It's hard to believe we've been here one whole year already. The time has truly flown on wings of lightning. This past week the electricity has gone out quite regularly around 7:15 a.m., about the time Sister Sumner usually finishes drying her hair. One morning, however, it went out just as she was getting out of the shower. This picture, that I took without her knowledge, shows how she dries her hair in the sun and ocean breezes when there's no electricity to power her hair drier. You might think this very romantic, but it's just another way to deal with life in Kiribati.
This past Thursday, as we were setting up our classroom right after school, Lita, our principal, announced a tsunami warning and told everyone to go home. Although there has never been a tsunami in Kiribati, everyone dutifully went home. So we packed up our equipment and also went home. From what we've read, atoll islands like Tarawa are not usually affected by tsunamis because they are so small and are at the tip of undersea mountains with very steep sides. The tsunami essentially slides around us, which is OK with us since there is no high ground to escape to here.
This past week one of our elders was flown in from an outer island because of a serious infection on his ankle. He nearly waited too long before notifying our mission nurse, but even so, he had to have surgery to remove much of the infection. One of our AP's is staying in the hospital with him, sleeping on a mat on the concrete floor. One of the Lord's tender mercies: these two elders grew up together, went to school together, played on sports teams together, and their families were good friends. When you're confined to a somewhat scary place like a hospital in Kiribati, it's nice to have the reassurance of a good friend.
I had never been to the hospital here before. I could scarcely believe my eyes. Cats, dogs, crabs, and rats roam freely in and around the halls and grounds. The deterioration of the facility is sad. Although medical care is free, I wouldn't want to see this happen to our health system in the U.S.
While staying at the hospital, patients are responsible for providing their own bedding. The hospital does provide food, however, just not a table to eat it on. The food, while fine by local standards, is not very appealing to western tastes. We brought some western style food to the elders, for which they were very grateful.
Sister Alldredge, our mission nurse, brought in another pair of elders because one of them needed to have a mole removed and biopsied. Judging by their smiles, you'd think they were going to Disneyland.
Despite our misgivings about our hospital, it is located on a beautiful site right on the ocean. Actually, just about every place here is located on a beautiful site right on the ocean! It is, after all, a very small island.
Last year, when we first arrived, we were told it was the dry season in late summer and fall. We remember how dusty everything was. This year has been an anomaly because of all the rain. As a result, we have gotten lots of wonderful rainbows. This one arched a full 180 degrees over the school's Maneaba.
Here's the other end of that same rainbow that Sister Sumner couldn't resist taking pictures of. I suppose the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow is under water.
As we were driving to attend a baptism at the Temaiku Chapel Saturday, we had to pull over to make way for a house (actually a buila) coming down the road. We had seen this before, but had never had the chance to take a picture. Now you know we are telling the truth when we tell you we see houses coming down the road.
We actually attended two baptisms this weekend. The first was in Bikenibeu where the sisters taught a young man who was baptized on Friday afternoon.
The second baptism was at Temaiku, where three young people were baptized. We like to attend baptisms to remember the true purpose for our being here: to bring souls unto Christ.
We love to see the children of Kiribati. They are so beautiful, and have such winning smiles, although this picture doesn't show that very well. The boy on the left, who was about to be baptized, brought chairs for us to sit on as we looked out over the ocean from the Maneaba cultural hall behind the chapel.
This is the view from the Maneaba cultural hall mentioned above. We will miss being so close to the ocean when we return to Utah. We never seem to tire of watching and hearing the breakers roll in.
We took this picture last night to prove that the Lord really does watch out for his missionaries. Saturday morning I moaned to Sister Sumner that we had only enough Skippy Super Crunch Peanut Butter for one more sandwich. When you're out of peanut butter, you're out of food, I always say. Anyway, on the way home from the baptism Saturday evening, even though we didn't really have anything we needed to buy in the way of groceries, we decided to stop at the Imart store to see if they had any freshly popped popcorn. Lo and behold, a miracle!! They had Skippy Super Crunch peanut butter, which they had been out of for months. No, they didn't have any popcorn. I bought three jars and Sister Alldredge bought one jar. At a consumption rate of 2 months per jar, I figure I'll have enough Skippy Super Crunch to last until the end of our mission. The Lord truly blesses those who serve Him. ;-)
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