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not want to attempt that until our earlier work of this trip is in, digested, 
and written up! As with all good research, it should only open up new problems 
and new things to do! 
Captain Phinney has had three days of terrible toothache. Only tonight 
have we put him on antibiotic. He has no tooth tenderness nor submental 
adenopathy nor soft tissue or gum swelling or fever, but excruciating, almost 
disabling pain. We may have to let him head for a dentist on Honiara if it 
continues, for he does not want to lose the offending tooth which is not tender 
to pressure! 
Judy, Don, and Raymond are all nursing chronic. Indolent tropical ulcers, 
soaking them, and debriding them many times a day. They probably need more 
vigorous and cruel opening and debridement than any of them are willing to give 
them. 
I have reread my previous Rennell and Bellona paper and my Tongariki paper 
(with Chris Plato) to check on background data. If I can only put together a 
Rennell-like account for each of the Islands on which we have worked, how fine 
it would be! 
Henry Miller at his best; 
a "clear" (Dianetics) . . . "you usually get what you want when 
you need it." 
on religion: "the will of God" "the intelligence which 
directs the Universe, or the Mind which is the Universe, is there to 
draw on, there to collaborate with, when you stop trying to run the 
show." 
Lavangu village, Rennell Island November 6, 1972 
In the house of Erik Saunga at Lavangu village on Rennell Island, Don and I 
have moved in for the night, while the rest of our party lies anchored in the 
Alpha Helix just off the reefs. We are some 100 feet or so above the beach on 
the plateau on which most houses of Lavangu are built, although there are also a 
row of houses along the beach below. Kanggava Bay is vaster than I remembered 
it to be, and when we arrived at 8 a.m. after a couple of hours sail along the 
southern coast of Rennell, we first lay off the reef at Lugu village. We first 
went ashore to empty houses, which I learn were built for Council purposes, and 
then decided to go further down the shore to a small village high above the 
beach. However, when we approached this, we found there seven people easily 
bled, examined, finger and palm printed, and examined hematologically and even 
chest X-rayed. This took us some 2 hours, and so by 10 a.m. we were again on 
shore, this time because other canoes had arrived, from far down the Bay, from 
Lavangu. We met these canoes and were told that the Medical Assistant of 
Rennell Island, Wilmot, was on the beach before us, having just walked out of 
the bush from Tengano and Niupani village on the Lake some three hours walk 
away. On shore we found him along with William, Erik Saunga, and Charles 
Hi 
