Letter: Bananas and Bell Fruit

Letter 8 / 10 / 83

What a day! I'm red-raw (sun-burnt) - a problem I've rarely had since we've been here because I'm usually so careful. I'm dying to just fall into bed. But Peter's showering, so I may as well use up this time by chain-eating some bananas while I'm waiting for a turn. (Someone gave us two ripe bunches today.) There's a bowl of those brilliant red bell-fruit in front of me, but I'm not tempted by them at all. Barnie Day brought them to us. He has been so kind to us.

I think he would make an excellent language helper for Peter - poor George has been on a rather extended drunken bout lately, getting over the recent death of his wife who had cancer. Balaga has been helping me, but Meriam really is a second language to her, she's not much good at it, and very nervous too. But she's excellent with kids and I may be able to work out some babysitting for Alison. Big (really big) Gracie is going to try out as a language helper this week.

People are taking quite some interest in our half-built "translation centre / guest room". They really don't like coming into our house but would be willing to work with us in there where they can see out and be seen.

Dawar and Waier Islands

Today we went over to Dawar Island with Peter and Sue Stoneham, (the school teacher and his wife) in their boat. It was a perfect day for it, which worked out well for Peter Dunstan to see Dawar and Waier before he leaves on Tuesday. Then the kids and I (and Sue and their two girls) stayed home while the three Peters went fishing. They brought back (among other things) an 8-foot shark. Peter S wanted to keep the jaws. So it was fish for tea again - not shark. The Stonehams only have another 8 weeks here this year - Sue is counting down, she's fed up with the place - and they've a freezer full of fish because Peter (S) loves going fishing in his boat more than he loves eating fish (or at least more than he can manage to eat.) So they have been giving us frozen fish all week. Its a bit of a trap, though, having a big freezer ... If we catch more than we need (and the idea is that you stop when you have enough to eat!) we give it away and build relationships. Then when we are in need, others will give to us.

Water tank

Our water situation is desperate again. Went to the well for some muddy water for my first shower in 6 days (bleh! saltwater makes you sticky!) and found some charming youngster had thrown our bucket down, rope and all. Fortunately it fell open side down, trapped a pocket of air and floated. Peter was able to get it back up with his fishing line.

But we have a (1000gallon) water tank at last! It came on the boat this week. We saw the boat in the distance with our tank on the deck. Everyone knew it was ours (we've waited six months since we ordered it) even though it didn't have our name on it. They threw it into the water and towed it in to land behind a dinghy. Then P and P (and James) walked it in the shallows along to our part of the beach. They (P and P) have made a concrete stand for it and Monday should see it on its stand. Now all we need is some water in it! We don't have any guttering to link it up if it rains ...

Rats

We caught our 21st rat this evening (that's since we came back in June). The grasshoppers (indoors) are less tonight with the kitchen screened, but we haven't worked out what we will do about a screen door (its going to need to be an odd size). Rod Kennedy (translator on Saibai Island) sent us an old water heater from Saibai recently. When P and P catch a grasshopper they twist its head off and throw it out the door ... and to tie all those facts together (!) : The other day we caught a rat inside the water heater with a heap of grasshoppers, each with its head twisted around.

The "Parasol"

Did we tell you the funny story about the parasol? There's a big shade-house hear us, belongs to the church, and Father Tabo told Peter it was called the "Para Sol". Peter was impressed, thinking the white priest, Rechnitz - a few years back now - had given it that name. He took the trouble to explain to Tabo the origins of "para" (against) and "sol" (sun) - but only got blank stares in return. Peter S also had heard that it was called parasol, and recently asked someone to go there to collect something for him. It was when he wrote down the word PARASOL for them that he started to have problems - no one even raises an eyebrow when we say "parasol". So my Peter came home and said, "If you had no 'h' in your language, how would you say this word?" and he wrote down: PARISH HALL. We laughed and laughed. We had forgotten that every Anglican Church always has a parish hall next to it.

Sunday

Almost time for the first lot of bells. It rained a bit last night so we have a few more litres of water in our 44 gallon drum. But I'll have to phone someone on TI and get them to send us some disposable nappies because none came on this last boat and I just can't manage cloth nappies without water! Ooh, its raining again now ...

Yesterday we ate our first home-grown tomato. They cost about $1 each up here so we feel its worthwhile to have grown at least one. There would be about a couple of dozen coming on, but no sign of any further crop. The plants are pretty scabby-looking! We had a crop of snake beans. Cabbages are a waste of time. Our three precious citrus seedlings are doing well. My sweet potatoes have beautiful foliage!

Monday

Peter D goes tomorrow, and today we have fly-screens on all the windows, and the tank stand is ready for its load. Tomorrow the village people are "definitely" coming to do (weave out of coconut palms) the walls of the translation house - Peter D never did get to sleep in it!

Alison still can't get her crawling act together in spite of demonstrations by James. And her first tooth still isn't through, despite chewing on endless rusks. But she sits up really well. And if you kiss her repeatedly on the cheek she closes her eyes and often falls asleep, even when she's been really wriggly a minute before.

Time for a shower. It rained heavily this morning so there's some water in our drum!