Preparing

For the next week, it's all about preparing for the trip to Marulaon.  Today, that meant that I spent some time with Naomi going over school schedules and curriculum and made a couple of loaves of banana bread (one to eat tomorrow and one to freeze & take to Marulaon).

For Aaron, it looks like this:

Packing and Petra

TGIF

Friday morning, I was sitting on the SITAG director's front porch so I could get an internet signal when I looked up and spied this snake.

According to Max, one of SITAG's gardeners, the snake wasn't poisonous.  I figured it wasn't bothering me, so I didn't bother it.  Of course it wasn't my house!

 Tonight, we said goodbye yet again.  Teams are always coming and going at SITAG - village teams going out to the village or coming back to Honiara, short term volunteers coming to Honiara and going back to their home country, and teams going and coming from furlough.  This time, it was a great WA couple from Australia.  They have lived in Honiara for a couple of months and have demonstrated their sweet servant hearts over and over again.

Each SITAG team was asked to bring a snack to the farewell party, and when Hershey's kisses show up in the mail, you just have to make peanut butter blossoms.

In this culture, men and women do not touch in public, something that is very difficult for me.  But at the party, I took the opportunity to sneak a kiss from my beloved!

SITAG Conference

From Monday until Thursday, the business portion of SITAG's Conference kept us busy.  Each team gave a report and the SITAG family prayed for them.  Committees were elected, business matters were dealt with, but more than anything our small SITAG family drew closer together.

 The older kids presented a program based on the life of Nehemiah on Thursday afternoon.

 We are incredibly grateful to the childrens' workers who gave up a week of their time to teach our kids and share God's love with them.

 God even gave us a cool and rainy Tuesday so we could have a s'more cookout (the American visitors brought the ingredients!) and introduce our Aussie colleagues to the joys of s'mores.

Scott and Carol returned to join us again this year as our SITAG Conference speakers.  Scott is pastor at East White Oak Bible Church, and we felt like we were welcoming old friends back to the Solomons.

God certainly blessed SITAG's Conference this year, and we know that He answered many prayers offered up around the world on our behalf.

Thrusday, July 28

We excitedly drove to the airport to await Naomi and some of her family.  We are so humbled that she is willing to enter the chaos of life in Marulaon and join our family for the next few months.

Thursday night, SITAG's Conference kicked off with a game night.  I was reminded of how important it is for us to play together as well as to work together.  Friday, Aaron opened up the Spiritual Retreat - three wonderful days of worshipping together and hearing God's Word.  Our speaker & his wife returned from two years ago, and it was so nice to have  some uninterrupted time to spend with the Lord

And a HUGE thank you to those of you who sent special drinks to make our morning and afternoon tea breaks even more special!  I discovered that SITAG is quite a coffee drinking crew.

We really appreciate the physical refreshment that came alongside the spritual refreshment we received.

Sarah's birthday

Wednesday, July 27

Our precious Sarah turned twelve.  She continues to grow into a lovely young lady - inside and out.  She makes mature decisions and chooses to do the hard thing when needed.  For her SITAG birthday party, she painstakingly made lots of sugar cookies.

God has provided several SITAG aunties that play a special role in Sarah's life.

 After the SITAG party, several girls spent the night and enjoyed trying face masks, eating pizza and watching "Funny Face" before they headed to bed in a fit of giggles.

The next morning, we fed the girls coconut pancakes for breakfast.  Aaron had a seven o'clock meeting, so we ate early.  After the kitchen was cleaned up, I peeked outside to find an impromptu "tea party" with guava and starfruit. 



What a fitting way to celebrate my girl!

MIA

Between STIAG's Conference and a spotty internet connection, it's been too long since I've been able to keep up with our family's history. 

Tuesday, July 26

We were honored to celebrate Jayninn's birthday with her!  In her family, birthday suppers mean eating noodles, so another SITAG family joined us to enjoy noodle recipes and a cinnamon birthday cheesecake that Sarah whipped up for the occassion.

Sunday, July 24

After church, we went down to the wharf to send a jug of ice water with Chief Leonard back to Marulaon.  We're so thankful that he has been in Honiara and willing to work out the details of the upcoming visit with the sewing team.

On Sunday afternoon, we took the kids to the pool, knowing that it would be a while before we could play again together as a family.  Before too long, the swimming will be on the beach in Marulaon again!  But here in Honiara, it's cheaper to pay for swimming in a hotel pool than it is to pay for the petrol to drive out of town to the nearest beach.

What we've been doing this week...

Whew!  This week has flown past, and while the internet and I are both available, I thought I'd take a minute to jot a few notes about what we've been doing.

Katherine helping Auntie Betsy clean the front porch

The kids and I finished up school in preparation for SITAG's Conference next week and for our move back to Marulaon.  So, they won't have school again until mid-August.  They have been quite diligent during the many days that I wasn't always available to come check their math immediately or read their spelling words.  I'm so proud of my kids!  I'm so thankful that I have a great family to nurture and serve.

One morning, a huge rainbow landed on Honiara's wharf.  Maybe Bikoi has the pot o'gold!

Now that school is finished, I've turned my attentions to preparing to go back to Marulaon:  making lots of granola, finalizing and printing school schedules, buying the things that village friends requested, etc.  Aaron has been really busy with meetings and e-mails trying finalize plans for SITAG's Conference next week.

Choate newsflash:

Aaron has recently been invited to participate in a workshop in Bangkok in September to be mentored in the area of Cultural Anthropology.  I am SUPER excited for him to have this opportunity!  So, instead of our family staying in Marulaon from mid-August until mid-November, it looks like we will be going to Marulaon for about a month (mid-August 'till mid-September), coming back into Honiara for three weeks while Aaron goes to the workshop in Bangkok, then heading back to Marulaon in early October and staying into December.  We're really thankful that Naomi's parents have been so generous and flexible to allow her to join our crazy crew.  Please pray for her as she adjusts to living with us.

Baskets

 At Snapshots Around the World, this week's theme is baskets.  So many different types of baskets abound in the Solomon Islands!

Here, purses are called baskets.

We love our our basket woven on Guadalcanal!  We use it as a fruit basket...

 ...and as a tray for a yummy breakfast in bed.



And I recently purchased this basket made by a Malaitan to use as a book basket.

This is my current purse/basket that I carry around town - just right for a water bottle, hand sanitizer, and my money for market.  The Solomon Islands is a great place to find baskets!

Sweet Sabbath

 "But you are a chosen people,...a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."  I Peter 2:9

Declaring His praises for:

-taste testing a new recipe made by my ten-year-old son

-friends willing to babysit so Aaron and I can go on a rare date

-learning to play Bananagrams with friends who will be going back home in a few days

-the smell of rain on the way

-plants on the porch that are still alive!

-Katherine's bed-head early in the morning (Aaron calls her "Troy" in reference to the Steeler's Troy Polamalu)

-friends who finally came back safely from the village after twenty-nine hours and being stranded on a ship with a failed engine in the middle of a storm

Bazaar

 Last Sunday in church, we heard an anouncement for a fundraiser for Selwyn College, a secondary school here in Honiara.  We recognized the school as the one where Chief Leonard's son, Gerald, attends.  So, we made plans to go to support him.  I also planned to call Harris, Sarah's friend from Marulaon, to invite her to meet us there.

I tried over and over to call, but the cell phone was always turned off.  Disappointed, we headed out to the bazaar this morning, taking Jayninn with us.  We had just gotten settled in a shady place when we saw Harris walking in the gate!  She's grown so much since we saw her last at Christmas.  Her cousin currently attends Selwyn, and Harris hopes to attend Selwyn next year, too.

Before too long, Chief Leonard and his sister, Kathleen, showed up.  It was good to hear Lavukaleve again!  Kathleen brought some haleav (bivalve shellfish) skewered and cooked with rumit as well as some whole, cooked urio (coconut crab), so we quickly snatched some from her before she ever made it over to the booth.  Katherine loves haleav!

 We found all sorts of things for sale:  sugar cane, hand-carved paddles, heaps of uncooked kumara/umalau, green coconuts, cassava pudding, rice, watermelons (sliced and whole)...

...and yummy bar-b-qued fish, chicken, and sausage cooked right over the wood fires.

We enjoyed the local food and catching up on all of the news from our friends in Marulaon.  I'm happy to report that, according to Chief Leonard, all of the rain tanks are full!

Aaron and Chief Leonard talked a little bit of business about our upcoming trip to Marulaon in August,

then we all headed up the hill after a great afternoon of reconnecting with our Lavukal friends!

Happy Birthday, Olivia!

 Our first look at Olivia, eight years ago, in Tennessee...

...wearing her mama's clown costume in Texas...

...losing her first tooth as we flew over the Pacific Ocean...

 ...growing big and strong in the Solomon Islands...

 ...staying cool in the Solomon Islands...



...having fun in the Solomon Islands...

...and growing beautiful, inside and out, in the Solomon Islands.