Honiara Woman's Daybook

For Today...Monday, September 12th

Outside my window...kids playing on the SITAG trampoline, the wind kicking up white caps on the ocean, the mint I left with a friend trying to leap the boundries of it's pot on the porch

I am thinking...about taking a short nap

From the learning rooms...back to school today!  Reading "Across a Dark and Wild Sea" by Don Brown and "Marguerite makes a Book" by Bruce Robertson as we learn about the painstaking art of making books.  Studying the Byzantine empire and refraction/reflection.  Sarah - writing different kinds of news articles, measuring area and volume; Benjamin - writing a biography, ratio and proportion; Olivia - "be" verbs, water cycle, addition & subtraction of kilograms and grams; Katherine - letter U

I am thankful for...washing machines, ceiling fans, friends with food, some of the little comforts that make SITAG feel like a resort whenever we return from the village

From the kitchen...blintzes for breakfast, pizza pasta salad for lunch, and meat and potato quiche for supper

 

I am reading..."What Good is God?" by Phillip Yancey

I am hoping...and praying that Naomi's doctor's appointment gives us some answers today

I am creating...oh, this one always stumps me!  Hoping to get back to the snowflake stitching soon, but right now I'm just creating a nourishing home for my family.  I love my job!

I am hearing...the squeak of the trampoline and young voices outside the window

Around the house...almost unpacked!

One of my favorite things...undistracted time with my husband

Pondering these words..."How good it would be if we could learn that God is easy to live with.  He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust.  He may sometimes chasten us, it is true, but even this He does with a smile, the proud tender smile of a father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the one whose child He is." -- A.W. Tozer

A few plans for the rest of the week...celebrating Naomi's 19th birthday tomorrow and getting Aaron ready to leave for Bangkok on Sunday

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...Katherine taking a bath and having fun in Marulaon when the last of the evening light was streaming through the windows

Race Day

We hadn't anticipated being back in Honiara for this year's FlySolomons Marathon and Fun Run.  But when we came back a week early, Benjamin and I decided to enter the 5K even though we hadn't been training for it like we did last year.  We joined several SITAG friends and enjoyed a fun morning of racing!

Market Morning

Honiara's Central Market offers such a great variety of foods!  This is what a normal shopping trip to market looks like for our family.  This morning, I picked up three cantaloupes, two watermelons, lettuce, tomatoes, bananas, limes, green beans, wing beans, a pumpkin, Chinese cabbage, ginger, three pineapples, a pomelo, and four green coconuts.  Now that we've been in the Solomons almost three years, Lavukal are beginning to recognize us when we are in Honiara.   I was hailed by a lady from the Russells who had brought in coconut crab and some seaweed.  I bought a couple of coconut crabs from her and gave them away to one of the families that works for SITAG and is expecting a baby any day.  We are SO thankful for the amazing fresh foods we can buy here.

Update on Naomi

Many of you have asked about Naomi and have indicated that you are praying for her.  I took her to the doctor yesterday.  He has been treating her since her arrival in Honiara, and we can e-mail him when we are in Marulaon.  He took a culture from her ear, ordered blood work, a facial x-ray, and a chest x-ray. 

Now, in Honiara, these all mean going to the hospital.  I sooo wish I'd taken my camera to share the view from the hospital.  First, we had to go to the cashier's window to pay for each of the tests.  Then, we went to have her blood drawn and to drop off the swab from her ear.  Each of the departments is in a row around one of many open courtyards.  After that was finished, we went to the x-ray department.  We saw a fat, black rat while we waited on the bench outside.  Finally, we got the x-ray films and drove back to the doctor's office.  The results of the culture and the blood work should be in early next week, then we'll be back to see Dr. Steve.

Thanks for your prayers for our "adopted daughter"!

 Wednesday, September 7

Wednesday morning, we woke up early and began preparing for the Kosko's arrival.  We heard from a SITAG friend that the ship's radio wasn't working, so we didn't know if they would report in at the scheduled times for all ships.  We scheduled a radio sked with SITAG for 9 a.m.  If we didn't come up on the radio, then SITAG would know we were on the ship. 

We were ready by about 7 a.m., and thankfully, just after 9:00, Kosko was able to somehow report that it expected to arrive in Marulaon around 12:30 p.m.  This gave us several hours to visit with our friends and walk around the village - one of my favorite things to do!  I started walking towards the point and found Katherine and Mary playing by the water's edge.  They were banging nuts on the coral.

A few yards down the beach, I found my friend, Sylvester (yep, it took me a long time to match her name with her face).  She was rinsing off shark meat and planned to make a stew with it.

Next, I went over to Grace Delight and Kiko's kitchen.  They were finishing up a batch of lisa, the lime that goes with betelnut.   Last week, they went over to a small island near Marulaon and harvested live coral (I asked to go, but they wouldn't take me).  Then, they burned it and left it covered up for a week.  Finally, they took the white powder that remains and sifted it well.  Lisa stores up to a year in an airtight container.  According to Kiko, you know it's a good batch of lisa if your mouth turns bright red and burns when you chew your betelnut!

I visited with several other friends and received requests to buy material and yarn in Honiara so my friends can make food covers.  Then, I returned to our pile of boxes on the beach to find Sarah high in a tree admiring the gorgeous orchids.  She borrowed the camera to take this picture.

And Benjamin found his own perch to await the Kosko.

Finally, around 12:20, we heard the first shouts of "Koooskoooo!" and watched the green ship pull around the corner of the island.

We had already lined up a motor canoe to take us and all of our boxes out to the canoe, so we were surprised to see it head off with a different passenger before it came to pick up Aaron and our cargo.  But the canoe finally came back to pick up the rest of us, and we waved goodbye to Marulaon as we bounced over the waves.  Thankfully, the Kosko waited for us, and God gave us great weather and calm seas.

The kids scrambled up, then I passed Katherine up the ladder to Aaron.  We have never boarded the Kosko from a motor canoe before, and I have now added climbing up a narrow ladder in a skirt to my repertoire of activities.

Passengers had already been traveling on the boat since the day before, yet several of them were gracious enough to scoot over and make room for our family.  The girls pulled out their books, and Benjamin grabbed a deck of Phase 10 cards.



Always vivacious, he taught several new friends how to play the game and kept them occupied for a couple of hours.  We finally arrived in Honiara about 8:30.  Naomi really wasn't doing well, so some friends helped carry her to a SITAG car and took her back to the house with Katherine and Olivia while the rest of us carried boxes and waited for Aaron to pay for the shipping charges.  Finally, we arrived in yet another SITAG house to lots of hugs and some pizza being kept warm.  We couldn't have asked for a better trip!

Back in Honiara!

Just letting everbody know that we are safely back in Honiara.  I'll catch up on posts soon!  Thanks for all of your prayers.

Monday & Tuesday

Monday, September 5
This morning, Grace Delight (isn't that a great name!?!) knocked on our door to ask if we could help get a bobbin out of a sewing machine.  The ladies in the village were gathering the sewing machines that the SWIM team had provided and making sure they knew how to use them.  One of the machines was an electric one that had been converted to a hand crank.  It had a zig-zag stitch on it, which the ladies were very excited about.  However, the user's manual that came with it matched the other hand cranked machines, so they were having a hard time figuring out the machine.  Naomi came down with me (the village already loves her, as we knew they would!), and quickly stuck her finger underneath the bobbin and popped it out.  That began an hour or so of figuring out the machine together, laughing and enjoying some of the cinnamon rolls we brought down.  I also brought down the last of the reading glasses we brought out to Marulaon, and then I walked around and divvied up the last of our onions.  Better to share them than to leave them in the house for a month. 

This evening after church, I took some material down to the three sisters (Kiko, Daisy, and Grace Delight).  We found a good amount of material in the house, and the ladies here have to go into Honiara to buy material to make clothes.  When I went down, Kiko asked if I had any Panadol (like Tylenol) for baby Jude.  He had been really fussy all day.  When I came back down with the meds, Grace was bathing him with a special branch and hot water.  She explained that it was a custom way to massage babies and it was supposed to make them strong.  I recently brought Kiko a set of measuring cups and measuring spoons, so it was easy to show her the 1/4 tsp measuring spoon to dose Jude.  As I left, Grace (who is Jude's grandmother) told Jude to tell tutua (grandmother) Joanna good night.  Guess that means I'm officially old enough to be a grandmother now!

Tuesday, September 6
This morning, within the space of about thirty minutes, we handed out Panadol for an adult with a cut foot, liquid ibuprofen for a baby with a high fever, band-aids and soap for a child covered in weepy sores and obviously malnourished,  q-tips for a child with weepy ears, and snot/cough meds for a child with a cold.  Prayers for buying the right kind and enough meds to share and for wisdom to use them well would be appreciated.  We want to be a blessing to our neighbors, but I am certainly not trained medically.  Naomi has been helping with her knowledge and experience, but I especially love to see the compassion she has for our neighbors come pouring out as she treats them.

Saturday, September 3
Harris came over this afternoon to learn how to play Uno (in Lavukaleve of course!) and to show me how her grandmother makes lelenga. Instead of our traditional way of making lelenga with thick coconut cream (rumit) and cassava (ubikola), we added a layer of slippery cabbage, green beans, pumpkin, tomatoes, and chili peppers in the middle.

Sunday, September 4
Naomi had a rotten night last night, and we are beginning to think she has malaria.  Her fever is spiking in the evenings, and when it does, she begins to vomit.  So this morning after church, our friend, Julie, who is a nurse, went with Naomi and me to the clinic on the mainland.  Her blood showed up negative for malaria, but she is pumped full of fever meds, and, in our experience, the protozoa doesn't usually show up unless your fever is sky high.  We'll start her on malaria meds today.

Our water situation continues to be a stressor, but we are so thankful for the water still left in the tank.  We are planning to return to Honiara this week and just switch our "to-do" lists from Marulaon's list to Honiara's list.  This will give us an extra week to accomplish things before Aaron leaves for Bangokok.

The lelenga was delicious!  The neighbors with whom we shared had mixed reactions, but we thought it was a yummy way to eat more veggies.

Store Opening Pictures and Changed Plans

The Choates are adjusting their schedule a bit and leaving Marulaon early. They will be taking the Kosko to Honiara on Wednesday. Here are pictures from the grand store opening celebration last Friday, and Joanna said she will write up a post about it after they get settled back in Honiara.

This one is of our friend, Martin, from Karumolun.

This is one of my best friends, Ofain, and her sister, Amy.

I love this picture of Ezekiel and his wife, Janet.  He started waaayyy behind her, since touching in public is prohibited.  I had to request him to scoot up a couple of times!

Bananas, T, and Aaron’s Trip

Tuesday, August 30

This morning, my kids, Naomi and I paddled over to Karumolun with a couple friends to take some ubikola (cassava) for the workshop. The kids worked hard to get most of their school work done ahead of time, so as soon as the morning chores were done, we slathered on the sunscreen and headed out the door. Several of our Karumolun friends met us on the beach after our paddle. Our kids played with the kids from Karumolun, and I visited while we waited for Aaron and the translator candidates to finish their morning session.

I especially enjoyed visiting with Janet, Ezekiel's wife, and playing with some of their grandkids. It was nice to see Aaron again and to visit with the five translator candidates that attended this workshop. Thanks for your prayers for him as he trains these leaders who are fast becoming friends.

Wednesday, August 31
We have no bananas today...but soon we will!  Our first bunch of bananas, over by my kitchen, is almost ripe.  I'm depending on my friends to help me know when the bananas are ready to pick.

Thursday, September 1
Our family has been enjoying celebrating letter T this week with Katherine.  Sarah made tarts and had a tea party with Katherine.  They both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Aaron returned home this afternoon from teaching a Translation Principles workshop in Karumolun.  We are so thankful to have him back home again.  A big thank you to everyone who has been praying for him as he taught this week!

Marulaon Daybook

For Today...Monday, August 29

Outside my window...leaves all over the ground from the huge storm we had last night, a papaya tree that just fell down a few minutes ago, bell pepper and Chinese cabbage sprouting in their pots on the porch

I am thinking...about my husband who is teaching a Translation Principles workshop in another village this week.

From the learning rooms...early Britain, Augustine, Anglo-Saxon England; light energy, light & vision; Sarah - writing a newspaper article, measuring length; Benjamin - writing a comparison/contrast essay, ratios; Olivia - writing a persuasive letter; Katherine - letter T

I am thankful for...the soaking rain we got last night!  Our tank went up four inches.  Please keep praying for a good balance of sun and rain.

From the kitchen...this morning, banana papaya smoothies and Everyone's Favorite Muffins from "Laurel's Kitchen", sloppy joes for lunch, and leftovers for supper

I am wearing...a white t-shirt and a blue cotton skirt, barefooted except when I'm carrying buckets of water from the well, then I wear flipflops to help me navigate up the slippery hill

I am reading..."Trusting in His Goodness" by Marilyn Wilson and Shelly Cook Volkhardt

I am hoping...and praying that Naomi's sinus infection finally succumbs to this round of antibiotics so she will feel better again soon.

I am hearing...music from Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, "A Feather on the Breath of God" (we're not quite to her in history yet, but I was so excited to get the CD in the mail that we're listening a little bit early), the wind blowing through the huge mango tree outside and causing the chimes to sing like crazy

Around the house...a lavender candle burning, a floor about to be mopped since we have some more water now, kids beginning schoolwork

One of my favorite things...being a part of the Marulaon community.  Yesterday, I made lots of banana cake, some to send with Aaron for the workshop and some to donate to the Mother's Union "Bring and Buy".  We had fun after church last night hanging out and buying some yummy food that the other ladies brought.

Pondering these words..."We have to learn to make the least of all that goes and the most of all that come."  --Ruth Bell Graham

A few plans for the rest of the week...planting seeds and some slippery cabbage now that we've had a little bit of rain, paddling over to Karumolun tomorrow to take some more ubikola for the workshop and to see Aaron, a big communion service on Wednesday morning as the District Priest makes his rounds through the church district, & Friday, a new store opens in Marulaon so our community will have lots of feasting and celebrating all day and we'll bring some food to share with our neighbors

Last Weekend

Friday, August 26
We have 11 inches total left in our rain tank, so Aaron and I decided that we will begin to bathe in well water.  We had already gone to washing clothes in well water and not washing sheets or any clothes that weren't standing up and walking on their own.  We've also asked our neighbors to bring lots of green coconuts to drink to market tomorrow.

 

Saturday, August 27
I think all of us but Naomi are feeling back to normal again - yay!

This morning, I went with a couple of friends and Benjamin, Olivia, and Katherine to the garden to dig up some ubikola and umalau for Aaron to take with him to Karumolun tomorrow for his workshop.  Please keep praying for rain, Karumolun also has no fresh water supply other than rain, and they will be hosting up to fifteen extra people for this workshop.  Aaron will take a couple of buckets of water with him tomorrow, too.

Sunday, August 28

Rain!!

Yesterday, Aaron was asked to preach, so he donned his albs (he looks so handsome) and preached this morning.  Usually when he preaches, we get a downpour of rain, but not this morning.  The downpour waited until the afternoon!  Aaron was able to gather everything he needed for the Translation Principles workshop and leave in between bursts of rain.  Please don't stop praying for rain, though.  Aaron will be in Karumolun until Thursday evening teaching the translator candidates.

Wednesday, August 24

Yay for tomatoes at market this morning!  They adorned a lovely pizza for lunch today.