Our long past long weekend

Hi all... I've been trying to post this blog for 12 days in a row now but every time I try, the internet connection isn't good enough for long enough for me to upload the photos and publish! Here's hoping it will work now...

So, this message is rather old... A while ago now, almost a month ago, we had a lovely long long weekend. The Friday was thanks to the dear old Queen and the fact that we're still part of the dominion (The Solomon Star reported that since we have a queen, the Solomon Islands is actually a kingdom... Well, technically...) And then we had Monday off because it was Whit Mande. Nice that this country celebrates Pentecost.

We did a lot of chilling and relaxing. On Saturday our church's youth group came over and had a fun day filled of sports and food.

I just watched, but Jair got right into it.

The girls in the grandstand had a blast!

While Theresa, sitting on the ground in the cheap seats was loving it.

All around, it was fantastic day, and a fantastic weekend.

and guess what... there's another public holiday this Thursday!!

Yes, but have you taken your walk?

We thought this was rather ironic…

In a city where, according to Jair’s estimate, 95% of people do not own any form of private transport (e.g. car, truck, bicycle, motorbike, skateboard, rollar blades etc) and thus walk, someone has the nerve to ask if those people have taken their 30 minute walk today!

;)

breakfast

Ok, so this is old news, but I love Saturday morning breakfasts so much that I can't help but share it with you....

Every Saturday morning, I mean all 52 of them, I make Cinnamon Banana Pancakes. Well, I change it sometimes. Occasionally. Seldom. I even made them when we stayed with other people on holiday. They're a family tradition in the Duinkerke household.

So, last week, we were very privileged to have company - Rob and Jemma Lichtendonk. They have come to work at SWIM for six (+ hopefully) months. They are a wonderful couple to have around the base. Especially wonderful to have for breakfast.

So we had a delicious breakfast, nuggets of hot sweet tropical banana melted in soft delicious pancakes smothered in maple syrup... or whatever you wish. Rob and Jemma brought over some much coveted Hagel Slag. Hmmm. I'm surprised the container left with some hagel slag left.

If you happen to be in Honiara on a Saturday morning, do join us for breakfast!

If this is your darling one, where's your darling two?

let me relate something interesting, but first I need to give you a bit of context....

Jair and I were asked by the prison here to find a rehabilitation course for sexual offenders. Well, we asked friends and a friend of some friends was working on a course for sexual offenders in a different prison in a different country. So anyway, we're working with him to develop it for use here. But of course, we need to understand the cultural context in order for it to be meaningful. So we've been asking people about Solomon Island culture, in particular family values, what is and isn't appropriate relationships etc.

It's been very enlightening.

And here's the part I wanted to relate to you - concerning the word darling and honey and words like that. This guy, let's call him... Guy, was saying how in this culture, the only person you can call darling is your husband or wife. It's not really appropriate in any other context, apart from maybe, to your young children.

Now Jair and I don't really go around calling other people such terms of endearment. But we said that well, in our culture, an old lady might call a young person darling or such, and it possibly might be ok vice versa, and we might batter an eyelid but generally a very old man could do the same to a young person and it would probably be ok. Probably, but even then sometimes it's considered... well... you know. But we're a bit more loosey goosey with the term.Australians on the other hand, seem to use the terms much more flippantly across age and gender barriers.

So then some locals pick up on that and say it, not understanding the ideas of other people in their culture, not understanding that they are actually causing problems, calling older married men darling, just because they've heard white people say it.

He gave an example of how his church was having a big conference and they had an expat speaker. He asked if there was someone who could read a passage from the Bible and a young woman put her hand up and went to the stage to read the text.

He replied, "thanks darling".

Gasp. The locals are wondering.... why is this Christian man, who has come to lead us in preaching the Word of God to us, who is married, hitting on this young girl in front of all of us at church!!

Yeouwch.

It's just another example of what a different world we're in and how you've got to be so careful with what you say and do, because, you might just be offending someone and putting up a major block to the gospel.

dinner with the guys

I'm not sure if you know, but here at SWIM, it's not just us whities. There are a number of Solomon Islanders living here too. There's John Stott and his wife, The Billies, Some Lovely Young Women and then there's the bachelors that live in the "Boys' Lodge".

So we had the guys/bachelors from the Lodge over for dinner. It was a Friday so that meant Burgers. So I significantly increased the amount of mince. Then as I am wont to do, I cooked some rice for Laki (which is exactly the kind of rice for humans too). I also made kumara chips, in the transit house oven because mine wasn't working.

Then as I was preparing the burgers, Jair said, "Do you think it will be enough? I mean Island boys eat lots!"

Well. That's a good question. So just to be safe, I cut up extra cucumber, served up some of Laki's rice (sorry Laki) and put some tins of chilli tuna on the table as well as everyone's substantial burger. Substantial in that I can only eat two thirds before I'm done.

But, all the burgers got eaten. All the kumara chips got eaten. All the cucumber got eaten. All the tuna got eaten. Lelebit raes stap. A little bit of rice was left over.

Boy, I'm glad we added the extras!

Anyway, we had a great time. Especially fun was playing pass the parcel with Theresa. I mean, we passed her from one guy to the next. They melted - cooing and laughing and talking to her. It was quite cute.

just a different type of garden centre

Ok, so we’re back now and coming back, it has occurred to me how crazy and different life is here.

Take my garden experience for an example. I decided that I would be a bit more dedicated in my vegetable garden here for two reasons:

a) locals who sell produce at the market often use a lot of chemical sprays without restraint and I don’t want Theresa eating that kind of thing

b) because of the climate, plants that grow in the Solomons grow real well, so I don’t really have an excuse. It’s too easy, really.

So on Saturday I weeded the garden and on Monday I went down to the Kastom Gaden Association with Karen to buy some seedlings. So we bumped along the road, carefully rolled over this log bridge, hearing the creaking and groaning of the timber underneath and we were desperately hoping that it wouldn’t give way. We did a 3 point turn on the narrow road to park in the shade next to the gate for the Kastom Gaden. Karen knew one of the guys that worked there so he took us to the “punnets” of cabbage, by punnets I mean wooden boxes about 50cmx50cm full of beautiful lush Solomon grown potting mix (which is made of ground dried coconut husks, sand and soil) and up to 40 little seedlings. They cost SBD$30.00 for a punnet which is about $5 NZ. So Karen and I chose the punnet that we would go halves on, except that when the lady who sells them came, we found out that it wasn’t for sale. In fact, all the punnets had been sold. Thanks for telling me sooner.

But good news, the neighbours of the Kastom Gaden, also have a nursery. So we wandered to their place, past the passionfruit vine (I WANT ONE!!! But, again they’re not for sale) and then we went about choosing our punnets. Well the neighbours had a lot more variety, so we chose a punnet of coriander, one of bok choi and one of lettuce. But when we went to pay, we came across a number of problems. They don’t sell the herbs, because they don’t have seeds for them so they’re keeping them. Also, at this place, you’ve got to bring your own punnet to bring them home. Well, Karen and I tried to convince them that we could take the punnet home and then bring it straight back, but the rule was the rule. We were a bit stuck until they came up with the idea of just putting them in plastic bags for us. So that’s what they did. They even found an old crumpled up cardboard box and then the guy who seemed to be in charge, dutifully put all our seedlings in the box and the bags.

We paid and went on the bumpy road home again. The seedlings even survived the journey. I put mine under the house until later that day when I could plant them in the cool of the evening.

Oh, that’s right, another thing that’s different, the houses are all raised, partly, to protect them from flood waters, but also, in my opinion, because it’s cool underneath the house, and locals often spend much of their time under the house in hammocks, rather than sweating sitting inside.

Later on after my seedlings were planted, I made little banana leaf shelters for them to protect them from the harsh Solomon sun. These shelters will cover them until the banana leaf withers away and the plants are firmly rooted in the ground and can grown without the shade.

Then I found something to eat for dinner – a long Chinese eggplant. Yum.

4 weeks in a sneeze

Well, I've been rather negligent, or rather busy on holiday, that I haven't blogged. Sorry, so here's four weeks in a sneeze!

In New South Wales they have these cool as signs for narrow bridges - I love the truck!

We loved the beach in Culburra... Thanks to the people who let us stay in their beach house.

We travelled over 900 kilometers in one day. Friday. We drove from Culburra to Melbourne. Way too much travelling for Theresa. She screamed at the end of the day when I had to put her in the car seat again. The worst thing is that there were all these beautiful places (Exhibit A above), the names of which I can't always remember, that I would have loved to stay at for longer. Like Eden. I would have loved to stay until the whales came by with their babies... but oh well...

at least we had the opportunity to stretch our legs... and drink chocolate milk. yum.

Theresa snuggled up to Jair on the flight from Melbourne to Auckland. They were both so tired that they slept while I watched a movie. Yay - I love flying with Qantas.

We had a relaxing time up north with Jair's parents. And it was sunny.

I joined in the chocolate fish game at my nieces'es party. I lost, sadly, but still got to eat the chocolate fish.

Theresa and her cousin Madeline had a lot of fun together. Theresa loves jumping! and we had a great time with Madeline's parents.

Theresa showed all the signs of being ready to start on solids... so she had her first meal of baby rice and loved it! She's a natural eater.... So far she loves baby rice, banana and spinach but hates apple.

That's right, there are cows. They exist and they look really cool, like this one, who faithfully gave us milk while we stayed at my parents place.

So that's a sneeze with the history of the last four weeks or so. Sorry if you haven't featured specifically in this. We loved spending time with ya'awl. Next time, I won't wait so long before I blog again.

xo