Trip to the Marshall Islands

I had been talking with the FM group about some issues they were having in the Marshall Islands with a generator project that was taking a long time to finish. Then on a Thursday morning they asked me if I could fly to the Marshalls and stay for a week to help with some of these issues. The next day found Susan and I at the airport flying to Majuro. Sister Larkin the Mission President's wife was flying there also.

 

The Marshall islands are long and narrow. They have had a lot of influence from many different countries but most recently after WWII they were a US trust. They recieved their independence 38 years ago. They still have strong ties with the USA.

Once we arrived we went to the Mission Office and met the Senior couples that work there. They let me use the Presidents office while I was there since he was in Tarawa.

They showed us to our apartment that we were going to be staying in. The complex is right next to the office.

Here is a view from out of our back door.

They had asked me to do 2 things. First they wanted me to assess the backup generator project for the Mission Home. Second they wanted me to work with the local NTA phone company to get the office phones and the Mission Home phones working again. This is the Mission Home.

As with most of these Islands the power systems are not reliable. The power comes and goes. With all of the work going on at the Mission Home and Office the church wanted a backup generator so that the work could go on uninterupted and that food in refrigerators and freezers would not go bad. So the Area office had bought a generator with auto start capabilities but it had not been installed. They wanted me to go see what the issues were with the project. The FM workers in the Marshalls have no electrical experience and were relying on a local contractor for info. Once I met with the local contractor and reviewed the generator specs I realized that they had ordered the wrong generator. It had 110 VAC output instead of 220 VAC output. I then spent the rest of the week communicating with the generator manufacturer to see if we could do a field change of the output voltage and change the AVR settings. In the end the manufacturer decided that the best thing to do would be to return the generator and have a 220 V model sent. In the USA that would be maybe a 2 week turn around but here in the Islands that will take months. So I spent the rest of my time creating drawings of the electrical system and the site layout. Then I wrote up the project work scope and bill of materials.

On the Island of Alingalaplap the Elders have a solar panel to provide power for a couple of lights and to charge their electronis. The system has not worked for the last few months so I was asked if I could fly out with Elder Seager to see what was needed to repair it. I was not able to get on the plane because it was full. So Elder Seager took pictures of the system so that I could see what they are dealing with.

On our first Saturday there Susan and I went to the far end of the Island to an area called Lara. This side of the island is less populated with many coconut groves. Copra is one of the industries here on the island.

We stopped by a Japanese WWII war memorial

We walked along the beach some and then drove on to the far end of the Island.

Most of the drive the ocean was on one side and the lagoon was on the other. The Island was maybe 50 yards wide.

This is at the area called Lara. We were looking for a 1910 Typhoon monument. We couldn't find it so we just walked along the beach.

There was an old cemetery nestled among the trees.

As we were leaving there were 2 guys sitting at a table so we stopped and asked them where the monument was. Thye gave us directions and then asked us while pointing to a sign  if we could read the sign. The sign said that it cost $1 per adult to use the park. We laughed at ourselves and gave them $2. The Typhoon monument was written in Japanese and was a tribute to the Emporer for helping the Island people after the typhoon hit.

This is a Pandan tree fruit. It is edible but I have not tried it yet.

Sunday we went to church. Everything was spoken in Marshlese but we had translators to help us.

Most of my time was spent right here at the desk working on the project.

Susan was hard at it too.

One day while working at the generator I saw this spider. It was about 3 inches wide and colorful.

We were at one of the Member's home having dinner one night and these kids came by and knocked on the door. They then asked for a spinner, which is a small spinning toy that Sister Winchester had bought several of them when she was in the US recently. They were a lively group.

The apartment complex had this workout facility that I used every morning.

One evening we went to this little burger joint called Yummy Burgers. They were pretty good especially since we don't have anything like this in Tarawa.

The sunset was amazing.

As you drive down the road in the populated areas of Majuro you can definitely see the American influence. The housing and buildings are much different than on Tarawa.

Most of the houses are very colorful in their painting and some even are interesting in their wall textures.

On the last Saturday we went to the other end of the island. That side of the island is much more populated. We saw this young man fishing and we watched him a while. He waved to us to come over so we walked out to him. He spoke broken English but was happy to show us how he was fishing and the fish he was trying to catch.

I stopped to take a picture of this Catholic school. When I rolled down ther window I could hear the kids singing and having a good time. It reminded me of the kids at Moroni.

Every Saturday there is a farmers market next to the Marshall College.

Elder Preston was doing a cooking demonstration at the Market.

The last Friday night there we went to dinner to the Tide Table restaurant with the Senior Couples. It was an enjoyable dinner and the food was great.

Well the week ended and we headed back to Tarawa. It was nice to be able to see this side of the mission and meet the Senior Missionaries and other missionaries that serve there.

A look at the airstrip in Tarawa as we were coming in for a landing. It is in the center of the photo.

It was surprising to me how I felt like I was coming home as we returned to Tarawa. The people here have been so good to us and have become like family to us.

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.