Our Neighbors: Part Three. Meet Robertson & his Family

If we sit on our back porch, we are looking at another full household.  It took Sarah and me almost three months to figure out the family dynamic, but we finally have a good hold on the situation!  Here, Robertson lives with his large and extended family.  Robertson and his wife, Patricia, live with their son Connor (6 years old).  Robertson is a busy carpenter and electronics salesman, and his wife Patricia helps sell “bony” in the market – dried, smoked fish. 

Patricia sells bony for the woman who owns the house next to us and her family.  Regina and her husband own the three buildings that all form one sort of family compound, and they have six children:  Madea (13 years old), Ine (10 years old), Maee (9 years old), Salimatu (5 years old), Havitsu (3 years old), and Abraham (4 months, or so).  Regina’s husband sells jewelry and other trinkets, but Regina’s business seems to be what is supporting the family.  She sells smoked fish in the market, or what is called bony here. 

Also in this house lives Roland, Regina’s nephew, who is a senior at the Methodist High School here in Pleebo.  There are another six or seven people who live in this set of buildings, but we’re still not sure of their names or relations.  Regina is the one we see the most often, and she has always been welcoming to us.  Robertson stops by quite often to say hello, and he is the one that Sarah and I bought our smart phones from. 

Conner (in the orange) and Havitsu (in the blue)

Conner (in the orange) and Balali (a young boy who lives near us)

This family always has something going on; their porches are never empty, and the children have yet to tire of their white women neighbors.  Things are getting better on that front, but having Regina and Robertson around make up for any extra harassment we get from the children in that family.  Overall, they’re wonderful neighbors and I wouldn’t want anyone else to live right next door to us.