Sharing a late Christmas, Work, Cyclone too Close

The beach party on Saturday was good fun. The weather was lovely and the sea calm. Although perfect timing for us it was not a welcoming party but a belated Christmas party which included the five Solomon Island employees and their families. 

The sweet potatoes were done 'Moti' style: a fire is started and then stones piled on top. The yams go on top of the stones and are covered with burlap and banana leaves. Combined with the barbequed chicken wings made for a tasty meal.

Sunday was the last day of relaxing and started with a brunch at the Choate's home; after that not too much else, but reading and playing games. At five Henk played basketball and lots of tag games he had never heard of (like 'octopus' and crocodile') with six of the children living at the center.

On Monday we sat down with the center manager to go over the list of things to do. They are in two categories: high and low. As always a lot of smaller and larger jobs that nobody really has time for, but will need to get done sometime (sooner rather than later).

It started with a broken security light: of course it is mounted on a 15 foot pole. After backing up a pick up truck and lashing a 10 foot stepladder in the 'bed' it still took some doing to replace the light and fasten it properly. (duct tape to the rescue).

The little house that Margreet and I stayed at two years ago has finally lost the battle against the termites and will be demolished. We have started taking out all the still useful items like solid core doors, plumbing and fixtures.

Orchids

Margreet went shopping with Kathy Unger and became familiar again with the different stores and the local market.

Toward the late afternoon we started to feel the effects of a cyclone off the Australian coast. One branch hit the power line to the Choate's house so hard it snapped right at the peak of the roof, forty feet up in the air. Surprisingly the Solomon Electricity people showed up before it got too dark to see, but they couldn't help and left again. We ran the generator for two hours in order that the family could get enough water pumped up to their storage tank.

That night was quite stormy and lots of rain came down.

Tuesday morning saw Henk crawling through the attic with forty feet of wire and connectors; it took two hours to reconnect, but when the 'Power people' finally activated the transformer at five o'clock it all worked and power was restored to the house.

In the meantime Margreet has gone to the market to buy produce and groceries. Traffic getting there has become a lot busier! Just at our last stop to buy sweet potatoes it started pouring!!

Pouring rain.

Today Margreet's time was spent typing in Bible stories in the Lengo language.

This afternoon it was only 25 degrees, but it came with 100% humidity. Around five it finally started to clear up and we are looking forward to a cool and quiet night.

Till next time!

Arriving at Solomon Islands

Beautiful smiles of welcome.