Week 50 in Tarawa

 

 

You know things were crazy busy last week when the only pictures we have are of the weather.  While I write this, a major storm is blowing over us.  The roar of the pounding surf and the rain create quite a background sound while I type.  Sorry, but I couldn't get a video to download. :-(

Here's what Sister Sumner sees as I'm typing.












We've had a lot of rainbows along with the rain this past week.











For supper tonight I got to be the taste tester for bread bowl chili, which we're thinking might be a fun meal for the missionaries at the next Zone conference.  I gave it an 8.7 out of 10.











One of the reasons we've been so busy this week is that we have been giving reading literacy tests (know as DIBELS tests in the education business) to all 650 of the students at Moroni High School.  We are a lot better organized this time than last, and they're going pretty well.  Giving these tests in the classrooms every period of every day this past week has been exhausting.  The heat, humidity, and noise  make us wonder how anyone can teach or learn here.  We haven't begun to analyze the data, but we hope it shows the students' English skills have improved. We've been quite surprised, however, at the absenteeism, which means we will have lots of make-up testing to do starting September 7th.

Another reason we've been so busy this week is that we've been asked to lead presentations at the Seminary and Institute training scheduled for this coming Monday and Tuesday.  We've downloaded the video and the text of the talks given at the 2015 S&I training done earlier this month in Salt Lake City, and now we each will present one of the talks to our faculty. 

 

We thought we might have some time next week to prepare our lessons for the next ITEP class, SCED 401, but between the S&I training on Monday and Tuesday and chaperoning the regional youth conference next Wednesday through Saturday, we'll be scrambling to get ready for the start of our class on September 8th.

Yesterday evening we attended a beautiful baptism at the open air chapel in Buota.  The setting was so beautiful; the spirit so sweet.  A perfect way to end our stressful week.  Of course we forgot our cell phone cameras.  Sorry.  You'll just have to imagine the palm trees swaying in gentle ocean breezes under a full moon.  Sometimes it really does seem like a vacation!
Love, Elder and Sister Sumner

Week 49 in Tarawa

 

We had a fairly unusual week this week.  The Moroni High School students had mid-year exams all week, and our ITEP teacher/students had their final exam in EDU 312.  We're happy to report that our teacher/students all passed.  I can't say the same for the MHS students.                                

 

On Monday, August 17th, the piano I ordered from Australia arrived.  We're donating this piano to the Seminary and Institute classroom in Teaoraereke.  Once again, as with the piano we donated last March, I built a simple wooden stand for the piano and a footplate for the sustain pedal to keep the pedal from sliding out from under foot.  We hope the pianos will encourage the Kiribati members to take lessons and learn to play.  Music is a wonderful gift the Lord has given the Kiribati people.  Their singing is amazing to hear.

 

On Wednesday, August 19th, we had a zone conference with all the missionaries on Tarawa.  Sister Sumner, Sister Weir, and Sister Alldredge decided to cook "mountain man breakfast" and pancakes for the elders and sisters for lunch.  We left the pancakes on the dash of the truck during the morning conference so they would be piping hot by the time we served them for lunch.  "Mountain man breakfast", consisting of potatoes, bacon, eggs, cheese, and onions, is a dish we learned to cook from the McEachern's, although they always made it in a Dutch oven.  Lacking Dutch ovens, we found that crockpots worked quite nicely.

Sister Alldredge, our mission nurse, did a presentation on how to care for the water filtration systems the church provides for each missionary apartment.  She decided to do this after discovering that some missionaries were not changing their filters when they were supposed to.  Some of the filters were black, slimy, and disgusting.

 

The elders and sisters really chowed down on the pancakes and mountain man breakfast.  Many had seconds and thirds.  Having eaten a fair sized helping myself, I can attest to its delectability.

We had to twist President Weir's arm to get a group photo.  He's on the far left, and Sister Weir is on the far right.  Between them are 20 of the 22 elders and sisters serving on Tarawa.

On that same Wednesday evening, we were invited to the YM/YW activity to help them learn how to waltz.  They are planning on performing at Youth Conference next week, where we will be chaperoning.  Dancing while actually touching a dance partner is very foreign to I-Kiribati (people native to Kiribati).  We thought their shyness was very cute and very welcome.

On Thursday evening, while I was giving SLEP (Second Language English Proficiency) tests to students in the TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning) lab, Sister Sumner was out on the basketball court helping with another waltz practice session.

While we have no pictures to prove it, we were very busy Saturday with cleaning, cooking and laundry.  I vacuumed and did 3 loads of laundry while Sister Sumner cleaned the bathroom, made banana bread, three loaves of white bread, and started the lasagna for our Sunday dinner with guests from Australia.  Keith and Rosemary Eastwood are working and volunteering as an epidemiologist and as a nurse for 2 months on Kiribati.  We also spent time Saturday working in the office on our lessons for SCED 401, and went with Sister Alldredge later in the afternoon to rescue the sister missionaries whose car had been side swiped by a drunk driver.  While they were unhurt, they were still pretty shaken up.  The car will need a new front bumper and headlight.  This morning, while slicing the three loaves of bread she cooked yesterday, I found 2 little black bugs baked into the bread.  We decided we had better sift all the rest of our white flour.  We a few dozen black bugs, some still alive, along with a few larvae.  In the U.S., we would have probably thrown out the flour and the bread, but in Kiribati, we just get a little more insect protein in our diet.  I guess that makes us official veterans of living in a third world country.




 

 

Week 48 in Tarawa

We had a number of events happen this week besides our usual teaching activities.  This week was Counseling Week at Moroni High School.  The theme was Embark from D&C 4:2.  The theme was introduced on Monday with a logo contest.  Students were challenged to create their own artwork to portray the theme.  The winning entries were given prizes.  Sorry, but we don't have pictures of this.  Guess who were the judges!!

Tuesday's theme was Heart.  Students created valentine-like paper hearts with messages which were posted all over campus.  Heart shaped cakes were made by the baking classes so each student could have a piece of cake during homeroom.

Surprisingly, many boys were involved in the baking and decorating as well as in the clean up afterward. 


Wednesday's theme was Might.  The assembly was about the might of counseling, with prizes for the best logo's given out by us. We saw many disappointed faces in the audience when Sister Sumner announced that only on-time entries were considered for prizes.  Sorry, no pictures here, either.

Thursday's theme was Mind.  Members of the faculty acted out various careers which the students had to guess--like playing charades.  Correct guessers won small food prizes.

Friday's theme was Strength.  Arm wrestling competitions were held for each grade and for girls as well as boys.  We didn't know when we suggested it that arm wrestling is actually a very popular sport in Kiribati.



At our Leadership Meeting Thursday afternoon, Lita, our principal, asked us if we could fill in for her at the University of the South Pacific (USP) open house the next day, Friday, August. 14th.  We were planning on preparing for our next class, but were excited to be able to go to this activity instead.  At Bairiki Square there were talks and dancing.  Later we drove to the new, huge, USP facility being built in Teaoraereke.

This is the USP President addressing the audience.

The dancers performed beautifully.

And, once again, we were garlanded by the dancers.  It has only been a few years since we had even heard the term "selfie", but here we are, doing it to ourselves just like teenagers.

When we were invited to get in line for the USP building tour, we were asked if we had our own transportation.  To make a long story short, we ended up busing 8 other people back and forth in the van we were driving.  Here's the group that came with us posing in front of the building.  Those in white are Marine Training Center (MTC) students and faculty.

The exterior of the building, we were surprised to find out, is painted, white pine wood slatting.  The wood has been treated so it doesn't taste good to termites.  We'll see about that.

The bottom floor is designed to be open to the outside. There is a wheelchair ramp zigzagging all the way up to the second floor.  Here's part of our group trying out the wheelchair.

Much to our surprise, the wheelchair appears to have been donated by the church.

This room is designated to become the library.  We were told the pink sheetrock is a special grade that resists the heat and humidity of the Kiribati climate.

This view from the north end of the 1st floor is looking toward the northeast.  The main road and the lagoon are visible, along with water storage tanks and a satellite dish for internet.

This is looking south from the north end of the 2nd floor.  It is designed to feel like the inside of a Maneaba.  All the structural steel has been hot dipped galvanized to resist the corrosive effects of high humidity and salt air.  We were told the design life of the structure is 80 years.

I don't think Sister Sumner has worn a hard hat since she tore down the old Wasatch Elementary School.










On Saturday morning, while I was attending the priesthood session of stake conference, Sisters Sumner, Weir, and Alldredge went to the Eco farm to buy eggs for the Zone Conference lunch on Wednesday, August 19th.

This shows the cleaning and sorting building on the right, with the chicken pens further back on the left.  This is not what you usually picture an egg farm looking like, with palm trees swaying in the background.

What would an egg farm be without chickens!

Here's Sister Alldredge supervising the egg cleaners and sorters.  We had ordered 9 dozen eggs, and they were working on filling a 20 dozen egg order that same morning.  That'll keep those hens busy!
We were surprised to learn that the eggs are not washed, but are only lightly sanded off with sandpaper.  In other words, they could still have chicken poop traces on the eggs.  We wash them carefully at home before cracking them open.

Finally, as I mentioned above, this weekend was our stake conference.  This is a picture of our principal, Lita, speaking in the general session on Sunday (this) morning.  I was asked to speak on the subject of ward councils at the adult session Saturday evening.  I hope I was able to make what could have been a dry, boring talk interesting.  Janet says I did well, but I happen to know she is very biased.
Time seems to fly by faster and faster.  We finished EDU 312 this past week, except for grading the final exams. This coming week the students have mid year exams.  It's hard to think of a new school year starting back home already.

Week 47 in Tarawa

We debated about whether or not to post a blog this week because we only took a few pictures and because it has been a very ordinary week.  I suppose the highlight of our week, after 5 months of waiting, was being able to buy hamburger (they call it "mince meat" here) at a store called MOEL's in Betio.  Other than that, we prepared and taught lessons, worked in the TALL lab, and helped missionaries with petty cash requests.

In the TALL lab, we usually give English proficiency tests, help returned missionaries with BYU Hawaii applications, and help students learn English, but this week we also helped Tiotomaia, one of our high councilors, learn how to use a computer.  He has been called as a Stake Auditor, but had never used a computer before.  Elder Sumner had to teach him such basic things as how to use a mouse.

Since the Bogh's returned home 4 weeks ago, we thought now would be a good time to put our frozen food in their nearly empty freezer so we could defrost ours.  Check out this nice clean freezer!
















On the way home from Betio, we stopped at one of the little road side stands and bought some cherry tomatoes and hot peppers to use in making salsa.  We learned the hard way to use rubber gloves to protect our hands when cleaning and dicing hot peppers.

Our final "unusual" activity of the week was helping get house 7, the Bogh's former abode, ready for a visit from our mission auditors, Elder and Sister Baber.  House 7 has a little office addition that has clothes lines for hanging drying laundry.  It rained a lot Saturday, so we made use of the indoor lines to dry the freshly washed bed sheets.





Once the sheets dried, we had to make the bed, of course.  Over the years we've gotten pretty good at making beds together!

Our week hasn't been very exciting, but it has been very fulfilling.  Now that we've been here 11 months, we are getting to know students and missionaries, as well as teachers.  We love being able to bless their lives in so many small ways.

Week 46 in Tarawa

Tongoi is one of the Moroni High School Seminary teachers.  He also serves as one of our mission president, President Weir's, counselors.  We have been looking for ideas for Christmas gifts for the young missionaries, and thought that maybe a tie with a Kiribati flag would make a nice gift.  He graciously allowed us to take his picture.

Last Wednesday evening our Young Men and Young Women met together for a lesson on dating.  This seemed strange to us because dating is not a Kiribati custom.  During the lesson we wondered what we would say if called upon to speak.  Sure enough, at the end of the lesson we were asked to talk about our own dating and courtship.  We got lots of smiles and giggles as we described our experiences.  We were both dating others before we got serious about each other.  It was sweet to tell them how we fell in love and decided to get married.  It was special to tell them how much we still love each other.

Friday evening was a ward fishing activity.  We met in the Maneaba where Bishop Banimone gave out sticks, fish hooks, fishing line, and bait for each person to make their own fishing pole.  We knew that they planned to go out after dark into the water right behind our apartment where the sewer line empties into the ocean, so we politely declined to go out with them.  Earlier that evening we were invited by Sister Alldredge to have dinner together at her apartment.  Just as we were finishing eating, the zone leaders came knocking at her door to introduce Elder Afatasi, who had just arrived from an outer island.  It just so happened that they had not yet had dinner, so we invited them in and watched them finish off most of the rest of the leftovers.  They then insisted on feeding us spiritually and proceeded to teach us a wonderful lesson from the book of Omni about the power of the Savior's atonement.  We count these experiences with the young elders and sisters as a very special and spiritual part of our mission.  We can feel the presence of the Holy Ghost they carry with them as worthy and ordained representatives of Jesus Christ.

 

 

One Saturday we were invited by Taani and Lailani Lasike and their family to a barbeque on the beach at Taiwan Park just east of Betio.  Despite some early rain, we had a wonderful time getting to know them better.  They are from New Zealand, and do not speak Kiribati.  Taani is here on assignment from his company to work on building construction.  They will be returning to New Zealand this coming December.  He really knows his way around a barbeque grill, and the food he and his wife, Lailani, prepared for us was delicious. Sister Sumner's baguette of French bread was a big hit, too.  There was none left over to take home.  :-(

This picture shows Lailani, Sister Alldredge, and half of Sister Sumner (over on the left) as we ate in the light rain.












After a wonderful meal, I got out a cheap Frisbee I had bought last week and, for the first time since coming here, we played Frisbee.  The kids didn't mind jumping into the ocean to retrieve some errant throws.  In fact, they spent quite a bit of the afternoon playing in the gentle surf on the sandy beach.







This morning Tiotomaia came by for some help with his assigned high council talk.  While his English is not too bad, there are still many English words and expressions that need explaining in a typical general conference talk.  He is a humble man who carries the spirit of the Lord with him.  I feel blessed to be able to help him with his calling.  Last week we gave him a solar powered lamp to use in his bouia because they have no electricity.  Even those who have electricity know that they can't rely on it because it goes off so frequently.  We in the U.S. don't know how blessed we are with material things.  On second thought, maybe our material things are a curse that keeps us from being truly happy and close to the Lord as so many here are.

Week 45 in Tarawa

This has been a very normal (translation: uneventful) week for us on Tarawa.  Our time has been filled with preparations for teaching, baking treats for our classes, and teaching.  However, on Saturday we did something very out of ordinary for us, at least.  We walked about a third of the length of the island from the chapel in Bikenibeu to the Moroni High School chapel.  Here I am all decked out to begin the Pioneer day trek with the Tarawa East Stake.  Notice the typical pioneer hat, T-shirt, cut-offs, and tennis shoes!  ;-)

A few of the members tried to dress up as pioneers, which we found very sweet and amusing.

After being organized into companies, we set out on the trek.  Some parts of the trek were along the main road as seen here.  Notice the newly paved section of road with nice sidewalks on either side.  Only those who have been here in the past will appreciated the change from the pot-hole filled mostly dirt road that was here before.

Our first stop was at an elementary school which represented Winter Quarters. Here a church member explained the significance of this stop on the pioneers' journey west.  The physical condition of this school would leave most Americans shaking their heads and wondering how children could be educated in such primitive conditions.  There are no desks or chairs, no air conditioning or even fans, and only the most rudimentary lighting.  The louvered windows let in all the bugs and noise as well as the cooling ocean breeze.

Here our company is approaching our second stop, Fort Laramie.  We were able to rest in a nice, cool Maneaba right on the ocean.  Near the front of our group you can see two ematangs (white people).  On the left is Sister Weir, our mission mother, and on the right is Sister Alldredge, our mission nurse.

Here we are resting in the Maneaba mentioned above.  You can just barely see the ocean behind us.

 

Sister Alldredge saw some children practicing handstands, which seems to be one of the most popular games the kids play.  When she went over to take their picture, they all had to show off for her, of course.  We were surprised at how good they were at walking on their hands.  Overall, this experience was a very sobering one for us.  We walked past previously unseen parts of the island that can only be characterized as abject poverty.  Until you've seen this for yourself, you simply cannot appreciate how materially blessed we are.  Many of the members made this trek barefoot, and didn't feel that it was a hardship.  I bought a solar-powered light for Tiotomaia, one of our stake high-councilors, because they have no electricity and only candles for light at night for their 5 month old daughter, Gloria Richard.  He was so very grateful.  As we sing on Sundays, "Though hard to you this journey may appear", think of these people who, as poor as they are, are happy living the gospel to the best of their abilities.  Truly, "grace shall be as our days".

All our love, Elder and Sister Sumner.

Week 44 in Tarawa

This past week has been very unusual for us because of the week long Kiribati Independence Celebration (no school) and because Elder and Sister Bogh completed their mission and left for home last Monday, July 13th.  We already miss their companionship as our next door neighbors, and Moroni High School will miss their contributions to the growth and success of the Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) program.  After dropping them off at the airport, we returned home and caught up a bit on our lesson preparation.  We helped our school counselor, Mary, begin washing the 400 pieces of track team laundry, and helped clean out some of the things in the Bogh's fridge and freezer.  We had a family home evening with Sister Alldredge and watched the church video based on a 1977 talk by Elder Boyd K. Packer titled "The Mediator", which explains wonderfully how both justice and mercy can be fully served by the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Before taking the Bogh's to the airport, we and Sister Alldredge went for a walk along the coral reef.  While the footing is trickier, it's much quieter away from the traffic on the main road.  We went back onto the road, however, after being warned of a pack of dogs ahead of where we were walking.

 



Tuesday we drove out to the ECO farm to get fresh eggs.  The last dozen eggs we bought at the store were half spoiled.  While out at that end of the island, we decided to explore an area of the island called Tamoa.  It is near the Temaiku chapel at the eastern end of the island not far from the airport.  The area is very primitive but very beautiful.

We stopped at the Temaiku chapel and had a wonderful ocean-side picnic.  The Maneaba kept us dry during the pouring rain storm that suddenly came up.

On Wednesday we went into Bairiki to watch the boat races and our basketball team.  Because there was no wind, the boat races were cancelled.  Our basketball team lost by one point to the eventual champions.

After the basketball game, we walked through some of the exhibits in the Bairiki maneaba.  This picture shows a native armor suit made entirely of coconut pod fibers.  That had to be pretty scratchy to wear.

Another display showed necklaces made from various kinds of teeth including this one made of human eye teeth.

Kiribati Independence Week wouldn't be complete without going to Disneyland!  Somehow I don't think Disney Inc. licensed these rides, however.  Don't tell anyone, OK?

On Thursday we decided to finally fulfill our desire to hike out to the island we call Gilligan's Island.  The locals call it Scout Island because that's where the scouts used to go camping. At low tide we were able to walk out without getting our feet wet.

One of the local member girls wanted to go along with us because her friends were drinking alcohol.  Her English was good enough to explain lots of the things we saw.

We told her we were very proud of her for keeping her standards.  We even gave her a ride home so she wouldn't have to be teased and tempted by her friends after our hike.  This picture was taken after the three women decided to wade out to where the breakers were crashing on the outer reef.  They all got wet up to there knees.

You can see the three ladies out getting wet by the thundering surf.

While out on the reef they had the chance to talk with this family of fishermen.  They showed off some of their catch for the camera.  This is how many of the islander feed their families.  It is NOT just for sport.  They depend on their catch for food.  If they catch more than they can eat, they can sell some fish to help them buy rice and other foods to eat.

On Saturday we had the joy of witnessing Elder Openshaw baptize a new member of the church at the Bairiki chapel.  The 9 year old boy was taught by Sisters Rourou and Su'a  on his left.