Toys for Preschools

A woman doing laundry

 I am having way to much fun buying toys.  Let me explain.  We had two preschools come to us and request school supplies.  Since we have the "micro project" which allows us to spend small amounts of money for things that still fit within the area focus, we were able to fill their requests fairly quickly.  However, we couldn't just give them an uncontrolled shopping spree.  So we decided to allow them one large item that must be used for instructional purposes, and then $125 per classroom for toys (because children 1-5 years old need toys too).   At first I thought $125 per classroom sounded like too much, but when Keith and I researched it, I was surprised how very little it actually bought.  The first preschool got 1 whiteboard per classroom (5 classrooms) for their large item.  The second preschool will be getting a printer to print off worksheets as soon as one can be found on the island.  

That's 5 classrooms worth of toys

Carrying in the whiteboards

It was fun watching the childrens' eyes "pop" 

when we brought in the toys

Happy teachers with new toys. 

Better than Christmas! 

Choosing what to buy.  Both schools did well.

Mostly balls, puzzles, crayons etc.  

Using that same micro project fund we were able to buy supplies to fix a water catchment system.  As usual, we have them get us a quote and then we go with them to buy it.  Alas, the store where they got the quote ran out of some of the things (it was "finished").  We ended up going to 5 different stores to get everything.  

hardware store

Finally!  we got the very last thing on the list

We have another village wanting a fishing boat.  This one was a lot harder to get approved.  But we finally did it.  Abatao is getting a boat.  Contracts are usually signed electronically.  However, Abatao Village didn't have a good email we could use.  And to be honest, email confused them, let alone electronically signing.  So we printed the contract and hiked to the village and had them sign a hard copy.  Then we scanned the hard copy and sent it in. 

Reading through the contract

Me with the wives.  This is a typical kitchen.

It is an outdoor kitchen which is cooler when cooking

but allows "pests" to get in.  

The senior missionaries toured the desalination plant on Betio which is being funded by Austrailia Aid -I think.  Very interesting.  There are 2 desalination plants on South Tarawa and between them, they can make more than enough water for everyone here.  Problem:  Kiribati doesn't have a good distribution system.  The pipes leak which means they are losing a lot of the water. But even more importantly, the system allows contamination in, so the people still need to boil their water before they drink it.  At first I was disheartened, but then I realized that the people have water.  It may not be clean water, but they have water even though we are in a drought.  Baby steps.  The distribution system will someday be fixed.  

Senior Missionaries

Our tour guide

Part of the plant

Welcome to new friends.  Elder and Sister Mulder arrived a week ago.  They will be serving on Moroni High School. They will be doing teacher development.  

E/S Mulder at the airport. 

I couldn't resist taking this picture. 

Some children used chairs to create a car

and then pretended to drive the car.

So creative and cute. 

I see God's hand in this work all the time -  Love you all!