marriage proposals, etc.

A brief disclaimer to anyone somewhat-frequently passing through our patch of internet domain: We do know that we've been slacking on pictures as of late, but the problem is that our current free internet connection is a 28.8 dial up modem, so loading pictures onto the internet right now is a laughable concept. We will get on the picture thing soon enough, but in the meantime, we invite you to enjoy our lovely writings (how humble!).

ANYWAY.

One of my favorite parts about Hohepa is dinner each night. For breakfast and lunch we eat food out of Hohepa's store, but for dinner, we each go to one of the houses to eat dinner with the residents each night. I'll let Ella tell you about her house if she is so inclined, but my house is pretty fantastic so I thought I'd share.

My house consists of six men, half over the age of 60. Up until tonight I thought the two different Roddys (yes, there is more than one person named Roddy in one small house!) were my favorites, and though I think they are both fantastic, at this point pretty much all of them have won places in my heart. Roddy #1, we'll call him, is in his 60s, though looks much more aged than that. He doesn't talk very much- actually, the other Roddy doesn't either- but he does wear a watch on each wrist (his explanation is "one for every six hours" but I still don't really understand what that means) and glasses that don't have lenses in them. He dresses like a grandpa might- slacks, a button-down, and some kind of sweater vest most days, even now that it's getting into summer. He really likes knitting and spends just about all of his time doing that, which is always fun to watch.

Roddy #2 comes to work on the farm each day, though he is kind of too old to do a lot so he "supervises." This means that he makes tea for everyone, washes dishes, and walks around taking pictures. He always has a smile on his face (the kind where your teeth aren't even touching because your mouth is open) and walks around in his gumboots (or galoshes, rainboots, whatever you are inclined to call them), a button-down shirt, and his sun hat. His sentences are always short and his answers to any question I could possibly ask consist of an average of three or so words, but he asks me every single day if I'm going to be there for dinner and seems excited when I tell him I will be.

The real reason I thought to write this post was because of tonight's dinner. David, another resident, was joking around with one of the workers before dinner-- "You're my mum! You're my grandpa! You're my grandson! You're my sweetie!" This persisted and after dinner he started in with me-- whispering something about a sweetie and then when I asked him to repeat himself, he'd start giggling and shove his face in a pillow. The night escalated into further giggly-ness when he insisted on reading the paper to us instead of the other way around- mind you, he can't read. It all started out innocently enough- he was describing a picture to us, but he is a real ham and the more he made us laugh, the goofier he got. He started pretending to read an article, talking about who took who to the doctor and talking about different events of the day, but that too devolved into sheer goofiness when he started talking about who was marrying who. Roddy is marrying the cat! Roddy is marrying John! Then he pointed to me and said, "You are marrying me! This is my husband and my wife!" I pointed out that he couldn't well marry someone whose name he didn't even know, so after prompting from a bunch of the workers he learned it, went outside, picked me flowers, and came back. The other residents were all pretty much beside themselves, laughing, shouting "Rubbish! Rubbish!" and so on. After re-informing everyone that I am apparently going to be both his husband and his wife, he informed one of the workers that he was going to wear a dress to the wedding, concluding the now beyond-absurd line of conversation.