November 30

Alex and I spent the day at the kindergarten closing celebration. They call it the 'kindy break-away'. It's graduation combined with a fundraiser and lunch. We went to the kindy break-away last year too, it was incredibly more comfortable this year. Alex was passing around her recipe book and talking with all the women and playing with the kids. I mostly just ate.

There is this fruit that's in season now. I don't have a clue what it's name is in english, I don't even know it's name in Bislama. it's na-ha-clee-va or something in the local language. I struggle to find a fruit to compare it with. It's a stonefruit, it's like a soft apple, about the size of an apple and a pink to red skin with a white flesh, and taste a bit like what one might imagine a rose taste, it's a 'soft' flavor, the fruit is a bit watery and sweet. Alex and I call them rose apples, but that's just the name that the two of us made up. We have never seen them in America, and for good reason - they don't travel well at all. They get bruised on the ten minute walk from their tree to our house and their shelf-life is about 20 hours. We cut some open this evening that were harvested yesterday morning and they were infested with worms to the point of being (mostly) unusable.

We baked a chocolate cake topped with local nuts and rose apples for dinner. We can have cake for dinner because we are grown-ups.

Post Script - I think they are known as Malay Apples in English