Marulaon Daybook

For Today...Monday, April 4

Outside my window...freshly planted flowers, a sprouting mango seed that needs to go to my bush garden, three long skinny pumpkins growing behind the house, three transplanted papaya trees,  and a nicely weeded yard.  Eta came to help this morning.  She showed me how to "change" a boy papaya tree into a girl papaya tree by inserting the bush knife at its base and sliding it through the trunk.  We'll see what happens.

I am thinking...about the amount of work there is to do and if I should try to get Eta to come and help me more frequently.

From the learning rooms...Ancient Phoenicians, Ancient Egypt; Sarah - writing paragraphs with unity and coherence; Benjamin - writing narrative poetry; Olivia - writing good topic sentences, parts of a flower; Katherine - letter M

I am thankful for...friends who are comfortable enough with us to bring us fresh fish at 2 a.m. so we can have fish to eat with our lelenga after church yesterday morning.  I could hear the wood being chopped and smell the fires as my neighbors motued their fish, but I decided to just stick it in the fridge and boil it after church.

From the kitchen...I changed the meal plan this morning when Isabella brought by three fresh tuna.  We ate them over rice after we had boiled them in coconut milk with a little curry and some Chinese cabbage.

I am wearing...village clothes, as usual.  Good thing you can't smell through the blog!

I am reading..."Boys!  Shaping Ordinary Boys into Extraordinary Men"  by William Beausay II

I am hoping...that e-mail begins working again soon

I am creating...haven't worked on snowflake stitching much in the last week.  The pace of life around here has really picked up somehow.  But slowly and surely, a few moments and few stitches here and there...

I am hearing...the radio sked.  So thankful to be able to stay connected with our SITAG family in Honiara and in the villages around the Solomons.

Around the house...lots of bananas.  Margaret gave me a big bowl full this afternoon at our language learning session.  Guess I'll be making another batch of banana cake tomorrow.

One of my favorite things...our canoe!  David came up this morning to ask if he could borrow the canoe to take Eileen to the clinic.  I'm so glad we have the canoe to share!

Pondering these words..."I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists of building enough bookshelves."  Anna Quindlen

A few plans for the rest of the week...Aaron going with "Group 4" to copra to raise money for the church's building project.  We've learned that the copra process involves a day to prepare the ground and gather the coconuts, then another day to actually hack out the coconut meat, then a couple more days to keep the fires going underneath the coconut so it dries properly.  Lots of work!  The prices dropped dramatically last week, so I'm anticipating the copra slowing down a little bit soon.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...sorry, no pictures until the e-mail is working better