Lizards, Spiders, Rats, and ATM machines

A recent week in the life of Sister Belshe;

  "I was helping in Baking and we were having the TVET rotation class help us with some clean up following Elder Belshe and the FM’s removal of the section of shelves along the wall and into the center of the room (in preparation of the arrival of our stainless steel benches!)  I was showing the students where I wanted them to clean and organize the books – suddenly 2 Geckos jumped out into the air in front of my face, my arms started waving and I was jumping, going into circles as I thought they were on me.  The students just laughed. Later we were working on cleaning and organizing the kitchen tools when some cockroaches ran across my hand, this was followed by more hand waving and jumping around to get them off of me “ewe” I hate cockroaches.  At the end of the day I was helping a teacher make some cookies for her anniversary and lifted a fire extinguisher that was in the way to get into the cupboard and out crawls the biggest spider I have ever seen which sent me running out of the room – ran right into a student who I then asked to come in and KILL it.  The teacher and student just laughed saying that it wasn't that big!  But when they tried to step on it but it ran way – it was very fast and got away.  I don’t think they tried very hard.  The next day I was at the ATM with Elder Belshe to get some cash. As I went to take the cash I wasn’t quick enough and the cash door came down on my hand like it was biting me – Elder Belshe said, ”I’ve never had an ATM machine bite me.”  On Wednesday I was helping again in the baking room preparing food for the in-service training with the teacher and some students from Form 11 & 12. While we were waiting for the items to bake, 2 large rats come out from under the prep tables, and as you can guess I was up off my chair and up onto the teachers desk (almost in her lap).  They were all looking at me like” what, they’re just rats” they said.  It was time for me to leave the room, too many encounters with Kiribati critters these last few days."

It has been a while since we posted last. There has been a lot of network issues and power outages. We left off at our 40th wedding anniversary. Elder Belshe planned a special surprise for Sister Belshe. We had a romantic dinner outside to the sound of the ocean and some singing by the office ladies. Elder Belshe gave her 2 local made dresses, a necklace, bracelett and earings. He also had a special mat made commemorating their anniversary.

The school had a fire drill exercise that went well except for a few students who just lollygaged along. Once all of the students were out in the field we held a short exercise session.

Some teachers just chilled under the shade of the coconuts.

Father's Day was nice. Susan gave me a nice Lei to wear to Church. Then after church there was a Father's Day celebration in the Maneaba.

We had several birthdays in the family again. Nicole, Tylor, Amanda.

Each year the school does a "Moroni Star" a musical performance competition. They had their finals and we and the Needhams were asked to be the judges. There were some very good performers. We enjoyed all of the performances.

 The Stake put on a dance festival that was quite enjoyable. Nearly all of our Tarawa young missionaries were a part of the dances. They performed with the wards that they serve in. There were some very good performances.

Our office finally was finished and we moved in to house #7. It is nice having the office attached to our home. Makes it convenient for snacks, bathroom and water breaks. But we spend a lot of our time  in the school working with our teachers.

The footings are all in on House#1. They should be pouring floors soon and then laying in the block walls.

Everything has been moved to the new Mission Office. The President's desk finally arrived. He had been using an old table.

We now have 6 Senior Mission couples here in Tarawa. Belshe and Needham working at Moroni High School, Olson working Self Reliance training, Reese working Humanitarian projects, Belen working Mission Nurse and office duties, Lander working Office duties.
Sister Reese in the picture looks weird because she moved when I was taking this Pano shot. This was taken at our weekly Family Home Evening which we held at our home this past week.

This past Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday was the Interschool Track Meet. On Wednesday there was the opening ceremonies along with the school marching event. Then Tursday and Friday were all of the races and competition. We had rain nearly all day on Friday.

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday was a very wet day, a lot of rain. But the racers raced on even in the rain.

We made it through all the rain. Moroni Girls swept all of their races, the boys won most of their races and Moroni was the top school overall. We left at the end of the events and went to dinner with all the senior couples to a little resturant called Marys. They make a good hamburger and a chilli steak sandwich.

Flowers, teeth and progress.

With all of the rain we have been getting lately the trees and shrubs have been blooming. Here are a couple of pictures.

I was eating toast one morning and felt something weird in my mouth. It turned out to be one of my teeth. It was a tooth I had done a root canal and crown on. Go figure. Spend all that money on a root canal and crown and 2 years later it falls out. And the mission Dentists were just here a couple of months ago and said everything looked fine. I told a few people that Sister Belshe had got mad at me and knocked my tooth out. She was amazed that some of them believed me.

One Friday evening when all the Senior couples were out eating we lost electrical power on the Island. So the resturant brought out a couple of candles and we continued on with dinner.

One of our other duties right now is sending packages out to the outer Islands. Islands with names like Abaiang, Abemama, Butaritari, Kuria, Maiana, Marakei, Nikunau, Nonouti, Onotoa. We deliver them to the aiport so they can be sent on the next flight out to that island.

Mondays are preparation day for the missionaries. We got with the school about a month ago and arranged for the missionaries to come into the computer lab so that they can email the Mission President and send an email home to their family. They really appreciate having access to a computer. Plus they love being in an air conditioned room.

We had a new couple arrive, the Belens. They are from Australia but live in Tennessee. Sister Belen is the Mission Nurse for Kiribati. They are seated on the left. They are quite the couple, very funny. 

Last Saturday Susan wanted to find 2 things. One, a couple of new T-shirts. As we were driving down the road she had me stop so she could check out this shop. She ended up buying 3 shirts.

The other item she was looking for was some leafy cabbage for a salad she needed to make for our Sunday dinner at the mission home. This time I saw a small roadside hut with a sign on it advertising vegetables. It turned out to be a neighborhood co-op of gardeners. We stopped and asked where we could get some cabbage. They pointed to a house across the road. Susan went over and found just what she needed.

We are being moved into a different house, House #7. The reason is the ITEP couple that will be here in 2 weeks will be moving into our housing unit and moving into the office we are in at the school. We have been assigned to #7 because it will have its own office for us to work out of. They are in the middle of remodeling the storage room next to House #7 into an office for us. A nice big window, new doors, tile, and AC. The inside door will open up right into our house. 

The Agriculture students along with the Carpentry students have a chicken coop project they need to build since the old coop is falling apart. The problem has been that the area where they need to build it is a hole, or what they call the banana tree pit. The school didn't have the funds to fill in the pit with rock and sand. With all of the building and remodeling projects going on Bill worked out a solution by having the contractors just dispose of their rubble, rocks, and sand in that area. So far we have almost enough material to fill in that part of the banana pit we need in order to build the chicken coop.

We are getting close to having the new mission office ready to move in. On friday I checked in on the contractor to see how he was doing. He said that he would be finished with the carpet that day. I went back on Saturday and saw that he left right after I did on Friday because no more carpet tiles were laid after I left on Friday. Lets hope he finishes on Monday.

I took a break from writing tonight and stepped outside to a beautiful moonrise. I love the beautiful colors of nature here. We have beautiful sunrises, sunsets, brilliant stars, flowers, trees, moon rises, everything seems to to have  bright contrasts to its surrounding enviroment.

Last of all I want to say Happy Anniversary to my beautiful wife and companion of 40 years. We have been through a lot together and have had quite the life. It has been a fabulous ride!