Today we went in to do our daily dressing changes on the chief's brother's big toe that I did the I&D on two days ago. The swelling is going down, his tenderness to the toe is improving. We are pleased with the results. His wife has plenty of dressing supplies to do daily dressings. Today, I also noticed other wounds in the village dressed with the supplies I left. I think they will be used well.
We met some people from the village at the end of the bay. They indicated that they go fishing when the winds pick up. This morning they paddled out to the boat, and we traded fishing gear for fresh fruit. This island was less wiped out from the cyclone, only banana trees fell down, but most everything else held up. We traded a shell for some rope also.
On shore, twice now people have asked us to change NZ dollars for local Vanuatu money. They have no place they can do that here, so we are all set for when we go to NZ.
Then we met a woman named Judy. She came to our dinghy to meet us. Apparently the man, Pule, who came to our boat to trade fruit for fishing gear, is getting married tomorrow. She asked if she gave us self-rising flour if we could make the wedding cake. It is quite hard in their village to make a cake. They cook over open fire, so have to cook with a lid on the pot and hot rocks on the lid to get it to rise. I used to make fruit cobblers that way as a rafting guide and it was a great treat out camping, but this is how they cook and live daily. We walked with her to her house, she showed me her kitchen, separate building across from the sleeping house. She had a collection of flour, eggs, margarine, and sugar for me. I just took the eggs since I am low on those, everything else we have, no problem. So, I am tasked with making a wedding cake!! I think their expectations are low, but I sure hope it turns out! I'm sure the cake will be fine, but we've had so many issues making a smooth frosting that doesn't pull the cake apart and spreads smooth and easily. This shall be my challenge.
So tomorrow we go around 9:30 am to bring the cake to the church and get to watch a local wedding. They set up tables with cake outside the church for the "reception". Courage was thinking of bringing a bush knife as a wedding gift. In the US, this would be quite unusual, but maybe here??? It will be fun to see, this is definitely something new for us. Haven't seen a local wedding, well, pretty much anywhere.
We were going to leave today, but now it looks like tomorrow after the wedding we will be departing.
Also, at the village with Judy and Pule, we donated 3 water filtration units. By Judy's house, the water comes from a well. There is no lining, it is just dirt/mud. The water comes up light brown. The have a drum to collect rainwater, but it's concrete and has cracks, so it leaks at the base and won't hold water. The other 2 water filtration units go up in the main village where there are 22 houses and a few wells, but no clean water. We sent them in today, but will set them up tomorrow.
Shannon
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