Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and I wish everyone the best in 2009. I missed many of you as the clock struck midnight and the sermon in church was still going on. I explained that we celebrate the new year a little differently in the U.S. and while we also do drink a lot, it's not kava that we drink!

After the marathon long church service, the festivities began. The water fights started as did the banging on pots and pans and setting off of homemade bamboo cannons. The kava bowl also has yet to run dry. The festivities continue through the week around the clock, though we took a day off for the Sunday. However, as soon as Sunday ended at 12, the noise and water started right back up again. No matter how good I've gotten at sleeping through noise, there's some basic human instinct that makes it hard to sleep when it sounds like a war is going on and your house is shaking with the cannons being set off!

One of the main playing spots is right in front of my door...

And, no matter where you are in the village, it sounds like you are in a war zone. The cannons are fueled with kerosene and I've seen kids as young as 5 and 6 setting them off! They are really, really loud!

There's much more to update on, but my time is up. I think I'll be in town for a bit longer next week, so hopefully I'll update then.

Once again, a happy and healthy 2009 to everyone!