Happy Indepence Day- Sept 15

Last Sat was Independence Day here. Most people here work 6 days a week, and therefore many of them got the day off. There were lots of parades which mostly consisted of various schools marching in a parade. Very very few bands but a decent number of drums. (Our school here doesn't have a band either.) I witnesses our students at marching practice very early nearly every morning. And it appeared that the schools had special bulletin boards and did other things to emphasize the importance of the holiday. There were no fireworks that I'm aware of.

Teri, as a way of saying thank you to all the staff and volunteers that helped with the Expo, offered to take everyone to the beach (about 1- 1.5 hr away). Even though they could've chosen any day off to do this, they chose to take this treat on Independence Day so that our Bookstore employees could also attend. I think that says a lot about the employees and the culture Teri has nurtured. So, we all piled into vans and one rented school bus and went to the beach. It was fabulous. The Benner's have a friend who is a doctor and friend of the ministry. He allowed us to use his beach place. It included a large concrete roofed area with picnic tables, hammocks, and sturdy wooden furniture. This was situated right beside a nice in-ground pool and bathhouse. And attached to the eating area, was an enclosed kitchen-like room with 2 refrigerators. We were only a few steps from the beach itself. The water temp was like a bath water. The temp at the beach is always significantly warmer than anywhere else in the country, but that day it wasn't too bad. They played music, ate, swam, and played soccer on the beach, of course. With much labor, 2 guys were able to get the fireplace-like grill ready for me to make burnt offerings. By the way, you can get charcoal here, but there is no lighter fluid that we're aware of. I saw the guys using a bottle that said, "100% alcohol" on it. I guess that helped. We ate hot dogs (with ketchup, mustard, mayo, and cabbage all together on the dog), watermelon, chips, and cookies until we could eat no more. It was a nice day for all areas of that part of the ministry to come together, with their families, and enjoy the day. I know I did.