Sunday, May 22

Yesterday a group of "youths" (rhymes with "roots") came from Ale, a neighboring village, to present their program in Marulaon and spend the night.  Margaret (not Moses' wife) taught me how she makes stew using canned corned beef ($4-$5 for about half a pound), eggplant, peppers, green beans, curry, and noodles.  I served it over rice for the youth to enjoy.  Several of Marulaon's teenagers attend school near Ale, so it was really nice to see some familiar faces participate in the dramas, dancing and singing.  They presented a program Saturday night in the church.  Aaron attended the program, and Katherine crawled in bed with me to look through the window, listen and sing along.  When Aaron returned home at midnight, he transferred my sweet little singing visitor back to her own bed.  She does love to sing and dance with our neighbors!

After church this morning, three other families in addition to our own prepared food and brought it to the church for "morning tea".  The entire community can come and buy the food, and the money raised goes to the church.  I brought coconut rice mixed with the last of my Chinese cabbage, curry and canned tuna. Next week, another four families will take their turn bringing food. 

The youths from Ale finished up their program this afternoon.  They danced and sang for hours!  I've never seen fundraisers like this before.    If you want to pull out a particular boy or girl, you can put some money in the basket.  I had fun pulling out the kids from Marulaon.  Frequently, as soon I had paid to have them dance and sing near me, another friend from Marulaon quickly paid to have them go back to the group.  Another time, a man brought up a coconut palm branch and said that the group must stop singing until each leaf on the palm had been bought for $1.  Marulaon raised almost $2000 for this group of youths!  I was really excited to get some pictures and videos because this kind of fundraising almost always happens at night.