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.