From January 16

We have full rain tanks! Even without the big rain and wind that blew through Marulaon last night, our big rain tank is full – that makes cleaning the house and washing clothes so much easier. Without any mountain behind which to hide, the sun peeks into our window a lot earlier here in Marulaon. A little bit after five we had full sun shining in our eyes. But the bell for church didn't ring until after six, so it was nice to stay in bed a little bit longer.

I think we all woke up stiff and cranky this morning. Some of the friends who came to the wharf to see us off yesterday will leave for furlough before we return to Honiara. So the kids are really missing their friends. It will be about eighteen months before we get to see them again. Setting up house in Marulaon is hard work (like washing every dish in the house and hauling buckets of water), but necessary, but we all needed a gentle reminder that it doesn't have to be complaining, grumpy work.

 

I found a pumpkin growing just under my clothesline,

and we still have seven pineapples that aren't ripe yet. Whoohoo!

I got to show Olivia the difference between a girl pumpkin flower

and a boy pumpkin flower.

Hoping we have lots of girl flowers 'cause I like to eat pumpkin. We hand pollinate our pumpkin, so early every morning one of us will go down to check for flowers. My clothesline gets full sun by 7 a.m. Now, which means some of the pumpkin flowers behind the house also get full sun by then, and they begin to close. Two of our papaya trees are really bearing lots of fruit. They are a hybrid type of papaya that grow the fruit close to the ground, which makes it much easier to harvest.

Aaron discovered that the hose connecting the water pump to the small tank on top of the house had disconnected, so he climbed up on the roof to fix the plumbing.  The rest of hauled buckets, unpacked boxes, washed the dishes that were covered in dust and spider webs, move the motu stones outside to the kitchen, etc.

The steady stream of women coming to the rain tanks in front of the house gave me lots of chances to say good morning.  Everybody worked really hard until two, then we sent the kids out to swim. It's good to take a break and go reconnect with our Marulaon neighbors.