This week has been busy getting ready for the start of school on Monday, February 1st. This is a picture of Michael Carthew teaching an all day workshop for the Moroni HS faculty. He is the Director of Pacific Area schools. Also teaching was Bruce Andreason, Area Director of Facilities. I remember as a teacher always wishing there were less meetings and more time for preparation, but this presentation moved quickly and was, I thought, very interesting and useful to our teachers, especially the part about coming to work on time!
Sister Sumner helped Aneta, our school nurse, prepare a PowerPoint presentation to familiarize our new students with the services she offers. They had fun with a student pretending to be sick with various aches and pains such as a tooth ache, a headache, and a stomach ache.
Open sores often get infected and become boils if not treated early, as we learned firsthand about a year ago. Here, Aneta demonstrates how to keep a sore protected with a wrapping.
Sister Sumner's regular walking companion, Sr. Jenks, left for Christmas Island, so I agreed to walk with her one morning. We stopped in front of the CoralAce store for this picture, which doesn't begin to capture the delicate shades of pink in the sunrise.
Here's the store mentioned in the picture above. We shop here frequently because it's close and has a nice selection of food and goods.
On the way back from our morning walk, I happened to see this beautiful garden. We went back later in the day and asked if we could buy some of the leaf lettuce (some call it leaf cabbage). They sold us three heads for $2.50 AUD each.
After pulling up the lettuce by the roots, they washed off the dirt, trimmed off the roots, and put them in plastic bags. It doesn't get any fresher than this! Notice the bouilla where they live: a palm frond roof, a floor, and no walls. Many on this island live like this, cooking over an open wood fire and bathing in the ocean. Their fresh water comes from rain saved in large plastic tanks or from shallow wells where the fresh water floats on top of the salt water below. It really is like camping out all the time!
These are shells we are shipping home as reminders of our stay in Kiribati. The large brown pointed shell in the top row was a gift to us from Tioromaia. Others we collected during our adventures to various places on the island.
Sister Sumner captured this dramatic view of an approaching rain storm (on the right) during low tide. The weather changes rapidly just like it does in Utah, although we never get snow! We've had some really torrential rain lately, but fortunately, no flooding.
Here I am presenting the first box of books our daughter sent for our school's library. Marinoa is our school librarian.
Marinoa was delighted with the kinds and variety of books. We counted 55 books in this first shipment.
We asked Marinoa, and she thought it would be nice to make a note in each book to acknowledge our daughter as the donor. We realize there were many donors, but hers is the only name we know, and she was the one that came up with this idea and put the effort all together. THANKS, JANET!
The circuit breaker for the lights in our apartment failed, so I replaced it. No one was electrocuted in the making of this repair! Locally, most people would never do this themselves, but in the states, homeowners commonly do this kind of minor maintenance.
Friday night we went with the other senior couples and our guests from New Zealand to Mary's Restaurant. Much to our amusement, we watched the cat, which had been prowling around our feet, sneak up onto this table to eat the left over food. Sorry it's so hard to see. The cat is on the table right in the middle of the picture.
This afternoon (Sunday, Jan. 31st), Tioromaia (right), Eutita (left), Abiete, and Gloria (nursing in Eutita's lap) came by to watch the Pacific Area Plan video. He had received it on a flash drive, but had no way to watch it since they don't have a computer.
Gloria, on the left, turns 1 on February 8th. We remember when she was born and given the name Gloria Richard, after Elder and Sister Rasmussen who served here just before us. Abiete and Gloria are both holding some toys that Sister Sumner gave them from a box sent to the Weir's by their families. Children here rarely have what we would call toys. They mostly make their own toys out of stuff left laying around like old tires, empty cans, and tree branches.
We have had time this week to reflect on the past 17 months. We are often praised for the "sacrifices" we made in order to come and serve the people here. We realize, however, that what many call sacrifices are insignificant in light of the great blessings that have been poured out on us. As King Benjamin said, the more we try to serve Him, the more he blesses us, and we will forever be in His debt. In the Lord's service, we cannot make any sacrifices too great, because the reward of Eternal Life is the greatest gift our Father in Heaven can give us.
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