Jan 10 & 11

Friday, January 10 The kids have worked hard to finish up the semester a little bit earlier than planned so we can pack up the school books and get ready for our departure to Honiara next week.  Today was the day to tackle every single book in the house.    We take a barely damp cloth and wipe every outside surface of the book, then flip through the book looking for signs of mildew or bugs.  For the first time in our five years in the Solomon Islands, we found some bug damage, but not much.  We love our literature rich curriculum, and as Sarah loves to say, “Home is where my books are!”.

Saturday, January 11
Market this morning was a little sad since it was our last one before we head back to Honiara.  I was telling everybody thank you for providing fruits and veggies for our family, and they were coming back with how much they were going to miss the money that we provided for the community.  I guess it's a win-win situation.
After market, we all went out to the garden to harvest uvikola.  Since the kids all have their own bush knife now, nobody has an excuse not to work. We weeded, too, in preparation for planting back umalau, hopefully Monday late afternoon. Everybody here seems to think that the ship will come Tuesday. I sure could use an extra day.
After working hard in the garden, we came back to the house devoured a pineapple, papaya, and pomelo, along with lots of water, then began to haul dirt to fill up a Chinese cabbage bed. My leg began to throb, so I came in to fix a good lunch for everybody, and about 1:00 we all fell on the table like ravenous wolves. So thankful for the red papaya and the slippery cabbage that showed up at market this morning. Our bodies were craving fruits and veggies!
Then we began the peeling and scraping uvikola for lelenga. At 3:30 I shooed the kids off to play. Aaron just finished scraping and squeezing twelve coconuts, I still have a mountain of cassava to peel and scrape. About time to get the fire going, too. God has been faithful to give strength each minute of today, there's no other explanation! Looking forward to falling into bed tonight!