So this past weekend Ryan and I went into town to participate in a lu cook-off event put together by our Volunteer Leaders. The idea was that everyone needed to try to make their own lu to see who could make the best tasting one. Upon getting to town, we learned that a container of vegetables off the ship had spoiled. When this happens, everyone on the island goes without until the next carton comes. Unable to get the supplies we needed, we scrapped the lu cook-off and each made our best dish. It led to a full-on American type feast where we all ate WAY to much. Then, we had a kava circle with our group, causing some members of the group to get sick and puke (not calling anyone out, but go Cooprider :)
During this trip to town, we also had the chance to go to trivia night at one of the local cantinas. Our group didn't win overall, but we did win some free cocktails. So, I am going to go ahead and say we were the winners. Of course we did get a respectable 2nd place, largely on the back of Ryan's answers. But afterwards, despite our free cocktails, he still couldn't get over the questions he missed. At first we all tried to console him and Joey even bought him a shot (see below). But then we all moved on with our lives, while my husband sat sulking in the corner muttering "Amer would understand, Amer would understand" over and over! Yep... enough said.
Well folks, that's about it for this week. Not a whole lot happening on our tiny island. Luckily cyclone Evan did not come our way, so that was good. It did hit Samoa and the Red Cross deployed some people to go help with relief there.
Many Tongans got word of the shooting in Connecticut from their families in America and came to ask us about it. They too feel the horror of that event, and expressed how sad they were for all Americans this week. What an awful tragedy.
Tongans have also started bringing us bananas. The bananas here are the biggest I have ever seen. (Okay Iowa boys..keep it clean) This is so kind, but I thought it strange when one woman brought some over said "you make the cake!" meaning these are meant to be banana bread for her! Looks like Ryan has started himself a nice little baking business as I am NOT helping!
Ryan and I are not totally sure what our Christmas plans are of yet, but we just wanted to wish you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. We will be missing and thinking of you all. Ryan had to go to town unexpectedly the other day because we ran out of gas. No gas = no eat. While he was in town, the post office lady ran out excitedly to tell him we had packages. Mom and dad... THANK YOU so much. Silly as it sounds it will be super fun to have something to open Christmas morning. So, we put our boxes under the "tree" and can't wait to open them.
Ryan was soooo mad at me for not letting him open the boxes. When he went to light the fire, I noticed one box had a tear, so I thought I would explore and see what I could. I got caught big time. Scroogy McScroogerson then used our very valuable supply of duct tape to close it. What a fun sucker!
As I was finishing this blog, the largest winged bug I have ever seen flew right next to my ear. Instead of screeching like we used to, Ryan screamed "To arms! To arms!" which is our new battle cry when its time to kill (Thanks Willy Shakespeare). By the time we had tracked down the winged-monster, we saw a huge house gecko pouncing to try and get there first while a mouse ran across the ceiling beam to see what all the fuss was about. Needless to say, "To arms!' quickly became "RETREAT!!!!" Just another day in paradise.
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