Kona's two youngest children,Smith and Efeli
I was thinking there must be some other way to do this other than to fall back on old themes, but I was dead wrong, which I admit freely. Seven years ago I sat on the veranda with Kona, and here I am still thinking about it as though it happened last night.
The old themes are the ones that carry a story, as it turns out. Michael became an old story as soon as he was done with his telling, if that makes any sense.
Kona's two youngest children,
Smith and Efeli
He was "married in" to the village from another place not too far off. When I realized that his home was a beautiful place by the sea with evening breezes and a view of tuna feeding off the shores in the early mornings, I thought he was crazy to live in a mosquito, and malaria infested "bush" village of his wife's family.
But Kona hadn't paid any brideprice, so it was decided that he couldn't just take Ella and the children and go off any old place. His work was to be given to her family as well as could be done. Naturally some exceptions were made to this. In fact, the family would spend weeks at a time in Kona's village, working at his gardens, and telling "liar stories" with his kin.
In fact, it was Kona's devotion to his family that was truly impressive.
Kona was unusual in his progressive behavior. Many men had "arrived" to a Christian way of thinking, but Kona lived it.
By a Christian way of thinking, I don't mean to say that he was particularly evangelical, or even that he knew the Bible inside and out. Rather, he learned from the Bible the same way a mechanic learns from a well-written guide to a certain model of car. That is, he uses the parts that he needs, and when the thing gives him a real boost in a situation he remembers it with a religious attention to the details.
It was a singular characteristic of Solomon Island men that they seemed to be aware of right and wrong at all times, and freely admitted their vice if and when they indulged it. Kona's vice was betlenut.
Even though his wife, Odelia was from a Catholic village, he was schooling his children at the New Apostolic church. The first time I met him he told me a story of how an African New Apostolic missionary had made a powerful impression on him. So strong that long after the man left the islands, Kona and Odelia named their second son, Smith, after him.
Naturally, as a development worker, I was interested in what a foreigner might have done here to win the admiration of a charismatic and resposible person like Kona. Credibility was always an issue for westerners coming to the islands, especially since the first impression that local people usually had of Peace Corps volunteers was less than positive. We would get sick easily, have trouble with working in the garden...
copyright 2002 by Edwin Staples