Tuesday, January 7

Chief Leonard's brother, Piru (which also means fishing line), teaches school in the Russell Islands.  He and his family are home in Marulaon for the Christmas break.  So yesterday, I met with Piru, his wife, Emma, and Emma's sister, Skita, to check the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple.  I took a big bowl of popcorn and grape kool-aid (my favorite flavor) I bought on sale for $.11 a packet before we left America.  One of the phrases really bothered Aaron and me, “le rugi ena tulav makuruv male eluguham”,  according to our translation, that phrase meant, “the big day when they went to prepare to kill the children they looked after”.  We knew that couldn't be quite right.  My awesome group of checkers were a little puzzled, too, but they quickly figured out that the phrase was trying to describe the Passover feast.  Instead of describing when the angel of death came and killed the firstborn children in the houses that didn't have the lamb's blood on the doorposts, we think maybe the group was confused with the time that Herod had all of the baby boys killed in Jerusalem.  Anyway, we got it straightened out. 
After we finished checking the full story, we visited and enjoyed the snacks I brought.  Emma asked me how in the world I didn't burn the popcorn because she burns it every time.  I had to admit that the pot I used made all of the difference.  It's an ugly old pan we inherited with the house.  The pot even has a broken handle, but it never burns the popcorn and ¾ cup popcorn kernels exactly fit the pot.  When Piru tasted the kool-aid, he asked what flavor it was.  I told him grape, and he asked, “Isn't that a flavor they use for children's liquid medicine?”  I laughed and told him that it WAS a common flavor for medicine, and Emma quickly replied that she was going to tell all of her kids that the kool-aid was medicine and that they shouldn't drink it.  That way she could drink all of it!
So, today, Aaron and Dawa went to cut down some coconut trees to build a new Chinese cabbage bed and to line the space filled with coral gravel underneath the house.  We're hoping to get all of our little seedlings planted before we leave for Honiara next week.  That will involve a whole lot of dirt hauling to fill up the beds, but we're really trying to check this off our list.



When I went down to visit after school, I stopped by a different Margaret's house.  She's been in Honiara much of our time here in Marulaon, so it was really good to catch up with her and find out how her kids are doing.  She and her sister, Rebecca, always have loads of questions for me, usually about America.  Today, they wanted to know if we arranged marriages in America. 
Later, I walked over to the other Margaret's house to take her a copy of the Bible story we'll be checking tomorrow morning and to return Moses's handwritten copy of Lavukal Christmas carols.  Visiting at this house is always a treat.  Margaret is convinced that the reason she lost so much weight last year is because someone used custom magic against her and poisoned her.  She said that no matter how much she eats, she can't seem to gain weight now.  We also talked about how we name children and we each got our own names.  It was really fun to find out that her in-laws named her oldest son, Ragi (which means dance, he hates his name!) and to tell her that my mom had a dream before I was born in which somebody called out my name.  We talked about family names, too, like my sister who has two of her great-grandmother's middle names.  I always learn so much about my neighbors and their culture whenever I go out for a simple walk!