Whit Mande Weekend

Whit Mande always takes me by surprise. We don't have Whit Mande in NZ, but here, it's a public holiday. All of a sudden, a few days before, say Friday, you find out that actually you have a long weekend but haven't planned for it. Hence, we never have the chance to make the most of it. Drats.

Robert (left) looks rather staunch, while Jair is wearing cheese as per usual. In normal life, Robert wears cheese as well.

Solomon Islanders tend to look staunch in photos. You need to catch their smiles unawares ,which I failed to do. Or say "So-em Titi" - show

your teeth. When People say that to Theresa when they take a photo of her, she dutifully opens her mouth and points to her teeth.

Jair joined a team from SSEC central church to go to Su'u school for outreach/work. We dropped him off at the wharf on Friday morning.

I'm glad Jair wasn't on the Kosko or the Baruku, especially the Baruku because it looks like the end is going to sink into the water!

The Discovery left at 8, got to Auki around 12 or so. The sea was very rough - even Jair felt sick! It was a 3.5 hr rough truck ride down to Su'u and they go there around 5:30pm. Then they had a Chapel service till 10pm and then worked till 1am. Up again the next morning at 6am to do some more work. From the stories, I take it the schedule was much the same each day and night. He had a total of 11 hours sleep between Friday morning and Monday evening! Eek.

But he, and the team, and the school, had a great time of work, encouragement, faith-building. He came back amped, tired, and excited about the possibilities at Su'u school.

Meanwhile, Theresa was teething. Grumpiness, fevers. On Thursday she got one molar on the top left gum. On Friday she got one molar on the top right gum. On Monday she got one molar on the bottom left and there's another one budding on the right. So she's been grumpy with teeth.

Then she caught a nasty flu. Coughing like anything, waking up each hour throughout the night. Snotty nose, the works. Sunday I took her down to check her blood for malaria. Test came back negative, but she seemed to be on the mend. Monday, however, things took a turn for the worse and she had high fevers, more coughing and snotty noses. The fever was the worse so after Jair came back from Su'u (she was so happy to see her daddy), we took her to the hospital. They didn't do much - gave her a needle and panadol and sent her home. She had hardly drunk anything all day and her fever was 38.0 and above some times.

Anyway, she went to sleep. Tueday morning I went to a different clinic. They prescribed antibiotics for the flu. Then I thought, I'll just get another bloodslide, just in case she's got malaria after all. And it came back positive (finally). So Tuesday morning, started her on Nivoquin - malaria treatment for babies. By the afternoon she was already coming back to her happy, chirpy self. She hates the nivoquin - it is ghastly stuff. I got Jair to taste some (I did too). It's worse than the stuff adults get. She's still got the bad taste in her mouth from malaria, so she doesn't want to eat or drink. We're trying to get anything into her that she'll take - at the moment it's chocolate milk and pink wafers. She looks remarkably cheerful in this photo, to my chagrin, because right up to the photo and ever since then, she's been grumpy, grumpy, whiney. Fair enough. Malaria's awful.

In Closing: one of Theresa's favourite friends is Vicki (sitting next to Theresa in this photo. Next to Vicki is Vicki's sister, Erima).

On Thursday when I was dropping Erima and Vicki off at school, Theresa started saying "Vicki" continuously. (Since then, she says Vicki whenever she sees a child/ren. I think she thinks it means children. Vicki, Pikinini, they sound kind of similar). Anyway, Theresa says Vicki with a slight NZ accent - you know, the awful slight, soft "u" sound instead of the i. So Vicki, who has spent the last 6 (of 8?) years of her life in Australia, corrected Theresa, getting her to try say "Vicki" with the strong, (incredibly annoying) hard "i" sound that Aussies use. It was hilariously funny to me as I was driving down the road.

Theresa: Vucki, Vucki.

Vicki: Veeeki, Veeeki.

Erima: Veeeki, Veeeki.

Theresa: Vucki.

Erima: VEEEEki.

Theresa: Vucki

Vicki: VEEEEEki.

I was in stitches.

Turtles and Tweet Tweets

Toddlers are so cute. I don't know what kept us entertained and amused before Theresa became a toddler. Toddlers are a G rated comedy that screens all day long. All this talk of "terrible toddlers" - I think it's just a ruse so that the parents can keep the toddler, and the funnyness all to themselves. You should get a toddler, if not in your family, then somewhere in your life. Because they're just too funny not to have around.

Our toddler is infinitely confused about the difference between turtles and birds. Well, she doesn't think she's confused, but one day, the penny will drop, and I hope she won't be too devastated when she finds out turtles don't fly, and birds don't swim.

It started with the beautiful painting of a turtle that we have by her changing table. Consequently, turtle was one of her first words. Mama (which means, help, I need something, give me), Dadda (that lovely guy who cuddles me and lets me play with the spanners and ratchets), turtle (the animal that I see every day when my nappy gets changed).

Ok, then in her room, she has lots of birds - birds on the walls, a bird mobile by the window, a tweeting bird that is attached to one of the bars on the cot. So I would say, "bird, Theresa, bird. Tweet tweet."

Well, you can see how it happened. She got hooked on the "tweet tweet" part and very quickly, "tweet tweet" turned into "turtle." She sees a bird in a book and she says "turtle". She sees a bird in a tree and she says "turtle." She sees a bird on the wall and says "turtle". And then she points to the turtle on the wall and says "turtle," turns to the other birds on the wall and stills ays "turtle." Even when we were at music for toddlers yesterday, there was a parrot in the book so Theresa pipes up "turtle".

She honestly thinks they're the same thing: turtles and tweet tweets. Oh well, she's only one and a half.

In other cute Theresa stories, yesterday I found her doing "round and round the garden" on her palm, complete with a "tikatikatika" sound when she had walked her fingers up to her arm pit.

And then yesterday, when we were looking at "row row row your boat" pictures, she went behind me and started pushing me, laughing deliriously because she was making me row -and joining in with a happy toddler scream at the crocodile.

Too cute.