Week 16 in Tarawa

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!
We've had a lot of rain this past week; the rainy season has finally begun.  We had noticed this heart shaped plant formation months ago, but the rain has finally brought out the lovely pink flowers which form the words MORONI HS inside the heart shape.  A week later the pink blossoms were gone.

Following a long standing Sumner family tradition, we put together a jigsaw puzzle on New Year's Day.  It rained all day so we were glad to have something to do indoors.  We had a wonderful New Year's Eve dinner with the other senior couples before dropping in briefly to the stake New Year's Eve dance.  We left before anyone had a chance to ask us to dance, but we did dance briefly in our own apartment.  We also managed to stay up until midnight for the traditional New Year's Eve kiss. How romantic.

On Saturday, January 3rd, we took our first excursion/adventure to Broken Bridge.  On the way we stopped at this open air LDS chapel in Buota so our senior missionary nurse, Sister Aldredge, could visit a pair of sick sister missionaries.

While we were at the Buota chapel, we were approached by the driver of this truck.  He was stuck and wanted to borrow our jack.  The jack didn't help, so we asked him to try backing up while we pushed.  It worked!  He, his wife, and his load of children were very happy.

After driving to the northern tip of Buota, we parked the van and went out across the channel at low tide.  The water was only ankle deep and was pleasantly warm.

We saw the only traffic light on Tarawa, which wasn't working and wasn't needed.

We finally made it to broken bridge, where we stopped to cool our feet in the warm water while we ate our snacks and applied Band-Aids to our blisters.

 

 

On the way back the tide had started to come in.  We looked back to see Elder and Sister Waldron hip deep in the channel that just 2 hours earlier was only ankle deep.

They returned the favor and took a picture of us looking towards the Buota side of the channel.

 We stopped to take pictures of the boys jumping off the bridge to Buota.  While this bridge isn't broken, there were places where the bridge bed was rusted through so we could see right down to the water!

This is what happens when you forget to put sunblock on your sockless, sandaled feet.  Ouch.  The Band-Aids mark the places where my previously unworn Teva's rubbed me the wrong way.

All in all our first visit to the less inhabited parts of the island was an eye opener.  While there is electricity, the people on North Tarawa live in a more primitive state than most people on the South Tarawa island.  It was beautiful, clean, and peaceful.  The people were friendly and happy.  The laughing children followed us, especially when Elder Waldron began sharing some of his trail mix with them.

We imagine this is what it was like here 200 years ago when there were fewer people and less western influence.