Days 32 & 33: Tuesday & Wednesday, 6/21 & 22

I seem to be making a habit of posting 2 days at a time. It's not so much that we're too busy to spend ½ hour on the computer – I just don't have much interest in doing so every day. Sorry!

Shortly after we first arrived and met Heather and Wyatt, we joked that in another couple weeks, we too would be as anxious to go home as they were then. While their paperwork was exactly 2 weeks ahead of ours, they'd been here a few more days having arrived almost a week before their court date. Well, I think I'm ready to go home. Jeff says he isn't and maybe that's true but I think he'd appreciate some of the creature comforts of our home more than he's admitting.

On our way home, we still hope to spend a couple days in Hawaii – both to help in the transition back and also to see a few sights. We've been through Honolulu three times now and never been able to see it in the daytime. I hope the ticket rescheduling works out to allow us time there.

The day started out slow but we expected to see Emi around 11:00 and she was going to show us how to make some jewelry. I think the time got mixed up (it was 11 or 12 in the discussions with bubu) because she showed up promptly at noon. She had her brother Beto (or Junior) with her and he'd brought a friend. I later found out his name was Charles. Charles was pretty shy and wouldn't really do anything but look around and occasionally mumble something or nod – but he eventually opened up later in the day.

Originally Beto had come with Emi at Jeff's request because he wanted to exchange email addresses and make sure it was okay to email Emi through him. Beto is the only one who really gets into computer stuff and understands how it works and is the owner (or at least custodian) of the families laptop. After about 15 minutes of exchanging information, there wasn't really anything else planned for the boys to do. But, I think Merine must have sent them over with the purpose of translating for Emi.

We decided to order some pizzas for lunch so Jeff and the boys went down to make it happen. Emi was showing me how to weave a band for a bracelet using 8 strands of the coconut (ni) palm... I don't know how she starts it off but I think I get how the weaving part goes – I'm not very good at it but with some more practice I could do okay. I texted Stacy to see if she wanted to come up to see and she and Oliver arrived a short time after.

The boys came back with two large pizzas – toppings of their choice – and we wove and ate and chatted (a little). Jeff had started to pull the boys out of their shell a bit so we were asking them some questions. I asked if they did any handicrafts and they looked at me like I'd grown a second head! When I suggested that maybe boys don't do the weaving they laughed and said no like it was the silliest idea they'd ever heard. I then asked what the boys did do and apparently, they fish. I then popped open a picture of when I caught a 3-foot nurse shark in Belize... I told them it wasn't bad for a girl and they all agreed and laughed at my joke :)

We suggested to the boys that they take the left over pizza home but they seemed hesitant. It turns out they either didn't want to leave or weren't supposed to leave. Maybe a little bit of both so when we assured them that they were welcome to return, they agreed. Emi added her suggestion that the boys go swimming and, through Beto, asked Jeff if it'd be okay and if he'd go down there with him. They also asked if they could each go home and get their brothers. Jeff was up for it so they took the leftover pizza and went to get their brothers. Eventually they returned and brought with them Beto's younger brother, Calbin, and Charles' older brother, Dexter (also a Junior). The four boys and Jeff went swimming while the girls kept working on the jewelry.

I was really impressed with the weaving Emi does... she's so fast and the pattern is so smooth and regular. I'd shown her one of the simple necklaces I'd made at Elefa and she giggled a bit – but she's always encouraging and tells me “good” or “emman” with a big thumbs up. While we were weaving, she also quizzed me on my counting... I, of course, had to pull out the book and then she started teaching Stacy. I think Stacy agrees with me in that Marshallese is a really, really difficult language to learn. I can do 1-10 in Japanese and remember picking it up really fast but this is just crazy... even if you know how it's spelled, the pronunciation of the letters are not always the same as in English. You practice these and when I get back I'll let you know how off you were:

1 = juon

2 – ruo

3 = jilu

4 = emen

5 = lalem

6 = jiljino

7 = jiljilimjuon

8 = ruwalitok

9 = ruwatimjuon

10 = jonoul

Emi asked me at one point if I would make a necklace for Beto and she selected a string of cream-colored beads (not really beads but disks like you see a lot on island style jewelry). I choose a few orangish colored beads to intersperse between the cream ones and she seemed to approve. While I worked on the necklace for Beto, she also saw another bracelet I'd made with purple and silver. She immediately liked it and pointed to herself so I made it a gift and she put it on right away. I then showed her the earrings I was working on to match and she liked them a lot so I finished them as well to go with her new bracelet.

When the Jeff returned without the boys, I asked where they'd gone. They were going home to change into dry clothes and then would be back. When they got back, we gave Beto his necklace and his friend Dexter Jr. had some quick words in Marshallese for Beto. Seems he wanted a necklace as well! When I told them that I didn't have enough of the disks to do another one, Beto asked if we could make his shorter and use some of the left-over disks from his to make one for Dexter. Sure... so I set to work dividing up the disks and restringing them. As soon as I sat down at the desk where my bead supplies were, I was surrounded by 4 boys who were very curious about how these things get put together. So much for handicrafts only being for the girls! I had to laugh a little when Dexter asked if he could finish stringing the rest of his necklace :) I happily let him while I went to work on reassembling Beto's. This time Beto wanted some silver bobbles from my supply instead of the orange beads and then choose a charm to put as the middle piece.

We then hung out for the rest of the afternoon and in to the evening before finally putting the handicraft supplies away. Jeff asked if they were hungry and wanted to join us for dinner. They accepted but were a bit reluctant. We reassured them it was okay and then headed downstairs. Everyone but Calbin joined us... not sure where he fell off the train but somewhere between our room and the Enra, he just wasn't there anymore. The others didn't know why he'd left or where he'd gone.

Ordering dinner was an interesting cultural experience. It was pasta buffet night and we explained that they could either get the buffet or order something from the menu. We told them to order something they liked but they seemed very uncomfortable with the idea. Beto told Jeff to order for them and when Jeff said he didn't know what to get them, we seemed to be at a stalemate. Even though I said again to get something they liked because we didn't know what they liked or didn't, it didn't seem to put them at ease. Emi was more comfortable and ordered a plate of chicken wings, rice and cole slaw. I wasn't paying that much attention so I was surprised when our orders arrived and all three boys had followed Emi's lead and had a plate of wings. I don't think Charles especially liked wings as he didn't eat much but he was being too polite to make any kind of fuss about it.

We wrapped up dinner with ice cream to go and then the boys were off to basketball practice. Yup, at 9:00 pm they had practice. That's another interesting thing here – everyone seems to come out after dark. Not in a scary, big-city in the U.S. kind of way where it's teen-agers and young adults looking for fun or trouble or both. This seems more like family time – old, young, girls, boys, everyone comes out when the sun goes down. Beto said people stay up pretty late and most don't go to bed until sometime between 1 and 3 am. Yikes! I'm in bed by 10:30 at home and even earlier here!

The boys were to have a basketball game on Wednesday at 3:00 so we said we'd try to attend and cheer them on. We then made plans with Emi to get together on Thursday for more handicrafts and this time the Simmons' birth mom was going to join us. Jeff still invited to the boys to come over even though we probably wouldn't need any translating and they said they might come.

Wednesday arrived and we were both very tired from the previous day. Planned to lay low and watch some DVDs. We ended up going down for breakfast really late (around 10) and when we got there, I remember it was Wednesday when I saw they were setting up for the sushi buffet. I decided to eat a light breakfast of fried rice and a single scrambled egg so I might have a chance at being hungry for sushi by lunchtime. The Enra has the best fried rice we've found – it's the most like home anyway. I found out the sushi buffet goes until 2:30 so we went back to the room to relax for a couple of hours. We discovered that the TV was out so we plugged into some DVDs we'd brought. Stacy came up around 2:00 with a computer issue – in the absence of TV programming she'd done the same thing and one of her DVDs was skipping. She thought she'd done something wrong but Jeff discovered a big smudge on the back of the DVD, cleaned it off, and she was back in business.

Jeff and I were still planning to go watch the boys' basketball game at 3:00. I asked Stacy if she'd want to go and she said she might depending on who her birth mom brought over today and if they also wanted to go. I needed to stop at the Payless for another package of hot dogs and a couple packs of buns and it made the most sense to do one after the other. My plan is to pull out our trusty $12 grill again when Emi and the boys return on Thursday – give the American cookout another try. This time, with s'mores! Another shipment must have come in because the last time I went to Payless, the shelves were even more full than before – the employees were still stocking them so I went over to see if they had the regular-sized marshmallows this time. They did – so I also grabbed some graham crackers and Hershey bars.

Jeff and I headed downstairs for sushi. Again, it was delicious and I ate too much. Then we popped back up to see if Stacy and her group were going to the game. Her guests had just arrived and they decided to watch a movie instead so Jeff and I headed out with Grace in the baby carrier. As we approached the gym – which is just a short walk up the road – there were 3 policemen on that side of the road redirecting cars and people away from driving/walking in front of the building. I thought it strange and couldn't figure out why until they said the roof is collapsing! I hadn't noticed but the front of the building has a domed-shaped roof and a lower arch that mirrors the same dome shape... the arch had broken and was collapsing. We asked about the game and they didn't know anything about it so we crossed back to the other side of the street and continued past the gym to see if there was anyone we might know hanging around that we could ask. There wasn't so we decided to keep going to the Payless instead.

A couple days ago (after the last shipment) I noticed that the Payless had the kind of formula that Stacy is using – Gerber Good Start. I thought it unusual and it stuck in my mind to tell her about later. When I did, she was a little relieved as she's down to her last container. To be safe, she wanted to get another can in case we are here for another week. I picked up another can for her, hot dogs, and a couple bags of buns. Jeff also wanted to get some soda but we forgot. On the way back to the hotel he remembered so we stopped into the Formosa market and picked up some “Mountain” (Mountain Dew) which seems to be a local favorite and some Coke. We've shopped at the Formosa a couple times but it's not very nice and I don't trust a lot of their food. When we first arrived I saw some marshmallows that looked like they were yellow with mold... how long does a marshmallow need to sit around to get moldy? I didn't even know that could happen!

We walked past the gym on our way back and they had a big crane out front ready to fix or, at last, stabilize the falling roof. Back at the hotel we stopped to drop off the formula for Stacy and went up to our room. It really wasn't any hotter than any other day but the walk and carrying groceries and Grace was a lot of work... we were literally dripping. I really liked the big sweaty X I had across my back from the carrier – pretty :) We changed into less clothes, poured a couple glasses of lemonade, and sat down in front of the DVD again to cool off.

This was, basically, our Wednesday. I even went to bed around 9:30. And then, Grace woke up around 9:45. I changed her and put her in a sleeper suggesting Jeff give her a bottle since he was already up but then I ended up doing it myself. I'm glad I didn't go back to sleep as we received a phone call at nearly 11:00 pm from Merine – Grace's bubu. She'd finished her shift downstairs and since we didn't come down for dinner, wanted to know if she could stop up and drop off some books she'd told me about.

In the early 90's an American woman came to the islands and learned how to make the handicrafts that the Marshallese women make. She then went back to the states and published two books showing how it's done. Merine thought I would like to see them – not only that, but she's given them to me! They were given to her by the author and one was even signed. I hate to take a signed copy so I asked if she'd like me to make copies of the books when I get home and then send her back her originals. She said they were mine and I could do whatever I wanted with them but maybe, if I had time, that might be nice to have them. After she left, I did a quick search online and found a few used copies of the signed book. I may just buy one of those instead of copying the whole book – they aren't large but I'd like to have a bound copy anyway.

The late night visit had now woken Grace up to the point where she didn't want to go back to sleep despite being tired. So we hung out a while practicing our standing and even a few tentative jumps... and then fussing and crying. Time out on the balcony wasn't helpful so the three of us sat on the small couch and waited until she was tired enough to try the bottle again and fall asleep. I think I ended up finally going to sleep around 1:00... so much for an early bedtime.