Music, markets and munchies

It was another busy weekend - with three musical practises, trips to the market, choreography planning, baking, visiting potential venues for the musical (Machi has been doing all the leg-work for that, and we think we've found a good one) and church.

Yesterday Geoff had two helpers at the markets - Millie and Sophie.


The thought of being out of the house by 8 am on Saturday doesn't really thrill me, but thankfully Geoff is willing to go! He likes to beat the heat and crowds by heading out early. Geoff often will stop in at the markets after dropping the girls at school, and has found some hard-to-find items like rockmelon, honey-dew melon, and best of all, passionfruit. (Machi was amazed he found passionfruit - she's only seen it four times in ten years!) The girls are far more comfortable in the markets now than at first, and the possibility of a can of drink or an icecream is very appealing to them!

Sophie wanted to pay for the casava chips (everyone's favourite!) They are only available at the markets on the weekends, so Geoff always brings home a couple of packets. You can see little pieces of cardboard with the prices written on them - $10 for a bunch of bok choy. Everything is sold in a bunch, or little bundle.

We eat plenty of fruit here - a bunch of bananas can be as cheap as $1 or $2 (Solomon), and they are great for freezing and making banana smoothies, or banana cake, like we had today.

The girls love to crunch on star fruit (called 5 corner over here), and eat them just like an apple.

We saw dolphins at church today! 'Staka dolfin' as all the kids were saying. We had to do our best not to be distracted by them as the service started! Church was great again - it is quite a long service, but no one seems in a hurry - Solomon Time, as they say over here.

Arriving and leaving church in the back of a truck!
The truck is full by the time we pick up people along the way.

Every Sunday after church we've been having a lovely morning tea 'up top' - at Kevin and Machi's place. There are always some visitors there, and it is really enjoyable to chat and laugh together over an ice coffee and whatever food Machi and I have cooked. Geoff and I can relax for half an hour or so before the musical practise begins. It is nice having people over on a Sunday, and maybe we can do that more often when we get home.

We have another busy week ahead of us, with ministry at the hospital school, the jail, working with the band and more musical practises on the weekend. The girls are going well at school, although the early morning starts and very hot days mean they are really tired. We are considering letting them have a break when Mum and Dad arrive (which is in two weeks). We'll just go with the flow and see what happens.

Technology is a wonderful thing - the fact that I can sit here each night, sharing our experiences, and friends and family can read them immediately - it's great. I would find it so much harder living here for three months if there was no email or internet access. But it only goes to show how well off we are - many of the youth group members who are in the musical have no electricity in their homes, let alone internet access! Yet as we get to know them, we can see they are 'rich' in so many other ways ...