Week 6 in Tarawa:

 

I'm sitting here at the desk on a Saturday afternoon wondering what I would tell you about this week.  The weeks go  by quickly and it seems like we just do the same things day after day.  It's not so different than when we were in school before we retired. 

 

We have been here six weeks and have seen four cultural events of one kind or another.  We are always the judges, even though we know less about what goes into the dancing than anyone else.  I spend most of my days preparing for my Special Ed. lesson and Elder Sumner spends most of his time at our house taking care of all the administrative things.

 

Elder Sumner was excited this week when his telescope arrived.  Not the one in the picture, that came in our suitcases, but a big one he ordered from Australia.  The picture shows Benririe, the deputy principal looking at sunspots.  It's a pretty exciting thing for everyone because no one had ever looked through a telescope before.  The telescope will be our gift to the school when we leave.

 

I spoke a little about the culture of Tarawa last week.  We are learning more as we get to know the people better.  I talked about the little pests last time but today I thought I would mention the bigger animals.  As we drove down the road one day we had the three little pigs cross right in front of us.  Unfortunately, neither of us had our camera with us.  Pigs are common and are kept tied to a tree (usually) by the bouias. Chickens, dogs, cats and rats are common.  Many of the people have never seen a live horse or a cow or any other large animal.  The dogs and cats, like the rats, are mostly feral and roam freely. 

 

Speaking of animals, here is an interesting cultural note that I learned this week.  We were discussing culture in my class and I showed the teachers an example of testing bias that included the tooth fairy.  I asked if they had anything that they did when their children lost their teeth.  The answer was "The rat".  I said, "the rat?" and they answered, "Yes, we give the tooth to the rat and he eats it".  I like the tooth fairy a lot better. 

 

As we get to know the people, and see their true commitment to the Savior and to serving others, it makes us want to be more like them.  This past week the deputy principal and some of the older students spent a day repairing the seawall on another part of the island.  This part of the island is controlled by another religion.  The leader of the other religion told the people, "Don't help those Mormons."  Because of this the people stayed at their homes and just watched the work, even though it was to help keep them from being flooded when the waves are high.  They came back happy for what they had accomplished and saddened for the attitude of the people.

 

The last picture was taken at the awards presentation.  The students were awarded prizes, all wrapped up in Christmas paper, for academic excellence.  about 1/6 of the students received an award, some more than one.  All I can say is "Girls Rule!"  The boys need to take the challenge for next year.

 

 

 

 

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: wasum1 <wasum1@msn.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 7:32 PM
Subject:
To: Wayne and Janet in Tarawa <wsumner1@gmail.com>

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S™ III, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

Fwd: Week 5 on Tarawa

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wayne Sumner <wsumner1@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, October 19, 2014
Subject: Week 5 on Tarawa
To: "wsumner1.kiribati@blogspot.com" <wsumner1.kiribati@blogspot.com>


I can't believe how quickly time is going.  We have already been here for 5 weeks and on our mission for 7 weeks.  Already this is starting to feel like home.  This is the final four weeks of school before the students have a summer break.  Yes, I said summer.  Kiribati is on the Southern Hemisphere schedule and while you are going into winter, we are starting summer.  The difference for us?  The weather doesn't change, just more of the same.

Let me tell you a little bit about life on Tarawa.  We have two weather types, rain and sun.  We are in a bit of a drought, so it's more sun than rain.  The soil is so sandy that when it rains the water drains almost immediately and so there is always dust.  We fight constant battles with two home invaders, micro ants and geckos.  The ants are the worst.  They are everywhere and when they get on you, which is all the time, they bite and leave little red bumps.  The geckos are supposed to be good, but I still don't like them in my house.  One night in bed I felt something move against my leg and Elder Sumner said, "It wasn't me."  I replied, "That's what scares me."  There are other insects, like cockroaches and mosquitos, but they don't seem to be as much of a problem.  Anyway, we spray almost daily.  It's kind of a morning routine, say your prayers, read your scriptures, spray your house.

Friday night we had the annual etiquette night dinner.  The students here aren't used to sitting at tables to eat.  Remember, many live in a bouila where there is no furniture,  so they just sit on the floor and mostly eat with their hands.  At most they have a spork.  To prepare them for the world, missions, college, etc. we have a night when they have a nice dinner and we teach them to set the table, seat the ladies, put the napkin in their lap and use silverware.  We tried to make it fun and ended with a dance.  We had told them that if they weren't sure to watch what others did.  After the dinner we were sitting at a table talking with the young men's president (a student) when he asked me what was next.  I said it would be the dance.  He asked if we were ready to begin.  I said, "Yes, let's clean this up."  I stood up and took a tablecloth off of an empty table.  Immediately everyone jumped up and started cleaning up.  They were all watching me for a cue.  How can you not love these students.

On Saturday we had a potluck dinner and a culture night for some important guests from New Zealand.  The students put on the program and it was wondereful.  They dance and sing and put their whole hearts into it.  I have been reading about Kiribati history.  Anciently they had people who were the keepers of the family dance and family song and family history.  Family is so important here.  They have maneabas  all over the Island.  They look like large pavilions with steep roofs that come down to about 3 feet off the ground.  We have one right next to our apartment.  These are the ancient family gathering places, and they are still used the same way.

We hope all is well back home.  We love you all and enjoy keeping up with you on Facebook.

Love, Elder and Sister Sumner

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: wasum1 <wasum1@msn.com>
Date: Sunday, October 19, 2014
Subject: Pictures
To: Wayne and Janet in Tarawa <wsumner1@gmail.com>

Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S™ III, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

Week Four in Tarawa

This week marks one full month that we have been on Tarawa.  Yesterday a whole new batch of young elders came in, and we felt like old timers.  I wondered what they thought of this dusty little patch of land that they will live on for the next two years.  The first thing that happens when they get here is that the leaders take all of their suit coats and hang them in our loft.  They won't need them again until they leave.  When a missionary comes to visit us asking for his suit coat, we know that he's on his way out.

We are getting to  know people's names, no small feat because they are so different from any we've heard before and the accent makes it even harder.  We are half way through the BYUH class that we are teaching and just beginning to understand how to teach them.  At first no one would say anything, but as they get to know us, they begin to open up.

A big truck took out the electricity for a time on Friday, so Elder Sumner and I decided to take advantage of the unexpected free time to go out on the reef for the first time.  We weren't sure how to get there because they keep the gate tightly wired up, but we figured out how to undo the wire and there were steps going down the sea wall.  It was low tide so we were able to walk a long way out on the reef.  It's an amazing spot.  There are tide pools with all kinds of small life, crabs, sea snakes and plant growth.  Next time we'll stay longer.

Later in the afternoon I talked with Lita (the principal) about the differences in culture when the electrical wire broke.  All of the students rushed out to see what was happening and kept getting closer and closer to the broken wire.  In America they would have gone immediately into lock down.  We talked about the innocence of the Islanders.  Nothing ever happens here so they expect everything to always be okay.  Lita told me about when she went to Samoa shortly after the tsunami.  They went to a village that had been destroyed and many people died.  Right next to the village was a high mountain.  They could have easily escaped if they had heeded the warnings.  Instead they kept doing what they had been doing and even watched and commented on how far out the wave went.  As I listened to conference and the many calls to listen to the prophet and the brethren,  I wondered how often we are like the Samoan villagers, content in our ways and far outside the Good Ship Zion that Brigham Young used to talk about.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. We turned off google + photo because it was killing our smartphone batteries and using up all our data, and we still haven't figured out how to get photos from our computer desktop to our blog.  We tried the upload button, but it never would upload anything.  Help, anyone?

Week 3 in Tarawa

This has been a routine week for us, if you can call three weeks a routine.  Both Tuesday and Thursday classes went off without a hitch: we had electricity both days!!

The Lord did teach us a lesson on priorities, patience, and collaboration, however, which is ironic because Thursday's SPED 200 lesson was on collaboration.  Because the internet in our ITEP office is so poor and so slow, Sister Sumner and I decided to finish preparing Thursday's lesson in the apartment. Minutes after we got there, a recently returned sister missionary knocked on our door.  She was desperate for help with her BYUH application because the deadline was the next day.  So while I helped her, Sister Sumner waited and waited and waited.  During the 3 hours I helped the sister RM, she mixed, raised, panned, raised, and baked another batch of bread.  Needless to say, she was frustrated.  After a quick bite of supper, she sat next to me on the couch and announced: "We need to talk".  It was not in her normally sweet tone of voice.  Taking my cue from her, I put away my cell phone on which I had been reading and responding to emails, and said, "Yes we do".

Her lesson preparation had not been going well, and now the afternoon she had planned to work on it was gone.  We talked about the lesson.  We COLLABORATED! Between the two of us, we were able to come up with some good ideas, find the resources we needed, prepare a handout for the assignment, and still have time for a good night's sleep.  Our answer to our frustration came from "The Leadership Pattern", a graphic put together by the church for the use of its CES employees. At the center of a circle are the words "Lead like the Savior".  One of the pattern skills in the outer circle of skills surrounding the middle is "Counsel Together".  It was humbling for us to realize that we had not turned to our leadership training sooner.  We were able to bear witness to our teacher-students that the Lord will bless us when we act under the direction of the Spirit and follow the counsel of the brethren.

We had the wonderful opportunity today to witness a gathering at Moroni High School of teachers from many other local schools to celebrate "International Education Week".  After an LDS opening prayer by our principal, Lita, the Minister of Education spoke.  Since the celebration was all in the Kiribati language, we didn't understand anything. Then teachers from all the island schools marched out onto the field. (See attached video)  The teachers competed in a variety of games such as sack races, kangaroo races, and volleyball before sitting down to eat their lunches. Just like we heard from the UEA at home, we heard the teachers chant in unison "Invest in the future, invest in teachers".  It made us smile.

That afternoon, for the very first time, Elder Sumner borrowed the school truck and drove us shopping.  Sister Sumner is sure she has a whole new crop of grey hair underneath her recently colored hair.  The road is amazingly bad.  Vehicles swerve all over and around the road to avoid the potholes and lake sized puddles which are worse than ever after the recent heavy rainstorms we've had.  (See attached video) Our average speed was less than 10 miles per hour.  It took us 45 minutes to go the 5 miles from Bairiki back to Moroni High School.  We managed to spend $400 AUD on food, but that includes $195 AUD on a blender.

Last night as we were getting ready to go to bed it started to rain really hard. We were surprised to hear the sound of students still out playing on the basketball court.  We stepped outside, and to our amazement, dozens of students were playing soccer in the rain on the basketball court.  They were slipping and sliding and having a grand time.  We tried to remember the last time we had ever gotten soaking wet playing out in the rain.

We're grateful that our apartment has two air conditioners because the one in the living room just quit working today.  On a better note, we finally got back our repaired chest freezer so we are able to buy larger quantities of food when we find things that are not always available.

It is now Saturday evening local time, and we have started our fast. We pray the Lord's spirit will bless all of you.  We love you and miss you.

Elder and Sister Sumner.