Issue #86
March 20, 2001

Dear Friends and Family,
Spring is almost here! Well, we really don't have spring, but this is about as close to it as we get. The rains are slowly coming in and everything is getting green again. The flowers are budding. The trees are getting their leaves back. The temperatures are still hot unless it is raining. Soon it will be very beautiful around here.

I think I will focus most of this email on the weekend because it was busy enough to fill this newsletter. I will begin with Friday afternoon. The elementary students spent the afternoon at an African school in town. It was quite an adventure. When we pulled up to the school, the African kids surrounded the buses. They were clapping and yelling. We could barely get off the bus and walk to the school. I was the last one off the bus. As I was trying to move through all the kids, I took out my video camera. I had about 300 kids immediately crowding in around me, waving, trying to get on camera. I finally had to put it away and tell them I wouldn't turn it back on until we were in the courtyard of the school. I was able to walk into the schoolyard with no problems then. Of course, they were all waiting inside the wall just waiting for me to get the camera out again. I did tape a few more times with the same response every time. The school set up a tent in the yard with chairs under it. We all sat under the tent while we had an assembly. Some girls from the African school did a traditional dance in costume. Several people spoke, Mr. Reierson, head principal at ICA, Madame Coulibaly, director of Ecole Belleville, the school we were at, and a representative from the mayor's office. My elementary choir sang three songs. Then our school played theirs in soccer. We lost. They had snacks for us when we finished. We had to rush off because we had to be back to ICA.

This was also basketball tournament weekend. We had to hurry back to get ready for the pep rally. All the classes had dressed different ways all week for Spirit Week, Tornado Day, Career Day, Class Spirit Day, Blue and White Day. For the pep rally each class had made a poster and a cheer. One of the girls in my class wrote the cheer for our class. It was pretty good. The sixth grade won the cheer over all, and for the whole week the second grade won out of the elementary. Both our high school girls and boys teams were playing in the tournament. Our boys' team won the tournament. The girls' team was beat by the National Team for Cote d'Ivoire. Both teams played very well.

On Sunday night, we had a short surprise going away program for our elementary principal who is leaving next week. Again, my elementary choir was to sing, and it was one of those nights when things were just not going to work. We started to practice before the service. One song and the cd would not play right. I had it on tape from when we sang on Friday, so I sent one of the kids back to my house to get it. We practiced, and it went fine. We got up to sing that night in church. The tape wouldn't work. It kept making these beeping noises. Finally, I told the sound guy to use the cd because the one song did work. We got through the first song. Then we had to try and see if the second song would work on the tape. After a few minutes of us all just waiting while the sound guys frantically changed out cables and fast-forwarded the tape, we were able to sing the second song. I'm not sure what all happened. The tape somehow got the beeps recorded on the beginning of between when we practiced and when we sang. When I put the cd in my cd player at home, it worked fine. I told the elementary principal that we just wanted to give her a typical African send off where nothing works quite like you planned it.

One funny story before I close. (Names have been changed.) One of the four year olds on campus was saying his prayers before going to bed the other night. He said, "Lord, please be with Miss Jones. She has lots of cracks on her face and is going to die soon." After he finished, his mother asked him what he meant by "cracks." He pointed next to his mom's eyes and mouth. "You have them too, but not as bad as Miss Jones. You won't die soon." Watch out for what those cracks on your face might be telling you!

Pray for us as we finish up this last week before break. Everyone is tired and ready for some time off.

In Christ,
Traci Epps