August 2017

Wheelchair Inspections

We were asked to do about 25 wheelchair inspections and needed to go to at least two other islands.  Our first pick was Gizo Island.  This is definately a great place--very small but a nice hotel and restaurant.  The people we worked with were so nice.  We spent one day visiting 7 wheelchair recipients.  These visits required a 1 1/2 hr boat ride and then going to different villages on a few islands in this province.  Quite an adventure.  It is quite surprizing to find a wheelchair out in the bush.  We had a mini-vacation and spent 5 days there.

We came back and did wheelchair inspections on this island, visiting 13 people from varied areas.

We went to Auki, Malaita and did 4 inspections there.  We rode in a Land Cruizer out to the villages and felt like it was better than the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland...especially because it began raining while we were out in the bush and there were some pretty muddy areas.  It was great to see this area but there isn't much there.

75th Anniversary of WWII happenings

Aug 2 Kennedy Island--we just happened onto this celebration.  The island is right by Gizo  so we just had to go.  One of the speakers said how grateful they were that some white people came to add color to the audience.  

We were so fortunate to be able to attend the celebration at Kennedy Island.  They had a great program, with a warrior canoe, warrior dancing, tribal group singing and a fantastic luncheon.

Aug 7--American Memorial at Honiara  The program was to start at 7 a.m. so we left about 6:15 and as we came close to the memorial, there were many cars and many people there.  The program was so good, with a fly over to start.  There were 2 WWII veterans there...amazing they are still alive and able to travel.

Solomon Scouts & Coastwatchers--This was at Pt. Cruz and there was another presentation, speeches, etc.  It gave us some sense of what the scouts and coastwatchers did during the war.

Doug Munro memorial--yacht club building.  This marine was instrumental in the rescue of the marines off of the island.  He used his boat to draw fire away from the boats evacuating the marines.  There was a small lunch served.

All in all a great education about WWII.

Visitors

Elder & Sister Robison came over to oversee the audits for the branches.  It was fun to have visitors, especially Elder Robinson who had been a military pilot.  He was interested in all of the WWII sites we knew of.  We went to a few new places...Hell's point, an ammunition disposal area and saw many different WWII weapons, bombs, tanks.  And then we also went to an airplane museum, which Elder Robison was very interested in.

Don Bosco Cultural Night

This was a fun evening.  The students from each province performed their tribal dances.  It took about 3 hrs.  

SOCS students

These are the students from White River Branch who have been accepted to go to school in Samoa.  We have 9 new students going next year.

Funeral

Michael Laura, who had been a member of the Burns Creek Branch Presidency passed away this month.  He had not felt well for months.  

July 2017

July 4

The only thing we did for the 4th of July was go to a Rotary club meeting.  The U S Consulate had ordered American food for the dinner and invited the few Americans over here.  That was our first Rotary Meeting.  The tables were decorated with red, white, and blue flags.  And the American meal was chips (no salsa..is that American??), cole slaw, baked beans, french fries, KFC  (their version of it..it wasn't too bad), corn cobette.  For dessert, they wanted to order apple pie but knew that wouldn't work, so we had pineapple upside down cake and ice cream decorated with red and blue frosting.  It was a pretty good meal and fun to meet and attend the Rotary meeting.

Solomon Cup Games

Solomon Islands is having their soccer cup games right now.  We went to two games on 7 Jul.  Hope we can go to the final game on Saturday Jul 15.  It amazes me how many people watch the game from the hillside and beyond the fence.  It has been fun to watch soccer...

soccer game...

Parangiju Lodge 

We went with Freeman and Ethel Misitana to a mountain lodge, where we could see the island from way up high.  We drove for about 1 1/2 hrs back into the bush.  While we were driving, we passed a logging company and were very fascinated with their portable mill that they use.

On the way there, we passed two Catholic Schools and a first for us...COWS!!!

The lodge was beautiful.  The view was pretty good except that we had high clouds so it wasn't clear to see out to the ocean and the other islands.  It was still so beautiful, quiet and enjoyable.

 We then went to the river and enjoyed seeing it..the flow and the calm areas.  Lynn wished he had a pole.  Freeman claimed it was cold water, but it felt pretty good to Lynn and I.  It was so pretty with all of the greenery around it.

Youth Conference

The district had it's first every youth conference this month.  It was a hugh success.  The Fuimaono's were instrumental in getting it organized and helping the district figure it out.  It was held at the chapel and the kids stayed overnight there.  You can tell they are used to simple things because they all slept on the floors, and the showers were a simple barrell with a cup that you could pour over your self.  We helped on Saturday, teaching a class about a section of Especially for Youth.

Pickleball

When we were at the Senior's conference at Vanuatu, the couples there were playing pickleball and we joined them.  And then they surprised us by giving us a net, some homemade paddles, and a few balls!  We had two paddles and a ball in the closet at our SR center so we have been playing pickleball every morning in the old chapel.  It is pretty fun, except that the ceiling is kind of low but it is workable.

Don Bosco Schools

We visited both Don Bosco Schools (alternative schools technical schools), asking if they needed anything.  We helped the technical school put up some raingutters on their assembly building.  The agricultural school had just harvested some rice and were letting it dry.  It was pretty interesting.  This school does need some help with irrigation pipes so they will be getting us some quotes for that.

History in the making

Elder Sanders was able to help Jeremy Raramo fill out and sent his mission papers online!!!!  The very first one.

WHAT THE ???

We had to go shopping to find sewing machine needles and look what we found...treadle sewing machines!!!  My first thought was "Wow that would be a great find in the US."  But then I did a reality check and realized that the majority of houses don't have power so of course they would need a treadle machine.