Week 45 in Tarawa

This has been a very normal (translation: uneventful) week for us on Tarawa.  Our time has been filled with preparations for teaching, baking treats for our classes, and teaching.  However, on Saturday we did something very out of ordinary for us, at least.  We walked about a third of the length of the island from the chapel in Bikenibeu to the Moroni High School chapel.  Here I am all decked out to begin the Pioneer day trek with the Tarawa East Stake.  Notice the typical pioneer hat, T-shirt, cut-offs, and tennis shoes!  ;-)

A few of the members tried to dress up as pioneers, which we found very sweet and amusing.

After being organized into companies, we set out on the trek.  Some parts of the trek were along the main road as seen here.  Notice the newly paved section of road with nice sidewalks on either side.  Only those who have been here in the past will appreciated the change from the pot-hole filled mostly dirt road that was here before.

Our first stop was at an elementary school which represented Winter Quarters. Here a church member explained the significance of this stop on the pioneers' journey west.  The physical condition of this school would leave most Americans shaking their heads and wondering how children could be educated in such primitive conditions.  There are no desks or chairs, no air conditioning or even fans, and only the most rudimentary lighting.  The louvered windows let in all the bugs and noise as well as the cooling ocean breeze.

Here our company is approaching our second stop, Fort Laramie.  We were able to rest in a nice, cool Maneaba right on the ocean.  Near the front of our group you can see two ematangs (white people).  On the left is Sister Weir, our mission mother, and on the right is Sister Alldredge, our mission nurse.

Here we are resting in the Maneaba mentioned above.  You can just barely see the ocean behind us.

 

Sister Alldredge saw some children practicing handstands, which seems to be one of the most popular games the kids play.  When she went over to take their picture, they all had to show off for her, of course.  We were surprised at how good they were at walking on their hands.  Overall, this experience was a very sobering one for us.  We walked past previously unseen parts of the island that can only be characterized as abject poverty.  Until you've seen this for yourself, you simply cannot appreciate how materially blessed we are.  Many of the members made this trek barefoot, and didn't feel that it was a hardship.  I bought a solar-powered light for Tiotomaia, one of our stake high-councilors, because they have no electricity and only candles for light at night for their 5 month old daughter, Gloria Richard.  He was so very grateful.  As we sing on Sundays, "Though hard to you this journey may appear", think of these people who, as poor as they are, are happy living the gospel to the best of their abilities.  Truly, "grace shall be as our days".

All our love, Elder and Sister Sumner.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 43 in Tarawa

This past week has been very different but very busy.  We cancelled both of our classes because of the many school activities which involved most of the teachers as well as us.  On Tuesday, July 7th, the 1st annual Moroni Star talent competition was held.  Guess who got to be judges!!  Of the over 50 students who tried out, 12 made the final cut.  We were tasked with choosing the best one.  Some were not so good, but most were very good.

Here are nine of the finalists.  The girl holding the trophy was the winner.  There was near unanimous agreement among the 5 judges that she was the best.  We actually enjoyed seeing and hearing their performances.  The weather was perfect.  The ocean breeze helped mitigate the heat and humidity of the afternoon.

Another reason for the busy week was a visit by the outgoing Pacific Area School Supervisor, Bruce Yerman.  He was accompanied by his replacement, Mike Carthew, and a representative from Salt Lake, Matthew Pope.  We had a breakfast Wednesday morning for them and for Elder and Sister Bogh, who are leaving for home on Monday, July 13th.  From left to right in this picture are Bruce Yerman, Tipo Solomone, one of our vice principals, Sister Bogh, and Elder Bogh.  The breakfast was prepared entirely by students of the baking and cooking classes.

That evening, a dinner with dancing and singing entertainment was held for Bruce and the Bogh's.  As usual, the guests of honor are seated front and center.  From left to right are Matthew Pope, Elder Bogh, Sister Bogh, Bruce Yerman, and Michael Carthew.

The faculty and service center people put on a wonderful show.  This is the opening dance which culminates in the presentation of garlands which can be seen being worn by the guests of honor in the above picture.  For the second time in as many days, I was asked to accompany one of the musical numbers at the last second.  I ended up singing the second part of "A Child's Prayer" while playing the guitar in a different key than the song is written in.  I was challenged but I think it came off OK.  At least everyone was too polite to say otherwise. Yesterday, after the assembly had already started, I was asked to accompany a song I didn't know, which I had to sight read in front of the entire assembly.  I hope my mistakes weren't too noticeable.

 

 

After the dance numbers, some of the performers invited the guests of honor to come out on the dance floor to dance with them.  The man in the foreground is the director of the Service Center, Iotua Tune.  He is an amazing man who knows everyone and everything on the island.  He's also a very entertaining dancer.

Another reason the week was so busy was the island wide Interschool Track and Field Competition.  Our track team has been training hard for the past 2 months.  The meet started Wednesday at noon, and continued until late Friday evening.  We sat in shaded tents for most of the competition.  This picture, taken from the grandstand, shows the opening ceremonies.  While the program was wonderful, the teams all stood out in the hot sun for over two hours, and then had to run in the 3K and 5K races.  We felt really badly for the kids. Our team was wearing warm-up pants and jackets on top of their new uniforms!  It was HOT!!

 

This picture was taken from the tent we were sitting in for most of the days.  You can see the grandstand across the track from us.  The track is sand and gravel, but many of the runners still run barefoot.  We noticed that some of the distance runners had their feet and toes taped, but some still had blisters.  We missed the morning events because I had to take Bruce, Matthew, and Mike to the airport Thursday morning.

 

Looking off to the right from where we sat you can see the crowds lining the track to cheer on their teams.  We had a guy with a bullhorn as our cheerleader.  We felt guilty arriving because others would always stand up and offer us their chairs.  We tried to refuse, but they wouldn't listen.

This picture shows the track team arriving back on the Moroni High School campus.  They were packed like sardines onto the bed of a truck.  We would consider this unacceptable in the U.S., but they were all just glad for a ride. We still haven't heard the results of the meet, but will include them in our next blog.

The final activity of this past week was a wonderful opportunity to attend the baptisms of a father and his 3 children.  The mother was already a member, and it was obvious from their glowing faces how happy they all were.  We were grateful for the chance to share in their joy.  I thought of the song I often accompanied Becca on at family baptisms that has the phrase "and angels rejoice."  That was the feeling we had despite not understanding a word of Kiribati during the baptism. One of the missionaries did translate their testimonies for Mom.  I missed out because I was sitting at the piano.  We feel like we are constantly witnessing miracles around us.

 

Week 42 in Tarawa

As we contemplated the message we wanted to send with our blog this week, our hearts were filled with many thoughts and concerns.  This has been a sobering and challenging week.

We shared in the happiness of Betty and her family at their safe arrival and move into their beautiful new home.  We pray that they will quickly learn to know and love the people of Klamath Falls.

We have read the news and comments on the Supreme Court ruling on marriage.  We have been troubled by the harsh and sometimes hateful things that are being said.  We have pondered what message we should share about our feelings.

We have been sobered and worried as we learned of Stetson’s accident and Shelby’s serious illness.

We mourned the loss of President Packer but rejoiced in the thought of the glorious reunions he must be having in heaven.

We witnessed the glowing face of a young woman who was baptized last night and the joy on the faces of the sister missionaries who taught her.

In all, we have had a week of many contrasting feelings. A scripture we read in Sunday School today seems to sum up our thoughts:
 “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”    John 16:33 

Only when we put our full faith in Christ, and focus on living as he lived can we have peace.  We need to remember that the Lord knows the end from the beginning. The winds and waves still blow but the Savior is in control and will always direct us for good.  As it says in D&C 14:7, “if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.”

With that in mind, we want it known that we support the Prophet and the Proclamation on the Family.  We are aware that not all agree with us, but that does not in any way affect our love and respect for them. This is part of God’s plan:  that we learn to love and respect all people whether we agree or not.

We believe that the Lord allows tribulation in the form of disease, accidents, and evil because that is part of the mortal experience that teaches us love, patience, and humility.  Life is like a 3 act play, said Boyd K. Packer.  Act 1 was our life before we came to Earth.  Act 2 is life on Earth, and act 3 is life after death.  We come into act 2 as actors on the stage not knowing what happened in act 1.  Part of our test is to come here without remembering our Father in Heaven or knowing what will happen in act 3.  Only in act 3 can we live “happily ever after”.  Because of this plan, we cannot understand everything that happens around us.  That, too, is part of the test of our faith.

Ultimately, we believe that how we live it is far more important than what we believe.  We see goodness, kindness, and charity in all of our family members.  We believe our love for you has grown even as we are apart from you while serving a mission in Kiribati.  We are grateful for your love for us, and look forward to being together again next year.

Love,

Elder and Sister Sumner
(aka dad and mom or grandpa and grandma)

On Tuesday, June 30 we started our ITEP class EDU 312, Effective Pedagogy, with 5 students.

On Wednesday, July 1st, I had fun showing students the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter.

Here's a photo taken with my cell phone through the telescope eyepiece of the conjunction.  Jupiter is in the middle, Venus is below and to the right of Jupiter.

My youngest observer!

 On Friday we had a pep rally for our track team which will compete next week in an island wide competition.  Here the parents are garlanding their athlete sons and daughters.

Saturday we drove out to the Eco Farm near the airport to buy eggs.  This is half of the eggs this fellow just delivered on the back of his scooter!  We didn't see any broken ones.

Week 41 in Tarawa

One of the things we do as part of our ITEP work is to observe teachers who are in the student teaching phase of their certification.  Right now we are working with 4 different teachers.  Each teacher has to have 5 lessons observed and evaluated.  Last Friday we visited Temokua's class, where he was teaching a lesson on different types of banks as part of his accounting curriculum.  This picture shows a team of 6 girls preparing a role play activity to portray the 3 different types of banks.

Here the girls are doing their role play while Temokua observes and grades them.  They had to do everything in English, of course, which is very difficult for some of them.  Notice the open windows on both sides of the classroom.  When it rains, the noise is so loud it makes it very hard to hear anything the teacher or students say.  As ambulances or police cars go by with their sirens blaring, they make quite a distraction while instruction comes to a halt for half a minute.







Temokua is giving direct instruction to the class on the three kinds of banks.

We have had several good storms roll through recently, which has messed up the road but really helped the water situation.

The rain reflects some sad things that have happened recently in our mission.  One of our young elders learned two weeks ago that both his parents and two younger siblings were killed in a private plane accident in Missouri.  Amazingly, he has decided to stay on his mission.  Tomorrow we say goodbye to the self-reliance senior couple who are returning to the U.S. temporarily, we hope, for a medical procedure.  Their health problem, they believe, may stem from the mosquito bourne disease, Chikagunya, which she had last February. 
Next Tuesday we begin teaching a new ITEP class, EDU 312 called Effective Pedagogy.  Time is flying by!

Weeks 39 and 40 in Tarawa

Besides being an uneventful week, the internet was down for most of the weekend last week, so we never got our blog sent out.  Sorry about that.  This week, on the other hand was very busy and full of fun events.  On June 13th, we were invited to tour the USS Millenocket, a humanitarian hospital ship going around the south Pacific islands.  The ship is only two months old, and is a very new and strange design.  As you can see, it is a twin hull vessel.  What you can't see is that it's made almost entirely of aluminum.  As a result, is has a top speed of around 40 knots.

Here are some of our group on the helicopter flight deck.  From right to left you see Sister Sumner, Sister Alldredge, and Elder and Sister Bogh.

This is the lounge area of the ship.  It is a place for the ship's crew and the ship's mission personnel to relax.  The mission personnel consist of doctors, dentists, optometrists, psychologists, and even musicians.  Foreground left to right are Sister Bogh, Sister Alldredge, and Elder Bogh.  The ship's crew is fairly small, only about 26 people.  The mission includes about 240 people, however.

This is one of the fanciest life rafts I've ever seen

On Wednesday, June 17th, the ship's brass band came to Moroni High School for a 45 minute concert.  The kids were thrilled, and the band members told us ours was the best audience they had played for.  Sister Sumner and I even got to dance a little.

One of the reasons this past week has been so busy is that we've had many visitors.  Jon Shute and a group of 15 BYUH students from Kiribati arrived on the 15th, along with auditors and TVET people from New Zealand.  Ameet Khumar and Bruce Andreasen joined us for a post devotional breakfast Tuesday morning.

We've been having lots of problems with the generators that provide us electricity when the daily road construction turns off our power every morning around 7 a.m.  If we're lucky, we can collect buckets of rain water to use to flush our toilet.  If it's not raining, the bathroom smells kind of gross until the power comes back on around 5 or 6 in the afternoon.

Sunday after church the Relief Society and Primary prepared a wonderful surprise treat for Father's Day.  With our church getting out at 3 p.m., it was 4 p.m.by the time we finished.  The senior missionaries had planned a welcome back meal for President and Sister Weir at 5:30.  Needless to say, we weren't very hungry for the second meal.  The senior dinner was also
a farewell for Elder and Sister Waldron who are returning to the U.S. for medical treatment.  We hope they'll be able to return in a month or two.

Here's my Father's Day present from Sister Sumner.  She baked me a cherry and an apple pie for our senior dinner on Father's Day.  Boy, were they yummy.  These are the first pies she's made since coming to Kiribati.  We were really lucky to find a jar of sour pie cherries several months ago, and had been saving them for this occasion.

Here's all that was left after the senior's dinner.  Oh well, I didn't really need the extra calories.  Besides, it was fun to share with the other senior couples.

This has also been a busy week because we were asked to help with several church programs.  Friday, June 19th, the Eita 1st ward asked us to give our "Equally Yoked" husband and wife presentation to their ward.  This is the same program we gave to the Husband and Wife retreat for the Moroni High School faculty and spouses last month.  On Saturday, Janet was the main speaker at the Tarawa East Stake Relief Society Conference.  She did a marvelous job.  I organized a musical number and accompanied the opening and closing hymns.  In this picture, the sisters are learning how to make flowers out of Pandanus leaves. Sunday (today) She also presented the Relief Society lesson.  Whew.  No wonder time is flying by so fast.