You know you live in a small place when...
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Tim left this morning to stop in at a literacy workshop in town and to run some errands. Shortly after he left, I remembered something I needed to tell him before he went to pick the girls up at school.
We got a cell phone this week so I thought I'd give him a call. Three times I got a recorded message from the phone company that the call couldn't go through. I called the phone company and they told me he must have the phone turned off. Rats!
Then I remembered that one of the errands was a stop at a hardware store for paint. I called the hardware store and asked for the warehouse. When the clerk answered the phone I explained I was looking for my husband. "Have you seen a white skin man, balding, mustache, wearing glasses and buying paint?" I asked.
"No" said the clerk. "There was a guy in here earlier, but he was with a woman."
"Well" I said, "if you see a man like I described, can you ask him if his name is Timothy? And if he says yes, please ask him to call home."
Ten minutes later, the phone rang and it was Tim. Even though Honiara is the capital city, it still often feels like a small town.
Labels: Daily Life, Honiara
posted by Martha @ 9:11 PM
Saturday Night Cacophony
Saturday, February 10, 2007
It's 8:30 on Saturday night. I wish I had a way to record the sounds resonating around the valley in which we live. In the distance the beat of a bass drum playing at a hotel disco vibrates through the air.
Across the river a pastor is leading a church service with lots of loud singing and shouting followed by a sermon. Words are lost in the distance, but the intensity is clear in the high volume.
Somewhere across the river, women's voices can be heard singing in harmony - from the style of song it's clear that they are Anglicans.
Soon we will retreat to our bed with the ceiling fan humming and rattling at the highest setting, as much for trying to cover the noises of the night as for the cooling affect it has on our bodies.
Labels: Honiara
posted by Martha @ 8:34 PM
A Trip to Town
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Yesterday we ventured into town to do some shopping. Honiara has a population of about 40,000 people so it is not a very big place.
First stop was Woodford International School where the girls begin the new school year on Monday. There were lots of familiar faces to welcome us and give us hugs. We found out who the girls will have as teachers. Sarah is thrilled to know that her best buddy, Ela, is in her class. Ela is Australian and her parents are part of the business community here.
Our next stop was to Ela's house so Sarah could spend the day with her. They had a wonderful time reconnecting and playing together. Lucky for Sarah, Ela has a nice pool to swim in and she was able to cool off there.
Tim, Emily and I spent the rest of the day shopping and stopping at various stores to take care of business. In Honiara there is no one-stop shopping. Getting the basics takes visits to numerous places. It was very hot and sticky in town. The air condtioning in the car would just start to feel cool when we would park the car at the next stop.
Everywhere we went, we ran into people we knew. We even managed to have lunch with friends and got our first taste of fish and chips - a family favorite.
One of our stops was to the business that has been treating our house for termites. Unfortunately they need to come up on Monday to spray again as we have found a new trail starting up one of the cement posts under the house. They cartainly are determined to eat us out of house and home! Now that we are back we can deligently watch for any more trails and we should be able to keep them at bay.
Labels: Daily Life, Honiara, Woodford International School
posted by Martha @ 7:33 AM
Safe and Sound at Home
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
This blog comes to you from our home in Honiara.
The flight to the Solomons was ahead of schedule and as there weren't many people on board, we got off quickly. We stood in line for immigration for a while until a man came and said there weren't any immigration officers at the airport and he didn't know where they were. He promised to keep us posted. A few minutes later we found out that they were on their way and would be there soon. We got through immigration and collected our bags which arrived safe and sound. For the first time we had our luggage carefully checked, but no duty charged for which we are thankful.
We piled our luggage on 3 carts and wheeled it outside expecting to see some faces we knew, but no one was there. Our colleagues had called the airport a number of times to check on the arrival time but were given various answers - ranging from noon to 2 pm! After we waited about 10 minutes our director's wife arrived followed by others and we were on our way home - Tim even drove our new car home!
Our friends have spent a lot of time getting our house ready. They have spent several days cleaning, organizing and even finding our towels and sheets and making our beds. What a blessing. Apparently a week ago the house was quite a mess.
There are many places where we will have to repair the termite damage. Some walls are missing, some that have been replaced need painting. Some of the ceiling has mold spots on it and needs to be repainted. It's a bit discouraging after we spent so much time and energy last year painting the house.
Sarah was very sad to discover the termites had gotten into her doll case for her American Girl. We hope we can clean it up a bit and replace some of the paper lining to improve how it looks. It was all a bit devastating to a 9 year old who has not has a lot of sleep over the past 24 hours or so. She is also disppointed that she hasn't seen our cat yet. But it was seen this morning around the house, so it is sure to show up soon.
It's good to be home, but it's going to take a lot of work to get the house up and running again. It's 90°+ and high humidity. Nothing can ever prepare you for how hot it really is here and how draining it can be.
I hope this all makes sense as I am a bit sleep deprived but hope to start getting on top of that tonight. We will eat dinner at with our director and his wife tonight.
posted by Martha @ 3:39 PM
