Firstly our whit Monday adventures. Whit Monday is a public holiday here and there's an Ausie team here at the moment so Susan, our fellow missionary who works Bethesda Disability Centre thought it'd be a nice idea to take them out to some beautiful water falls that she's been too. So we loaded all the ausies onto the truck along with some of the Solomon Islanders who live at Bethesda and here at SWIM and Jair drove. Well, it was quite a way out and eventually we left the tarsealed road to go on a gravel, rocky, dirt road. It was a good road, as Susan assured us, but very hilly! It was quite fun, roaring along in the big old blue beast of a truck.
But then, on one particularly big hill, we stopped, smoke billowing forth from under the cab where the motor sits. One guy almost pounced off the side of the truck -ready for any kind of emergency. He wasn't going to sit around waiting to get blown up. Well, it wasn't as bad as that, but it was bad. The bottom radiator hose had burst bigtime! Everyone piled back off the truck (rather quickly) and the leader of the ausies wisely recommended all the white skins to go stand in the shade. While Jair and another guy from the team diagnosed the problem, the rest of the team discussed whether they should walk the next 4 kms in the heat to the beginning of the waterfall track, or whether they should go back.
At first there were questions. The initial plan was to walk back to the main road and walk back towards Honiara until we could catch a bus then go to SWIM, get another vehicle and try find a spare radiator hose. Finding a spare part here in the Solomons is hard enough on a normal day, let alone a public holiday!
Meanwhile, Jair and Ross (that was his name) were busy trying to extract this broken part of hose. They had no tools. Someone had a bush knife which they started using and a pair of tweesers and scissors from a first aid kit . And they had one spanner in the truck. And then one guy came up with a screwdriver which he had in his pocket. Praise the Lord! So then Jair and Ross had something with which to undo the hose clamps which held the radiator hose. I didn't photograph the hose pipe but it was a decent rupture - a scar in the shape of a half circle about 7 or 8 cm in length from the top of the semicircle to the other side. Well, someone came up with the idea of bandaging the pipe back.
Then the team decided they'd walk back to the main road, back to water, back to food, back to toilets and civilisation. And if worse came to worse, which I think they thought it would come to, they would meet us at a beach on the way back. They left us with a strap, a shirt (kindly donated from Susan) and we also raided the first aid kit for strong tape. You see, first aid kits aren't only for humans - nor are bandages.
So then Jair and Ross and the other 4 of us left behind, cut and bandaged and strapped this broken hose pipe, securing it with tape and cable ties. Then the two of them got back underneath the truck and reattached the bandaged pipe. George topped up the water (cleaning Jair and Ross at the same time...) and then we were pretty much set to go. So like, fifteen minutes after the team of brave ausies walked down the hill back to Honiara, we did a three point turn and came roaring, or rather rolling, back down the hill to pick them up. They were rather suprised, and I think, rather relieved.
Then we went to Bonegi beach, where there is the wreck of a Japanese freight ship from WW2, to do some eating, swimming and snorkling. All along the journey back we stopped every now and again to top up the water.
So that was Monday's big adventure. Jair has since replaced the bandaged hose pipe with a new massey ferguson tractor hose and now the old beast is as good as new, well, rusty and old, but she still goes!
The second thing I wanted to say, is that we're planning to go to a village for two weeks starting on the 4th of June. The lady whose house we're going to stay at is a bit nervous about having us because she wasn't sure if her humble leaf house where they just eat kumara and other vegies will be fit for us. But I assured her that we want to experience her way of life, so not to change anything at all.
It certainly got me thinking. You see, by our standards, they live very humbly. They probably have a spring, or stanpipe, or stream which they swim in, wash their clothes and dishes in, collect water from. They grow their own food. They live in leaf houses. There's no toilet apart from the bush or the sea (I don't know which one it will be in this village). So it's very different.
Someone asked me the other week if she could come to SWIM to fill up her water bottles because they were struggling to get enough water in their area. Quite a few people wander over to SWIM to collect water and one person once said to me, a bit worried and anxiously, "what happens when we run out?"
But as I was thinking about this water issue, and my friend Joy and her humble way of life, I thought, you know, Jesus lived like this. Jesus had to fill His water jug up at someone else's tap, or in His case, well. He didn't have His own house, or even bed, but slept on the ground somewhere. He didn't have a flushing toilet, or a shower where the water could stream down His back, cleaning His skin and refreshing Him. We live like kings in comparison, and yet it is He who is the King. But in His humility, He was not afraid to live without.
So then, how could I possibly balk at the idea of living for two short weeks without a toilet, or a shower, having to wash my clothes by hand. How could we begrudge anyone who comes to fill up their water when even Jesus had to go to someone to get water for each day.
It's not like we're going to build a little leaf house to live in. This is about changing our mindset. Not to expect comfort and luxury all the time. Certainly, be thankful if you have it, but then thankful when you don't. How can I complain that I don't like my couch when I think that Jesus didn't even have one! How can I complain that I would love a glass of juice when Jesus had to ask even for water? How can I bemoan the absence of a flushing toilet, when Jesus didn't have one either.
I told Joy, "Sapos hambol wei fitim laef blo Jisas, bae hem fitim mi tu." - If it was fit for Jesus, it's fit for me.
