Compared to December, January has been pretty quiet. This is the students summer vacation so when they take a vacation, they leave this island and go to their home island. And they stay for weeks at a time. So everything has slowed way down, even the traffic. The White River Branch has had maybe 30 members in attendance and we have cancelled self-reliance,, English and keyboarding classes for two weeks. School starts again at the end of January/first of February so that should bring most families back.
Wedding and baptism
This couple were married by Pres. Peseika. The groom, Allisten Tagini is a returned missionary, who came home, got married, then had to leave because he didn't pay the bride price for his wife. What a mess these tribal customs are. Somehow things got settled so now he is back with his wife. She was baptized the next day. Allisten has been to see us many times figuring out how get funding for school. We are really enjoying working with him and his cute wife.
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| The Tagini's |
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| Sister Tagini baptism |
Humanitarian Training
We had mentioned to the New Zealand office that we felt like we would have time (go figure) to do some humanitarian work and BINGO--we received a call from Elder & Sister Maughan that are the Humanitarian Projects Specialists. They were anxious to get us trained and asked us when they could come. What? In the middle of getting the tithing settlement records straight, year end finances with the branches, English and keyboarding classes...where would we find the time for 3-4 days of training? So they came over Jan 24 and left Jan 30. We were able to spend some very productive days with them, in between all of our normal doings. We visited the two Don Bosco's schools and found some needs there, the hospital with a TON of needs there, and the eye clinic, which seemed very good--latest equipment and all. As we visited these places, we are supposed to find someone who can be a "champion" that will help and supervise the project on a local level. At the Don Bosco Technical School, we met Moise, the principal , who was from the Congo, and really seemed very sharp and knows what is going on. At the Don Bosco Agricultural School, we met with Father Albert, who is very good at discussing needs. So now we just need to find the time to write up a project and get it approved.
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| Moise |
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| new rain gutters at Don Bosco School |
Just a word about the hospital...well, there could be lots of words but...you can try to imagine being in a third world country with socialized medicine. What a mess. The staff are trying so hard to make it work. Right now is malaria and dengue fever season and the hospital is completely full, with the emergency staff understaffed and overworked. We met with the hospital administrative executive, Nelson Bilau, and were very impressed. He is from Maliata, was educated in Thailand, so sharp, spoke good English and knew what was going on (miracle), and what the hospital needs were . We asked him for his wish list, which he emailed that night. His top priority was for computers...The next day we went back to visit with him and ask more questions. He took us to the records office...what an overwhelming mass of paperwork they were dealing with. And then to see the places that the doctors and nurses work...we visited the Diabetic center, where they have had to cut back on the number of patients they see, because termites have eaten away at the building. So instead of seeing 100 patients a week, they can only see 30. What a shame...diabetes is the number one problem over here. The surgical ward doesn't even have working fans in it. And on and on and on...We could find many projects to help with at the hospital but we are hoping to get them the computers they need...16 desktops and 6 laptops. It would be such a great help for them.
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| x-ray |
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| garbage |
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| business office |
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| discussing needs |
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| hospital |
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| pediatrics |
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| hallway |
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| at least the garbage is stacked... |
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| treatment room diabetic ward |
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| termite damage diabetic ward |
And talking about humanitarian projects...there is a cargo container of 300 wheelchairs (part of a previous project) that arrived in port on Jan. 7. They have been sitting waiting for the government to pay for the customs. Our contact person, Elsie, has been doing wheelchair training and needed them to demonstrate with. She has been trying to speed up the process but to no avail. Hopefully, we will be able to have what they call "the hand-off" ceremony...where we have Pres. Sauseru, us, Elsie, hospital staff, and a reporter there to open the container.
Zone Conference
Pres. and Sister Granger met with us Sunday afternoon to interview us and see how things were going. They also wanted to talk with the Maughan's to make sure the emphasis wasn't going to be on humanitarian work, which happened with the missionary couple before us. We reassured the president that our first priority was the clerk's, P-13, and then humanitarian work.
We had zone conference Jan 30-31. The Maughan's were still here on that Monday so we dropped them off by the hospital and left them, knowing they could figure out what to do. We had the missionary training that was given in SLC during the morning. Then we came down to the mission complex and had lunch, which Fuimaono's fixed. It is always soooo delicious. The Fuimaono's really know how to cook great food for the masses. The Maughan's had arrived just as we were heading to lunch, so they were there to enjoy it. We took them to the airport right after lunch and missed the Elder's talent show. They were doing special dances that Elder Fuimaono had taught them. We were able to see the last two performances.
Tuesday the President gave very specific training on being full purpose missionaries and how to do more with less. The number of missionaries worldwide has gone down, which means our missionary numbers have gone down. But the goal for baptisms has gone up, so the missionaries need to work smarter.
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| Honiara Zone |
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| practicing |
Guadalcanal American Memorial
While the Maughan's were here, we took them to the WWII Memorial. Elder Maughan had an uncle who had been here during WWII so they were pretty excited to see some of the war sites. The site consists of a central pylon rising 24 feet and four radiating directional walls that point toward the major battle sites. Descriptions of the battles are on the walls. It was a very rewarding experience to see.
We were able to take them out to see the tanks, even though it was a rainy day.
Eating Out
One special thing about having someone visit is they will take us out to dinner. What a treat. Because we picked up the Maughan's from their hotel, fed them breakfast and lunch at our flat, they felt like they could take us to dinner 5 times! That was so fun. We ate at their hotel, Solomon Kitano Medono, twice at The Heritage Hotel, and twice at the Coral Sea Casino (why is it the casino's have such good food?). We enjoyed all of the places. It was sad to think that when the Maughan's asked us where to eat, we could only recommend two places...well, that are open in the evenings.
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| Good food, great company--Elder & Sister Maughan |
SOCS Students
SOCS is study overseas at church school--We sent 7 students off on Jan 28. We had worked with two of them, George Oto and Antonette Amon, since we first arrived so it was kind of a happy/sad day to see them at the airport. Just the idea that we won't be here when they return in Dec was a little hard. We are happy that they have this great opportunityfor their education.
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| 2017 SOCS students--George & Antoneete on right |
School Funding
We are in charge of a program called P-13, which gives funds to members to help with school costs. We had given everyone that was interested a form at the end of November, so they could get it filled out and turned in by December. But right now we are having people needing new forms and scrambling to get them turned in. Even the YSA wanting to take classes at USP (University of South Pacific) are just now getting their applications in. It can take two weeks for approval and the people all want their money yesterday! Talk about typical procrastination.
Two new missionary calls
Another part of our work is with prospective missionaries. The goal is to have the prospective missionaries do all of the work online. But because the internet is slow and sometimes doesn't work too well, Pres. Granger asked us to work with the prospective missionaries and help them fill in the paper application. We then email this to Sister Granger and she enters it into the computer. Then when their call comes, we have them go online to write their acceptance letter. So Ben Ini and Christine Ruasu have received their calls. Ben is going to PNG in May and Christine is going to Brisbane Australia in May. We went online to have them accept their call and....guess what? Nothing is simple in the Solomon's. Ben was able to get into the missionary portal after three tries but when he put in his PIN, it wouldn't accept it. We then went into his account and notice there was no membership number. So we entered that and then he came back the next day and was finally able to get in and write his letter. Christine came to do her letter but she forgot her username and password so she had to come back. We tried to get on the missionary site for 1 1/2 hrs and finally got there and she was able to write her letter. This is such a rewarding time...to see how excited they are to go and serve. Fun for us.
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| Ben Ini |
