Thursday, March 10, 2011

Tuesday, March 8

My neighbors have all been telling me that my umalau are overripe.  So, Margreet, Benjamin and I went out to my bush garden to harvest all that we could salvage.  Naris and her four-year-old, Soima, went, too.  We came back filthy after digging the umalau out of the dirt, but we had four bags full!  I asked Eileen and Naris if they thought it would be appropriate to market the umalau to help raise money for the Translation Committee, and they both thought it was a great idea.  So, this morning, I went down to Eileen's and gave her the umalau to sell to help pay for things like petrol to pick up the members of the committee.  We set up 15 heaps of umalau, and once word got out, they sold quickly.  All of the money went into Eileen's little jar, and she raised $75 (about US$10).  I'm so thankful for her willingness to donate the ground and so much of her own time and energy to help the Lavukal Bible Translation.

umalau 3umalau 2

umalauumalau 4

Henk & Margreet coming to Marulaon.

Henk and Margreet come to Marulaon

Henk and Margreet have been so busy helping us.  What a blessing to have an extra pair of eyes to help little ones push their drinks back from the edge of the table and an extra set of hands to tackle the mending pile that has been growing.  I feel like I have a big sister here!  Henk has been installing new "closets" for us - open shelves with a bar to hang our clothes.  No more digging through plastic baskets and trying to avoid the spiders while fishing out a clean shirt!  He has also worked on some plumbing and electrical issues to help things run a little bit more smoothly around here.  We will be sorry to see them leave early in the morning to catch the Kosko in Yandina.