Friday, November 22

Our batteries are dangerously low after several days of rain, so we were thrilled to see lots of sunshine this morning as we began the day with full rain tanks.

The morning was set aside for village cleanup.  So after we got the morning chores finished, the kids and I started school and Aaron went out with his grass knife (long and curved on one end) to help our neighbors clean up the public areas of the village. 

When the clean up crew was on the other side of my outdoor kitchen (you can see the roof in the picture), I made two big bowls of popcorn to say thank you to our neighbors who were working so hard.  I almost caused a fight as every one fought for a handful of popcorn! 

The bell just rang to end the time of work, and now clouds are once again covering up the sun we need so badly.  Aaron has come in to study Lavukaleve while the kids and I tie up loose ends of the morning's schoolwork.  We'll all pause for lunch soon. 

Thanks for all of the prayers for our village e-mail.  The CPS has stayed around 60, and we've been able to connect about 75% of the times we've tried.  What a blessing to be able to stay connected to friends and family across the Pacific while pouring ourselves into the Lavukal.

Food and Games

A bit of fellowship: Sarah and Olivia had a little fun when their friend Stacy from Marulaon village joined them for a card game and some cassava. Stacy’s little brother Oma joined them as well!

Safe in Marulaon

Friends of the Choates,

I’m delighted to report that the Choates have made it safely to the village – in the sunshine this time! It has, however, rained a good deal since their arrival. So, their batteries are running a little low but their rain tanks are nice and full.

Joanna hopes to have a post of her own as soon as possible.

Ann H (friend)

Over and Out

In just a little bit, our family will be headed down to the wharf to catch the Kosco.  Again.  The ship should pull out around 9 p.m. (4 a.m. CST) and arrive in Marulaon around 6 a.m. (2 p.m. CST).  We appreciate your prayers as we make the trip again and pick up where we left off serving the Lavukal in Marulaon Village.  We think we have village e-mail working, but it still transfers in characters per second (cps), and we have no internet.  Hoping to be back in town sometime in February.  This is Honiara, over and out!

Honiara Woman's Daybook

Just for today...Tuesday, November 19

 

Outside my window...chickens making their morning ruckus as they start the day and sunshine filtering through the mango leaves.  We're in a house we haven't lived in since 2011, and it's so cute and homey!

 

On my bookshelf..."Living Faith:  Willing to be stirred as a pot of paint" by Dr. Helen Roseveare.  Challenging.

 

A heart of thankfulness...for people who help extend Aaron's birthday celebration.  Mystic Monk Coffee is our newest favorite!

 

From the learning rooms...my amazing kids carted school books back so we didn't miss any school.  Our basket includes "How We Crossed the West:  The Adventures of Lewis and Clark" by Rosalyn Schanzer, "Lewis and Clark:  A Prairie Dog for the President" by Shirley Raye Redmond, "The Lewis and Clark Expedition Coloring Book" by Peter F. Copeland, "Of Courage Undaunted" by James Daugherty, "Seaman:  The Dog Who Explored the West with Lewis and Clark" by Gail Langer Karwoski

 

Crafting in the kitchen...our SITAG colleagues have provided every single supper for our stay in Honiara.  So we were freed up to make a key lime pound cake for this morning's tea break.

 

 

Pondering these words...One of the students prayed in French, the government language, rather haltingly, "Go ahead, God, stir me.  I don't care what it costs..." Then there was a long pause, before he burst out, in his mother tongue, "I do care what it costs, I care a lot, but stir me all the same, God!"

 ~Dr. Helen Roseveare

 

One of my favorite things...autumn.  Friends and family are helping me pretend with things like Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin shower gel, an Autumn Wreath scented candle, and Pumpkin Spice Chai tea.  So grateful for the care packages that were waiting for us when we arrived in Honiara.  THANK YOU to those of you who scrape your pennies together to encourage our family and help keep us on the field with your prayers, gifts, and encouraging words.

 

A few plans for the rest of the week...chipping away at our long "to do" list and getting back on the Kosco Wednesday night to head back to Marulaon Village

Peek-a-boo!

 

This cutie lives down the hill from us in Marulaon Village.  He was born the night my parents arrived, and I played a little peek-a-boo with him through the gate on his porch as I visited with parents a few days ago.  Rube is wearing his favorite outfit:  his necklaces. 

 

 

More adventures

We were down at the beach by 5:30 a.m. waiting for the canoe to arrive.  By six o'clock, we were all on our way, driving into the rising sun.

 

After we left Marulaon, we stopped at the next village, Karumalun, to pick up our driver's son.  The son that was supposed to go wasn't around, so our driver hollered out for a different son (who happened to be asleep on the porch when we pulled ashore).  One shout from dad, and the son was up like a shot, pulling on a shirt, and climbing into the boat.

 

We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise and pointed toward the sun the entire three hours we were in the boat.  The Russell Islands sheltered us for a while, then we hit the open ocean and really slapped through those waves.  Flying fish kept us company, and toward the end of our trip we watched three frigate bird diving for their breakfast.  We finally arrived, wet, salty, and sore, at the tip of Guadalcanal a few minutes before nine o'clock and found a SITAG welcoming party alongside Chief Leonard.

 

 

Just a few days ago, I had been chatting with a friend in Marulaon about the body of Christ working together, and our SITAG family is such a beautiful picture of I Corinthians 12 in action.  The SITAG truck carried our linguistics coordinator, another colleague, his five children, our village chief, two containers of gasoline for the canoe's return trip, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and cold grape koolaid.  Our SITAG family also provided lunch and supper Sunday, so we didn't have to try and buy food on a Sunday afternoon.  Chief Leonard headed back to Marulaon so he could attend his son's graduation on Tuesday, and the rest of us (including two of the guys from our canoe) piled into the SITAG truck to drive the hour back to Honiara.

 

 

The radio hasn't been working well since we arrived in Marulaon.  We can hear Honiara just fine, and we can talk back and forth with our colleagues on Malaita, but Honiara can't hear us.  That's kind of important.  In addition, our new batteries haven't been holding a charge and Aaron thinks there may be something wrong with our regulator.  SITAG's translation coordinator has asked us to practice our emergency evacuation procedures and come back into Honiara to correct the problems.  So, we'll be hopping into a motor canoe tomorrow for a quick trip into Honiara, and we plan to return on the Kosco Wednesday night.  The timing is totally a God thing, because the Kosco has begun a new schedule and only comes out to our area about every three weeks.

 

 

So, we won't get to go to graduation next Tuesday, and I won't get to hold the Bible story workshop next Thursday.  As our family's contribution to the graduation Form 3 students, we would have taken parcels of cassava pudding.  Instead, our whole family went out to the garden to harvest cassava and give it to each of the families that we knew had a graduating student.

 

We filled four bags with cassava and still have plenty left to make cassava pudding for weeks ahead.  We also have twenty-one pineapples ripening!

Lots of insects were out and about.  Including huge mosquitoes that really liked my ankles.  I uncovered this grasshopper while weeding around the pineapples.

 



 

We walked back through beautiful coconut groves.  Can you see Benjamin at the bottom of the picture?  These trees are so tall!  And, yes, we do watch out for falling coconuts.

 

 

So, tomorrow morning, we'll be down at the beach at 5:30, ready to bounce our way back to Honiara.  The adventure continues...

 

Yesterday, we finished bringing in bags of dirt to fill up the canoes, then Pogo and I transplanted Chinese cabbage and tomatoes into one of the canoes and planted marigold seeds on either side of them to help deter pests.  I kept going back and forth from school to the yard.  The kids did a great job of staying on task and being flexible. Pogo and I also dug a couple of rows to plant some green beans, put in a small bamboo fence to keep children from walking through my slippery cabbage, and planted watermelon seeds.  My neighbors would say I'm planting a "sup-sup" garden.

 

 

This afternoon, I took grabbed some of the colorful rubber bands I bought back in America.  My goal is to share them with every little girl in our village.  The moms like them, too!  I just walked around trying to chat and sharing rubber bands.  I like to alternate parts of the village so I get to spend a little bit of time with everybody. 

 

 

I love how our kids jump in and play with the other kids in our village.  It's so fun to walk around the village and hear the sounds of laughter.  We've been in Marulaon for five years now, and watching all of the children grow up brings me much joy.  The Bible translation really is for them.

We now have two busted canoes to use as planters in our yard.  I'm so excited, even if my neighbors think I'm crazy!  When I've planted Chinese cabbage in the past, the frogs have dug up a lot of them trying to get into the cool, soft dirt.  Now I can transplant the cabbage into the canoe and the frogs won't be able to reach them.  Early this morning, our family worked to scoop up rich dirt with a coconut shell half.  We carried the dirt over to our house and filled up the bigger canoe.  We sure were sweating by the time we started school, but one more morning of carrying dirt and we should be ready to plant in both canoes.

 

 

We've also begun making banana muffins again to share with our neighbors.  It's a small way we can say thank you.   We delivered over three dozen muffins this afternoon.  As I visited with Kiko and her sister Daisy, I learned that the Form three graduation had finally been set for November 19, next Tuesday.  Our whole family wants to go and support the students that are graduating.  I also set a date for the next Bible story workshop with the ladies from Marulaon and neighboring villages, next Thursday.  I'm itching to get started again!  Daisy's husband, Hiva, has had a cold lately and his voice has been coming and going.  I told him about the English idiom "frog in my throat" and asked him if the Lavukal had anything similar.  Hiva told me that there is a bird, sofiruaem, with a red head and a white tail.  The Lavukal say that this bird is in your throat if you cough a lot.

 

 

I often get asked, "How hot is it in the Solomon Islands?"  While I was chopping slippery cabbage tonight for supper, I glanced up at the thermometer.  I hadn't turned on the burners or the oven.  It was 92 degrees.

Marulaon Woman's Daybook

Just for today...Monday, November 11

Outside my window...produce growing that was planted by the amazing young lady who kept our yard nice for a year and a half. Our neighbors really weren't sure if we were coming back, but she planted food in faith, and now we have grape tomatoes, long beans, and eggplant in addition to the pineapples that my mom and I planted in December 2010.  Twenty four pineapples are ripening!

 

On my bookshelf... “Blue Shoes and Happiness” by Alexander McCall Smith

 

A heart of thankfulness...for the men and women who have served America in the armed forces. Especially for those close to our hearts like Aaron's grandfather and father.

From the learning rooms...we started back to school today.  Loving some Beethoven listening and books (like "The Heroic Symphony" by Anna Harwell Celenza, "Beethoven Lives Upstairs" by Barbara Nichol, "Ludwig Beethoven and the Chiming Tower Bells " by Opal Wheeler) and some Audubon paintings and books ("The Boy Who Drew Birds" by Jacqueline Davies, "John James Audubon" by Margaret and John Kieran, and "Classic American Artists:  Four Jigsaw Puzzles to Piece Together" by Bronwyn Collie.

Crafting in the kitchen...spaghetti made with TVP and lots of veggies from market on Saturday. I didn't have any bell pepper, so I walked over to Pogo's to see if she had any extra to sell. She did!

Pondering these words..."The Lord must laugh at our complaints.  We're soft!  We need to toughen up and learn how to take anything the enemy can dish out because 'the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.' (John 4:4)"  ~  Don Wyrtzen

One of my favorite things...hearing the familiar voices of our SITAG colleagues on the radio

 

A few plans for the rest of the week...settling back in to life in Marulaon.  Our neighbors have gotten used to life without us.  It's my goal to spend lots of time with them so they feel a hole when we are gone!

A peek into my corner of the world...the view from Benjamin's perch in the hammock on the porch. The kids take turns doing school there, it's a prize seat!

 

This may look disgusting...

...but it's delicious!  Naris brought a big plate of cassava pudding with a layer of bananas in the middle.  Yum!!! The bananas turn purple when cooked.  We didn't make any cassava pudding yesterday, but we plan to get our outside kitchen going next weekend.  On Saturday nights, you can smell and see the smoke from all of the kitchens as everyone starts their fires for making cassava pudding.  Sunday morning after church, everybody heads straight to the kitchen to take their breakfast of cassava pudding and fish off the hot stones which have kept the food warm all night long.

This morning, everyone in Marulaon was supposed to participate in cleaning up and weeding the village as part of a healthy village program.  Our family was excused since we were still unpacking boxes, but the rest of the village met in a designated area to work together.  My friend, Ofoaen, and her daughter got special permission to come weed our yard.  They weeded around the spiky pineapples, all twenty-four of them!  Soon, we'll be eating all of the pineapples we can hold.

 



 

I walked around the village this afternoon and found so many new babies! One of my favorite stories came from Chief Leonard's wife, Janet. She knew when we left last year that she was expecting another baby. After six boys, she really desired a girl. In the Solomon Islands culture, girls are prized for their high value. In our language group, girls are extra special because our culture is matrilineal, meaning the family lines and the land are traced through the women. Janet had a baby girl last September and named her Lolikia, “We two want you”. Isn't that beautiful?!? I also heard about a local “birth announcement”. When a baby girl is born, someone from the family walks around the village with a cord of firewood on his or her head; when a baby boy is born, someone walks around with a bow and arrow.