August 2 - Malekula is crying.

Last night we wrote a song for Kalo Robbie entitled "Brotha, Fire (The Crazy Song) ft. Kalo Robbie" because in the past five weeks our lyric writing skills have improved tremendously. We thought it would be nice to sing it for everyone to get some smiles, because everyone is pretty depressed that we're out of here soon. Liesa then thought it would be a good idea to go GET Kalo and the others, and despite my incumbent stage fright, we sang it for them and had a good laugh. It was a good moment, and I couldn't help but thinking how lucky I was to be sitting around that fire instead of on that boat. Kalo told us that he thought of us as family, and that meant more than words can ever express. (He also gave me and Becca money for kava last night, and told us that when we were gone, he's look up into space and think of us...I don't even think we see the same stars in our hemisphere, but it doesn't matter. He's so great.)

Numbawan!!

At about 5 a.m., just about when we would have been waiting to get on the boat at Lits Lits, the heavens poured down on us, only for about 3 minutes. It was torrential rain, the likes of which I'd never seen before, and I took it as a good , good sign that we weren't getting on that boat (not that we were lacking in other signs) It was still dripping this morning, enough so that I (finally!) wore my 10 dollar yellow rain jacket to go to the toilet - Malekula is crying, she's sad that we're going away.

We went swimming today, despite the rain. We have nothing else to do, and we knew that it was our last chance. We are out of toilet paper, so we drip dry, and we are out of all food except for yams, so tonight Jess and I are preparing the 1st Annual YCI Lambubu Yam Festival.* We'll make yams in every which way we can possibly think of - boiled yams with coconut milk, boiled yams WITHOUT coconut milk, fried yams, yamcakes, roasted yams, purple yams...yams yams yams in all their glory! We have nothing to go with the yams, except coffee-flavored beverage, but that's ok, because yams go well with yams. Beer also goes well with yams, but that, my friends, will have to wait until tomorrow.

*YamFest 2006 was a great success; however, the peeling of the yams gave me an itchy rash on my neck.

Becca and Jess, preparing for the 1st Annual YCI Lambubu Yam Festival.

Me sharing a loving moment with my yam.