Saturday is a free day for the sisters here at Fanulama, so after morning mass and breakfast of leftover fish from last night’s celebration, Regina and I took the bus into Auki to the market to do some shopping. I was on a mission to find bread so I could make French toast for breakfast for the sisters tomorrow. Upon arriving, I immediately recognized a few teachers and students from Alegegio who waved and called out “Morning, Madame!” which is the usual address for a teacher here in the Solomons. Seeing these familiar faces made the market much less overwhelming than last week; however finding the ingredients I was searching for proved to be more challenging. Instead of the clearly marked isles in the local Stop and Shop which separated fruits and vegetables from the dairy and cereal, market vendors and shop keepers sold virtually anything and everything in their small stalls –that is, everything except for sliced bread! I came to discover that fresh sliced bread is not a common item here in Auki, and instead, the vendors must wait until it is shipped over from Honiara. But if I’ve learned anything from this trip so far, it is that improvisation is key, so I’ll be trying out some Solomon Islands French toast tomorrow morning!
After returning from our wild goose chase in town, the sisters and I packed a picnic lunch and headed for a walkabout to the beach for the afternoon. On our way, I got to experience a little more of the rural part of Auki outside of Fanulama and witnessed everything from a family’s washing and bathing session in a small stream by the road to a Solomon style game of bocce being played with plastic water bottles and empty tuna cans. At the beach, Regina and Maria educated me in the proper way to climb a coconut tree –all while doing it in their blue uniforms! And we enjoyed the warm waters of the ocean, while stepping carefully around the small purple sea urchins every few feet (and we stayed close to shore to avoid any confrontations with the sharks I’ve heard so much about…)
After a week of practicing my dancing skills during nightly dance parties with the sisters (where I’ve discovered that Sr Loretta is a huge fan of the electric guitar move!), it was time to put my dancing shoes to the test with the Alegegio students. Every Saturday night the students gather together for a social night and Sr Loretta and I planned a few activities and dances to do with the students this week. If it’s possible, the students enjoyed the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance even more than the sisters and then afterwards they showed me some Solomon dance moves of their own. Much like in the classroom, the girls were extremely shy and needed a lot of coaxing to get them out on the dance floor, but the boys had no problem running out into the middle to dance with one another (another big difference here in the Solomons). And while you couldn’t pay money to see me alone in the middle of the dance floor back in the states, here I was, jumping around and showing some “American” moves while about 300 students laughed and clapped along! Loretta and I arrived home exhausted but happy and I’m hoping that after seeing me joke around and dance with them, the students may be a bit more open in the classroom this coming week!
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