After market early this morning, I walked along the shore to deliver some things to Hiva and Daisy. While I was visiting, Lolikia strolled by and held up her arms to me, so I picked her up. Made my day! Even better, she soon fell asleep on my shoulder as I visited, so I walked a couple of doors down to her house to return her to her mother. I visited with Janet for a little while, and by the time I walked back up the hill to our house, Leku had already arrived to help us weed the yard. She, Olivia, Benjamin, and Katherine had already taken out all of our umalau for making kora, and Sarah and Aaron had already gone out to the garden.
We worked through the morning, chopping up slippery cabbage, then planting back the denuded stalks, hauling bags and bags of dirt to fill in our new Chinese cabbage raised beds (to keep the frogs from digging up the little plants), peeling a mountain of potatoes, and weeding the yard.
After we had the potatoes sliced thinly to make kora (think scalloped potatoes made with thick coconut cream – yummy!), Sarah burned a spiral pattern on her stick for dancing. First she cut away the bark, then she held it over our fire for the kora to char the stick. Finally she peeled away the bark, revealing a beautiful contrasting spiral stripe. She'll finish decorating it for Christmas with help from the other girls soon.
The District Priest is touring the seven villages in our district. None of the churches can hold communion unless he is present, so he usually goes to visit them on one big trip. We are the last village on his tour. He arrived in Marulaon this afternoon, and Group Two was asked to feed him. I made a big pot of soup to share. Group Two's girls have finally started practicing their dances for Christmas, and Sarah is going to stay up late tonight to practice with them tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment