5-27-13

This weekend has been Memorial Day Weekend.  I miss putting flowers on Denis and my parent's graves but I sure have thought about them a lot.  Seems like yesterday they were alive and we could visit with them.  Sure do miss them.  Denis and I rode up to Laie's cemetery.  Packed full of people sitting around the graves, eating and having a good time.  Some even had ukuleles and guitars.  Could smell the food and wanted some.  The graves all sit above the ground, some have little fences around them and lots have big headstones.  

This is a homemade quilt on the grave held down with potted plants.  They said sometimes if it is a new grave they will cover it for some time so the rain does not wash the dirt away.

 Tuesday we had to take tickets at night for the Samoan luau.  It is a new one that they are trying out.  The food is from Samoa and the entertainment is put on  by Samoan kids.  We really enjoyed the entertainment and music.  Very energetic.  They brought out the pig they had been cooking all day and showed it to the guests.  In all reality the pig is used for the next day's meal.  The MC is the short muscle-y guy.  He is middle-aged.  Very funny and entertaining.  Look at his calves.  They are as big as the tops of my legs.  We really enjoyed the evening.  

The chief of this village is a bishop of one of the student wards.  He is one of the men playing the ukulele farthest to the right.  His two little teenage sons are the fire knife dancers.

This Samoan princess has a headdress on which just bushes out everywhere.  It is not her hair but it is real hair cut from a human and washed in the ocean.  It is left there for some time and then put on the beach to bleach out the black.  It is reddish blond.

 A new single sister has come this last month to the mission.  She was a professor at BYU Ricks college in sewing and pattern design .  She has told us the most interesting things. She was called to go to the Chicago mission and had gone to the MTC.  On her way out she was pulled aside and told her mission had been changed.  They didn't know where yet but she was to go home and wait.  She had to supply her fridge again with  food, turn on utilities etc.  She waited for 2 months and finally got word she was going to the PCC.  She had bought winter clothes for her mission.  Now she had to start all over.  Her Stake President told she would learn why soon after she got here.  He didn't know either.  Here in our sewing department there is a little lady called Nona.  She is a Hawaiian that is 75 years old and has worked here for 45 years.  She cuts all of the patterns out just by measurements alone and no pattern pieces.  She has a theme book full of measurements.  This sister who has come sat down with Nona one afternoon and compiled the measurements from the different countries.  Then she was going to put them in the computer and bring up standard measurements for the countries according to their builds.  The people in Salt Lake that work with the design of the garments are going to re-size and re-design them according to countries.  For example, the people from Tonga are a much bigger build than the Chinese people.  A size 32 for Chinese would be much smaller than a 32 for Tongans.  This woman is going to help change some of the design.  She raves on and on about little old Nona and the wealth of knowledge she has in her head and her little theme book.  We joked with Nona about selling her knowledge and getting rich.  She is short with little feet that are so swollen from standing on them.  She wears the same black flip flops everyday.  She has the cutest laugh and is so pleasant and loving.  Gives us all goosebumps when we see some of this in the works.  I think this woman is maybe seeing a small part of why she is here.  She has a lot of good ideas and modern sewing supplies to make our sewing easier.  

Now to Denis.  He is working with a lazy kid from India.  His name is Cannon.  All he wants to do is drive the cart and put in light bulbs.  And he gets away with it!  One day the boss wasn't there so Denis was going to make him dig some trenches.  He told Cannon to get the shovel and get going.  The kid sat down and took off his shoes and socks.  Denis looked at him and ask how in the heck was he going to push down on the shovel and dig with no shoes.  He said in India they don't dig, they just scrape the top layer off and then the next.  Guess who ended up digging the trench.   Denis did---he said they would have been there all day if the Indian kid would have done it.  Poor old Denis ----hard work and no pay check!   

The weather has been very nice this weekend.  No- we are not getting used to the humidity but there has been the nicest breezes blowing through the windows.  Saturday we washed windows and screens and now the scenery is so beautiful of the ocean and palm trees looking out our clean windows.  

Last night I went to an enrichment meeting at a home of another mentor.  The girls were from Fiji, Hong Kong, Thailand, Philippines and the USA.  How is that for diversity?  

 Tomorrow is a holiday.  Don't know what we will do but we must get ready for Kenzie. She is coming Thursday night and I am so excited!  Our painting on the wall is from Stacey, Brady and kids.  I am decorating our apartment in children's art work.  I love and miss them little things.  

 Have a nice week.  Almost 3 months down.  

Love, Sherleen