Wednesday, January 1

Ring out wild bells to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Rind out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true...

The bells begin to ring at midnight.  Along with the drumming, hooting and hollering, and pots and pans.  And the noise stopped only intermittently until the sun came up around 5:30.  The bell for morning prayer rang at 6:15, and we all quickly downed some oatmeal and did some food prep (picking & peeling eggplant and scraping coconut) before church.  After church, we discovered that the breakfast to which we had been invited was being held underneath our house because of the rain.  So we helped set up tables and brought down some stools to accommodate the twenty or so people that would be eating together. 

Dawa spent much of yesterday and last night diving for fish and gathering clam shells.  By the time we had finally gathered everyone, the three tables were laden with delicious food. 

Naris brought two buckets full of beautiful flowers to adorn our tables.  I absolutely love suta (clam), and Naris made a delicious soup from the shells Dawa brought back.  

We were honored to be invited to share the beginning of the new year with Kate (who rubbed my leg with leaves a few weeks ago) and her family, Ofoaen and her family, Naris and her family, Walter, and Marulaon's fill-in nurse. Rube, Dawa and Naris' three-year-old son, loved coming up into the house and helping us carry down food, and he is certainly Benjamin's buddy.  His giggle is infectious, and it didn't take long for Benjamin and Rube to be rough housing one minute and working together moving tables the next.