Things from home

Last week we received a large box full of small gifts from the Bowral Girl Guides. They had collected gifts (both handmade and bought) for the local children, and my girls had lots of fun going through the box, sorting everything out into categories.


These lovely gifts will be handed out to needy children at the hospital and elsewhere.

Thank you to all the girls and their families who generously contributed to the box for the Solomons, and to Kim for organising the whole thing! Your generosity is such a blessing to others.





Sophie also received a very special parcel from home. It arrived one afternoon, as she was having her hair braided by Helen.


Sophie opened her parcel to find a beautiful book from her class - everyone, including her teacher Miss Orange, had written to Sophie - a different letter on each page, as well as a photo of each person. It was SO lovely reading through the book, not just for Sophie, but for all of us!


Thank you Miss Orange for going to so much effort! We loved it, and Soph will be bringing it home with her as a keepsake!


And just today, a parcel arrived for Elora from her Prep class! Inside was a beautiful collection of small paintings, one from each child in the class, describing something they enjoy doing at Prep. They are so adorable - we all sat on our bed and read them together. A long letter from Mrs Ross accompanied the pictures, filling Elora in on what has been going on this term at Prep. Elora was thrilled to hear from her class - she is ready to go home and catch up with all her friends!

Reading Mrs Ross' letter

Remembering everyone's names was a bit tricky!

Thank you Mrs Ross and Mrs Straker for sending over such a bundle of love - it truly brightened Elora's day and brought a big smile to all our faces!

Holding the beautiful pictures!

I must add that as I write this I am eating one of the last pieces of chocolate fudge from Cass and Garth - a VERY indulgent gift sent to us a few weeks ago! Mmmmmm

Our final week

One of the things we were asked to do when coming over to the Solomons was to teach the youth group a musical, Friends Forever. We have been hard at work making this happen, and this week we will be performing the musical on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, as well as on Sunday in the prison.

Most people here have never seen a musical, and have found the concept quite new. We've also noticed that the people here, who are excellent singers, very rarely sing on their own - it is all communal singing. It has been a wonderful thing for us to have seen the singers grow in confidence as we've practised each week. These young people have gone from shying away from singing on their own in front of people, to being able to confidently sing with a microphone. They are using their God given gifts, and it is a pleasure to see them give the glory all to Him.

Practising in the leaf hut at SWIM.

Practising in a classroom at Florence Young Christian School.

This group shot was in the paper today, with an article (written by Geoff) encouraging everyone to come along and see the musical!

So it is a HUGE week for us, as we wrap up our time here.

Geoff has his last day at the prison on Wednesday. The men have really loved the music teaching Geoff has given them, and they are looking forward to presenting 10 songs at the opening of the chapel on Sunday, where the musical will be performed too.

I have my last day with the teachers from the hospital school on Thursday. I have loved getting alongside them - I've been able to share lots of new ideas with reading and maths in particular. My eyes have certainly been opened to a very different system of education here. The lack of teacher training and resources makes teaching so much harder. I've just tried to encourage the teachers as best as I can - three months was never going to be enough time to really help!

Then we have the musical to perform each night from Thursday to Saturday, which will be so exciting. Tomorrow we are doing the final set-up of the stage, to get everything ready for 'opening night'! The youth group are doing this as a fund raiser for a mission trip they want to go on (to another island nearby).

Somewhere in there we will make sure the girls are fed and looked after! They are already talking about how hard it will be to leave, but 'all good things must come to an end', and saying goodbye is part of the experience too. Kevin and Machi took us out for dinner last night, along with Mum and Dad, Michael and Salome, Marty, Susan, Simon and Lydia. They wanted to say thankyou for what we had accomplished whilst being here, and Kevin gave a lovely speech encouraging us in the work we've done. For our part, we feel so thankful for the opportunity we've had to come over here, as a family, and fully experience a completely different life!

We are so much richer for it.

16 years

On Friday Geoff and I celebrated 16 years of marriage. This time last year Geoff took me on a ZooVenture at Canberra Zoo, which was great fun. But celebrating it overseas is pretty great too!

We went out to a fancy hotel (Mendana) for a buffet dinner, and managed to get a table, even though they were fully booked out! We had a great night of eating and entertainment, and are both very thankful to God for the wonderful marriage we have.

We took a photo of each other, rather than ask the waiter to take it for us!

The kustom pipe band (who perform there once a week) was excellent - well worth a visit.

Mum and Dad

Mum and Dad leave tomorrow, after spending two weeks here with us. We have LOVED sharing our time in the Solomons with them, and it will be great to be able to talk with them about life over here when we get home.
Their time has been quite busy - Dad has done a bit of tiling and a lot of concreting, and Mum has been involved with a sewing workshop for all of last week. They have been a real blessing to some of the people over here, and in return, have been enriched and blessed themselves. Short term mission opportunities abound in the Solomons - no matter what your gifting, there are opportunities for you to be a blessing to people over here.

We ate most of our meals together, which was really lovely. Mum and Dad have looked after the girls quite a bit as we have been pretty much flat out with musical commitments over the last few weeks. Good timing to have the grandparents visit!

Wraps for dinner! Yum!

Dad bought a great second-hand bass guitar for the church over here. The guys in the band were so thrilled, especially when Dad consented to giving them a demo! The guitar was presented (by Geoff, on behalf of Dad) to the church on Sunday.

The guys were all watching closely.
Dad was amazed at how well they could play - all by ear!

We've also had a few beach and river swims - we went to Mamara River - but it was really busy.

On Saturday we drove out to Benegi Beach for a snorkel. It wasn't as calm as the first time we went, but we still had a lovely morning relaxing and swimming.

Tough life in the Solomons!

There are other better photos on Mum's camera - of the actual work they were involved in, but I haven't got it tonight, and who knows what the internet will be like tomorrow!

The internet is back on!

After an extended internet outage, it's back on. I'll try and post some of what we've been up to later on ...

Out of the Silence

Yesterday we made another trip out to Aruligo, to the Deaf School. They were having a Father's Day celebration, and all the student's families were invited to come along. It was a long day - we left at 7:30 in the morning, and returned home late in the afternoon, but it was well worth it.

We piled on the big blue truck for the one hour drive, comfortably sitting on chairs and benches, but after making several stops to pick up people along the way, we ended up squashed in, fitting about 30 people on the back!

Driving through White River

We travelled along a combination of well sealed roads and dirt roads, through villages, jungle, rivers and along the coast.

Some of the bridges were quite narrow ...

...and some were completely washed away! You can see remnants of the bridge washed away in the last wet season floods.

When we arrived we were given a surprise welcome by some of the students! It was very exciting (and slightly scary - Elora ended up quite freaked out!) as they yelled and hollered, waving their spears around, dressed in their 'kustom' gear.


The sun was blazing hot, so we walked down to the chapel/classroom to sit in the shade before the service started. The students had gone to a great deal of effort to beautifully decorate the hall, with signs welcoming all the different people, and especially the fathers. We waited for quite a while for everyone to arrive, singing many choruses before the service started. At one point Millie asked me if church was finished yet, to which I had to reply that it hadn't actually started!

Eventually things kicked off, and once again I found the whole experience very moving. The students were so proud to have their families there to see what wonderful things they had been accomplishing, and I felt privileged to just be there. Speeches were given, a sermon was preached and items and songs were sung, but the most meaningful part of the service was when the parents were called to the front to receive a letter and flower garland from their son/daughter. As the students filed out the front to hug their parents we all sung 'I Love You With The Love Of The Lord'. There were tears everywhere (especially in my row!) Some students had no parents or family members there - coming from a remote island or village makes getting there very hard, but those students proudly gave their flower garlands to George, who loves the students like they are his own children.

Parent receiving their letters and flower garlands from the students.

Giving the parents three cheers after singing Happy Father's Day to You

After the service was finished, the hall was cleared and lunch was set out on tables. The students started bringing food out from every house - they must have spent such a long time preparing food for that many people - close to 200 we think. The team of students and teachers from QLD were invited to go first, followed by the fathers. (As a side note, the team from QLD is made up of yr 11 and 12 students and teachers from Westside Christian College who have come to build, paint and help however they can. They were organised through SWIM, and have built up an amazing rapport with the deaf students in such a short time.) I was amazed to see how the LONG line of people were all fed abundantly - everybody just patiently waited - the local students going last.

As soon as everyone had eaten, the tables were cleared away and the festivities continued! The boys and girls both danced, and everyone really enjoyed all their performances.

At the end of some of the dances, the boys would yell fiercely into someone's face - Sophie handled it quite well when they yelled into her face!

Even the locals work up quite a sweat!

It was easy to see what an impact being at this school has had on the students. There was a big banner out the front of the hall saying "Out Of The Silence', and these students have all been given a voice here. Brother George pleaded with the parents to help change the culture in the Solomon Islands of putting someone down if they have a disability. He encouraged them to lead by example and help their son or daughter become an integral part of their community.

A lady from the national newspaper was there, and her article can be read online at: http://www.solomonstarnews.com/ It is a shorter version of the double page spread that was in the paper today.

Counting the Cost

Today our computer is running in safe mode as it won't work any other way so that is an interesting experience (very low screen resolution). We are thankful that it is still 'operational' but the heat and humidity takes its toll very quickly on so many things, electronic equipment in particular. It doesn't help if a gecko decides that your computer, printer, VCR ... is a lovely spot to lay its eggs so its young can hatch in a warm environment. I don't think that there are gecko eggs on the cook (so to speak) in our computer but we'll have to see. There is no number to call for Dell warranty here in the Solomons and I think our warranty may run out the day before we head home. We'll trust the Lord on all of that.

Our friends the Harveys, who have just moved to Hong Kong (for a much longer stay than ours), recently added a post to their blog about the cost of items in Hong Kong. They wanted to see what things were like here, so here is my (Geoff's) response which I hope they and everyone else will enjoy.

Similar to us, the Harveys exchange the Aussie Dollar (AUD) for around $6 in their local currency(our local is the SBD), although the AUD is having a belter of a time at the moment and we are getting close to $6.50 SBD now - that is an improvement on the $4.90 we were getting at the end of my trip here last year.

Life is not cheap in the Solomons, although if you live like the locals things are more affordable. That said, our purchasing power is quite significant as we are on western wages. From what I can see a good teaching wage would be equivalent to around $500SBD but many teachers would earn less than this. Were we living on these wages I am sure our buying habits would be significantly different. That said, we still like to be careful in the way that we live.

The markets are full of lots of fresh food which can vary from day to day in availability and from week to week in prices, particularly depending on where in the season a particular fruit or vegetable is. Pineapples were initially around $20 each and as much as $30 as we came very early in the season. One day there was only one man at the market and he was selling his pineapples for $50 (prices are clearly marked here meaning that locals and visitors pay the same price and you don't barter). Today Sophie bought this pineapple for $10, although last week this is the maximum you would have paid for the largest pineapple in the market. Prices are back up a little this week in the pineapple department.


On Saturdays we like to buy cassava chips. They are normally not available on any other day as they have to be fresh cooked and often the person selling them works elsewhere in the week and makes these on Friday night to sell for some extra selen (money) on the weekend. Here, Sophie and Brianna are getting our usual 4 packets at $3 a packet.


These chips don't last long at our place. Firstly, they are very yummy and secondly nothing lasts long so it has to be eaten quickly because of the heat and humidity or fed to the chooks.

There are all sorts of bananas available in the market. The type of bananas we have in Australia are sold green here and you eat them whilst they are green. They are ripe and very sweet and what we don't eat by the next day goes into the freezer for making delicious banana smoothies. Two days is generally the absolute maximum for keeping bananas. Besides, the geckos start to get into them if you leave them on the bench at night or the bats if you leave them on the veranda. There are lady finger bananas (they are actually sweet and affordable here), red skins, cooking bananas .... . Prices range from as little as $1SBD a bunch up to $20SBD for a very large bunch of flawless looking bananas. This morning we decided to have a change from the conventional bananas and Bri brought this bunch of small lady fingers for $5. We were happy with it because some of the bananas are green and some yellow so we might squeeze two days out of this bunch.


We will not get mangoes in Australia at the prices below even when they're right in season. This is still the early season prices here. Apparently they'll go down as low as 3 for $1SBD at the peak of the season and people start to get mango rash from eating too many.

Saturdays is flower day at the market. Solomon Islanders take a lot of pride in preparing their church for Sunday and flowers play a part in this. Hence the top part of the markets is dedicated to flowers each Saturday. It is just beautiful to look at. Today we bought a lovely bunch of flowers for Amanda.


A great way to save money here is to shop at the Bulk Store. There is no one supermarket that sells everything we want, so shopping is a complex combination of shops as we hunt out goods, brands, sizes and appropriate prices. The Bulk Store sells many of the essentials the old fashioned way. There are large bins of flour, sugar, salt, nuts, dried fruits, .... and we take the lid off and fill a plastic bag with the amount we want. This can save us over half the cost of buying from some of the other shops and we get just the amount we need. The bulk store is very busy, particularly on Saturday morning. Here are Bri and Oma buying some goods this morning

Some western luxuries are almost prohibitively expensive over here. It depends on where you buy them but some of the prices are almost unfathomable. Here are some examples.

The price of good quality sun screen is scary.

We live on Solar power and wouldn't have enough electricity to run this kind of luxury without turning on the generator to specifically make toast this way. The cost is too high anyway. I haven't priced a typewriter in Australia for a long while. Is $1200AUD what they cost now? That said, with much of the Islands outside the capitals not having access to electricity a business machine such as this can prove very useful and reliable.
Sunday morning is normally a special morning for us back home. Hence the girls are allowed Nutrigrain as a treat. At this price it is something they will be waiting until we return to Australia for. This price could be improved to maybe the low $100 mark with some shopping around. The girls haven't really missed Nutri-grain and we have worked hard to find affordable options. Weet-bix is around $40 a kilo which is not too bad. The biggest hit has been Weet-bix Apricot Bites at $33.30 for a 500g packet which is pretty comparable to back home I think .

I couldn't imagine spending this much money on some of these things even with our western buying power. When the laminator burnt out here (it was 3 years old) Amanda priced replacement varying from $2990 for an A4 laminator to over $4000SBD for an A3 model. Thankfully we have a new one coming on Tuesday as part of one of the teams. Amanda is laminating lots of resources for the hospital school as otherwise they just don't last.

We are thankful to God who cares for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field and who tells us how much more he cares for each of us. That said, the disparity between Australia and the Solomons is enormous. It really is another world away. It is not good enough for us to just flippantly leave everything to God and not fight for justice, mercy and equity for all. The needs here are enormous. Often as I buy things I ask myself if it is fair to spend $20SBD on a rockmelon? At around 5% of a local weekly wage would I spend this back home? That said, housing costs and tax work very differently here as well. What can we do in our ordinary lives to live as responsible custodians of all that God has blessed us with, not taking more than we need and giving as much as possible to those in greatest need? Big questions, that I pray that God will convict you with an answer for as you endeavour to faithfully serve Him.

Thoughts on Emmaus Christian School

A big part of Brianna, Amelia and Sophie's life in the Solomons came to an end yesterday. School finished for the term, and doesn't go back till the day we leave, so yesterday was their last day.

Going to school here was something we really wanted the girls to experience - we knew it would help them to build relationships and give them the opportunity to be immersed in the Solomon culture. Amelia and Sophie were very keen to go, and couldn't wait to start - they didn't appear nervous or worried at all. Brianna was the opposite - she was very nervous about going to school in a different country, where a different language would be spoken. It took LOTS of encouragement (and prayer) on our part to get her to trust us enough to give it a go.

So at the end of their seven weeks at Emmaus Christian School I wanted the girls themselves to give their analysis of school in the Solomon Islands:

Brianna
What are some of the things you really liked about school over here?
Making friends, singing loudly (I learnt heaps of fun new songs), having my classroom on the top level, and learning Pigin (my friends taught me how to say heaps of things in Pigin). There is a sports gym at this school, and I like sport.

What did you find different?
That you have to copy everything off the board and then you get to write the answers (it takes much longer than in Australia).
You call the teachers by their first names, or just call them teacher.
All of the subjects are done in a different way. In handwriting all of my class did the year 5 book.
There was only one half an hour break each day. There are three different break times for certain classes, going from youngest to oldest - mine was at 11 o'clock.

Is there anything you didn't like?
I didn't like copying so much writing off the board or the books.

Are you glad you had the chance to go to school here for 7 weeks?
Yes

Would you like to come back?
Yes, I would. I don't know how long I'd stay for - a year is too long, but two weeks is too short.

The girls in Brianna's class all sang a song, Transformation, at the assembly on Friday. It was in English, then Pigin.

(back row) Matilda, Gwen, Brianna, Lovelyn, Ennie (front row) Lisa and Regilina

Amelia
What are some of the things you really liked about school over here?
My friends, my teachers, playing (robbers and bullies, cus cus).

What will you miss?
My friends and the singing and my teachers.

What did you find different?
There is only one break every day.
We didn't write in the books - we copied the books.
Sometimes I couldn't understand what everyone was saying because they were speaking in a different language.

Is there anything you didn't like?
All I can really say is no.

Are you glad you had the chance to go to school here for 7 weeks?
Yes

Would you like to come back?
Yes, but I don't want to stay as long.

Amelia and Abie - they played together every day and were lovely friends.

Sophie
What are some of the things you really liked about school over here?
Playing with my friends (cus cus, skipping), doing art, singing songs and playing in the gym.

What will you miss?
My teachers (Mr Tony and Miss Monica), playing with my friends (Melisa, Rose, Abie, Stephanie, and Jesmine)

What did you find different?
Only one small bin in the eating area.
The canteen is right next to the seats (the mothers cook all the food for the canteen).
You have to leave home at 7:15am, school finished at 1:40pm.
They only had one grass area to play on.
We did lots of singing every day and my teacher played the guitar.

Is there anything you didn't like?
The mud, the boys - they are annoying, and walking up the steep hill at the end of the day.

Are you glad you had the chance to go to school here for 7 weeks?
Yes

Would you like to come back?
Yes - for a whole term (not a year).

Sophie and Mona Lisa - best friends for 7 weeks!

When we picked the girls up at school yesterday (school finished at 12pm), Brianna was adorned with several new necklaces, was carrying a bag full of things from school, and had red eyes from crying. Millie and Sophie were both wearing necklaces as well.

The girls were given these lovely Solomon Island shell necklaces from their class.

We knew it would be hard for the girls to say goodbye, and by the time we actually left, just about everyone in the car was crying their eyes out! For my part, I feel such thankfulness in my heart to God that our girls have been so richly blessed by their time in the Solomons, and particularly at Emmaus Christian School.

Fun wth geckos

The girls caught another gecko this morning - a nice little one with cute stripes - and they had heaps of fun all taking turns in holding it.


We all burst out laughing when Elora was having a turn - the gecko started on her hand, crawled up her arm, onto her shoulder, then jumped onto her glasses! It goes to show how used to geckos we all are now - the first time we saw them, no one wanted to even touch one!

The girls played with the gecko so much this morning (making homes for it, collecting bugs for it to eat, etc, etc.) that I started to feel sorry for it - by the time I told them to put the gecko outside somewhere, it had lost it's tail (from being picked up one too many times!) Ahh, they are having fun.

I must say though, I draw the line at cane toads. The other day Elora came up to me saying, 'Look, Mummy, cute baby cane toads!" Sure enough, in her bare hand were three or four small cane toads she had found from somewhere! Yuk! I made her run off and wash her hands, spoiling all her fun!

A parcel from home

We received a wonderful surprise today!

Some dear friends from the Highlands sent us a HUGE slab of chocolate fudge. This is no ordinary fudge - it is the best tasting, creamiest, melt-in-the-mouth, home made fudge you will ever have, and we were all very delighted! (My mouth is watering just writing this!)
Needless to say, we felt the arrival of Mum and Dad was worth celebrating with a piece of Garth's famous fudge!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Look who's arrived!

Waiting at the airport!

Today was VERY exciting! We've been counting down the weeks, and then days till Mum and Dad would arrive, and today was the day!

Geoff picked the girls up early from school so we could see the plane land and wave to Grandpa and Oma as they hopped off the plane. The plane was actually early though, so we missed seeing it land, but got there in time to wave madly from the viewing deck at Mum and Dad before they lined up to get through customs.

And here they are - safe and sound in hot Honiara!

We are all loving having Mum and Dad around to share some of our Solomon Island experiences with. What a blessing for us!

Father's Day

I am spoilt with a wonderful husband who loves the girls and I dearly.

We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday. The girls had made some beautiful cards and presents for Geoff, and we bought him a coconut scraper and a packet of raspberry chocolate bullets.

We bought the coconut scraper at the markets, and are hoping we can get it through customs. It will be fun for the girls to show their class mates how to scrape a coconut and make coconut milk.

After church we had a quick morning tea up top, followed by musical practise. Things are coming along fairly well, as long as all the actors learn their lines!

Musical practise went for most of the afternoon, and was followed with numerous games of volleyball.

Everyone seems to be very good at volleyball - the teams are mixed and everyone has heaps of fun. The team Geoff was on won 7 or 8 games in a row! Talk about hot work!

Dinner wasn't exactly gourmet (french toast) ...


... but dessert was strawberry ice cream with mango and chocolate (yes, I made sure I saved some for Father's Day!) Yum yum!