Tuesday, December 10

(written by Sarah because Joanna is still bed ridden and can't go on any adventures)

Foamela and Haris were supposed to come get me yesterday morning to cut mausa to make a grass skirt.  From what I understood, we would cut bundles of leaves and put them in the sea, somehow tying them to the shore.  Well, they didn't come, so after school I ran down to see Haris.  She was weeding.  She said she'd just been waiting for Foamela all day and I should just get her to take me.  So I got Foamela, and she said she'd take me.  But first she had to get some betelnut.  So we went and bought betel nut from Haris's house and then we went up to Vava Ofoaen's house, since she's Foamela's mom.  We gave her the betel nut and got a bush knife, which you would call a machete.  Then we headed off through someone's uvikola garden and into the trees.  I had no idea what we were looking for, but I saw a plant with really long leaves and assumed that was it.  However, Foamela said that someone had already come and cut all the young ones, and we'd have to go somewhere else.  So we went back the way we came and then headed back behind our house and behind the church where the priest's house in in progress. 

I didn't see any of the plant I thought we were looking for, and she was looking at tree tops (I was thoroughly confused).  Foamela said there was none there either, but she knew there was lots by the bathroom at the end of the village.  She said it was a long way and she didn't want my legs to hurt.  (I'm not sure if this means get tired or get cut up feet.)  I told her I still wanted to go, but just then a lady walked by and asked where we were going.  When Foamela told her, she said that there was plenty by Joseph's house and we should go there.  However, Foamela wanted someone else to go, too, so we went and got Jenna and Daris, who had been playing Capture the Flag with Benjamin and a bunch of other kids.  We went to Joseph's house and then down almost to the start of the toilet at the other end of the village.  At this point, I still didn't know what to look for.  Daris began climbing a tree, whacking in the knife as she went up so her hands were free.  Then she cut off a long straight branch which was growing straight up, because the tree grew sideways, like an arch.  This made no sense to me, because this tree only had leaves about the size of a head.  I finally learned that the skirt is made of bark, not leaves.

After cutting off twigs, we stripped off the bark and made it into two bundles, about as long as my arm and tied in the middle.  They were kind of heavy.  We carried them across the village to a place on the shore near Haris' house, just down the hill from ours.  The inside of the bark was the most lovely pale green, except in brown cracks where the bark had been broken.  The outside was sort of tree colored - light silvery brown with an alive dark green lurking underneath.  Then they told me to go home and rest and later we'd go put the bark in the sea.  So, I realized I was a little tired, and went home, ate some supper (it was nearly five o'clock) and put some shorts on underneath my skirt.  Then I grabbed some goggles and went to see if they were ready.  I had to call Jenna out of a kino tree.  Daris and Jenna and I went and put the bark out deep, not terribly over my head, right in a little sandy spot in the coral formation where we like to swim.  They weighted down the bundles with large rocks and told me we'd come get them on Saturday.  So I went home, and that was the end of today's adventure.