Week 17 in Tarawa

This has been a slow week for us as far as adventures go.  We've been focusing on getting ready to teach our classes which start next week.

We drove to Betio on Saturday to do some shopping, and Sister Sumner brought her cell phone camera for a change.  Here are some of the sights during our trip:

The roads had really gotten bad during the last three weeks of nearly non-stop rain.  We were happy to encounter road work right in front of Moroni High School.

This grader was not just filling pot holes, it was actually tearing up the asphalt.  It even removed the speed bump which had been right in front of the MHS entrance.  The cars and especially the buses really zoom by, now that the roads are somewhat smooth.

We call this Gilligan's Island.  At least that's what the other senior couples told us they call it.  At low tide, you can walk right out to it on the sand.  We hope to do that one day in the near future.

We stopped for gas in Betio (pronounced Bay-so) and Janet noticed this strange stairway to nowhere right across the street.  Maybe it's somebody's Stairmaster exercise program?

On the way home, before we got to where the grader had smoothed the road, we encountered some really rough road right in front of the legislative buildings.  You can see the Kiribati flag on the entrance.  Notice the cars weaving all over the road.

Here are some more cars weaving right in front of us.  Just behind and over the top of the black car you can see an open bed truck full of people.  Many travel this way here, but it would never be allowed in the U.S.

While shopping at Moel's in Betio we found something we had never seen before: a real bone in ham!  We decided to go for it even though it cost $160 AUS for 22 pounds.  We let it thaw a bit and then proceeded to cut it apart with knives and a hack saw.  We needed to freeze pieces that were small enough to feed the two us.  We did save one large piece to use as an Easter ham when we celebrate Easter with the other senior missionaries.

We also found this really neat set of storage bowls.  We needed some small and large ones, but what really sold Sister Sumner was how neatly the bowls and lids stack.  It's a real pain trying to match bowls with lids when they are stored separately.

This is a picture of Sister Sumner's favorite table cloth. We have purchased 3 or 4 since coming here because ladies don't eat on Formica table tops like men do.

Saturday evening we went to a soap making demonstration by a group of LDS members from Australia who call themselves the Liahona Foundation.  They actually came last week and conducted several hundred baby wellness examinations.  They were able to help many families with undernourished and ill children.  These ladies stayed an extra week to conduct cleanliness classes, teaching the local people about the nature of germs, nutritional and infectious diseases, and natural remedies for many illnesses.

We're looking forward to hitting the ground running with our next set of classes as school starts up next week for the teachers.  Students don't actually come until early February.

We've enjoyed the summer break.  Now it's back to work.