Marulaon Journal

This is the last of my journal from our time in Marulaon:

Tuesday, August 4
Lots of packing and cleaning today. We learned from our last trip that we can't do school and pack at the same time - it just takes too long to prepare the house, cover every bookshelf with sheets, rat proof everything, etc. So, we let the kids have yesterday and today off (ah, the joys of schooling year-round). Everyone pitched in to help, and by the time we got the supper dishes washed, the house was ready for our departure. We all enjoyed sitting on the porch and relaxing instead of frantically counting how many cans of tuna were in the pantry, rolls of toilet paper in the bathroom, or bottles of dish detergent under the sink.

Aaron and the kids took our cargo down to be loaded on a friends canoe for the trip out to the Bikoi. A couple of people came by with lelenga and green coconuts for our trip on the Bikoi. I put Olivia and Katherine to bed, but when Katherine heard visitors on the porch, she hopped up to join the party. After a while, I lay down to rest in anticipation of our long night. We gathered the family around 9:30, locked the house, and headed down to the beach. We sat around and storied with friends who enjoyed taking turns holding Katherine and trying to get her to go to sleep.

Finally, around 10:30, the Bikoi came, and we saw all of the canoes head out to sell food to the ship. The Bikoi comes from way out in the Western Solomons, and the trip is long. Passengers are thankful for some fresh food when they reach Marulaon. We finally loaded the canoe after it had dropped off our stuff, then we waved goodbye to all of our friends and sped off to the Bikoi. Two of our foam mats had mistakenly gone under the boat, so we only had our new woven mat that we bought at the Grand Bazaar. Thankfully, someone brought us another one, and we quickly spread out and tried to settle in for the night.

All evening, Katherine had been excitedly talking about the boat, "Look, Mama. A boat!" But now, her excitement was short-lived, and she cried on and off throughout the night. Olivia, having enjoyed a two hour nap, was wide awake and quickly succumbed to the rocking of the boat. So, I held a crying Katherine, and Aaron took Olivia to the side of the ship and then down to the bathroom. We eventually settled down and dozed until we reached Honiara around 5:00. What a welcome sight to see a fellow SITAG member with the truck! We couldn't pick up our cargo until 6:00, so we decided to go on back to the house and begin to get settled in while Aaron went back to the wharf. Honiara always looks so huge and busy whenever we come back from Marulaon. We're looking forward to spending time with all of the SITAG families again!

Monday, August 3

Sarah lost her tooth yesterday in church while we were singing. Her eyes got big and she looked at me funny, then she handed me her tooth. We discovered that when a child in Marulaon looses a tooth, the proper thing to do is throw it on the roof and sing this songof two notes (a minor third apart), "Kokomita dengoneo nam nganeo." This songs asks the gecko (kokomita) to take your tooth and give you the new one in its place. "Nam" is one of the first words that Katherine learned in language. It basically means, "Give it to me." Sarah took the tooth to David and Eileen's house, sang her song, and threw her tooth on the roof. The tooth missed, bounced into the house, and David had to go searching for it. When David found the tooth, Sarah tried again, and this time the tooth landed securely on the roof.