Here is a picture of the local eggplant. Andrew said that the Taiwanese farms down in Laura have plants that produce these eggplants every week. They are fun tiny little guys, and Max weirdly loves them.
Homemade focaccia bread. Made even better by fresh basil that my friend Kristen brought. She comes over for lunch sometimes and Max and her son have a fantastic time playing (and we have a fantastic time talking and eating). She and her husband help run the Wellness Center (which is funded primarily by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and their fantastic outreach programs); their purpose at the Wellness Center is to help change lifestyles, particularly in what foods we eat. One in three Marshallese has diabetes, so the knowledge about how to eat right and what to eat is very needed. Garbage food is cheap, very cheap here (and greatly contributes to the garbage problem!), and stuff like white rice and Spam are consumed in massive quantities. You should see the Spam aisle in the grocery store. The Wellness Center also disseminates information about how to prepare local foods (I got some great recipes!) and how to create your own earth box so you can grow your own vegetables. I'll post more on these earth boxes later; they are flaming awesome. I have a garden now!!!
Two weeks ago Kristen showed me the reef at the end of Rita at low tide. We saw tons and tons of brittle stars and these super weird worm monsters that looked like tape worms on steroids. The water was icky, but I really liked seeing little fish in the tide pools and the brittle starfish. They did indeed look brittle. They felt very poky. I did not touch the tapeworms on 'roids.
After that we had a delicious picnic under the shade of some coconut trees and Max got about 50,000,000 stickers from the local weeds that I had to pick off later. It was a delightful outing, however; I really feel like there have been key people here that have shown me how to live here happily and use and enjoy the resources at hand. Kristen has definitely been one of those people. I will hate to see her leave next week.
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1 comments:
So sorry she is leaving... we loved eating the food at the Center... We also loved the fact that she shared her baby's jumping seat with Maddy. Maddy got her own when we returned to MN. It was put away last weekend as she finally had realized that she was ready to move on to the "next event." Thank you for being at the Center for our family. Best wishes to her and her family for all they have done to help adoptive families and people in the Marshall Islands.
Ethel Nelson
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