blog post for June 7 2009

Sunday, June 7, 2009
What a beautiful day to travel! When we arrived at the pier, we saw a family that we knew from Marulaon, and I enjoyed being able to greet them in Lavukaleve. We chose the same spot on the boat as we had before � the bottom deck in the back � and settled in for the hour wait before the six hour journey. We are so thankful for the Bikoi and it's dependable schedule! This time we took two big gas cylinders along with a 400 gallon rain tank to hold water for the community.
We quickly found lots of people traveling to the Russells. A teacher at Fly Harbor School (the elementary boarding school on the island of Marulaon) storied with Aaron for a little while. The teacher said that he had come into Honiara on the Bikoi last Tuesday night and that it had been storming. Water had washed back and forth over the deck as the boat chugged on its way to Guadalcanal. This made me grateful for the great return voyage we enjoyed only a few weeks ago. We also made new friends in Rita and Wally. Wally was downing Sol Brew way too fast and decided to take lopsided pictures of our family with his wife's digital camera. He giggled after every picture. About halfway through the trip, Wally fell asleep and remained asleep until we arrived in Marulaon. I wasn't disappointed.
When we arrived back home, we could see a wall of rain just east of where we needed to unload. The kids and I stepped off the Bikoi into a canoe with the chief, the chairman, and a couple of other guys. They loaded our "carry-on" baggage, the gas cylinders, and the water tank into the canoe, and we headed back to shore while Aaron awaited our cargo from under the ship. The kids and I waded ashore from the canoe and called to our friends just as the rain began to fall. So, everyone pitched into carry our bags up to the house in the rain. We had finished all of the water we brought aboard the ship, and we were all so thirsty from the trip, so I asked Sarah to go down and fill a container with water from the tank. (We hadn't pumped the water up to the roof yet, so we couldn't just turn on the tap.) She came back saying there was a lock on the spigot, therefore she couldn't bring up any water. Since it was still raining, I asked her to take the container and put it under the pip!
e on the front of the house. We quickly had some water to drink, and the rain stopped just after she filled the container!
Aaron and the rest of our things began coming up the hill, and then Sarah heard some wailing from one of the young girls who had just gotten off of the ship. We asked the chief and learned that our closest neighbor Eileen (who lives just down the hill) had lost her dad, Albert, last Thursday. The funeral was yesterday, and one of his granddaughters was wailing in mourning as she arrived. This week will be a week of mourning, and the family will be cared for by community members (working their gardens, preparing their food, etc). Eileen's husband, David, lost his dad not too long ago. He is growing his beard out for a year to represent his mourning. We are planning to take some food later this week.
The chief and the chairman also explained the mystery of the padlock on our water tank. Evidently, someone was caught taking water from our tank during the night, so to guard our water, one of our neighbors provided his own lock. However, he was away when we arrived, so we had to wait until he returned to get the key to be able to use our water. Thankfully, it didn't take very long and the kids were able to shower before evening prayer. We really feel loved by this community, and we hope that the small rain tank that we brought will help out!