Marulaon

Sunday, April 19
Aaron and I awoke around 4:30 because of anticipation, Katherine followed shortly behind us, and the big kids were up around 6. We headed down to the wharf a little after seven after saying goodbyes to our SITAG family. Thankfully, we were accompanied by the director, and another family met us at the wharf to help us load all of our bags. We loaded the house stuff yesterday, but our "carry-ons" (backpacks, ice chests, etc.) still took up a lot of room. Later, I'll have Aaron write about his adventures in leaving some things in the van.

Our ship, the Bikoi, goes out west once a week. It stops at Marulaon on Sunday afternoons, and picks up again on Tuesday nights on its way back to Honiara. The ship was scheduled to leave at 9, but by the time we arrived, it was already packed to the gills. You just find a spot wherever you can fit you and your stuff, so we walked around the ship for a little bit until we settled on the bottom deck at the back. I've been told that lower is better when trying to avoid seasickness. We had packed peanut butter sandwiches and bananas, so we ate lunch as we passed the tip of Guadalcanal. Behind Sarah, notice the lady who brought her own hammock as well as a parrot.

We were happy to find that one of the carvers we know, Percy, was on the same deck. Some of you will be happy to know that I've asked him to carve some more of those beautiful bracelets (like the one we gave away on the blog earlier).

We arrived at Marulaon around 3:00, but couldn't find anyone waiting to pick us up. The Bikoi anchors offshore and small canoes pull up to the side of the big boat. Some women were selling cooked fish and green coconuts to drink (a great rehydrating fluid!). Turns out that Marulaon hadn't gotten our message about the day we were coming, but eventually two canoes showed up, and then the circus began! We had sooo many boxes to unload that the ship's crew began laughing about each one and describing what was inside. My sweet husband did a great job of packing and labeling! The kids and I (and lots of boxes) loaded into one canoe and headed to the shore while Aaron stayed back and waited for the rest of our belongings.

Everyone pitched in to help us. We were fairly self-conscious about the amount of stuff that we brought to this beautiful place, though. Shortly after everything was piled in the house, the bell for evening prayer rang, so we quickly ate some trail mix and headed next door. After the service (largely in Lavukaleve, or "language" as it is called in the Solomons), we were told that the community wanted to welcome us. So after a few minutes we headed down to the beach where we were presented with six chairs in which to sit and face the village (who stood). We listened to a welcoming speech by the chief, Leonard, several ladies presented us with garlands of fragrant frangipanni, and then the singing began. Beautiful! They sang a welcome song, and then broke into a raucous dancing and clapping as each one filed by and shook our hands. It was fabulous! We walked back to the house in the dark (thankful that we had brought a flashlight), and I quickly cooked up a batch of boxed mac & cheese courtesy of some friends in Kansas. It hit the spot. We fell into bed wooed by the howling of the dogs and the twinkling of the AMAZING stars. "Deep in the heart of Texas" ain't got nothing on Marulaon!