Letter 3 / 10 / 83
Peter's offering me a banana - or two - you know how it is when you have a bunch of bananas (a whole bunch, not a hand) and they all go ripe at once.
James started back at kindy today - at last. Its been a long 2 weeks. I've asked Balaga to come help me with language. She can hold Alison (she's good with kids) while we talk and I write. George has started coming to help Peter again now his kids are back at school - he has six kids, a small family in these parts.
James loves his shirt. He says "Ganma" quite well now. You should hear him say the days of the week, its so cute. And singing "row, row, row your boat"! He's coming ahead so fast now. And the hat is just great for Alison. We climbed (the hill) Gelam again last Saturday for Peter (D)'s sake and she fared quite well in her new hat.
No ducks yet. Did I say we got some citrus trees at last? They cost $10 each, but then they were quite expensive to transport up here, our three trees are worth about $60. They are well settled in and growing well already.
Alison still isn't quite crawling. We ought to get a move on and build some door-gates for when she does. She can do all the right things, but doesn't quite balance or coordinate them right. She gets up on hands and knees, one knee moves, the other starts to ... then whoops! over she rolls (followed by waa! waaa!)
We had an exciting time listening to the
It's late Monday night. The plane is due early tomorrow because the doctors are coming for their monthly visit. Alison's due for her third injection. Pat Killoran (politician) is supposed to also be coming to deliver his policy speech or whatever. And its village work day, a group is supposed to be going to plait palm leaves for the walls of our study/guest room. Its also the day scheduled for the burning off of the island (grass) but I hear they've cancelled that until after school sports for some reason ...
I've had conjunctivitis for a couple of weeks now, and this is all very blurry. I guess I'll get a chance to see the doc tomorrow. I'm also very tired ...
New Ceiling
The ceiling wasn't in last week, was it? Its really lovely. Took 3 days to do, beautiful to look at. I find it hard to believe when I lie in bed staring at it. No more tin roof with "Jerry" painted in big letters. The roof is painted (on the outside) too, should protect it for a few years. I have a new window in the kitchen, and two of our windows have fly-screens (the rest are waiting for materials to arrive "when the boat comes" maybe this Friday.) In the evenings our biggest hassle these days is (big) grasshoppers. Can you imagine trying to cook and eat with these things flying around and hopping into your food and in your face? Later in the year I guess it will be little brown beetle season again too ... be nice to have the screens up before they start, and then the flies get extra thick during the doldrums and pre-wet season.
