Tuesday, November 24th 2015, was our school faculty and service center Christmas party. This picture shows the view out the back of our school Maneaba where it was held. The roar of the crashing breakers during high tide has become an almost unnoticed background sound for us after 15 months here. But it will always seem strange celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving and on such a balmy day.
The smoked barbeque chicken, pork, and lamb was delicious. We also had many native Kiribati foods served as well.
You can guess who was asked to play the piano for the program! (Me, if you couldn't guess!) We sang every Christmas song in the hymn book plus a few from the Children's song book. Sister Sumner, hiding behind the post, was asked to be the narrator. All the people sitting to her right had parts to read on the program. That was nearly everyone in attendance.
After the program and the meal, we watch some beautiful traditional dancing. We know all these dancers by name and have grown to love them.
At the end of the program, Lita (front) was honored for her 26 years of service to Moroni High School, the last 14 as principal. Iotua Tune, on her left, is a past principal of MHS, and now serves as the director of the service center. He and his wife, Mai, are our wonderful home teachers.
On Friday, Sister Sumner and I volunteered to go with Sister Alldredge to do flat checks. We inspected each missionary flat for cleanliness and left them water filtration kits good for the coming year. The white board they are standing at lists names of investigators and upcoming baptisms. There really are lots of teaching opportunities and baptisms on Kiribati. On Tarawa and nearby outer islands we average around 10 baptisms per week.
These sisters' flat was very clean, but they have been sleeping on the floor because of a broken bed, which I am hoping to fix this coming week. They have also been living with clogged drains, which we hope will soon be cleared.
Thursday the senior couples got together for an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey legs (sorry, no whole turkeys are to be had here) with all the trimmings, including cranberry, stuffing, peas, rolls, and mashed potatoes with turkey gravy. We then had pumpkin, apple, and cheesecake pies for dessert. Though we were far away from home and family, the feelings of love, unity, and gratitude made this a celebration we will always treasure.
While we were out shopping Saturday, we were puzzled by store helpers carrying bags of onions out of the store to the truck. When we asked one of the store clerks, he explained that they were returning the spoiled onions that were stinking up the store. This scene, with dogs and kids and people riding on the back of the open truck in the rain is so typical of Kiribati. I just had to take a picture.
Our next blog will be from Brisbane, Australia if we have internet there. If not, our next blog won't be until after December 14th, when we return to Kiribati. We have so much to be grateful for, and many of you who follow our blog are the reasons for much of our gratitude. The Lord has truly blessed us this past year as we've served the people of Kiribati. Seeing these pictures and reading our comments can never convey the depth of our experiences here.
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