“Bilis, Kerry, bilis!” Laling drags Johanna by one arm as I run across Wright Street to Ellinwood.
“Yah, yah!” Late again for Daily Vacation Bible School. Laling waves me in the direction of my class. Voices spill out and jostle:
“… joyjoyjoyjoy down in my heart--deep and wide--downinmyheart downinmyheart--der’s a fountain flowing deep and —peacethatpassesunderstanding-- downinmyheart.”
In Chrys der is no Eees or Wes!” I slip into the Quonset hut.
“Children,” says our beloved Miss Payuan, “we will make a Oi-koi-men-e boat. Take a cardboard and draw like this.” We swab thick white stinky paste over our outline. We painstakingly line tiny green mungo beans for the boat hull, and paint the lapping ocean blue. We carefully press purple kidney beans into the cross in the boat. But the rice clouds overwhelm.
“Mabuhay!”
“Danny!”
“BoooombA!”
"Victor!”
Rice rains over our hair, the table, and floor.
“Class, class, class! Kumanta tayo!, “Let all the world…”
Easy to distract, we screech,
“Let aaaall da worl in ebrey corner sing my GOD and KEENG
Da hevnsarenottoohigh, His praises there may fly,
Da earth is nottoolow, his praises there may grow.…”
Let aaaall da worl in ebrey corner sing my GOOOD AAAAAND KEENG!
Miss Payuan fumbles in the flannel board box, and decides to recount how Jesus stood up in the boat and stilled the storm.
But Jesus in the flannel board boat lurches sideways.
Roger raises his hand.
"Roger?”
“Titcher, let's kanta to Jesus, “sit down sit down you’re rocking da boat.”
Yah! It's TRUE! Orange Jesus is standing in the Oi-koi-men-e boat! Daddy says never stand when the boat is moving. We take merienda of sugary ensamadas and kool-aid and are dismissed with our Oi-koi-men-e bean mosaics. I am secretly alarmed. What is the cross doing in the boat? Won’t it fall over and sink it? Why did Orange Jesus stand? Does he walk on water because he can’t swim? These things they don’t tell us in DVBS.
“Yah, yah!” Late again for Daily Vacation Bible School. Laling waves me in the direction of my class. Voices spill out and jostle:
“… joyjoyjoyjoy down in my heart--deep and wide--downinmyheart downinmyheart--der’s a fountain flowing deep and —peacethatpassesunderstanding-- downinmyheart.”
In Chrys der is no Eees or Wes!” I slip into the Quonset hut.
“Children,” says our beloved Miss Payuan, “we will make a Oi-koi-men-e boat. Take a cardboard and draw like this.” We swab thick white stinky paste over our outline. We painstakingly line tiny green mungo beans for the boat hull, and paint the lapping ocean blue. We carefully press purple kidney beans into the cross in the boat. But the rice clouds overwhelm.
“Mabuhay!”
“Danny!”
“BoooombA!”
"Victor!”
Rice rains over our hair, the table, and floor.
“Class, class, class! Kumanta tayo!, “Let all the world…”
Easy to distract, we screech,
“Let aaaall da worl in ebrey corner sing my GOD and KEENG
Da hevnsarenottoohigh, His praises there may fly,
Da earth is nottoolow, his praises there may grow.…”
Let aaaall da worl in ebrey corner sing my GOOOD AAAAAND KEENG!
Miss Payuan fumbles in the flannel board box, and decides to recount how Jesus stood up in the boat and stilled the storm.
But Jesus in the flannel board boat lurches sideways.
Roger raises his hand.
"Roger?”
“Titcher, let's kanta to Jesus, “sit down sit down you’re rocking da boat.”
Yah! It's TRUE! Orange Jesus is standing in the Oi-koi-men-e boat! Daddy says never stand when the boat is moving. We take merienda of sugary ensamadas and kool-aid and are dismissed with our Oi-koi-men-e bean mosaics. I am secretly alarmed. What is the cross doing in the boat? Won’t it fall over and sink it? Why did Orange Jesus stand? Does he walk on water because he can’t swim? These things they don’t tell us in DVBS.
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