Abaiang
05 May 2011
10 minutes later, we hear a knock and laughter again by the side of the boat so we go back up in to the cockpit. Susan lunged off the boat on to ours, and asks us fairly directly if she can come with us tomorrow to another island. Since we don’t know if we would be returning she might never see her village again. Susan is disappointed so asks us to come to her house in the morning before we leave.
The next morning, indeed, Susan greets us at the beach, anxious and smiling. At her families hut, food preparation is in full activity.
Mother was breast feeding baby. Father was grating coconuts. Susan was tending the smoky coconut husk fire and cooking the breadfruit soup. Breadfruit and Tar Bin. They boil big slices of the breadfruit for an hour and then mash it, and then add the coconut cream. She was also preparing little clam looking shellfish things. They had been soaking in water, and she would then boil them for about 4 minutes. This was lunch.
We chat with her parents. They seemed to understand some basic slowly spoken English, but didn’t speak much. However once in a while they would surprise us and say something that showed very good understanding.
The policeman rolled to a stop on his Honda 125cc and joined us under the thatch roof of the elevated hut. He told us that there isn’t too much trouble in that village, and that he doesn’t carry a gun- he just uses karate and gave a laugh. He said the biggest troublemaker was Susan’s father which set off another laugh.