Pics and Thoughts ...

as random as the raindrops falling right now on rocking ocean waves.

For the Harvest Festival at church, Jacob was gonna go as “bandana boy,” (the boys' own invention) but I started feeling sorry for him, not even knowing his costume was gonna be pretty lame. We had a box, so I got on the internet and looked up ideas. First a refrigerator that opened to show food. No. Then a robot. No. But when we found Spongebob, that was it.


During the festival, Clint worked a fishing booth while I did face painting--a surprisingly intimate task, actually. Such beautiful, smooth brown skin, such open trusting faces. Their dark, curious eyes studied my face while I concentrated on painting theirs. One little girl whom I painted into a kitty cat hung around petting on me while I painted other kids. I had a red sequined piece of fabric tied around my head, lots of jewelry on, and dark eyeliner around my eyes to simulate Egyptian eyes. She gently reach under the sequined red to discover my hair down my back. Then she touched as lightly as possible the necklace I had double-looped tightly around my upper arm. Then, as gently as she could, so as not to mess up the movement of my arm painting the other kids, she put her cheek to my arm and nuzzled it just a little. I’ve never been adored like that by a perfect stranger. I loved it, actually. ... And once I got used to each new set of curious eyes moving over my face, I liked that too.

The boys enjoying smoothies:

Andrew's our official smoothie maker. Different concoctions every time. Come try one in our porch hammock, looking at this:

We've had two birthday parties, one for Eduard, one for Kenfor, two of the Lord of the Fly boys.

I've been surprised more haven't just told me it's their birthday to get the cake and ice cream. Especially since honesty isn't a valued trait here. Every other island-slang phrase out of their mouths is, "Tha' a LIE!" Clint's started saying it to me, with the same inflections, when I'm saying anything. "I made a double batch of beef stroganoff and a whole barbecue chicken today." "Tha' a LIE!" "I was reading through emails--" "Tha' a LIE!"

It's annoying and hilarious.