Monday & Tuesday

Monday, September 5
This morning, Grace Delight (isn't that a great name!?!) knocked on our door to ask if we could help get a bobbin out of a sewing machine.  The ladies in the village were gathering the sewing machines that the SWIM team had provided and making sure they knew how to use them.  One of the machines was an electric one that had been converted to a hand crank.  It had a zig-zag stitch on it, which the ladies were very excited about.  However, the user's manual that came with it matched the other hand cranked machines, so they were having a hard time figuring out the machine.  Naomi came down with me (the village already loves her, as we knew they would!), and quickly stuck her finger underneath the bobbin and popped it out.  That began an hour or so of figuring out the machine together, laughing and enjoying some of the cinnamon rolls we brought down.  I also brought down the last of the reading glasses we brought out to Marulaon, and then I walked around and divvied up the last of our onions.  Better to share them than to leave them in the house for a month. 

This evening after church, I took some material down to the three sisters (Kiko, Daisy, and Grace Delight).  We found a good amount of material in the house, and the ladies here have to go into Honiara to buy material to make clothes.  When I went down, Kiko asked if I had any Panadol (like Tylenol) for baby Jude.  He had been really fussy all day.  When I came back down with the meds, Grace was bathing him with a special branch and hot water.  She explained that it was a custom way to massage babies and it was supposed to make them strong.  I recently brought Kiko a set of measuring cups and measuring spoons, so it was easy to show her the 1/4 tsp measuring spoon to dose Jude.  As I left, Grace (who is Jude's grandmother) told Jude to tell tutua (grandmother) Joanna good night.  Guess that means I'm officially old enough to be a grandmother now!

Tuesday, September 6
This morning, within the space of about thirty minutes, we handed out Panadol for an adult with a cut foot, liquid ibuprofen for a baby with a high fever, band-aids and soap for a child covered in weepy sores and obviously malnourished,  q-tips for a child with weepy ears, and snot/cough meds for a child with a cold.  Prayers for buying the right kind and enough meds to share and for wisdom to use them well would be appreciated.  We want to be a blessing to our neighbors, but I am certainly not trained medically.  Naomi has been helping with her knowledge and experience, but I especially love to see the compassion she has for our neighbors come pouring out as she treats them.