My original departure date from Holden Village was to be June 30th. However, all the logistics fell into place for me to stay until July 5th and since I didn't have any plans for the4th anyway, I thought I would celebrate the United States of America's independence day the best way I could imagine... at Holden Village :)
The day started out with a feast of pancakes with red white and blue toppings (raspberries, whipped cream, and blueberries) During meal times at Holden, we ask for birthdays and anniversaries and sing to people. On the 4th of July we sang "Happy Birthday America." I loved it.
It was a work day for housekeepers, but a short one. I swear, I have cleaned more toilets and showers in the past month than in my life time. I'm a pro now though,. But before folks get too excited, I will not be volunteering to do it outside of Holden anytime soon (but back in Holden... certainly!!) During coffee hour we had proclamations of independence in an open mic forum. People read from the declaration of independence, poems, and played music. It was pretty fantastic.
Next step in the day was face-painting. The volunteers who worked with Narnia (the elementary school aged kids) led the effort and red white and blue stars abounded...
Above is Carolyn (fellow housekeeper and friend) enjoying her face painting experience.
One of the best aspects of the 4th of July parade is that each work area (kitchen, housekeeping, mavericks, etc) create their own entries in the parade. In addition to the work areas of Holden volunteer staff we were lucky that some of the mine remediation workers joined in the fun!! :D Above is pictured two of the fellas who work for the Holden Mine Project, I love how they got into the spirit of Holden's festivities! Mark (green shirt) might have been joking when he said that if I made him Shrek ears he would go as Shrek in the parade, and it is even more likely that Ryan was kidding when he agreed to go as donkey if I found him a donkey costume... but I wasn't joking. So here they are:
Looks pretty good. If you can't tell, I am water as part of a larger joint costume with the rest of the housekeeping team. Costume selection for the parade is something we take very seriously. Below is Carolyn in search of just the right dress to express the toilet water we sought to represent.
The summer theme for 2012 is a verse from Ezekial: Where the river flows, life abounds. As such, many of the entries in the parade parodied this theme in creating their performance pieces/floats, etc.
The craft cave folks: Where Creativity Flows Crafts Abound!
The Utilities Team" Where the Plunger Goes, Water Flows"
Taylor and Tim (top of the float) are often in the bucket brigade drum core of the regular Friday afternoon parades and was a nice touch to their 4th of July float.
Second most elaborate paper mache work goes to the kitchen crew in their pig roast float, "Where the pig roasts freedom abounds" It was so realistic as to be a bit disturbing. Well done! I'm not being sarcastic right now.
As we are the housekeeping team, (Team HK!) our collective brainstorming came up with this banner: "Where the toilet flows, bacterial life abounds"
After deciding our slogan, we created a kind of circle dance which imitated a toilet being flushed. Below you can see the white toilet brush giving us a scrub
After being scrubbed, the toilet handle would be flushed (nice work Carolyn!) and we circled around in manner of a toilet's whirling water. Then all bent at the knees with one "SWOOSH" sound... and carried on circle dancing and being scrubbed until the next crowd.
Tommy and Anna announced each entry, so perhaps if someone was not able to grasp that we were a toilet being flushed (even though the choreography was amazing) they helped us out by narrating what was happening.
Pastor Scott and Pastor intern Anders (fellow PLTS student and friend!) dressed up as fishermen with photographs of a former staffer named "Bren" on their hooks. Get it? "Fishers of Bren" pretty funny. :)
Then there was the elaborate larger than life puppet that Brad, the potter, with the assistance of Laurie (village artist) and other put together. That thing is impressive and I think the mine remediation workers got a kick out of it.
Of course, there were some stilt walkers and a kazoo band. No parade would be complete without them.
The fourth of July Parade was followed by root-beer floats and watching the fire brigade demonstration, you'd have to be there. Mostly we just ate all day... delicious BBQ for dinner and vespers. To top off the night was the fireworks show! Now, Holden is in the middle of the forest, so fireworks are not and should not be allowed because of the huge risk of forest fires. So in lieu of fireworks live, they show a video of firework displays, play patriotic music and (the best BIT!) hand out bubble wrap to everyone. The garbology team saves up the bubble wrap all year long and then as we watch the fire works video people snap and pop their bubble wrap and sing along to songs like "I'm proud to be an American." It was the best fourth of July celebration I can remember.
