Friday morning, December 19

This morning was a community clean up day to get the village ready for a large group of visitors arriving early on Sunday morning.  So, after morning chores were done, Aaron took the grass knife and went out to help our neighbors tidy up.

I thought our Jason and Kayla might like to try working with the grass
knife (the village version of a lawn mower), so we all went out to the
work area as we began our tour of the village to introduce our American friends to our Lavukal friends.

When we returned from furlough, we shipped a crate that had t-shirts from Eastern New Mexico University choir t-shirts in it.  Kayla and Jason sent enough t-shirts that every house in both Marulaon and
Karumulun (Ezekiel's village) got a shirt - more than fifty!  It was fun
for them to find the well-used t-shirts still being worn around the
village, and our neighbors enjoyed meeting the sweet couple who sent the shirts.

Some members of Kayla and Jason's church choir sent some things for our village, too, like enough hair rubberbands for every female to choose two.

My friend, Volikia, got some for herself and for one of the ladies who
wasn't at the house when we came by.  Aren't her hands lovely? She has worked hard in her long life, and now her hands tend little ones more than they chop firewood.

We found this cute little guy sunning himself on a tree as we walked
around to the point of the village.

I love how my kids have made friends here and that they have the freedom to run and play around the village.  Lelis and Louisa accompanied us as we introduced Jason and Kayla, and I love how Kayla's lens caught the two little girls from completely different cultures giggling together.

Olivia loves little ones, and lately Lolikia has taken a decided
interest in Olivia, even preferring Olivia to her own brothers. When we stopped by Chief Leonard's house to introduce Kayla and Jason and to share rubberbands, Lolikia decided to go with Olivia. Off she went with our crew around the village!

We found three generations of women around a table making necklaces when we arrived at Kiko's house.  She is almost finished with her necklace after weeks of threading the tiny beads.

I sent Olivia to deliver Lolikia back to her own house, because the rest of us had some celebrating to do.  Benjamin's birthday is really
tomorrow, but we will be attending the ordination of the first Lavukal
Catholic Priest, so today is the day we are choosing to celebrate the
amazing guy that God has given our family.

Thanks to our willing colleagues in Honiara, we had the ingredients we needed to make Benjamin's requests for pumpkin cheesecake brownies and cinnamon ice cream.  Wow - were they ever fabulous together!

This dynamo, dimpled faced boy is fast becoming a man.  Happy 14th
birthday, Benjamin!