END OF SPRING - KIRIBATI, FIJI & NAH ZILLAN

25 November To 16 December 2018

 . . . .  Summer TIME and the livin' is easyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Tunas jumpin' and the rubbish is high . . . .in Tarawa. . ..

Technically, I don't believe it is actually summer . . .just a lingering Spring.

The Kiwi's say the real summer in NZ is February and March - like our July and August. Maybe a bit muggy but not too bad.

Cool, windy and rainy here until Saturday which was all the way up to 20 C.  . . . 68 F.

Now Tarawa, Kiribati (kear-a-bis with a rolled 'r') is another story. 90 F and 90% humid every stinkin' day . . .365 days a year. One season. . .  no other one coming

Even when it rains - and it does rains with a vengeance - and the humidity goes to 100% and stays at 90 F. 

What an experience – 

• White beaches both sides of the 32 km road through the island . . . well once we got through the 'rubbish' and stripped out car bodies to the beach.
• Beautiful turquoise lagoon water inside the boomerang shaped of the island that locals use as their public toilets . . .local Sr. Missionaries (4 couples here) told us (and these are their words), "We would not advise swimming in the lagoon unless you LIKE swim among the 'turds'.
• Tropical fruit (i.e. plantation bananas) washed in local water . . .local missionaries say, "Be sure to keep your mouth closed tight when you are showering, the water WILL make you sick    as a dead Tarawa dog for days!" 
• What do produce here you may ask? Dogs and dogs and pigs and dogs and chickens and dogs and kids and dogs. They eat everything but the kids. 
• Yeah, this was a three shower a day (min) place but, at least (Morning, lunch and before bed), the food was bad. . . unless, of course, you like tuna and rice for every meal.
• Sprayed ourselves with bugs spray every morning and evening when left the motel to avoid "dingy fever" from the one bad biting bug. 
• Life expectancy here . . . 45 to 55 years. . .. bare minimum medical care  . . .now they have a missionary nurse from The Church. Good news!
• Toilets? Not good . . .even in the meetinghouses . . .Dyan drove back to our motel room for the bathroom no matter where we were. 
• Security guards at the meetinghouse to keep the water and furniture from walking away. No furniture in other churches or house. They sit on the floor. 
• Japanese gun emplacements at the Betio end of the island. Our Betio West meetinghouse is built around a Japanese concreter bunker which could not be removed for historic preservation reasons. 

We stayed in the Utirirele Motel, the nicest place in Tarawa. . .. Room #26 (one of two rooms with AC and hot water) . . . Paradise!

Oh, and the airport? Well see for yourself below . . . 

Sat on the tarmac for 2 hours on the flight home on Monday. Not a complaint from the 150 people on the plane. Coolest place on the island in that plane. 

Now the good stuff – 

• A Subaru Outback with 105,000 miles and AC!
• Bottled water! Litres and litres of it and a frig in Rm #26 to put is so we are not drinking hot water all day.
• Coke!  Half a can every day at lunch to kill the bugs from the food.
• Discovering blackened tuna and fries on the 4th day . . .actually tastes like real food rather than a latex glove. 
• Beautiful happy people in clean clothes that look pressed . . .how do they do it coming from the homes? See below . . . 
• 60,000 of them on this tiny "atoll"; 20,000 members (2,000 active?) 
• You can go in the water on the Pacific side at the ends of the island where there are few people and at high tide with sewage is not being pulled out. 
• Jr. Missionaries, Elders and Sisters, the most amazing, optimistic kids you'll ever see. We flew home with a sister missionary from Tonga, crying the whole time because she was leaving.
• Eight (8) beautiful but very simple meetinghouses (lousy toilets excepted), a stake centres and the Moroni HS with 630 students with a chance for a better life.... nicest buildings in Tarawa . . . by far;
• Eight (8) days measuring, photographing and documenting meetinghouses . . .talking to missionaries and locals around each one. 
• The most amazing sunrises and sunsets.

We are grateful we came but even more grateful to get back to NZ.

Now Fiji! Everything you said above . . .Fiji! 

Three hours flight to Nadi, Fiji to stay overnight, then three hours from Nadi to Tarawa and the same on the way home to Auckland.

Oh yeah! We are going back to Fiji. 

Back to Takapuna and Course 17 with eight amazing kids. 

We taught the kids today and I taught priesthood - impromptu – because the Priesthood teacher could not make it.   

Yeah, I spun the SS lesson for priesthood lesson . . . what do they know?

They think the outline - marker lettering on butcher paper hanging on the board –

       is a little strange but they have gotten used to it. 

Now I'm accumulating a closet full of lesson rolls here. 

Thanks . . . E/Harris here (jesse to all of you) 

Elder Harris

Missionary Architectural Specialist| The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Pacific Area