Anxiously Engaged in Kiribati

 We took an entire day and spent it with the other senior missionaries touring the island and seeing all the WWII artifacts. In 1942, Japan took occupation of Tarawa. Then in November 1943, the USA attacked and took back the island. It was called the Battle of Tarawa and there have been many books and movies made about this 3 day battle. Many, many lives were lost there. We enjoyed learning more about the history of Tarawa, but the best part of the day was being in the companionship of the other senior missionaries. They are such good people.  We love them all.  Please forgive the photo dump. But so cool!! Memorials:  the one on the left is to the Japanese soldiers  and the one on the right is to their Korean slaves Lunch with the senior missionaries.  Within the last couple of weeks we had 2 separate home fires. In the first home fire, 2 homes were completely destroyed. They had thatched roofs and wood walls. Luckily, no one was hurt. A couple of  you...

 The saga of getting the oven out of customs and on it's way to Kiritimati (xmas) Island continues: So we were waiting for the email from the Ministry of Finance.  It never came. So we went back down there. They were very apologetic but still didn't have what we needed, so they gave us our paperwork back along with the letter they sent to customs. We then drove to the customs office where we just walked in. They don't use computers yet, so they had to find the ledger book for 2023. 2 hours later, they found it and we got the necessary paperwork from them.  Now we need to go to the hospital (on the opposite side of the island) to get their broker to input it into the system. Finally, something that is computerized. They said they would email us when it was done. 2 days later and no email - are we seeing a pattern?  During those 2 days we decided to go to the shipping dock to see when the next ship was leaving for Xmas island. There's one leaving in in 2 days!  Bu...

 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...