the littlest ones prepare for graduation, we've sat and played with a few of them who weren't practicing... but other than that we've sat around. O-kay... as part of their graduation ceremonies, they're doing the macarena dance. Part of the ceremony, for real. O-kay... Some of our own people were getting into it too - doing the macarena up there with them (Enid, the vicar, and Corey). They are having so much fun it's probably illegal... Devotions were by Josias and Jim S. Lunch was sandwiches and melon (cantaloupe and honeydew). We sent off Jennifer with the laying on of hands, a prayer, hugs and a sandwich for the road before we ate our own lunches. Then a sizable crew of us (the VBS crew plus Pastor W, Vicar, Lyle, Kevin, Willi, Corey, maybe one or two of the other men, and several of the Haitian teachers) sorted through the supplies in the boxes - clothes, toiletries, school supplies, health kits, school kits, even a couple of computers. Since we got done with that about two-ish, we went out to join the bucket brigade. I joined this bucket brigade too for fun... and more real experience on the building crew. As a "heads-up" for the next person, one is supposed to yell "bucket" as they prepare to pass the bucket of cement on... that way they don't get a face full of cement. Dear, dear Sandy - when she said it, she gave it an upward lilt... so that she sounded like a chicken clucking! Another time on the brigade Lyle tossed an empty one to Pastor - and got him splattered completely down one side with cement! A person can get really dirty on bucket brigade - you should see my work gloves. I joked to the crew that they were going to set before the support beams would - which sadly wasn't far from the truth. Today was also our group picture day. We stood on the building site as a group with Howard's hand-carved sign for the church. (It's carved out of wood and absolutely beautiful.) A few of the other group pictures included the kids, the Haitian crew - and even the tiny puppy that's been wandering the work site for 2 weeks. When we were done and wandering out of the work site and into the shade, I happened to pass a man who had a homemade guitar - made out of a gas can for the body, wire for the strings, and other things for the rest of it - and was playing "Amazing Grace" on it. Amazing talent and ingenuity, too. The Haitians are rich culturally and artistically as a people in spite of their unbelievable poverty as a nation, if you ask me.

Tonight we had a meal of fish - a white fish of some kind that was amazingly good, and tonight's soup was a pumpkin & vegetable & pasta soup which was also quite good. It rained again while we were at dinner, so devotions by Sandy and Becky were held in Pastor's room - far nicer than ours. Hey, he's the pastor... Becky brought all her maracas and shakers (9 total) for us while we sang. We also gave a graduation present to James F, who has written songs for the team to sing in church as well as done all the translating for the work site and some of the bible school. He's been fairly instrumental to our work in Haiti. We gave him some money, a copy of "The Prayer of Jabez" and its apparent sequel (on the vine and branches, I think) just out this month or so.