This past week went by fast. We had the Area Manager for TVET, Ameet Kumar, and the Area Curriculum & Instruction Specialist, Jonothan Warwick, come visit Moroni and review activities at the school. They gave some good suggestions and counsel to the teachers and staff. We visited classes and held training meetings. Jonothan is a Maori from New Zealand. He loves the outdoors, fishing, hunting, and just spending time with his son who is 15 and his daughter who is 17. When he saw pictures of some of the knives that I make he got excited.  You can tell he is a great father and husband. Always talking about his son and daughter and his wife. He also told some great stories about his childhood and growing up in New Zealand.

On Tuesday night one of the boys at the dorm looked across the basketball court to the cultural hall and saw some sparking and then a fire. He quickly ran over and grabbed a fire extinguisher but could not open the locked door so he broke a window next to the fire and put it out. There was just superficial damage because of this boy's quick actions. It turned out to be a fan controller that had failed and caught on fire.

On Wednesday night the school staff put on a feast and performance. They wanted to welcome the Dentists, The Area visitors, and give Susan and I a "proper" welcome. It was amazing. The singing and dances were great and the food was even better. Susan even tried the octopus. It was fabulous.

     

Thursday we were back to normal attending classes and working with the teachers. I rode with the Principal to take Ameet and Jonothan to the airport.

On Friday afternoon each of the inter-house teams worked on their marching and chants they will be doing at the Inter-House competitions on March 29th and 30th when they march on to the field. After the sun went down the rain clouds opened up and we had a good hard rainstorm for about an hour. The dorm students were out in the rain playing volleyball and belly sliding on the basketball court. They were also taking photos and doing a lot of yelling and laughing. Everything and everyone settled down around 10pm. We had rain off and on all night long.

Saturday Susan had a Stake Relief Society birthday celebration. There was a lot of singing and dancing going on. I was making bread at the apartment and running back and forth taking pictures and videos. The celebration started at 10am and ended at 3:30pm, 5.5 hrs. Relief Society events don't last that long in the States. But the Islanders know how to put on a celebration and enjoy every minute of it. After the celebration we borrowed a mission truck and went for a ride towards Betio to find some items I needed to repair a washing machine for some missionaries. Found everything I needed. We also picked up a couple of food items we needed and then went back home. We stopped at a store that has a popcorn machine to buy a bag to munch on but they were out of popcorn kernels. No popcorn on the island right now. Susan was sad. I did notice that there is gasoline available now. Two weeks ago they did not get a shipment so gas was being rationed out. They always seem to have diesel. The school vehicles and most of the mission vehicles are all diesel. Most of them are the small Toyota Hilux trucks. They look like a Tacoma. They are all 4x4 trucks. Go figure.

Today is Sunday and we are truely resting after the busy week we had. The Mission President and his wife flew in this morning from the Marshal Islands. They will be here for 10 days. The mission home and office are about 3 weeks away from being completed here on Tarawa. This will be the only Mission in the church with 2 mission homes and 2 mission offices. But it is necessary with the great distances between islands. The Marshal islands are a US protectorate so they have a lot of US services. Thus the mission headquaters was setup there years ago when the Mission was formed. But Kiribati and Tarawa specifically has been the fastest growing area in the mission. There are 2 Stakes and 1 District on Tarawa alone. By the end of next year their goal is to have 5 Stakes and 3 Districts in Kiribati which includes the outer islands, 3 Stakes and 2 districts on Tarawa. So the Mission President spends a lot of time here on Tarawa. Because of that it was decided to have a mission home and office here also. Plus he has 2 assistants in the Marshals and 2 assistants on Tarawa. Also one of the Mission Presidency Counselors lives on Kiritimati Island (pronounced Christmas) which is 2000 miles out on the eastern end of the mission. Kiritimati is another fast growing area for the Church.