February 18, 2018 - Emidj

February 18, 2018

Today started out pretty uneventful for me, again, but after waking up and seeing Pete it was clear that he’d had a rough night. I had kept watch last night until I sent to bed but during the night, the winds got even worse and the boat kept twisting in all directions on the anchor. Being totally in-tune with the weather and Miss Kiss, he woke up and spent the rest of the night keeping watch so that Miss Kiss didn’t end up turned too far toward shore, hitting a balmy (coral reef areas that grow up out of the sand in patches). We’d anchored well but with the gusts of wind, one never knows.

After giving me instructions about depth, the radar screen and anchor alarm, he took some cold medicine and headed back to bed. I spent some time waking up relaxing with a cup of tea and  book on the Kindle, then decided it was time to get motivated, so I cut out the fabric I’d bought for seat cushion covers in the salon and long ones for the benches in the cockpit. I had just enough fabric with using the sunbrella fabric for the bottom of the cockpit cushions as the surface is quite rough and would have worn through my fabric in no time. Pete made the sunbrella for over the cockpit area himself and actually has a sewing machine on board. Needless to say, I find both quite impressive. He’d also made covers for the bench cushions in the cockpit, but they were beginning to wear out and as I took a good look at them began to worry that my rudimentary sewing wouldn’t measure up.

Pete woke up and I decided to bake some fruit scones as our candy supply was getting low, plus the scones would have some nutritional value for the kids and adults here, who don’t seem to have much at all. After a bit of a lazy afternoon for me spending time watching a flock of birds dive for dinner among a huge group fingerlings with larger fish jumping out of the water towards them to protect their dinner we both decided it was time to hit the water. Pete had been working on electronics for the satellite internet connection and afterward, decided to get in the water to get more prework done on the bottom of the boat for tomorrow’s painting on the seaplane ramp. I offered to snorkel over to the anchor and make sure it was all good.

As I was returning to Miss Kiss, I noticed several people on a traditional sail canoe and the began calling to me. I swam over to Pete and told him we had company. Getting closer, they said they had brought us drinking coconuts as a gift. It was then I realized that I’d only seen men or boys on the canoes, not women or girls. I ran inside the boat to pack up some cookies and noticed we had a lot of extra limes, so packed some of them up too, then swam them over to the canoe and we exchanged our gifts for each other. They also wanted to know if the could come on board. Looking at Pete for an answer, he said it would be fine. But just a couple at a time. One woman spoke English quite well, and it was decided she, the other woman and the girl would come on board, just the girls first. He asked me if I’d given them any candy and as I went down to get some, Pete went forward to get a mask and snorkle to give to boys to share. The boys were on the steps and the youngest immediately began swimming around with the mask and snorkel.

While handing out candy, I realized the older of the two women had an injury on her leg, looking at it closer, I could see it was severely infected with the whole side of her leg swollen and a good sized pustule oozing puss. Ah, so that was the reason for the women being on the canoe and the visit, they were hoping to get help with her infection. I ran downstairs and came back with rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and a bag of cotton balls and handed them to her. Then went back down and put some antibiotic ointment into a ziplock. Soon realization fully dawned on me that they had no medical supplies for her leg and she was desperate for help. With that thought, we got together a small care package with cotton balls, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, ointment, bandages and a ten day dose of oral antibiotics. She asked if we had some Tylenol and realized what pain she must be having, so since Pete had plenty on board, I handed her the bag I had brought with me.

We wash our dishes outside on the bench and let them dry and Pete was working on putting them away so there was more room to sit. I noticed this drew raised eyebrows from the ladies. Pete and I sat down and we exchanged names, ages of the children, I asked about the school and we made small talk. Pete said he was going to shave and I rolled my eyes, smiling making a gesture with my hand of how he wanted to look nice and the ladies laughed. When he returned, I pointed to his shirt and asked if he wasn’t going to change that as it was his old workshirt. He sat for a moment and the ladies waited wide-eyed to see what he’d do. He went inside and returned with a yellow T-shirt and mentioned he now matched the dingy. I then pointed to his shorts and asked if he wasn’t going to change those and the ladies erupted in laughter. No, he didn’t change them, but enjoyed teasing him as did the ladies.

Boys take off on canoe, wonder if we should take the to shore… lady and girl looking inside Miss Kiss and reporting eir findings to the lady with the leg injury as she was too hurt to walk around. One boy arrived floating in a plastic cover for a large boat engine, needed his sandals from the canoe for paddles on the trip back to shore. Boy left behind on shore very upset and yelling to his mom and crying and when I mentioned him visiting Tuesday, he was not happy. Got together a bag of cookies and candies for him. Virtually no wind and yet the teenage boy sailed effortlessy around the lagoon while the ladies and a boy and girl stayed behind to visit.

We had a late dinner after our company of leftover chicken, rice and pork mixed with beans. Pete decided to make soft tortillas with cheese, salsa and lettuce and I had mine over tortilla chips. He got out the computer, so I could print out some things for the school as promised, but the printer was having issues so I couldn’t print out more books, but did manage, with great patience turning the HP on and off again repeatedly, to print out the bilingual alphabets and dictionaries that I’d made while at Assumption. Sleep was welcome tonight. 

The seaplane ramp

A rainbow at the end of Emidj