Tahiti and Bandaged Thumb...

Yes, Mom, it's true. I cut my thumb badly this morning as I was cutting up Honeydew for breakfast, but Jeremy and Sarah have helped me bandage it today, and I am doing just fine. I feel sort of silly, though, typing with this huge bandage on my thumb (picture Karen's finger when she slammed it in the truck door at 5yrs). Anyway, I had a wonderfully relazing weekend in Tahiti. Most stores are closed on the weekends, so I did a lot of journalling, writing, cooking, and hanging out with Gillian, the Andersons and whoever else stayed on the boat (many people take off for the day to travel around the Island in rental cars and go sight-seeing, which is what I hope to do on my days off this next weekend). I went to a church service yesterday with Bonice, her 4 youngest, and Gillian, and then we walked to the grocery to get some food (I got fruit, granola, yogurt and water - heavenly!) and then took a beautiful walk back to the boat by the water. It was a very hot day, so I stayed on the boat for the most part, sitting in the shade, and then went shopping with Gillian before dinner. We had some Tahitian thief sneak onto the boat at 4am this morning when we were all sleeping up on deck, and he tried to steal one of the trainees Ipods. Luckily, Noah saw him and "raised the alarm", and Skipper dived over everyone and grabbed the guy, yelling at him just as he was about to jump ship. The guy fell into the water between our boat and the dock, dropping the girl's headphones down to where they lay on the ocean floor now, but she got her Ipod back. It was quite the excitement, and nervousness after that, and everyone took a while to fall back asleep, or just stayed awake. The officials came over from guarding the cruise ships and held the guy in custody, but because he's a minor they can only hold him for about 6 hours, unless we decide to press charges. Quite the nerve of the guy, to climb on board with all of us sleeping on deck. Anyway, we had night watch all last night (which is not typical when we are docked) just to make sure it doesn't happen again. We also tied further away from the dock, so we're not as close to it, and the lifelines are all up, making it more difficult to climb aboard, and more difficult for us to jump off. But it's much safer now! I am enjoying Tahiti, and love that I get to go to the market and buy fresh produce and fruit! I went early yesterday morning to get a bunch of produce for the boat (it's open from 3-8am on Sundays) and I got some trainees to pick up some fresh baguettes and cream cheese for lunch today - they loved that! We have our two work days this Tuesday and Wednesday, so we will be doing a lot of shopping, cleaning, and stowing! Our fresh shop will most likely be done next Sunday, the day before Leg 3, to allow for the freshest, and best selected produce, meat, and fruit! I must go soon, so I can start dinner for tonight, and do a few more errands before the stores close. Love to you all! I am doing well, and basking in the hot South Pacific heat!

P.S. Pictures are very difficult to download here, and take a long time, but I will try to get some on if possible, in the meantime, check out Gillian's blog (access by my links) or go to the SALTS website to find links to other blogs, such as Jose's or Antony's or Jordan's - they have AMAZING pictures!