Dec. 31st - Jan. 1st
We went into the office today, even though it is a holiday, because one of the technical specialists said that he would help us get our computers set up today. It took us all morning to get them up and running with our information on them. Sometimes I wonder why we even go down there, the internet is sooooooo slow! While we were there the locksmith came down and he made some keys for us. Now we can get into the building and into our office. Yea! Progress at last!
When we got home Alan was able to take a little rest and I put things together for the party this afternoon. All of the senior couples met at 4:00 to go for a picnic at the beach. We each took our own sandwiches or hot dogs and then something to share. We knew that it would be low tide so we didn’t plan to swim, just wade.
The beach was beautiful. It was one of the ones we scouted out the other day. We have an older couple serving here, the Fellows, from Australia. We needed to make sure that they would be able to walk into it. It was perfect. With the tide out we were able to walk clear out to the reef and watch the waves roll in. We built a fire on the beach, ate dinner, played in the water, gathered sea shells and then watched the sun set over the ocean. What a great way to see the old year out. It was really fun and we all had such a good time. It was good to get to know the other couples a little better. I never dreamed that we would be able to do things like this on a mission.
There was a stake dance at the stake center but we didn’t get home until almost 9:00 and by the time we got showered and cleaned up, we were so tired that we just went to bed. It’s tough to be old. Only two couples went to the dance but they said it was fun to see. They had a live band and everyone really dressed up for it. They don’t serve any food, they just can’t afford to do that, but they had over 300 people attend. The Tongans love a good party. We will have to go to the next one. Even though we went to bed, we didn’t go to sleep. The fireworks went off until way after 1:00.
We had to be up bright and early on New Years Day. We went with the Zone Leaders to deliver money to the missionaries. There are 3 Zones on the main island so three senior couples go with 3 sets of Zone Leaders to take the money out and check the apartments. We will be doing it every month from now on as part of our mission assignment as Housing Coordinators for the young missionaries. We are excited to get to spend a little of our time with the young missionaries. We love them! This assignment will also allow us to go to the other islands and check on the missionaries. The housing here is very humble. They have a very small house, about the size of our bedroom. There is a small room with 2 twin beds in it. A study area with a long table and two chairs and a bathroom with a small shower, a toilet and a sink. That is it. They don’t have hot water and they are dependant on the members in the area for their food. On the outer islands they still live in huts and sleep on the ground. They have no running water, just rain water, no electricity and they bathe out of a bucket just like Alan used to. It hasn’t changed much on the outer islands in the last 40 years. All of the missionaries here do their laundry in a bucket with a stick or piece of PVC pipe to pound them with. It’s amazing, but their shirts really look good. I have been impressed. Of course there are always those who are slothful and live in dirty conditions, but we will try to change that.
In the afternoon we went to the school and worked on posting on this Blog. Kimi is helping me get it up and running. There are still a few problems but we are getting close to having it working. I will be so glad, I hate being so far behind. We were also able to call our kids on Face Time. It looks like that will work the best for us here. It cuts out at times but it is better than Skype. We can get Greg, Kimi and Mike and Dave and Alisha, but we are still having trouble connecting with Bryan and Lisa and Tiff and Jake. We are hoping to get that worked out soon!
We visited with some of the senior couples tonight and then went to bed and listened to the fireworks again. It was only until about 11:00 tonight, not to bad.
