Geoff's view

Today I, (Geoff) have a guest blog spot! The Blog has been a little quiet as the Internet was down for a day and then when it came back on it decided that search engines, blogs, ebay, … were not going to function at all, so we enjoyed selective internet last night.

Each morning starts early here in the Solomons. Life starts with the first light of the day for many people as they work their gardens in the cooler hours (they are often returning home in the dark as they work their gardens in the cool of the evening/after work as well). With school starting at 8am (although the girls tell us that this is now 7.50am but we have no ‘official’ correspondence from the school) we need to be ready to go by 7.15am. That is a lot earlier than in Australia. Also doing school in the hot weather, with only a half hour break in a school day, playing hard when they get home … the girls are very tired and not always easy to get going in the mornings. That said, the twins are up most mornings with me just after 6am.

I take one of the small trucks into town. It is getting more crowded each morning. A number of children from SWIM and Omex (the timber mill next door) attend Lunga School. They ride the truck along the dirt road and the highway until we get to the bus turn around area at the Lunga bridge where they jump off and join their friends. There is lots of excited chatter as they head off down the road to school. They generally look quite nice in their school uniforms and most of them trot off to school down the dirt road in bare feet. A couple of others jump on the truck in the spaces they have created. We then head in to town.

All aboard for the trip into school/ town.

Off along the dirt road.

There's even some cute little assistants at the gate house some times.

Depending on who is in the truck we make several stops along the Kukum Highway (this is the main road that runs to the end of Honiara) before turning off to Florence Young Christian School. This little side street is busy with people making their way into FY and in and out of the Kukum housing area. It is a vibrant little hub for this suburb. Quite a number of students go to schools near FY so the truck empties significantly at this point.

After that we climb up the hill to the top of Kola Ridge/Naha and travel along the top of the ridge to Emmaus Christian School. Again, this is a very busy part of town as people pour out of their villages ready for their day at work, at market, at school, ….. The girls happily head off to school and seem very comfortable with the school day and their friends. This is a real blessing. I then head back down to Honiara through West Kola and do a U-turn at the hospital – the traffic is so busy that a right hand turn onto the ‘highway’ in the mornings is near impossible so close to town. It is a beautiful time of the morning to observe the coastal views on the way back to SWIM as the highway runs along the very edge of the coast for quite a way, the waters are still and the air has just a hint of freshness in it.

In the afternoon I get the girls but without all the extra pickups. The local children come home via bus. Buses are the mini bus type that we have in Australia. There are literally hundreds of them working the highway and the ridges around town. As we arrive at school the girls are generally walked up by their friends. Millie is normally playing Cus-Cus (chasings but when you touch the person you say cus) right into the car. She has two good friends Rose and Mona-Lisa. As we drive off there are lots of waves as we pass children walking along the ridge who know the girls.

Earlier in the week we had to stop on top of the ridge near Fulisango as Machi wanted to drop some clothes off to Priscilla. (Amanda blogged about our visit to Fulisango Church earlier in our visit - Priscilla was one of the old ladies who sang in the choir and radiated the joy of the Lord in her praise.) So having parked the car at the top of the ridge and asked some of the locals to keep an eye on it (sometimes parts get taken off your car if you park it in the wrong area and/or the wrong time of day), we proceeded down the steep staircase, past the church (built with assistance from SWIM) and further down into the village.

Down the (very steep) stairs we go.

After an afternoon downpour, the clay track was very slippery. As we were negotiating our way down between all of the houses with Machi and the girls we heard ‘Brianna’ yelled over one of the fences. There we were a kilometre or so from school and way down in the village and we happen to be walking past the house of a friend from school! It is lovely that the girls can be at a local school and make friends like this. We headed further down into the village where things were even more slippery due to a lack of grass (and where more and more kids were playing) until we made it to Priscilla’s house. She was having her afternoon nap but was happy to see us, greeting Machi and the girls with a kiss to the hand and also happy to receive the bag of clothes to be handed out where most needed in her village. Machi stayed and chatted about a possible visit to the home village from one of the ladies in the church on Malaita by a small team from SWIM.

A make shift bridge over a very slippery section.

So there we sat and ‘made stories’ (the Solomon term for having a chat) in their cook house area (in the Solomons it is normal to have the house you live in and a smaller kitchen house which you cook in using fire). It was lovely as they chatted in pigin about quite a number of things. They are hoping to do a workshop for men on being godly husbands and fathers, so that was an interesting discussion with the women. I piped in for a little bit to say that they should do it rather than being too busy, as the Bible asks men to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Priscilla gave an enthusiastic Amen to the quoting of scripture. We also had a look at the medical issues for a number of family members. There is access to medicines here and some for free from the hospital but a number of issues such as low iron levels could be addressed by diet but that is so hard. Red meat is out of the price range of locals as it is at western prices; green leafy vegetables are the next best thing but again you need enough selen (money) to by these at market at well. Whilst we chatted the girls played chasings and the like around the houses and through the clay. They did well not to slip over but had slippers (Solomon for thongs) covered in clay by the end.

Priscilla gives Sophie a warm welcome.

Making stories

We headed back up to the car, using more than our fair share of oxygen on the way up and needing our fair share of water when we got back to the car.

On Wednesdays I have been doing ministry at the Rove prison. I had to do an orientation as part of the programs department. They were happy to have a series of music seminars each week. When I asked about the time they would like to have them they indicated from 9 to 11 and from 1.30 to 3.30pm. That is a big day. That said, the section of the prison I am in is not too hot and I have 20 very keen students each week so I’m happy to be able to share as much as can be done in our short visit. We are working towards them being able to read music rather than just play music. This is a big ask but with a week between lessons the men have some time for practice and learning. We hope to be able to lead the worship with this group at a special service in the chapel on our last Sunday here so we will work on some new songs, arrangements, instrumental solos … . I enjoy the opportunity to share in this context and to be able to add a little bit of interest into their weekly routine.

After four hours of music lessons, keyboard in tow.

Each day brings a new adventure here in the Solomons. For all of the rubbish around town, hustle and bustle of traffic, diesel fumes, run down buildings … it is still a wonderful place to be. I enjoy looking beyond this and seeing the beauty of the place and the people. It is truly a privilege to be here and such a blessing.

In Psalm 121 the Psalmist lifts up his eyes to the hills and sees the Lord. Where we choose to look and what we choose focus on in our life is a choice that we make. Guadalcanal (the main Island in the Solomons) has a spectacular mountain range running through the middle of it (Mt Makorakomburu at 2447m is over 200m higher than Kosciusko). These mountains are truly spectacular and have a personality all of their own from being crystal clear icons, disappearing in heavy cloud, being rained on by storms that don’t hit the coast (but seems to get the girls school in the hills in Honiara) and all sorts of other lovely variations (the other side of the mountains is the Weather Coast where some villages experience over 12000mm of rain a year – this is a remote area and usually only accessible by a canoe (small boat) ride around the island and in the often choppy seas). We have a view of these mountains from our kitchen and I love looking at them from our house but also as we drive around SWIM and town. They are truly spectacular and remind of this pslam. Life in Honiara is a bit like the Psalmists experience – we can choose to look down at the things that trouble us or we can look up and see the beauty of the Lord and His work, finding joy and contentment in the goodness of the things he has blessed with and that are right there around us. Paul’s thoughts in Philippians 4:12 are ones that challenge me deeply when we are asked to be content in every circumstance. For us in the west who have so much we can often do so poorly at living this out, yet here, where life can be a lot tougher perhaps I see greater thankfulness and contentment in the lives of our Christian brothers and sisters here. I’m not sure about the answer to that one yet but I pray that we as a family might be able to take on board but aslo to respond to Paul’s challenge in 1 Thessalonians 5 where he asks us to be joyful always, to pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for us in Christ.

The mountains as seen from our kitchen!

I am truly thankful to be sharing this opportunity with the beautiful people here and my family.