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.