Survived the First Week!

Well, it's actually been more than a week now, but our internet wasn't working so this post is a few days late. But the truth remains that we have survived the first official week here and have come out the otherside with a cheerful disposition.

This first week has been really busy. A big part of it has been moving mud, fixing fences and cars, learning all sorts of new things about our role. In many ways, we've become "boss" in different departments to different people - but we're the ones still learning the ropes and people look up to us for direction! Needless to say, we rely heavily on them for direction, information, advice and encouragement. The people we work with here are very friendly and willing to help us.

One highlight has been the trip to Tetere prison farm on Friday. It's a half hour drive there and then you chat to the prisoners who do CBI Bible studies about their work. Usually you play a game of soccer with them afterwards as well, but we didn't do that this time. In fact it was a very quick visit this time - we quickly got introduced and quickly met them and then left again.

After we left we went for a bit of a drive and that was absolutely delightful (apart from the drunken guys who looked a bit suspicious!). We drove through a Palm oil plantation and then up this huge mountainous area to the gold mine. The gold mine is currently out of action, but it was great to look down at it and see all these little villages nestled in the jungle, houses clumped together in a group with little paths joining them. It was rather inspiring looking out from the back of the truck to the left at the jungle all around us. To the right we had a sweeping view of the plains with Palm trees in neat rows and then in the distance the sea and then even further out another large island.

You get such a sense of freedom when you're riding on the back of a truck, hooning down a bumpy gravel road, dust puffing in circles behind you and nothing but wind in your face and your own laughter in your ear. This is the usual mode of transport and it personifies happiness.

On the way back from our drive, we found a spot in the river to swim in. This was our first swim here in the Solomon Islands. It was lovely and cool and refreshing. When we were about to leave some rather tipsy locals came to demand compensation for us swimming in their river. We told them we were from SWIM and then they were ok with that. Phew. Then we chatted to them for a while and went on our way.

Unfortunately for you, we didn't have our camera on us, so none of these beautiful sights are documented for you - you'll just have to come over and see them sometime!! I did take a photo of the view from our kitchen while I was making dinner. Enjoy. I think you'll see some more sunset shots in the future!!

Love J&L

here and muddy!

It's saturday afternoon and we've been here for a full twenty four hours now. We are still amazed with how God worked out every little detail to get us here. Not only was there a flood, but we only got copies of our visas on Thursday night at 9:28. It was a bit uncertain for a while, but we are here.

And muddy!

There was a cyclone in the more mountainous part of this island and then all the water runs down the rivers and eventually literally through SWIM. Not only did it wipe out vegies and some chickens and break down walls, it left a whole lot of mud. Check out the pictures! At first we just had to get used to getting muddy feet all the time. Everytime we went inside we had to clean our feet again. But now, today, it hasn't rained much so the mud is drying out, making it a little bit easier for us to walk on - at least, our feet stay a bit cleaner.

So we have our work cut out for us for the next few weeks. Some of the cars and the generator were filled with water so they don't work. Jair's going to be very busy fixing them and he longs for the time when the tools, hilux and tractor will be here!

Apart from that, we're settling in well, trying to learn pijin, forming relationships and sorting out our house. We ate some bananas grown here at the base yesterday and they were delicious. I have never tasted a better banana. We're looking forward to getting into more local, fresh fruit...

just about to leave...

So, hi. This is our very first post on our very first blog site. Welcome. Haere mai. Halo! You are a privileged guest and we are honoured to have you visit our spot!

So, we've spent the last two and a bit weeks in Melbourne at a Transition Training course run by Missions Internlink. The course has been great! The weather's been a bit weird.

Lauretta's one big bit of advice if you ever consider travelling to Melbourne (which is more of a necessity than a desire... ;) TAKE A PAIR OF JEANS!!! What I would give for my jeans on those cold days after you've hit the high of 40+ degrees.

Tomorrow our course finishes, we hang around Melbourne for a bit, navigate the train system (which is actually quite fun) and then stay in a hotel for a night before leaving for Brisbane early Friday morning. Hopefully, we'll be in the Solomon Islands by Friday afternoon... We'll let you know how it all goes!

Take care,

Jair and Lauretta

Easter trip...

All is steady on the home front. We've had a normal kind of week here except that things are a little busy with Easter coming up.

The church which we attend is sending a group to Su'u school for the weekend to do some tiling in the chapel floor and organise some activities and services. So, we decided to join them for the weekend. We've never really been out of Honiara so we're a bit nervous about the trip, but excited about getting out and seeing a new place. Su'u is on Malaita island whereas we live on Guadalcanal island. We're also keen to spend time with some of the young adults from our trip who are going there too.

Su'u school is a boarding school run kind of like a state-integrated school in NZ. This means that the government funds it but it is run under the umbrella of the SSEC church group. Jair's dad went to Su'u quite a few times in the 90s for mission trips doing building works. So there's a bit of a connection there for us.

Unfortunately, we have heard that Su'u is somewhat dilapidated. Apparently there are rats everywhere, food shortages, run down buildings. This all makes for a very interesting weekend I'm sure! Everyone tells us that the river there is very nice to swim in.

We're organising a bit of an Easter drama; it's fairly low key, we're probably having our one and only practise this evening. But it will be spectacular in a Lauretta sort of way. Well, what I mean by that is that this is a country of limited resources, but I've got some tricks up my sleeve (well, actually I'm wearing a singlet because even though it's only 9am it's already very warm). So hopefully the drama will get the message across. Even more, we pray that God may use the drama, and our witness and work there for the whole weekend, to work in the hearts of the students and teachers.

We need to be at the wharf around 5am tomorrow morning. The ship leaves at 6:30. Hopefully the water is calm and we have a pleasant swift 2-3 hour boat ride. We get to Su'u on Good Friday and I think the plan is to get straight to work. We'll have a Good Friday service with the school on Friday (duh...) evening and work on Saturday, play sports Saturday afternoon (so the plan goes...), have two church services on Sunday, including one where we do this second drama, and I've got no idea what we're doing on Monday. Probably more work. We need to be at the wharf I think again at 5am on Tuesday morning so that we can be back in Honiara at 7:30am just in the nick of time to go to work!

So those are our Easter plans... We'll let you know next week what actually happened!! Please pray for us, for safety, for blessing on the ministry there and for the relationships that will be formed and built in the group.

Parting photo? We have a pet crab. Or rather, we had a pet crab. I haven't seen him for a while, but at one stage he had made his home in Laki's water bowl... I think someone might have eaten him...

This is Karen, the less than skillful hairdresser I mentioned last week. She is photographed with her "pet rat". As you can see she's a little vicious to her pets... She bought this glue stuff, put it on cardboard with some bait and the rat came to eat it, got stuck and died. So she's happy that her leaf house is rat free!

As far as I'm aware, there are no rats in our house although there are things that creep around on top of the roof. Sometimes it's this bird (the security men tell us). It sounds like a jolly pelican or something, something big. In any case, we'll see plenty of rats this weekend! Maybe I should get out my flute, do the old pied piper trick...