Week 15 in Tarawa

Week 15, Christmas week.  Christmas in Tarawa has been very different in some ways, and very much the same in others.  This is a picture of a large bird that came to visit on Christmas day.

Raison filled cookies

Raison filling

Things that were the same:
We made English toffee and small gifts to give to those around us.
We prepared and listened to lessons on the birth of the Savior in church.
We watched touching Nativity programs.
We listened to Christmas music on my I-pad and the radio.
We got together with other couples to celebrate.
We baked cookies to share.
We decorated our apartment.
There were lights on the stores and some houses

Things that were different:
We attended our first Christmas program in October.

Filling Stockings

We didn't rush around madly shopping for last minute Christmas gifts.
Our decorations were simple and didn't take much time or effort to put up.
Our Christmas cooking was minimal so we didn't gain 5 pounds.
We focused on service such as preparing stockings and serving a meal for the young missionaries.
We spent more time studying the scriptures and pondering on the great gift of the Savior.
The weather was warm and rainy, no cold or snow.
We truly appreciated the importance of family as we Skyped with children and relatives.

Serving Christmas dinner to the missionaries

Brownies with little rat decorations

Potato Salad

Week 14 in Tarawa

You would think that with all the students and faculty gone, it would be a quiet and boring week.  Not so. When we woke up Monday morning, we found this 2 inch-long nearly dead cockroach lying in the middle of our kitchen floor.  Yuck!  We had been warned about them, but this was the first one we've seen.  Elder Sumner keeps the doors and windows, which don't seal very tightly, well sprayed with Permethrin, a church-issued bug spray.





 Last week we received an invitation to attend a reception at the National Maneaba for the retiring U.S. Ambassador, Frankie Reed.  They invited all the American nationals on Tarawa. The church was well represented with the senior missionaries and young elders.  We traveled to the reception with President and Sister Weir and  really enjoyed the opportunity to visit with them.  The reception was not actually in the Maneaba, but on a beautiful patio next to it.  We have been past this area but had no idea that a spot so beautiful was there.  We had the opportunity to meet the ambassador, and also the President of Kiribati. They were both warm and gracious people. The hot topic  of the night was global warming.

Wednesday evening President and Sister Weir took all of the senior missionaries out to dinner as a Christmas gift.  We went to our favorite restaurant, the Golden Restaurant, where we had our first romantic dinner out.  Again it was sunset and so beautiful.

Friday we went into Betio to do some shopping.  We were looking for a coconut shredder, called a kautuai (pronounced cow-too-eye), and were told to go to the stadium to the TTT office.  We found one which you can see sitting on the stove behind Sister Sumner in this picture.  When we got to the stadium, we discovered that there was a trade fair going on.  There were all kinds of little stalls set up both inside and outside of the stadium. It was fun to wander and look. We even found booths selling soft ice cream cones and popcorn. 

We also found some Christmassy place mats and a table runner which you can see in front of the lovely Sister Sumner.                                                                                                                                                                              
When we returned home, the stake primary was having a big celebration.  The children were so cute.

On Saturday we had our ward Christmas party.  It was a pot luck dinner featuring a roast pig.  For a while there was more food than people,  but the people came on Kiribati time, an hour after it was supposed to start.  Sister Sumner made some delicious BBQ meatballs which went very quickly.  There wasn't much food left when it was over. From left to right are Elder Bogh, Sister Bogh, Sister Sumner, and Sister Aldredge, our mission nurse.







Our final adventure of the week took place over two days and involved a very persistent crab in our toilet.  We tried flushing him down with bleach, but he kept coming back.  Finally we snuck in without turning on the lights and caught him with a pair of long tongs.  Unfortunately we threw him back into the ocean without taking another picture.  The result of this experience is that Sister Sumner no longer reads her Kindle in the bathroom and turns the light on when getting up in the night.

We wish you all a most joyous and merry Christmas!  Love, Elder and Sister Sumner 

Week 13 in Tarawa

Thirteen is considered an unlucky number, so maybe we should just skip this week.  Not!  It was actually a very interesting and good week.  As you know, school is out and all is quiet at Moroni High. Again Not!  The first picture is of the friendship basket that I received Sunday in Relief Society. Now I have to fill it and give it to someone else. 

The teachers were here for their final week of finishing everything up.  In the middle of this we had an important visitor, Brother Brent Buckner (for those in the Ogden area, he is the son of LaMar Buckner from South Weber), the director of temporal affairs in the South Pacific.  If you're not sure what that means, he is over all of the church's facilities in the whole South Pacific.  He was here to inspect our facilities and see how they are being used.  If he doesn't think they are being use appropriately or are not needed, he has the power to shut them down.


In honor of his visit the school and service center had a faculty devotional where he spoke to the faculty, and then on Tuesday night a cultural event.  This was entirely done by the faculty and staff of the school since the students are gone.  They spent many hours practicing for this in the two weeks prior.  There was a potluck dinner in conjunction with the cultural event, but much of the food was ordered in.  It was the nicest cultural event I have seen.  At this even as in all events I have participated in, the guests (that always includes the senior couples) are served first and have to eat while everyone else watches.  They won't consider eating until after we have eaten. This is a picture of all the senior missionaries and the Buckner's.

When the first dance started I noticed the head garlands and silently prayed, "Please only give them to the Buckners".  However, at the end of the dance when Turian smilingly placed a garland on my head I graciously smiled and said "Thank you."  Within moments I could feel movement in my hair and began picking ants off of my face and clothes.  At home I tossed the garland onto the white counter and watched the ants scatter. I understand that the garlands are a sign of great respect, so, I suppose, a few ants are a small price to pay.

Wednesday the senior couples had the opportunity of hosting the Buckner's at dinner.  We served drumstick broccoli divan, rolls, fruit salad and coconut and lemon pie.  It was a very good meal.  We were able to learn a lot about the church's concern for the wards and stakes to become self reliant.  When he was asked specifically about air conditioning in the chapels Brother Buckner said that every part of the world is so  diverse.  Building a chapel like we do in Utah doesn't make sense in an area like this where a Maneaba type church would be better suited to the culture and the climate. After the dinner they gave us each a beautiful mounted picture that Sister Buckner had painted.  Our is hanging in our bedroom. It makes the room a lot homier.

Friday was the school Christmas social.  It was held in the Maneaba shown in the picture and it was beautifully decorated. At this function, again we were asked to eat first and again, everyone got a garland.  I only found one ant this time.

On Saturday we went with our ward to work at the Learning Garden.  That is one of the truly beautiful places on the Island.  It was begun while the Rasmussen's were here and is struggling under the care of local members who have never gardened.  It was a truly beautiful day.  It was cloudy and rained off and on so there was always a cool breeze blowing from the ocean. I could have stayed all day. We dug trenches, shredded leaves and pulled weeds.  We harvested some cucumbers and tomatoes (which the senior missionaries purchased). Elder Sumner was even able to get the rusty old chipper working again so we could shred the cornstalks and leaves and fill the trenches with mulch. We really did work, the picture is after when we were having lunch.


Saturday night I tried my hand at making fudge from homemade marshmallow crème and cocoa.  We now have some nice hot fudge sundae sauce.   
                                                          
This final picture was taken at low tide when many people and dogs were on the reef digging for clams and other types of sea food.

Today, December 14, marks three months that we have been here.  It's hard to believe how time is flying.

Week 12 in Tarawa

This has been a quiet week at Moroni High.  School is out and the only sounds during the day are the workers fixing up and improving the facility.  Two days this week we had a crew of students who were working off part of their tuition by cleaning the mold off of the walls and porch.  It looks much nicer now.  In the evening the classrooms are quiet but the basketball and tennis courts are in full operation until about 10:00 every night.  The courts are lit and young men, women, and children come to play basketball, volleyball, tennis and soccer.  Some just come to hang out with their friends.  It's the best entertainment around.  There are no movie theaters, bowling alleys, malls, game centers or anything else, so they come and play.  I think they are better off.

When we first came to Tarawa I noticed a lady who was always here cleaning.  She cleans and attends meetings of all kinds and just spends her day at the school.  Her name is Ruineta.  She is not an employee but is here more that most employees.  I learned that Ruineta was one of the original 12 students who went from Tarawa (before there was a Moroni High) to Liahona High in Fiji to get a high school education.  She served a mission in Tarawa, and later became a teacher at Moroni when it was first opened. I don't know what happened, but somewhere along the way she experienced some problems and gave up her teaching job.  She is one of those who feels more at home here than anywhere else, and while she is no longer able to teach, she spends her life in service to the school.  There are those who avoid her now because she sometimes says off the wall things and sometimes has outbursts.  I believe she is one of God's special children and if we only saw her as God does we would be honored to know her.  She gave me permission to take her picture and use it in our blog.