Friday, June 6

This morning, the District Priest held a communion service, and as part of the community, we shared papaya coffee cake for the Priest's breakfast, so  I took the tray down to Naris' house.

I think the Russell Islands' most precious commodity isn't its coconuts or its timber, but the precious people who live here are the true wealth of the islands.  

Gayly captured their beauty as we walked around the village and introduced her to our friends.  She brought pictures of her precious family who sent her with their blessings.  

I stumbled along in my poor Lavukaleve, learning that the word for "adopted" can be feminine or masculine, singular, dual, or plural.  

And Gayly patiently listened to me stumble, played with sweet babies, and ignored the heat and culture shock that I knew must be assaulting her. 

Thursday, June 5

Monday, when we were weeding the yard, Leku came to tell me that Rodney, a friend's son, had died in Honiara.  We've been taking food over to my friend, Margaret, almost every day.  Yesterday, his body arrived mid-afternoon, and Aaron attended the funeral.

This morning, Gayly and I paddled in a dugout canoe with my friends Leku and Ruthie, in hopes of finding some shellfish.  

Sarah went with us, too, she is fabulous at finding all of those little critters in God's big ocean.  We only found three of the shellfish for which we were looking (kalimeta), but my buddies found a handful of different shellfish for us to sample.  

Leku showed us (and the crowd of children that gathered) how to clean the clamshells,

 

then she let me try by myself.  

Even Katherine cleaned one of those little critters, and she did a great job!  

We walked back up to the house to try and figure out how to cook this nice little taste of the ocean and to show Gayly how to clean the kalimeta shells. 

We boiled the shellfish first, then chopped it into small pieces and recooked it in coconut milk with some curry, green papaya, and some slippery cabbage.  I think it turned out okay, and we shared the rest with Leku and Ruthie.  Gayly certainly was a trooper to try these strange creatures for lunch, and she was our official photographer, too!

Keep Praying

I’ve been a little slow posting updates, but please keep praying! The modem problems continue, this time related to getting licenses renewed. Also, the need for rain is great as most of the rain tanks on the island are empty.

Thanks for praying! I know the prayers are felt, even around the world!

~Ann H.

Wednesday, June 4

Aaron, Benjamin, and Olivia left at 5:00 this morning to pick up my friend, Gayly, from the tip of Guadalcanal.  Her first taste of the Russell Islands was a bumpy canoe ride!  We're so glad she is here to spend a little over a week with us, and we're especially thankful for her husband and five kids who sent her with their blessing.

Tuesday, June 3

Finally found a time when baby Hebrews was awake and snapped a quick pic of this cutie pie!

Monday, June 2

Leku has been teaching Sarah how to crochet little ruffles around rubber bands.  Sarah is a quick study, so now Olivia and Katherine have some several different colors of "ribbons", as Leku calls them.

They’re back!

After ten days without communication, the Choates have a working modem again! It was such a delight to see e-mail from Joanna in my inbox this morning. Here are the first couple of catch-up posts.

Thursday, May 29

I went over to check on all of the little ones that have been sick lately.  I found Jude and Selina all smiles and playing with their grandmother, Grace Delight.  They are both feeling much better, but the "coconut news" is saying that five have died on the other side of the Russells from dysentery. 

Friday, May 30

On the way back from the garden, Katherine stopped at Ofoaen's house where her grandchildren were cracking open havu, a delicious nut.  June and July is havu season, and we are so excited that we are in Marulaon to enjoy these fabulous nuts!  I smash my fingers almost as often as I smash the nut, but I've finally learned which way to hold the nut after being told "upside down" over and over and over again.

Modem Problems…Again

Well, friends, the new modem mentioned in the previous post DID arrive and worked for a couple of days…then it, too, died. So, once again our precious friends are out of touch until one of the two modems can be repaired.

They do have radio communication with Honiara and with friends in another village, so that is helpful. But, they still miss being able to interact with friends and family via e-mail. So, please keep praying that the modems will work!

Otherwise, the report is that the family is doing well.

Thanks for the continued prayers.

~ Ann

Marulaon Woman’s Daybook

Just for today...Monday, May 26

Outside my window...oh, my, I'm missing the tradewinds.  It is sticky and still and so hot.  Usually, this is the coolest time of year here.  God gave us a beautiful rain last night, so we are still maintaining plenty of sun for the solar panels to charge the battery and plenty of rain to top up the rain tanks.  Thanks for the prayers!

From the learning rooms...finishing up the 20th century in American History with some fun picture books like "Salt in His Shoes" by Deloris Jordan and Roslyn Jordan , "Ten Little Rubber Ducks" by Eric Carle, and "Gleam and Glow" by Eve Bunting. 

(Note from Ann: There should be a photo here, but it hasn’t come through yet. I’ll update it when it comes in!)

One of my favorite things...having the whole family back together under one roof again.

From the kitchen...this beautiful big mud crab showed up at our door today, what a great birthday present!  And when I asked how much, all that Kaspar wanted was some rice in exchange. 

A heart of thankfulness...with both of our ships (Bikoi and Kosco) in for repairs right now, we didn't anticipate getting a new modem any time soon.  Our modem quit working last Thursday, which has shut down communication except by radio.  It didn't take long for me to feel isolated.  Well, some colleagues of ours just "happened" to run into somebody from our village who was in Honaira, and he agreed to carry a box back to us in the village.  He should come back to Marulaon on Wednesday, so we are super excited at how God worked out the details of our little communication problem!

Pondering these words... 

"Age" by Edward Tuck
Age is a quality of mind;
If you've left your dreams behind,
If Hope is cold,
If you no longer look ahead,
If your ambition's fires are dead,
Then you are old.
But, -- if from Life you take the best,
If in Life you keep the zest,
If Love you hold,
No matter how the years go by,
No matter how the birthdays fly,
You are not old.

A few plans for the rest of the week...it's looking pretty normal around here.  Lots of little house chores to take care of, school, teaching Leku how to "snowflake stitch", and finishing the week with a Translation Committee meeting on Saturday.

Sunday, May 25

"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth..."  Song of Songs 1:2a

Today is our "kiss-aversary", so we just had to celebrate with Hershey's kisses!

Saturday, May 24

Dysentery is still running wild through the little ones here in Marulaon.  Jude is almost three years old, and not only does he have "belly run", but he also has an ear infection.  I've been going down every 4-6 hours to give him some children's Tylenol to help ease his fever and help him feel better.  The nurse for Marulaon's clinic is attending a workshop in another area of the Solomon Islands, so there is no one else to help.  Last night when I went to check on Jude, I found the house astir as his aunt prepared to take him in a motor canoe to another clinic because he hasn't been eating or drinking for the last several days. 

This morning, the kids and I popped a big bucketful of popcorn to take over to Laola for the translators.  We went down at the appointed time to meet Hiva, the Translation Committee Chairman, who was going to drive us over to Laola in a motor canoe.  Hiva's wife, Daisy, told us that Hiva had gone to a different village to buy petrol for our trip, but that he hadn't come back yet.  We enjoyed sitting and visiting while we waited for about half an hour, then Hiva showed up, and we were off!

When we arrived, the kids went off to to play.  After I was sure they were settled (I have the best kids, ever!), I went back to the meeting house to watch Aaron and the translators finish up their workshop. 

Only two of the four translators showed up, but they are the two who live closer to our village, and they have attended everything, every workshop, every bit of training, even workshops in Honiara.  So thankful for Simon and Ezekiel!

When the guys finished, Hiva sat down at the table and they made some plans together.  The translators plan to meet again at the end of June in a village on the East side of the Russells.  Saturday, May 31, the Lavukal Translation Committee will meet in Marulaon.  At the end of the planning session, I went to find the kids since they had moved down closer to the beach to play on the soccer field.

This tiny, beautiful village of only a few families provided one last meal for our family and for the translators, and then we had a few minutes of closing speeches.  They also asked me to introduce our children, which I thankfully knew how to do in my halting Lavukaleve.  As we left, I thanked the ladies for taking care of my husband and gave them some seeds for wing bean and marigolds, since both of those are growing in my garden right now.

So thankful for this generous village who hosted the workshop for three days!  We hopped in the canoe with Hiva, Simon, and Ezekiel, in addition to our family, and made the trip to drop off Ezekiel and Simon in Karumulun before we crossed the short stretch of water to our village.  Home Sweet Home!

Thursday, May 22

This post came via e-mail this afternoon. I don’t know if it means that the Choates’ radio modem has started working again or if it just happened to finally get to me! Keep praying! ~Ann

We got Aaron off in a motor canoe this morning.  He's headed over to Laola Village to hold a review workshop with the Lavukal translators, and he'll return on Saturday evening.

Pray for the Modem!

Dear Choate friends,

The Choates’ radio modem stopped working last week. They can still communicate via radio with colleagues in Honiara, but they cannot send and receive e-mail. Unfortunately, no replacements are available right now. On top of that, other teams currently in villages are experiencing similar problems.

The e-mail I received from friends in Honiara indicated that the Choates are doing fine. Obviously, we’ll need to always pray for a good balance of rain and sun and for continued health! But, we can also pray that the modem will start working again, both for their sake and for those of us who like to stay in touch with them.

Thanks for praying faithfully!

- Ann H.