Fire fighters

Saturday, July 10

As we do almost every Saturday, we made lelenga today. Olivia and Benjamin helped me put it on the hot stones tonight. They were quite proud of themselves for removing and replacing the hot stones and for covering the motu with leaves and copra sacks. Now that we know how to do everything ourselves, I miss the interaction with my neighbors. I think I may plan a language learning lesson around building the fire and record one of my friends explaining the process in Lavukaleve.

We put the kids in bed (early because of the extra early bells for Sunday morning) and had just turned out our own light when we heard loud women's voices quite close to the house. Our neighbors work hard to be extra quiet around our house at night since we go to bed early (they stay up late and take naps during the day), so we were a little surprised. Aaron got up to look out the window and came back to tell me that some of my friends were headed toward the house. I quickly got up and put on a skirt as I heard Eileen excitedly knocking on our door. She had come to tell me that our motu was on fire!

I rushed down with her to find that the neighbors behind us had seen the flames and quickly extinguished them. I borrowed two of Eileen's copra sacks (since ours were "borrowed" while we were in Honiara and not returned). When I had removed the last pieces of not-quite-burned firewood, Benjamin had moved them to the edge of the kitchen close to the fire. I didn't take the time to move them outside the kitchen, and when we placed the sacks on top of the motu they had ignited. Eileen's sacks weren't destroyed, just a little charred, and we took some new munu leaves from our trees to re-cover the motu. I'm so thankful for friends who quickly put out the fire and kept our kitchen from burning. Tomorrow, they will all get some banana cake and lelenga.

Wednesday, July 7

Aaron and I worked out an exercise schedule. The kids and I exercise on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, and he exercises on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings. About 6:10, the kids and I tromp through the grass, still wet with dew, to the little soccer field behind the church at the edge of the bush. We run and walk laps around it, dodging frogs, until the morning bell for prayer rings. I'm still slowly working my way through the Couch to 5K running program, though not at their designated pace. Running here through the wet grass on a fairly flat surface in a skirt is really different from running in Honiara on rutted gravel roads up and down hills in shorts.

My friend, Grace, and her daughter, Frieda (who is in between Sarah and Benjamin in age), joined us this morning to run. We had invited them, but I was still surprised they showed up! Another SITAG mama is also running with me from her village on Malaita where her family works with the Are'Are language group. I need the accountability and the friendship that goes along with having exercise buddies!