the end of another month

Well, can you believe it. It's almost the end of August. We've been here for over seven months now. Today's blog will be a bit scatter-brained - like me I think!

Firstly, I'd just like to say that we've had a few changes at the Hospital School - some staff leaving and some new staff coming in. We are so blessed to have three wonderful teachers who consider it their own mission to serve in the Hospital School. The kids are enjoying many exciting activities - like this girl, Florrie, in the photo. She, and the others, were all pretty happy with their pictures.

Jair has been busying himself with mechanical work and the looming job of pruning the huge

rain trees on the property. They've only been there for like 13 years but they're mammoth. And dangerous. As you may remember from one of our first blogs, when it's the rainy season, they get a bit top heavy, the ground gets soggy and they fall down. We certainly don't want them falling on houses. So we're taking the opportunity now to try prune them down to a manageable size. But Jair's also started teaching an automotive course at Tetere Prison. He has a great time with the inmates, teaching them the basics. There's about 10 students in the class - the prison is a small one. So, Jair's joined the teaching ranks as well.

Mushrooms? Yeah, these ones probably aren't edible, but I've often seen more edible looking ones at the market but then again, I'm not sure... I'd like to try them out. I'm a bit of a hobbit where mushrooms are concerned you see. Mushrooms are one thing I miss eating. Mushrooms and feta cheese. Well, I might be able to satiate my desire for mushrooms, but I can't do anything about my fetish for feta. Oh well, now I have sufficient chocolate to keep me going.

Sufficient chocolate, you're wondering? Well, amply. Abundance. Bounty. My family lavished chocolate on us, sending it with Mum and Dad who are over visiting (Lauretta's mum and dad that is). We have a decent stack in the fridge (keep it from melting) and we'll slowly work our way through it... Or not so slowly in Jair's case :)

So, yeah, Mum and Dad are over. Thankfully the weather has been cool as we've had lots of rain recently. They have been having a nice time, relaxing, reading, joining us on things we do. It's lovely to have them over.

So, September is just around the corner and it will probably be a busy time of year. September

through to November. We've got many bookings for short term mission teams and other workshops. So that'll keep me busy, looking after them all. This photo here is of me blowing bubbles for these village kids when I helped out a youth team in July. They came in July and I had a wonderful time, joining in on their program, translating for them. The village kids were delighted with bubbles, although the parents kept telling them off for bursting them!!

And, to finish off, here's a sunset photo for you - I thought it was rather odd, that blue stripe in the middle. Interesting isn't it, how the clouds split, kind of, making that blue patch. But, then I noticed, there were a few days in a row that the sunset looked like this. Maybe it's just a clear patch in the smog!

Tenaru Falls

Hi, again. Greetings from muggy Solomons! Thankfully we've been getting a bit of rain lately, but it's really on and off, so when it's on, it's cool, but when it's off, it's muggy... grr. Oh well.

In July we were busy with different teams coming to do missions here so it's been a nice change either being involved directly with their missions or helping them out in terms of accommodation, transport, etc. It's great hearing their stories and we've enjoyed being a part, whether big or small, in their activities here.

As you may have heard, elections have just happened here. We were warned by the NZ High Commissioner to be wary as civil unrest can occur during elections. So we stocked up on food, photocopied important documents, just in case. So far the whole process has come off relatively peacefully, which is an answer to our prayers. In Honiara at least, things have been free from too much trouble. Over in Tenaru Falls Malaita island, there have been riots and other cases of "civil unrest" like an officer burnt one of the ballot boxes full of uncounted votes because he was upset with the way the voting was going. Unfortunately, Su'u school also became the centre of trouble when locals in the area took out their anger at the voting results on the school, ruining the water pump, destroying gardens and equipment, and even trying to spear one of the teachers as he went down for a swim in the river. The school decided to evacuate all the students and the RAMSI forces are there, trying to re-establish peace and reconcile differences between the community and the school. So, this incident is pretty upsetting for the school and the nation. However, someone pointed out it could be an answer to prayer for the school in an odd way. Now they might get some funding for equipment that was already old and dilapidated anyway.

We're still on our guard, however. Now that the mps have been elected, the mps must elect who will be the pm. So there's still the possibility of unrest as people wait to hear who will be the leader of the country. Keep us in our prayers. We'll keep you posted.

On Saturday we decided to get out and see a bit more of the beauty that God has created here

in the Solomon Islands by visiting Tenaru falls. It doesn't take too long to drive there. We found a guide who didn't charge us $100 per head as was quoted... yay. It was a rainy kind of day, so it wasn't too hot for walking. And we were all relatively young and fit so we had a steady speedy pace. It took us an hour and a half to walk to the falls. There were about 10 river crossings, wading in the river from ankle to knee deep depending on the spot and how long your legs are.

one of the many river crossings....

Then we got there, hot, a bit sweaty, looking forward to a rest and beautiful view, and boy was

the waterfall stunning! It is a rather tall fall and the track takes you out to the bottom. It didn't take long, however, before we'd taken off our shoes and scrambled down the rocks to swim in the pleasantly cool water beneath. Jair and Michael relished the shower they had under the fall - I was glad I had a shirt on; the water pelted down and they had red welts all over their back. It was amazing to stand behind the water fall looking up at the current and the small droplets falling down. It was a surreal feeling. And the pool beneath was the best place I've ever swum here in the Solomon Islands. It was cool (the water in the sea is often warm), clean (untouched as they say in pijin, "nambawan ples fo suim"!! by rubbish, cars, people's laundry and dishes) and refreshing. It was cold!! For the first time here, I actually really wanted a hot drink and wished I'd brought a thermos. Ah, well, next time.

In all, it was a very pleasant adventure and one which we'd love to experience again... next time with coffee at the end!!

In other news, on Monday Jair injured himself. He was sitting outside the garden tool container engraving some tools and then a squall came up. The wind blew the heavy container door onto his leg while his back was turned. His first thought was that his leg was broken. Thankfully this wasn't the case. He could stand, but he had a deep eye shaped (and sized) wound. So we took him to the hospital and he had to have four stitches. I was quite intrigued, but when the I'm a real truck now.... nurse started roughly poking around the wound with tweezers to see if there was any dirt or anything in there, I started to get squeamish because I realised, hang on, Jair hasn't had any pain killers and this must hurt. Alot. Needless to say, I had to get outside to sit on the ground and get some fresh, well, muggy, air. The stitches are healing well, but he thinks he might have pulled a tendon or something. He is struggling to walk and can't lift his thigh up while sitting. So.. a bit of rest and then maybe try

find a doctor... Please keep this in your prayers...

p.s. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the stitches; isn't it amazing how God's made our bodies to just join back together again when broken! I just wish I had my camera with me to take a photo of the wound...