Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Fruits of our labor

The Mission has officially changed it's name to the Marshall Islands/Kiribati Mission. We are now the #2 fastest growing mission in the world. 

A few weeks ago I transplanted a banana tree and then planted a garden to see what I could grow here. I got some seeds and starter plants from the locals. Rock melon(canteloupe), peppers, tomatoes, snake beans, and cucumbers were what I tried this first go around at a garden. Well after a fews weeks I had a nice rock melon growing and several tomatoes. Then one Saturday some local kids got in my garden and picked all of my tomatoes which were still green. I found some of them out in the soccer field. I was a little steamed. They were lucky they left my rock melon alone. So I kept taking care of the garden and my rock melon finally ripened. When I showed it to some local gardeners they were amazed at how big it was. They asked me what my secret was and I told them, "keep the kids out of the garden!" Actually the secret is in the soup. I have a soup bucket that I feed the plants with once a day. The soup is made up of rotting plant matter, chicken poop, and meal leftovers, mostly plant matter such as vegetables and cabbage. As I feed out of it I just keep putting water back in. Then every week I add another clump of chicken poop. When we have leftovers I throw that in.


My rock melon when it was still young and green.

Tomatoes and beans behind them.

Banana Trees, peppers, rock melon, and more tomatoes.

Here is my ripe rock melon. 

Elder Powell turned 21 and since that is a big deal here the local kids gave him a traditional present of a wooden "21" key.



About once a month I have astronomy night where the kids and the missionaries can come to the school at night and look at the stars. We had some of the Sister missionaries show up this time. 
This is Sister Rome from Paupa New Guinea.


Sister Belshe and I went to an open house for the Kiribati Institute of Technology so that we could understand what they offer there. It is similar to our local community colleges in the US.
This room is the Business Program. Here they run a virtual company and teach the students each aspect of running a small business. Each cubicle represents a different department such as marketing, finance, sales, and shipping.

These were the students in the Nursing Program. They were demonstrating First Responder skills such as CPR, and other skills.

These were the the IT students learning all about computers and software.

This is part of the automotive shop.

This is the electrical lab where they learn To do simple residential wiring.

This is part of the carpentry shop area.



We had a new set of Senior couples arrive, the Hansen couple. They are the ones on the far right. They will be doing auditing and some support work in the District. The day they arrived we had a nice dinner for them at the Institute building.

Sister Belshe has been working with the students in the Fashion class make tie-dyed dresses. They dyed their own material and then made their dresses.

It was Susan's birthday the month. We did a sign for her and then Robert, Stephanie, and their kids did one for "Grandma"



The carpentry students have been learning how to make different joints. Here they are hand cutting dovetail joints and making different kinds of boxes. 





Here is one of the finished boxes. They add their own artistic touch to each box. 


Next came MeKenzie's birthday.

One Friday the school decided to have a school picnic day and to celebrate all of the sports teams achievements, and other groups achievments. Part of the day was rainy but everyone had a great time.


Elder Belshe kept checking on these boys cooking. At first they were not cooking the chicken very well and it was raw in the middle. Elder Belshe taught them how to cook it to the bone.

A volleyball got stuck up in a tree. This girl and boy raced to see who could get it first. As you can see she flew up the tree leaving the boy to be hackled by all his friends.

One day Sister Belshe and I were driving back to the school and we saw some small boats skimming across the water. So we stopped to see what was going on. What we found was a local boat club that builds these model boats for fun and sailing. They were amazing to watch as they skimmed acrossed the water in the lagoon.



We also watched these guys assembling a boat and attaching the sail to a wooden hoop.


Here is a video I took of these boats in action.


Outer Islands Entrance exams, dancing,and stuff

I am sitting here going through pictures and contemplating what to write in this blog. I know these next 3 weeks will be a blur of activity ...