(me and a friend spinning steel wool... we were dubbed "men of steel" )
These pictures are what you see when you light steel wool on fire and then swing it in a circle from a chain.
(and then someone increases the exposure on their camera)
For the fourth several of the Americans bunged (came together and shared food) on the grass to celebrate. We sang the national anthem, we saluted the flag, we ate hot dogs and we had home made fireworks.
One of the guys from the auto-shop filled balloons with acetlyne gas and that made a nice BOOM.
I was able to launch a couple of flares from an old emergency kit.
Kids had glowing bracelets. It was like a normal 4th block party.
To make it happen, all you need to do is:
-remember when you're in town to look for sparklers
-remember to buy steel wool ahead of time
-special order "american hotdogs" months in advance
-find a place that sells yellow mustard
-make hot dog buns from scratch (Kendal's were tasty)
I think one thing that makes me appreciate our celebrations so much is that they aren't instantly put together. In order to make something "special" it does take anticipation and planning. And not everyone is a planner, so those of us who do plan tend to bring a little EXTRA for those who don't.
It was our great privilege to give glowy sticks to the younger kids who can't handle the sparklers... makes us feel like Uncle and Aunt again. We picked them in in Lae about 7 months ago when we found them and held on to them this long.
