18. "Marie Bo made delicious lap-lap..."

Marie Bo made delicious lap-lap and was aces with a machete, working all her life to raise her children — extra hard after her husband died from a love of kava.

She found me intimidating the day we met in a hut in Pango Village, Vanuatu, but over five months we became fast friends, me teaching her English and she trying to teach me Bislama, both of us stitched up at the other's difficulty.

"Me likem you," and "Lincoln blong Marie." I was numbawan dog sitter and she was numbawan housekeeper. Together, we pierced coconut eyes to take begonia flowers plated with cassava chips and the best grapefruit you've ever had.