We Have Arrived in Kiribati

Keith and I arrived at the SLC airport Saturday at 2:30p.m., crossed the international date line and arrived in Tarawa Monday at 11:00. We lost Sunday. I need my day of rest! After 26 hours of traveling we were exhausted but very happy to arrive, checked bags and all.  We were greeted by Elder and Sister Bennett,  Elder and Sister Stoddard and Ruth Cross. Ruth is an employee of the church in charge of Welfare. She is amazing! Unfortunately for us, she resigned so she could run for an office in the parliament. Fingers crossed for her. I'm sure she will win and do a lot of good for the people of Kiribati. 


  The Stoddards, Us, Ruth and the Bennetts


Exhausted and glad to be here


In Ruth's back yard


It is stifling hot and humid here. But we have "air conditioning" in our apartment, so we are comfortable. It already feels like home.  The people prefer to speak Kiribati but can speak English if necessary so we are getting by. Many people here live outside with just a hammock to sleep in and a place to cook meals. One of these is a sweet lady who lives in our apartment complex. I met her our second day here. Every time I see her she teaches me one word in Kiribati.

On Tuesday, Ruth had an appointment set up for us to meet with Secretary Benny of the Ministry of Health. There is a project they are hoping to get approved before the end of the year to have the dirt road around the hospital complex paved.  It is sorely needed. Right now, you need a 4 wheel drive to reach the emergency room. And it is even worse when it rains. It had rained on Tuesday morning so we were up to our ankles in water when we got out of the car at the Hospital. We learned very quickly why you always wear sandals in Kiribati.

On Wednesday, we spent the day with the Stoddards. They took us all over Tarawa. Showing us where the best places to buy different items. Getting back to the locations may be a bit of a challenge.😕The biggest lesson is if you find something you like you need to grab it because you don't know when or if it will be back again.

On Thursday morning we greeted another Senior couple to Kiribati, Elder and Sister Frehner. They will be working with the YSA on the BYU Pathways and helping them get into BYU Hawaii. Christmas also came in June for All the missionaries (young and seniors). A container was delivered to Moroni High School that contained microwaves, instant pots, toasters, etc.  It was a long day making deliveries to all the apartments. Wow, life does not get any better than that.


                                                           Making piles for each apartment.




Vehicles lined up getting loaded for deliveries.




What was left at the end of the day

Friday ended with a dinner at Ruth's house for all the senior missionaries. It was a wonderful evening.


Tongafiti Cross, Sister Bennett, Sister Stoddard, me and Sister Frehner.


Redmond's, Bennett's, Ruth, Stoddard's and Frehner's




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bureaucracy at it's Best

Image
 Most of our week was spent trying to get a convection oven that is used to make prosthetics out of customs and on it's way to the hospital on Kiritimati Island. It was donated by LDS charities and has been sitting at the dock here on Tarawa for almost a year.  So we got all the paperwork we needed (or so we thought), and went to Betio to where the port authorities were located. Met with a man there who spoke every little English and he told us we needed another document and that we could get it from Tamwango. He gave us directions and drew us a map to his house.  So we followed his directions and ended up at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy (MISE). Someone there told us we were close and gave us better directions along with his email address.  Hurray!  It is now after 5:00 and all government offices are closed. So we went home and email the man.  He was very prompt in returning our email which is not normal here in Kiribati. But what h...
Read more

Outer Island Experience

Image
  Traditional coconut water - straight from the coconut We had the best week!  We went to the southern islands of Beru and Onotoa  with several people including Uraia, our supervisor; E/S Brock, Service missionaries and Project Managers over the Desalination project; Epeli, Suez engineer; Willie, Suez consultant; Eretai, Construction Manager; Gideon, from OB office in charge of emergency preparedness, and Regina, woman extraordinaire who took care of every single detail of our trip! I count it as a great blessing to have been in the company of such good people.  We were there to evaluate the first phase of getting clean water to 20 outer islands. Beru and Onotoa were 2 of 5 islands to receive a desalination plant.   What?!  I didn't get a group picture at the beginning?  Ugh Our trip started at the airport at 5:00 am.  Nothing ever goes perfectly and this was no exception. There was a little mix-up with the flight reservations which was event...
Read more
Image
 We have another boat project from a different North Tarawa islet, Anatoa.  Yes, it is a copy cat project. However, it can still do the same amount of good as the first one. And we knew this would happen.  This one was harder to put together just because of the personality and skill set of the senior missionary who was requesting the boat.  I sent him home to revise his plan for "sustainability" several times.  But once he got the entire community involved, it came together beautifully.  We submitted it and the committee wanted an evaluation of the first boat project before they recommended approval for the second project.  That's very fair.  We, as project managers, cannot do the evaluation, so Uraia came from Fiji to Nabeina to do the evaluation.  He found that their original plan for maintaining the boat didn't work out so well, so they changed it and now it is working quite well.  It has really improved the living conditions of the v...
Read more