Wednesday, February 25

Monday evening and Tuesday were full of celebrations for St. Matthias Day here in Marulaon.  Since February 24 falls inside Lent this year, we didn't think our village would do anything special, and I even planned school for the 24th.  But at the last minute, a small celebration was put together.

   We attended an extended Evening Prayer service Monday night, and the bell rang early Tuesday morning to remind everybody that we were having communion and to get themselves to church.  After the almost three hour service, we sang a welcome to the few visitors who had come from the villages close by.  One of my favorite things about days like this is getting to hang out with people that we don't usually get to see!

Since two of the translators live in the West Russells, and the priest that came to lead the service was from the Central Russells where another translator lives, Aaron was able to hand out copies of key terms as "homework" before the big meeting next week.  The key terms should get the guys translation juices flowing again and help create unity between the Lavukal's church groups and the geographical groups.

We didn't have a big feast, but Marulaon did provide a small table with food to share after church.  Mako, one of Margaret Rasol's many grandchildren, really enjoyed her cassava pudding.  It's one of our favorite foods here, too!  As I walked around the village on Monday afternoon, I found that many people didn't have any ripe cassava or were just too tired to make cassava pudding.  Many of them said they were just going to splurge and buy rice, since it was quick and easy to cook and parcel after church.

I felt the same way, and I got kicked out of my own kitchen when Sarah told me that she would make the loaves of banana bread Monday afternoon.  We brought three loaves of banana bread, sliced thinly and cut in half, as our much appreciated contribution.  I think my neighbors' rice was a big hit, too.  At least Jeffrey, Hensy's son, really liked his leaf parcels of rice!

My friend, Sylvester, has several puppies, and she has delighted in watching Katherine and Olivia love on one of the puppies.  I've told her already that my kids can't have a puppy because we are leaving the village soon.  But that little puppy follows my girls around like he belongs to them!  Katherine, in particular, really enjoys cuddling with him.  And Sylvester turned fifty years old yesterday, so we made her a chocolate birthday cake to help her celebrate her special day.