The Days of Noah

In case you ever think of making a trip half-way around the world, August/September are not the best months to visit the McIntosh Family in Alotau. This past August, drenching rain rampaged every day and night. A friend's rain gage recorded over 1.5 meters of rainfall in just 1 month! Our compound experienced flash-floods four times since July. We've gotten pretty good at mopping

up!

This culvert across the street from our center can only take so much rain before it backs up, overflows, and sends water rushing over the road.

Our front gate looking out

Our faithful employees come rain or shine.

Water pours into the center

Tim's office

The Translation Resource Facility at the front of our center

Surf's Up!

Flooded workshop

The garden behind our house

Bursts of glorious blue have been sighted the past few weeks and we are hoping that rainy season is officially behind us.

Facebook Fan

Mole (as in Guacamole) happens to be a big facebook fan.

Summer Fun

(Even though we are back to the books, I thought I would share some pics of our summer fun.)

I originally blocked off 6 weeks for summer vacation but we extended it to 9 after deciding that we (this Mom in particular) need a longer break! We were able to get away for 5 days last month to a lovely resort (http://www.tawali.com/) which caters to divers and snorkelers around the world. The resort is waaaaay overpriced but one of the owners who does business with Tim offered up his personal home (at the resort) for a minimal cost. It was a huge blessing and just what we needed. This was our first-ever get-away as a family of 6 and 2 years since our last family-only vacation! It was perfectly lovely! We enjoyed swimming, kayaking, snorkeling, tide-pool treasuring, and Tim and I were even able to get some diving in thanks to a beautiful Australian family who offered to watch our kids. Bliss!!!

Our kids cried the first night we returned from our get-away and I felt like joining them! Some vacations you can’t wait till the end but perfectly wonderful vacations are the ones you most want to last forever.

sea biscuits

Brittle stars

sea urchins

sea slugs

Sand toys? I don't need sand toys-I've got a coconut!

Beautiful kids of Tawali

Tawali sunset

Romance 101

Austin has had a crush on his friend Sarah for quite some time. They have been writing/emailing one another for the past 2 years and had made a vow that they would one day marry each other. Puppy love, no doubt, but Austin is quite the Romeo. Before her arrival he helped design a heart carving with Boaz, our carpenter.

He then asked Carol, one of the housekeeping/gardening staff if she could arrange some flowers for Sarah.

He planned a special lunch for the two of them but it didn't go as planned. Austin was in tears after she quietly moved from his table to sit with her mom. Later she said she still wanted to marry him but she was a little nervous. His response: "She wants to marry me but she won't even eat lunch with me? I'm so confused!"

"My son", said his father, "Welcome to the wonderful world of wondering what women want!"

Mom's response: "I was once nervous eating lunch with your Daddy, but now look at us!"

Not only is Sarah a lovely little girl, but she likes snakes too! You can tell why Austin is smitten!

Scraping coconuts

Kylah straddles a wooden bench with a curved serrated metal blade on the end

The coconut is scraped up and down against the blade

This is harder than it looks

But the results are fresh, milky coconut--better than any flake coconut I've ever bought!

Success!

Eating fresh coconuts is one of the delights of living in the tropics. Kylah has mastered coconut scraping and enjoyed teaching her friends how to use the metal scraper to clean out the fresh meat of a coconut. We all got to take pleasure in eating coconut rice later for dinner. If you haven't tried fresh coconut rice, you are really missing out!

Kylah shows Sarah and Olivia how to scrape the fresh meat

Sarah was so excited to learn this talent!

Olivia tries her hand at coconut scraping

Sweet brothers lend a hand