Day two in Mongaliliu

Day two in Mancalilu.

I woke up an had some gud kakae (good food) in the morning. We started our classes today. We had two Bislama language lessons in the morning and then had a speaker from the Ministry of Education. I could hardly stay awake through his talk. The class was at the Nakamal (meeting place) down by the salwota (ocean) and I was enjoying the view. After his long and drawn out talk, (it took one and a half hours to what I could tell you in about 8 minutes) we headed up to the Mango tree for lunch.

The Mamas prepare food for lunch everyday. It is so good, but I know I should not get used to it, because there will become a time when I wont be able to rely on their cooking. Some of the kakae we eat is: fried banana fritters with coconut butter on top, aelan kabis (island cabbage,) fruit salad with bananas, po-po (papaya,) and coconut milk, faol (chicken) prepared ten different ways, pumpkin with coconut on top, maniok, and Taro, plus ten different kinds of fruit juices.

After our big meal we had two more sessions that seemed to take forever. The problem with these sessions is that the people leading them are not good public speakers and they have a hard time conveying their message. Between sessions we did manage to get a good round of Frisbee in.
After class was done for the day I ran home and got m mask and snorkel and headed out to sea. Wow this place has some great diving. While there is not as much life in the water as NorCal, there is still some amazing things here. I saw a giant clam the size of a 17” computer monitor. Coral so white that it looked like it had diamonds on the ends glowing in the sunlight. I saw a strand of sea snake eggs and about three good sized lobsters. The pikininis are great divers too. We had about three kids swimming diving with us. Parents back home would freak out at what kids here can do. They go swim in the ocean at about 5 and 6 by themselves. They swing bigfala naif (machete) around as soon as they can hold one.

Later that evening I went and had some Kava with my uncle. It is much different here then in Vila. Instead of being at some business, it was just in the front yard where one of my fellow Pis Ko volentia lives. We sat out side and storion (told stories) while I stared up at the stars. In the early evening I have a great view of Scorpio straight over head and later in the evening I can see Orion, but he is upside down.

When I came home, my Mama put out dinner. After which we sat around, sang camp songs, and I did some magi tricks. The kids loved it. They just eat it up and are always toktok one more, one more plis. I was thinking that because of my big swim and drinking kava that I would get some great sleep. WRONG!!!!!

I woke up at a little before 1 am because one corner of my mosquito net had fallen down. No big deal, it only barley woke me up, but then I felt something crawling across my arm and I quickly swatted it away. My first thought was man that was a huge spider. So with my curiosity wanting to see it I grabbed my headlamp, not really thinking too much of it. Well what I thought was a giant spider and was big ugly handredleg (centipede.) I was about 6”or 7” long. You can guess how quickly I jumped out of bed. I had my Bigfala knife in my hand in no time and was no about to go on a hunt. I lit my kerosene lantern and put on my headlamp. I knew I could not just cut him in half because then I would have two angry centipedes on my hands, so I looked around and found a biohazard plastic bag. With the bag and machete in hand I went looking for the beast.

I found him on my mosquito net I a hit him with my knife. This made him very angry and he stood up on end preparing to fight back. Centipedes have a serious bite to them; with their gnarly poisonous pinchers they are pretty intimidating. I somehow managed to scoop him into the bag and I tied the end in a knot. Not knowing if he could eat his way through the plastic I put that bag inside of a dry sack and sealed that as well. When I hung that bag up on the hook I scared a spider about the size of a tennis ball and he went scurrying off. The spiders are harmless and eat mosquitos, so I was glad for him to be here.

Let me tell you, trying to go back to sleep after a giant centipede has walked across you is not easy. Every time I closed my eyes I could only see the hideous creature that I had just battled. I finally did fall a sleep and had terrible nightmares about killing a centipede with my knife and it growing two heads back almost instantly. I should tell you that I also took my melfoquin earlier that day. Some of you may remember the bad wrap melfoquin got back after Vietnam, when the three vets came home and all brutally murdered their wives? The only link between all three was the melfoquin. It can cause extremely bloody nightmares, so bad that some people have to be switched to doxycyclin. The problem with doxy is that you must take it everyday or run the risk of getting malaria. The melfoquin you only need to take once a week, so your chances of forgetting your pill and getting malaria are decreased.

Well I am laying in bed typing this out and I am still freaking out because I can here things scurrying about and I am afraid it is going to be another handredleg. But tomorrow we must get up early to go into Vila where hopefully I can send this out to you guys. Well good night. Me and my Bigfala knife are going to sleep now.