Odds and Ends

Friday, March 6

Chief Leonard stopped by a few days ago to drop off the posts for the translation office which will be behind our house.  Aaron was underneath the house and took the opportunity to sit and chat practicing his Lavukaleve.  With all of the winter weather going on in the States right now, Aaron chose to try and describe cold and ice and snow and school being dismissed because of the weather.  So proud of my husband for tackling something very difficult to describe to our tropical neighbors!

Yesterday, the hardworking ladies from three villages in the West Russells finished checking the trial edition of Aitum Ovovo (Daughter of the King).  Now it's my turn to work and get all of the changes into the computer, get the pictures inserted, and make the book ready for the printer.  We are still waiting for some terminology of the female reproductive system to be okayed by the community big men.  The concepts of health education, applying Scripture to daily life, and purity before marriage are all foreign here, but the ladies seemed VERY interested and I heard afterwards that several said they were glad they came to help.

Twice in the last twenty-four hours, we've had somebody come to our house for medical assistance with a big cut on their shin.  Last night it was Hensy, who had cut his leg with a copra knife.  I patched him up, and Aaron loaned him a different copra knife.  The custom here is that if you cut yourself with a knife, you can't use that knife again until your wound is healed.  This afternoon, a young lady came home from school and had her auntie, my friend Margaret Rasol, drag her up to our house for a grass knife cut.  The cut was long and fairly deep, but thankfully it was clean and was healing well.  She cut her leg on Wednesday, and sometimes when we see wounds that aren't fresh, leaves have been packed in the wound and left to rot.  I got her cleaned up, gave her soap, more band-aids, and pain killer in case she needed it.  With no nurse in the West Russells right now, we have lots of extra opportunities to help people.

Katherine studied fractions this week in math.  One of my favorite things about school at home is the many real life applications you can find, including finding great picture books to come alongside the topic being studied.  "The Doorbell Rang" by Pat Hutchins, presents fractions beautifully, so Katherine and I enjoyed a good snuggle on the front porch while we reinforced fractions through the funny story.  The only thing that would have been better?  Having enough ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies to go along with the story.