Mrs Noah and the RMS

This morning after school, Caleb was drawing a picture, and it developed into Noah’s ark. I suggested he put the people in, since he had two giraffes at the door, so he drew Noah and his sons (as little boys), and their wives. I reminded him that Noah had a wife, which he had forgotten to draw, so he thought for a bit, and then starting drawing a washing line, with clothes hanging up, and Noah’s wife at the end of that, hanging up the washing. Shows you his perception of woman’s place in the world!

Our microwave has stopped working. It makes the right noises and the light comes on and the plate turns, but no microwaves come out. The food stays the same temperature. So the church is going to buy a new one. Unfortunately, no shops but one stock them at the moment! I found one at Rose & Crown, for £85, and it’s tiny. I don’t even know if our regular sized dinner plates would fit in. We might have to wait until shops get them in again, instead of buying something that might be fairly useless.

News from the island: The contract or lease of the RMS St Helena with Andrew Weir Shipping has been renewed for another five years, taking us to 2015. This relieves the pressure on the air access people significantly, because it’s looking less and less likely that we will have an airport by 2010. The tender documents are all being redrafted, because the three consortia interested in the airport project pulled out. So it’s definitely not going to be the case that we fly out of here when we’re finished our time here! Unless, of course, the Lord decides to keep us here longer than we anticipated. In answer to someone’s question posted on the blog, the RMS is the only supply ship, and it brings supplies from Cape Town on average once a month. When it goes up to the UK, as it will be doing next month, we have to wait longer for supplies, which is when we start running out of things like milk. I think the islanders have learned how to plan for these longer absences, and stock up on the essentials, while us ex-pats are left with empty cupboards.