Afternoon with Elina

So Saturday after lunch I was missing Elina. She does not have a cell phone so there is no way to communicate with her. So I went outside, got in a taxi and took the 15 minute ride to her house. I passed the building with the red roof, then the group of trees and shipping trailers and finally the house with the green roof. I spotted the volleyball net as my landmark and stopped the taxi. I got out and Elina’s friends greeted me instantly. However, they said Elina not here. Elina in taxi. I thought that was unusual because Elina is always at her house. Nevertheless, I flagged down another taxi, waved to Netha and Lucious (two of her kids) and headed back to the hotel. When I got back, I walked up the stairs and guess who was there? Elina! She was missing me, too, and decided to come see me at the exact same time! I told her where I had been and we laughed and laughed. Everyone in the lobby heard us and they all laughed too!

We spent a few hours together Saturday and it was wonderful. It was just Elina and me and Nickson, Alia and Rickson. It was the first time Nickson had been to the hotel. He is a bit older so usually off playing with the older boys. I put cartoons on for the kids and Elina and I talked. They call it bwebwenato which means “playing conversation”. That is what people do here. They just sit and talk. It is really nice. We have some silences because of the language barrier, but for the most part we talk. At some points in our conversation yesterday we even said the exact same thing to each other at the exact same time. It is really unbelievable. The two of us are really connected in so many different ways. When this happened, again, we just laughed and laughed. I wish you could all hear Elina laugh. It is contagious!

Elina always asks me when I am leaving. I tell her I do not know. She told me yesterday I could just stay here with her. I joked and said okay, I would just move in with her. She laughed and said, “oh, we go to Mili and live on Mili”. Mili is her home atoll where she is originally from. She loves it there. Elina and Marie (the birthfather – oh did I mention I met him….more for another post) said next time we come back they want to take us to Mili to see where they are from and how much they love it there. Elina said she would love to live on Mili with me.

How am I ever going to leave her….