St. John Sat. 3/10/12

We had a busy night last night! Ital came in to educate and entertain the Radford students and shortly thereafter, the Manhattan College kids arrived via Hamilton's bus/truck. The new arrivals had a tour of the camp, ate dinner, and went to bed - they were tired! Ital talked about a variety of herbs and folk medicines. He passed around samples of each, talked about medicinal uses or folk tales associated with each one and then quizzed the students on the names and how they are used. The winners were each awarded a fresh coconut! He then showed some of the crafts that he had made of local bean pods - painted noise makers, branches - mated with bottle caps to make a percussion instrument, calabash (looks like a round gourd) - carved to make masks or put on sticks as musical instruments. Lastly, he and Zoe drummed and he engaged the kids in singing and dancing. There was not a student left sitting! They all got up and danced and really had a great time. Many of them were still singing and dancing on their way back to their cottages. Dave and I clean the office after breakfast this morning - dusted the shelves, washed ledges and screens and surfaces, then swept and mopped the floor. Just as we were finishing we had a huge downpour - I felt sorry for the kids - the Manhattan group were out snorkeling and the Radford kids were out finishing their projects. They all got thoroughly soaked! We then helped with cleaning the bathrooms before moving to the museum where we refolded and straightened out the tee shirt cabinet. After lunch, Dave and I made snickerdoodles. We will be the cookie people for a while - you have to bake them practically every day when there are this many people in camp. Dave, of course, is thrilled that we made his favorite cookie today! I think we might make molasses tomorrow. The sun was out all afternoon and it again is a lovely day. The snorkelers came back and said they saw a rainbow at the end of Yawzi Point while they were in the water. Dave is sitting at the picnic table and working on carving a spoon for the kitchen and Emma is "helping". Deb and Willie are making chicken pot pie for dinner and the scent is wafting out here where we are! We just relaxed around camp today on our off time - it was quite pleasant. Tomorrow will be a big cleaning and laundry day as Radford is leaving and Iowa State is coming in.