Island visits

Always a treat to go visit other islands.  There are reported to be 300 Islands in Fiji and 150 inhabited Islands so lots of places to visit and see where the needs are. 

This is a hard place to sit for 4 hours so we sat inside.  Actually it was nice to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful water and see Islands off in every direction.  Not quite the same as the ferry from Sydney to Tsawwassen but it was still beautiful

We recently took a ferry to a larger island to the north of the main Island of Fiji and looked at various projects and an emergency container we have on the Island.  

We have about 5 sea containers on the Island that are for emergency when there is some sort of disaster like a Cyclone.  Each container has tents, tools (axe, shovels, hammers, rakes etc),water, emergency kits, generators, chain saws, tarps - and many more important things for safety and survival.  Wendy and I are in charge of these and we do an inventory every April and October to make sure everything is ok.  We replenish things in the emergency kits like toothpaste and other personal items every 18 months or so.  October thru April is Cyclone months so we always want to be prepared IN CASE

Things we might need??

Wendy is trying to find
just the perfect dress to match my coat.

not quite sure if this is the new me back in Victoria??

This pot has about a 24 " diameter so when you need a pot to cook for a hundred or more - this is it.

not sure whether to put some money in Gold or Vanilla??

This is a great machine for the sugar cane industry although it will put many people out of work.  They usually cut cane by hand with a machete so I'm sure the farmers are excited to see one of these arrive on the Island. The farmers are getting together to buy a few more.  

This is a 100,000 Liter cement water tank.  The school collects water off the roof of the buildings when it rains.  This is their only source of water.  Right now is is a dry period and they have to have water trucked in.  

how can you make a good sandwich without some peanut butter and grape jelly.  Well, you can't so you buy plenty of this.  

Village life

These two young people were sounding the alarm that church ( Methodist )was about to start.  They do this three times before the meeting actually starts in the village.  You could hear it from a long way off - once they stopped you could see people coming out of their homes and walking towards the church.  It was a neat sight.

This boy really knew how to use his eye brows to say things - he is a cute kid

One of our day trips was to visit a Chief of the village to get his blessing on a project.   The village held a Kava Ceremony in our honor and gave us time to present to the Chief a plan for our partnership to help his village.  Very interesting ceremony and experience.  It is very hard to sit like these men for 2 hours - very hard

This is the Chief's home  located on a small island just 1 km from the shore. we waited until high tide to be able to get to it by boat.

This video will give you an idea of how small the island is,  but it is the home of the Chief and the Chief Minister for the village.  We had to satisfy the Chief Minister as well.

Canada Day & July 4th

The Keyes from Victoria joined us at the home of Elder & Sister Johannson, Elder Johannson is the area 70 and Service Centre manager here in Fiji.  Sister Johannson's father came from Canada and their son standing next to me just returned from the Vancouver Canada mission.  We had a great evening together for a Canada Day Party..

Wendy and I took a long walk Saturday morning and passed by the Home and offices of the President of Fiji.  There is a guard house as well as an honor guard that works in 2 hour shifts.  They stand at attention for 2 hours and can't talk to you or move.  The grounds are beautiful and you look out to the ocean from this point, very beautiful.

The city kids here are very connected to technology.  Cute kid, got to love the hair

one of our projects is providing material and supplies to village dispensaries so the village nurse can provide early medical help to those in need.

we traveled to 4 villages and provided needed supplies and material for the nurses so they are able to do their jobs and help the families in the village.

The villages build a dispensary for the nurses to work out of.  This was an example of a common dispensary

As we travel to the villages we like to take a tennis ball for the kids to play with.  We had fun playing catch with a group of boys in this village.  We need to find a sponsor - tennis balls are expensive here.  We are going thru a bunch.  hehe

another happy village,  some of the dispensaries are obviously smaller than others.  

This nurse was very organized and had a very nice dispensary.

Wendy and I visiting with the Chief of one of the villages we donated material to.  They were very appreciative and had a ceremony to thank us for the generous donation.

Another well appointed dispensary for the village nurse, this one was larger than most and the village is very proud of their dispensary because they know it is where they can get medical help.

Service of every kind

This young man broke his neck jumping into a pool of water.  We were able to arrange for him to get a ramp so he could get into his home and a pathway so he had room to roam.  A Doctor from California has been very generous in helping this young man with supplies and items he needs. He said his grandchildren worked and contributed to the cost of the ramp. Many are blessed with
opportunities to give.

family and a few young men from
nearby ward help do the work.

This pathway will help the young
man out of the house each day to be with friends.

Yes this will have some railing put on

7 families of single mothers with children
had to be moved to different living arrangements due to a fire - very difficult
for all these poor women and children

The fire and water from putting the fire out
ruined all of their possessions 

sad to see the kids school books and scriptures
destroyed

all 7 apartments will have to be rebuilt

.

Wheel Chair Project handoff to SIA (Spinal Injury Assoc)

Wonderful people involved from Spinal Injury Association as well as Elder Johanson & Paul Whippy from our office.

example of one of the kinds of wheel chairs we donate along with a bag of spare parts and tools.  We have had 1 container arrive and the Association will distribute to recipients and we have 2 more containers coming over the next few months.   Each container has a combination of approx. 714 wheel chairs and walking devices.

There is always a big ceremony when we "hand off" goods on one of our projects.  It's a tradition of how they honor the donors.  We had the media, British High Commissioner, Minister of Womens Health, Manager of Vodafone, Elder Johanson (area 70) and us there.  They all got to speak and give praise.  Then to the table for some treats.  

2 day Island review

This is an Ablution Block we are doing for a village deep in the middle of the Island.  This provides the village with two men and two women toilets

This great man is managing two Ablution Block Projects for us

This is how you control traffic going thru your village

Another shot of one of our projects

This Ablution Block will serve 168 school kids at a Seventh Day Adventist School

A nice shot of our village manager - this will have 3 men & 3 women toilets and a show for each.

This is the Master teacher for the school and he is very pleased with this addition

This is a great site to see a bunch of the kids heading home from school.  They have to cross this river morning and night and when it is too high there is a boat that the teachers use to help kids back and forth.  We crossed this river in our truck - it was a great experience

We are in charge of the emergency containers and their contents and we inspect them twice a year.  They are strategically located around the Island to assist members when a Cyclone hits.  They are filled with all the gear needed when there is a disaster.  Notice how they are chained to the cement blocks that go down deeper into the ground so a Cyclone can't pick them us and blow them away.

Wendy checking things out

contents for a disaster - chain saws, axes, tents, wheel barrows, generator, gas containers, hygiene kits, tarps, shovels, cooking pots, water containers, hard hats, rakes you name it.