Traditional Wedding

This post is long overdue.  Part of the reason is it has been raining here non-stop for 3 weeks.  At first I really enjoyed the cooler weather that was brought along with the rain.  But now, even I , would like to see the sun for a few hours.  We are hoping to get a break from the rain tomorrow night because the American consulate is bringing a hip/hop band in from San Francisco. It is a free event for everyone and they also conduct music workshops with local musicians.  It is important to take advantage of these kinds of events because you never know when they will happen again.

The kids had a school disco which they both were very excited about.  Unfortunately, Elijah got a throat infection and was unable to go.  Alex went dressed as Katie Perry.  We couldn't find a blue wig at the last minute so we put paper cupcakes on her dress and gave her a headband with a heart.  They were suppose to dress as an actor, animal or singer.  (AAS) She won the prize for her class for best dressed and was very excited.  Of course it is not as flash as our disco's back home.  They played basic games like musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey and find the ball under the cup.  They also did a dancing contest and if you want to see young kids dance come to the Solomon islands.  I guess it comes from the traditional dancing but they were great at hip/hop and modern dance.   I am assuming some of them learn from music videos because some of the moves the little girls were doing were not very appropriate for their age groups.

Last weekend we were invited to a traditional wedding that was set up by one of our friends.  It is something that they do not do very often anymore, even in the villages.  The couple are getting married later in the year back in Australia and it was a surprise. They were lured to the village under false pretences.  When they got there, they were taken into a hut to put on the traditional dress.  You can imagine the terror the bride felt when she realized that all of the local woman were topless.  I guess she convinced them to let her cover up a bit more because they emerged dressed in loin clothes, grass skirt and a covering for her breasts.  They men did a war dance and then they were escorted into the decorated hut.  The elder of the tribe performed a ceremony which consisted of them eating beetle nut, exchanging necklaces rather than rings and accepting hand made gifts from the villagers.  It was very beautiful and moving.  After it finished the  tribe made us dinner served on woven leaves that consisted of rice, fish, chicken, local sweet potato, plantains, and sweet boiled puddings.  The kids didn't eat much of the food, but I thought it was lovely.  After eating the couple were placed in the back of a truck that was decorated with flowers and greenery and we drove through town honking at them.  I think it is one of the best experiences we have had here so far.

I am sure there is much more that I could tell you about our time here but I am off to a morning tea.  Every week a group of expat woman get together to talk.  As well as it being a social event they talk about ways to help the local community.  They have made contributions to a deaf school and gotten another school up and running.  Sometime a guest speaker comes.  Last time it was someone talking about the cocoa that is grown here and how it is processed and used.  It is suppose to be some of the best cocoa in the world but there are often problems with the way it is processed in this country because of the hygiene standards.  Very interesting.  Bye until next time.

Weekend at the beach.

First of all I wanted to say "Thank you"for your concerns about us during the Tsunami warning.  I'm sure you all heard that we are safe.

I was lucky enough to get a call from one of the wife's from Andrew's work or otherwise I wouldn't have even known it was happening.  Andrew was away and I couldn't get ahold of him.  So I called a friend, Louisa who told me the kids would be evacuated from the school up to the hill behind it.  She said if I went quickly then I could collect the kids.  So down the big hill I drove to drive 500 meters from the water to be with the kids.  I was pretty sure that we were safe because Honiara normally doesn't get hit by big waves, but I did keep an eye on the water to see if the water was going to get sucked out to sea before the big wave hit.  When I got there Alex was crying and said to me "Is the earth going to open up and swallow us?" and Elijah was cool as a cucumber recalling all the facts he knows about tsunami's.  At the end of the day they think it is a story they will be able to tell back at St. Agnes. As for me, it is a terrible feeling to think your children may be in danger.  Although I know the chances of it hitting were slim, I had a terrible pit in my stomach until I saw them. 

 After 6 weeks here, I don't have much new to report.  The kids have made some new friends and are getting invited over to their houses for plays.  After seeing other people's homes, I realise that most people come much more prepared than we did.  They have brought many more supplies from home; such as Wii's, kayaks, surf boards, toys, cooking gadgets, etc.....  Most people are staying much longer than we are but it does make our house look really empty when those kids come here.  Some of the families work for High Commissions or RAMSI and are well taken care of.  Big house with swimming pools, mod com's and entertaining space.  I'm not complaining because our house is fine for our family but when you want to have people over for dinner it is a tight squeeze. Because there is not much more to do on the weekends people tend to entertain a lot.  

On Sundays we go to the beach and meet some of the families that go to school with the kids.  They have a great time hanging out and take turns of the kayaks, surf boards and other beach equipment.  This weekend while snorkelling Andrew spotted some clown fish with 3 babies.  He told me they were quite aggressive but I dove down for a look anyway.  The adult fish decided I was a threat and started banging themselves into my mask.  They then did the same thing to Alex.  We took their warning and left them alone after that.  On the way home we stopped at one of the stalls on the side of the road for prawns and rice.  They serve them on a woven bamboo plate and they are not bad.  They also serve chicken and fish.  I have never heard of anyone getting sick from eating there but you will still have your expat's that refuse to eat anything that isn't cooked in a Western style sterile kitchen.  

I hope the picture and updates aren't getting too repetitive.  Please send me updates on what is happening in Melbourne. 

I took this picture for Patti.  Freshly painted virgin Mary's on the side of the road.  $25 Aus dollars if anyone wants to put in an order.  

The bell at Woodford school. 

Elijah and his new friend Ned. 

Alex with prawns from roadside stall.  About 5 minutes before this was take the ice cream truck had come and she had a chocolate cone. 

Woodford International School

Sorry for the delay in updating the Blog.  I had a sinus infection, a tummy bug and a rash all last week.  I think Andrew thought I hated it here but honestly I was having a hard time because I felt so bad.  Went to the doctor and got some antibiotics and I feel much better now.

The kids have started school and seem to have settled in.  Alex had a few days the first week that she didn't want to go.  She started island dancing tonight as an after school activity and is very excited about it.  Elijah will be doing Futsal which is a soccer program while he is here.  They will both start swimming lessons at one of the hotels next week and will probably do the kids sailing program at the Yacht club in April.  (don't be fooled by the term "yacht club" because it is nothing fancy)  It will cost us tons less for them to learn sailing here than it would in Melbourne, so we will take advantage of it.  Andrew and I might learn something too.  

School is suppose to start at 7:50 but it runs on “island time”.  Believe it or not you can actually get stuck in the traffic here and be quite late.  No one seems to care.  The school bell in the morning and afternoon are 3 drums being played by students. The kids think that is really cool. 

 I have been doing Yoga on Monday and Wednesday mornings.  Today we did it poolside at the nicest hotel in town and it was lovely to look over the water and hear the waves.  I am also looking into volunteering and helping with the Parents group at the school.  

I am going to see Ali Campbell this week. He was the lead singer from  UB40.  For those who don’t remember them, the big hit in the 80's was "Red Red Wine". It is a huge deal here because they love their Reggae. I am hoping that it is betel nut and alcohol free.  Otherwise it might get a little crazy. 

Andrew is working hard and will be leaving tommorrow to one of the remote islands for a couple of days. I hope the weather stays nice because last week there was heavy rain all week and flights and boats were cancelled.  If he gets stuck, we might not see him til next week. 

He is still running like a mad man.  I don't know how it does it in this heat but he did a short triathlon and came in 4th place.  He says he needs to work on his swimming but I give him credit for being out there. Besides swimming, I find it hard to to do much outdoor exercise unless it is first thing in the morning or after the sun goes down.  

I will try to take more pictures this week and update the Blog sooner next time. 

Last weekend, we took our first trip to another island called Nugu.  The boat ride took about an hour and a half. During that time we say flying fish and a school of about 30-40 dolphins.  They were beautiful jumping out of the water and showing off.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of them because the boat driver didn’t bother to slow down.  

You arrive to 4 straw huts on the beach that contain beds, lights, a porch and a fan.  It is very basic and run on generators so electricity goes off around 9:30.  The kids wanted to go straight in the water and onto an old rope tied to a tree to swing in to cool off.  Of course the masks and fins came out shortly and the sea life was abundant.  The highlights would have been the giant clams and clown fish.  The clown fish were quite territorial and would swim straight up to your mask as it to say “stay away from my anemone”.  It reminded me of the scene in Nemo where he gets caught by the dentist.  

After that, a little bit of kayaking was in order so we took turns paddling around another small islands that the kids thought resembled Jurassic Park.  It was fun to pretend a T-Rex might jump out at any time.  

We also walked through the village and the local kids showed us their school.  It literally consisted of a wooden building with classrooms that consisted of a black board in the front and planks of wood for desks and seats.  Since there is only a few solar panels in this village the fun consisted mostly of soccer, singing and a game played with rocks that was kind of like Jacks. 

Dinner and lunch usually consisted of rice with freshly caught fish in some kind of coconut milk.  Dessert was always fresh bananas.  I was asking myself why are they not serving a beautiful cake made with fresh coconut, bananas and pineapple.  Andrew reminded me that most people here would not have ovens and if they are making a sweet it would be over an open flame which makes it harder to control the heat.  So they tend to make a boiled pudding for special occasions.  

This of course has inspired me to start looking up coconut, banana, and pineapple recipes on line.  I bought my house Mary a coconut scrapper at the market and the baking will begin shortly.  This of course blows my theory that I should lose weight here because it is too hot to eat.  Once the sun goes down and it cools off you can eat coconut cream pie til your hearts content.  

Our accommodation for the weekend. 

Beautiful Island girl. 

Local village school. 

Girls playing game with rocks. 

Kids sucking on sugar kane that grows in the yard. 

Kayaking. 

I will write more next week when the kids have had a week at school. 

Our first week

I am happy to say that our journey to the Solomon Island was a safe and happy one.  Besides being stopped in Brisbane for an extra bag weight checked, checked for explosive powder and being the last on the plane because we wanted a duty free vodka, it was a very enjoyable trip.  

We were lucky enough to get a taxi that could fit all of us and all of our luggage and headed off to our new home.  Alex didn't seem to notice much but I could tell that Elijah's face had a bit of concern on it.  Honiara as a town seems very run down compared to Melbourne.  People tend to litter and the streets have many potholes in them.  The locals never drive very fast because they are too busy trying to avoid the potholes.  Obviously the locals are dark skinned and most of them have stained teeth from chewing beettlenut. We asked Elijah what he thought and of course he said "it's great" but I could tell he was feeling a little uneasy. 

Once we made it to the house we were all pleasantly surprised.  Although it is not big, it has a beautiful garden,  a screened in mosquito free porch and 3 bedrooms so the kids can have their own rooms.  It also has a few roaches and ants.  I have only seen a couple of roaches but ants seem to come out of the woodwork if you leave a dirty plate for a minute or two. I am told that this is very common for this region and although I may try, I probably won't get rid of them completely.  We also have 3 coconut trees, one star fruit tree and a guava tree. 

Alex insisted that we try to crack open one of the coconuts, so we spent about an hour smashing it on a cement block and we opened it enough to get the coconut water out.  The next evening when our new security guard, Eddison came for his shift, we asked him to open one and with a few hits of his machete it was opened with a perfect hole to drink the juice.  When we were finished just a few more hits and it was opened so we could eat the pulp.

Compared to most of the locals we are living in luxury.  I have uploaded a picture of what most of the villages look like.  We have air condition but have not had to use it yet.  I am finding the night time comfortable but the day time hot.  I am trying to be tough and get use to the heat, however it will eventually get turned on. 

 

I have tons more to say but I think I will stop there for now.  We all are enjoying it so far.  I am sure we will have many more stories to come in the weeks to follow. 

One of the cafes that only expats or rich locals could afford.

The major market.  This is where I will do most of my fruit and veg shopping. 

Our New Home

Many locals will live in smaller huts in a village setting. 

Another view of the market.