A few weeks ago we went to a giant feast for the Nahmwarki, which is like our State, Kitti's, cheif. They killed something like 15 pigs, people brought hundreds of pounds of yams, tons of sakau (that narcotic drink). There were speeches and then the Nahmwarki handed out portions of the pigs and food and stuff. For some reason someone handed me a quarter of a pig. The back ribs and the hind leg. We had to put it on an inflatable raft in the trunk of my car for a long time before the party was over. Then everyone starts dancing and ladies come by and rub coconut oil on your arms and neck, give out gifts to everyone, I got a a towel and some Che Guvarra flip flops, Trieste got a hair thing that we think might be chicken feathers and a skirt with designs from Tonga or Fiji on it.

I won't even pretend to understand all the things that happened, but it was one of the best things we've been able to do here.

OH, then I had to have my neighbor show me how to carve a pig with a machete. It was awesome. Unfortunately, my years of school never told me that I was cutting out the bacon...we lost the bacon ;( But we ate pork like it was going out of style for a week, Ballin out of control.

jp

Adventurers and Adventuresses

Kolonia, Kolonia, God shed his grace on thee. But we had to leave that little harping magpie of a city for fairer pastures in that great municipality of Kitti. In case you were wondering our village is called Dioan and nobody's sure if it's in Sokehs or Kitti because the Nahmwarki's disagree about the boundary lines. As Saxon so eloquently stated, however, nobody knows what the hell we're talking about...so there you go.

But like I said we moved, we love our new house, and it's my idea of perfection. The house has a water catchment system that collects rainfall from the roof a puts it in a 2000 gallon container. We have zero water pressure because they put the tank only slightly higher than the plumbing. I thought everyone new that you have to have some elevation in order to have high pressure, but you can never count on anyone knowing anything. That might be one of Coglan's laws. Due to the water pressure issue, we have to take bucket baths and flush the toilet with a bucket (not at the same time). Both of these things takes practice but I'm definitely getting the hang of it.

We also don't have a stove, which doesn't bother Trieste but I'm finding it kind of difficult. I do have two portable butane burners which so far is really all I need, but I really want a toaster oven to round out the mix of appliances.

Also, some of the lights don't work. Only the lights in the bedrooms and the bathroom. I'm not sure why, so far I don't care, but I wish that I'd taken better notes when I was an Electrician for NASA.

Also, we have several fruit trees near the house, lime, three kinds of coconut, breadfruit, banana, papaya, giant swamp taro, a kind of mango that's crunchy and peppery. We are just waiting for things to get ripe.

So long,
JP