CHAPTER 10-"Bible school really keeping me busy ..."

Nov. 5-Halloween in Haiti is not like in the States; it's
 the real thing! The "fete de morts" ("all souls'
 festival") is celebrated for more than a week with
 All Souls' Day (Halloween is the evening before
 that) right in the middle. It is somewhat like Me-
 morial Day in that they whitewash the cemetery
 walls, clean up and paint the graves, and put wreaths
 and flowers on the graves. They also burn candles
 on the graves, and at night you see thousands of
 little candle lights all through the cemetery. The
 people talk to their dead loved ones just as if they
 could hear them. They spend all day and sometimes all
 night at the grave. There are special Catholic serv-
 ices and also lots of voodoo services every night.
 Where the spookiness of Halloween comes in is that
 the people believe that the spirits of the dead are
 liberated on that night and can revenge wrongs and
 possess people. In early evening, just as we were
 finishing the Bible school last week I heard some of
 the people screaming as they thought the spirits of
 the dead were possessing them, so the students said.
 I think that probably E- believes it too.
 We usually spend our mornings these days in
 study, answering correspondence, working on ac-
 counts, typing out Bible school notes and duplicating
 them, and the like where we can sandwich them in.
 Our schedule calls for a French lesson from 8 to 9
 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which often lasts
 until 9:30 or later. I often have to be in town for
 business from 11 to 12. Monday, Wednesday, and
 Friday I have the Bible school classes from 4 to 6
 in the afternoon. Thursday night is the only week
 night that we have a habit of going to church in the
 evening, and I usually preach on Thursday and
 Sunday nights.