a week in the life...

You may be wondering, what do we actually do day to day. You know the big picture. What about the small picture. Today we're going to endeavour to give you a very very brief day to day diary of the last week of our life.

Sunday: Went to a different church - Central South Seas Evangelical Church. Quite big, a thousand people or so. Very loud music. A sound system here seems to mean you turn it up to full capacity of sound! You don't just amplify you intensify. Left home at 8:50 came home about 12:10 so that was shorter than usual. Had iced coffee and cake. Relaxed, read books, played volleyball, dinner, read, sung a few hymns. Go to sleep.

Monday: First thing in the morning Jair went to town to get some prices for some parts. Lauretta prepared a staff devotion, organised some of the workers in the last minute preparations for a group that was coming, satisfied the demands of the leader of this group. Morning tea - staff meeting was a nice time with staff, sharing prayer needs, what was happening around the base. After morning tea, Lauretta headed off to the Hospital School (you wouldn't believe it. I think someone important has read my blog because the drive way was SMOOOOTH! A grader had been through to get rid of the ruts... I wonder if the same will happen with the education system...), met with a prospective new staff member, chaired a meeting in which we discussed this health unit we're all putting together. Got home, tired and hungry. Ate a quick lunch and got straight to work preparing for CBI the next day. Meanwhile, Jair had been working in the workshop. Had a good d&m with dinner (Lauretta's been working through the love dare). Pretty much went to bed afterwards.

Tuesday: Up and at 'em early to get ready for CBI. Lauretta organised work for our house girl (ahh, what a blessing!!). Left just after 8am. Signed in at the prison at 8:35 or so. First block, got in straight away (if we're late, we have to wait while they have a staff meeting). Got in the first wing, distributed and collected the lessons, chatted with the inmates. Jair had asked one of them to give a short devotion. It was a blessing to hear what he had prepared. All set to leave and go to the next wing but the officers were all in a meeting so they couldn't unlock the door to let us out. Jair was laxed, chatting happily, Lauretta couldn't help but try make eye contact through the window with the officers to let us out! just a tad nervous being locked in a prison wing with a whole lot of inmates... nice guys though :) After maybe 30 mins or more, someone

came to let us out. Next wing. Jair had a deep conversation with two muslims. Sometimes the muslims can be a big battle because I think they pressure the CBI students to not do their work. But today it was fine. We really pray hard for those muslims. Their influence is growing. Next wing, same same - it's a quieter wing. Prayed with them and shared a devotion. Then our road split. Jair went to another block while Lauretta went to the female wing. Surprised to find two women, rather than just one, as inmates in the female wing. The new woman was keen to join CBI so Lauretta went back to get an enrolement form, etc. After both of us had finished those wings, we went to the Long Term Unit. Same same. Nice talks with the guys. It was quite late already. Then we had to go to get all the material signed to take it out. A group of people were in the special signing place so we had to wait. Getting close to 12, were a bit afraid that we'd get caught in at lock down - when no one's allowed to come or go! Hungry as anything, hadn't

eaten since 7. Lauretta had a bit of a flu thing happening (go figure - it's 30+ degrees) so she felt terrible. Eventually the guy lets us in. Lauretta stamps the papers, Jair dates them, the officer signs them. Straight to the "gate lodge" to be let out again - 11:55. Went to the market to buy vegies for the workers. Went home, tired, hungry, sick, exhausted but exceedingly happy that the house was clean (and I didn't have to do it!). Ate. Jair went straight to work... Lauretta napped, then went to Bible study. She came back to find Jair had cooked a killer chicken pineapple pizza. He's becoming quite a gourmet chef (he cooks every Tuesday). After dinner, Lauretta checked on the guests at the transit house, had a good chat to them. Jair relaxed a bit. Early night.

Wednesday: Jair went over to SITAG (Solomon Islands Translation Advisory Group) to check on all their vehicles. He does it as part of his job, as they are fellow missionaries here. He was out all day, with one of the locals who he's kind of training up in all things cars. Lauretta decided to have an introverted day (she's an introvert... although you may not have guessed it). So she met with someone about taking over all the CBI work responsibilites, start doing the work, finally had a relaxed lunch hour, had a few d&ms. Did her pijin reading class with the local kids. Jair came home. Watched some plays put on by the group who stayed here - got an education into life here in the Solomons - what really happens! Cooked dinner. Ate dinner. Had fellowship night in the leaf hut. The singing is always so amazing! Played the guitar/read. Went to bed.

Thursday: After waking up and eating, Jair got to work repairing washing machines, a truck, odd mechanical jobs. Lauretta got to work finishing CBI work, doing typing work that was outstanding, organised people to clean up after the group that left. The house girl came, again (yay!... someone once said, "house work won't kill you but why take the chance" - pretty much my motto now. Besides, it gives her employment she wouldn't otherwise have and frees me up to do my other work.) Also baked some ANZAC biscuits but they didn't work out too well - faulty ingredients ;). After lunch, Lauretta taught the reading class again. Jair fixed her broken jandal under the threat of not getting afternoon tea... Thursday evening was relaxed.

Friday: Lauretta went to the bank - huge lines - to sort out some issues. Then went to the hospital school - caught up briefly with the teachers. Did some grocery shopping - what a nightmare. The last stop was the bulk store which was quiet when I first came in. Was inside quarter to twelve. Wanted to be back by twelve, so was already running late. Waited in line to get some self-raising flour and then all of a sudden, the one cashier line had like 10 people in it! So it was 20 past twelve by the time she walked out the door. Got home at 12:40, having picked up some kids who were walking home from school in the hot sun. Quickly put the vegies and cheese in the fridge, got lunch from the leaf kitchen as she was dying from hunger. Jair, who had been... left to visit Tetere prison farm to do CBI work there. We had a sport afternoon for all the staff at SWIM and Bethesda disability centre. That was a

lot of fun. A nice way to end the week. Had our non-alcoholic happy hour at 5. Karen, a lovely missionary who lives in a leaf house hear at the base, wanted to cut Lauretta's hair. Started snipping but found it was a lot more difficult than she first thought. Happily, one of the guests at the transit house cuts hair all the time, so she fixed up Karen's dodgy job. After the mop chop, we had dinner. We had some ausies stay over the night; they're in transit to another island. By the time we had washed the dishes, it was pretty much bedtime.

Saturday: Small sleep in. Lauretta made cinnamon banana pancakes for breakfast. Delicious! Entertained ausie guests, who left at about 11. Jair fixed some torches, did some work on an inverter, marshalled the troops (the guests at the transit house...) to do some digging, had a Saturday Special Iced Coffee with Kevin and Machi. Jair took the troops down for a quick rinse off in the sea. Lauretta typed (or rather is typing) the blog. After lunch, we're going to go to watch a soccer game, clean the church in the cool of the early evening and thus will end our week!

Sorry, there's only one photo of this week's advent

ures and that is one of Laki. We thought it was so funny. You see after playing sport on Friday afternoon, everyone was drinking cold coconuts (it is a tropical island after all...) and someone gave this half shell to Laki to eat. He loved it. I'd never seen a dog eating a coconut before, but then I guess, I'd never been in a country with a ready supply of coconuts either. It's not a very good photo cos the second I got closer, he picked up the coconut and ran off. He was so afraid that I'd try steal his coconut! So here it is. If you ever want to spoil your dog, forget the bone and give him a coconut shell!