Bonus!
Saturday, June 9, 2007
My trip to Orlando had a wonderful bonus. I got to see the Space Shuttle go off. It was very cool!
Labels: travel
posted by Martha @ 2:09 PM
On my way to the USA
Friday, May 25, 2007
It's Friday morning May 24th. This afternoon I will be on a plane headed for Fiji where I will overnight. On Saturday evening I head out of Fiji for LAX, arriving Saturday afternoon - before I left Fiji.
I will be in the USA for about a month. The purpose of the trip is for me to represent our group at the Wycliffe conference in Orlando. As a side benefit, I will be seeing family and friends in Michigan as well as friends in California and Florida. At the end of June, I will attend the wedding of one of our Solomon Islands colleagues before coming back home home. While I am in the USA, I will have a cell phone and can be contacted at: (248) 730-5869.
We would appreciate your prayers for our family as we are separated. Tim will be busy with continuing to work on many important projects while single parenting.
Labels: Prayer Request, travel
posted by Martha @ 6:41 AM
Day 7 in Kia - Thursday
Friday, April 20, 2007
Most of the workshop participants walked to the workshop, but a few like these ladies, came by canoe! Here they are ready to paddle home after the workshop.
posted by Martha @ 5:24 PM
Day 6 in Kia - Wednesday - Plan C??
Thursday, April 19, 2007
We returned from the workshop today (Wednesday) with word that an email had come in for us from a colleague in Honiara. The ship that we are supposed to take to town was stuck on the reef and now has arrived in Honiara. So, that means the ship is delayed and now isn’t scheduled to leave Buala, the provincial capital, until Saturday evening getting us to Honiara in the early morning of Sunday. Hmmm. Will there be a plan D or E before we get to town? Emily has taken accepted the news with grace.
The workshop continues to go well. The participants are doing really well and excited about what they are learning. When we had our break around noon, the group surprised us with a feast. Planks were laid on top of pews in the church and brightly colored tablecloths with crocheted edging. Pots, plates and bowls were laid out on the table filled with rice, sweet potatoes, slices of juicy pineapple, noodles and fish. (Some of the fish are colorful reef fish that you would find in a US pet store with triple digit price tags!) The participants also brought me orchid plants and other flowers to plant in my garden in town.
A few words of thanks were given by one of the leading women in the church who is also participating in the workshop. After Tim prayed for the food, we began filling our plates while the workshop participants sang songs in beautiful harmony for us. When everyone had mostly finished eating, the man who heads up the translation committee stood up and gave some words of thanks to us for coming. We were given a chance to say a few words as well. It was really a very nice feast and it made us feel us very special. Normally such a feast would be held on the last day, but since everyone thought that we were leaving tomorrow the feast was held today. Of course now we won’t leave until Saturday, but never the less we celebrated today!
posted by Martha @ 4:42 PM
Day 5 in Kia - Tuesday
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Tuesday afternoon
The workshop went well today. The students have now learned the first half of the coursework which involves teaching students to read and write stories. We finished the workshop by 2:30. Tomorrow we start training them to teach the phonics part of the program.
After the workshop, I walked through the village. It was quiet and I didn't see many people, although I did see a few escaping the hot afternoon sun by taking a nap. Others were probably out tending their gardens or harvesting food for their dinners. The trail through the village curves and follows the coastline. It's a pretty village with flowers growing along the path and around people's houses.
At 4:30 we gathered around the two-way radio to talk to our office in Honiara. A friend in Honiara was able to buy us tickets on a ship that is making a trip to the other end of the island. We will have to meet the ship at the provincial capital of Buala. In order to get there, we will hire someone to take us in his fiberglass boat with a 40 horsepower outboard motor. We will leave here Friday morning, expecting the journey to Buala to take 5 - 6 hours. The ship is due to leave Buala Friday night and travel through the night with an expected arrival in Honiara early morning on Saturday. The air conditioned cabin is already booked, so we will have seats in the second class cabin where Tim sat on the way out. If it all works out, we should get into town in time for Emily to attend the youth group retreat.
Here it's always a relief when you can get to your destination although often it is often not by 'Plan A'.
Tuesday evening
Dark clouds on the horizon threatened rain most of the afternoon. It finally came around dusk with a very heavy downfall making quite a racket on the corrugated iron roof. It will be nice to be able to take showers again rather than bathing with dipperfuls of water from a basin.
With the rain came flying insects that descended on the house. It is a bit of a mystery how they get in the house, but soon there were hundreds of them swarming around the lights and on the walls. After a while they die and fall to the floor. It's quite annoying when they come in as it makes it difficult to do much of anything. This morning (Wednesday) there were piles of them to sweep up off the floor. These insects do not come everytime it rains, but every once in a while the conditions must be right and they descend in droves!
Labels: life in the tropics, Ministry, travel
posted by Martha @ 2:24 PM
Day 4 in Kia - Monday - Workshop Begins
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Seventeen men and women arrived this morning for the teacher training workshop. Amazingly, we started just before the scheduled 9:00 opening time with Tim leading in a short devotional. Except for a short break at noon we continued until 3:30 pm. The participants are excited to be in the workshop.
Lee and the literacy committee are working on a beginning reading book in Zabana which we are training them to use. Tim and I taught most of the workshop today using Solomon Islands Pijin. The students then do their practice teaching in the Zabana language in small groups. Lee, Tim and I observed the groups to make sure that they include all the steps of the lesson we have taught them and are doing them properly. We will teach the workshop tomorrow through Thursday.
When we got back to the house, we found out that an email had come in for us from Honiara. We were planning on taking a canoe on Thursday afternoon to a port about an hour or so away in order to catch the ship back to Honiara. Because of a tsunami disaster relief charter, the planned trip out here is delayed until Sunday. We will be explore other options for getting back to town.
We’d appreciate your prayers for some kind of transportation to open up so that we can get back in a timely way. Emily will be very disappointed to miss her youth group retreat scheduled for this weekend and the girls are due to go back to school on Monday.
Travel in the Solomon Islands is always interesting and unpredictable.
posted by Martha @ 3:52 PM
Getting to Kia
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Tim had been planning on making a trip to Kia Village on Isabel Island to help our literacy colleagues, Lee and Robin Montgomery run a teacher training workshop. Since it is Easter break for the girls, we decided to make it a family trip. We have been watching the shipping schedule and found out that the ship would be heading out Wednesday night. We don’t have internet access here in the village, but can send an email out via radio. So these entries will be posted by a friend in California.
We went down to the wharf shortly after 5:00 pm as the ship was due to leave at 6:00 pm. We carried our luggage on board and spread out the sleeping pads on the floor of the first class cabin. (Picture a 12' x 12' room with 13 spaces marked out on the linoleum floor for the passengers. One big advantage is that the cabin was air conditioned – when the ship was underway. The rest of the time it got pretty stuffy!) We piled our cargo on one side of our assigned spaces and spread our floor mats over the rest of our spaces. Because there were only 3 cabin spaces left when we bought our tickets, Tim ended up with a bench down in second class. (No air conditioning, but the open windows brought cool breezes and the bench was padded and long enough to stretch out on!)
 On the Estrella with friend, Grant Bruner. |  A corner of our cabin aboard the Estrella. |
The wharf was full of people, and boxes and cargo waiting to be loaded onto the ship. Six o'clock found us still at the wharf, with the loading process still in full swing. Sometime later, an announcement was made that the ship was ready to go and the last passengers scrambled on board and those who weren't passengers got off the ship. We pulled out from the wharf and anticipated enjoying a beautiful sunset as we headed out of Honiara. But instead of proceeding on our voyage, we pulled up to the refueling wharf! A fuel truck on the wharf then pumped diesel fuel into the ship’s fuel tanks while we had to enjoy the sunset from the stationary ship. Finally, at about 7:25, the ship left the wharf and we were on our way. The twinkling lights of Honiara shrank behind us as we traveled into the darkness ahead.
Once the ship was on its way and the air conditioning kicked in, I settled down with the book I was reading. Another missionary kid, Grant, is traveling with us to visit the Montgomerys as well. He and the girls sat up at the prow of the ship for quite some time, enjoying the cool breeze and the adventure of plowing through the gently rolling sea.
The self-inflating sleeping pads we travel with provide a comfortable place to sit and sleep. The rush of the day had left us pretty wiped out so we quickly settled down and were soon sleeping. The throbbing of the engine below us and gentle movement of the sea rocked us to sleep. Every once in a while, the heat seeping up from the engine below woke me. Feeling like a meat patty on a grill I'd roll over and fall asleep again. Occasionally another passenger would walk in or out of our cabin disturbing my sleep or the air conditioner would drip on me.
Around 2:00 am we reached the southern most tip of Isabel and the ship reached the first port of call at about 4:00. We woke up around 5:00, thankful that we had slept most of the night and we tried not to think about the fact that we were still not half way through our journey. Daylight found us off shore of one of the many villages where we would call in throughout the day. Cargo and passengers were transferred to the ship’s dingy and taken ashore as they would be at other ports of call along the way. Every time the ship stopped, the air conditioning stopped and the cabin would get warm and stuffy. As the ship got underway people would settle back down and go back to sleep.
The rest of the day we spent sleeping, reading and standing on the deck of the ship enjoying the view. On one side of the ship was Isabel Island and the other side the sea stretched before us reflecting the blue sky above like an impressionistic painting. In some ways it was nice to be able to relax and enjoy the view without worrying about any emails that needed answering or anything else we 'have' to do. Relatively speaking, one couldn’t ask for a more pleasant ship trip here in the Solomons.
At one point I realized that my sister and brother-in-law are on a Caribbean cruise this week. What very different experiences we are having! They are feasting, while we eat crackers and room temperature water. It would be a successful trip in my eyes if I drank enough water to keep hydrated, but not too much that I would be forced to use the 'squatty-potty' toilet on the ship.
The ship's crew had told us they expected to reach our destination of Kia around 6:00 pm as there hadn’t been a lot of cargo to unload along the way. The sun began to set and a beautiful twilight evening descended on us. We sat on the bow of the ship and watched the trees and details of the island shoreline melt into a purple silhouette against the sky. The sky above became inky black dotted with pinpoints of stars. Far from any lights, the stars formed a wide streak of white lights.
Outside the wheelhouse, a crew member stood with a large hand held light that he used to scan the water way looking for reflectors that mark the inside passage to the village. The ship continued to slowly move through the waters making slow turns in response to the reflectors. Occasionally the light would illuminate a village house along the shoreline on the outside of the village. Soon we saw the wharf ahead of us, and our friends the Montgomerys waiting for us. We pulled in about 7:30 pm on Thursday night – 27 1/2 hours after we boarded the ship.
We grabbed our luggage and walked up to the Montgomery's house where we enjoyed dinner and showers before heading to bed.
Labels: travel
posted by Martha @ 8:16 AM
Easter Break
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
The girls have finished the first ten week term of the school year, which means they have a two week break. They are enjoying the break from school and we are enjoying having them around.
Tonight we are all heading out of town to visit friends, the Montgomerys, who work and live on another island. You may remember that Lee and Robin Montgomery are the new literacy team in our group and currently they are working in the Zabana language on Isabel Island.
Lee has been working on producing a reading primer (beginning reader) in the Zabana Language. Tim will help Lee with a final editing check on the primer and then we will help the Montgomerys to run a teacher's training workshop to train teachers to use the reading primer. The Montgomerys have not been involved in a workshop of this type before, so it will be an opportunity for us to help them through their first workshop.
We will board a ship here in Honiara late this afternoon. We are fortunate enough to have 3 tickets in the 'deluxe' upstairs cabin - which means we will have space on the floor of an air conditioned cabin which should allow us enough room to stretch out and sleep. The cabin has space for 13, so we will be sharing that space. I made a last minute decision to join the family, so we probably won't all be able to be in the cabin. Tim may end up in 'Second Class' which means sitting on a bench for the entire trip. We should arrive in the village of Kia tomorrow evening after about 24 hours on the ship. A pile of books will come in handy to pass the time!
While in Kia, we should be able to send out some updates by email to be posted on the Blog. We would appreciate your prayers for a safe and productive trip. Pray that the girls have fun as well.
posted by Martha @ 10:41 AM
Safe and Sound at Home
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
This blog comes to you from our home in Honiara.
The flight to the Solomons was ahead of schedule and as there weren't many people on board, we got off quickly. We stood in line for immigration for a while until a man came and said there weren't any immigration officers at the airport and he didn't know where they were. He promised to keep us posted. A few minutes later we found out that they were on their way and would be there soon. We got through immigration and collected our bags which arrived safe and sound. For the first time we had our luggage carefully checked, but no duty charged for which we are thankful.
We piled our luggage on 3 carts and wheeled it outside expecting to see some faces we knew, but no one was there. Our colleagues had called the airport a number of times to check on the arrival time but were given various answers - ranging from noon to 2 pm! After we waited about 10 minutes our director's wife arrived followed by others and we were on our way home - Tim even drove our new car home!
Our friends have spent a lot of time getting our house ready. They have spent several days cleaning, organizing and even finding our towels and sheets and making our beds. What a blessing. Apparently a week ago the house was quite a mess.
There are many places where we will have to repair the termite damage. Some walls are missing, some that have been replaced need painting. Some of the ceiling has mold spots on it and needs to be repainted. It's a bit discouraging after we spent so much time and energy last year painting the house.
Sarah was very sad to discover the termites had gotten into her doll case for her American Girl. We hope we can clean it up a bit and replace some of the paper lining to improve how it looks. It was all a bit devastating to a 9 year old who has not has a lot of sleep over the past 24 hours or so. She is also disppointed that she hasn't seen our cat yet. But it was seen this morning around the house, so it is sure to show up soon.
It's good to be home, but it's going to take a lot of work to get the house up and running again. It's 90°+ and high humidity. Nothing can ever prepare you for how hot it really is here and how draining it can be.
I hope this all makes sense as I am a bit sleep deprived but hope to start getting on top of that tonight. We will eat dinner at with our director and his wife tonight.
posted by Martha @ 3:39 PM
On to the Solomons
One of the things we love about working in the Solomons is the smallness of the place. We are always running into people we know. It happened in Fiji - sitting in the transit lounge at the airport I saw a Tongan friend whom I had gotten to know from the last time we lived in the Solomon Islands. We were soon catching up with what had happened in Honiara over the past year.
On our way to the Solomons, we had a stopover in Vanuatu. We were asked to stay on the plane while they cleaned it and prepared it for the next leg of the journey. Sarah and I head to the back of the plane to use the restroom when we found our friend, Rex, sitting at the back of the plane. Rex is originally from the village we lived in when we first came to the Solomon Islands. We met him in New York City in 1997 where he was serving at the Solomon Islands Ambassador to the UN, USA and Canada. Rex has a degree in applied linguistics and has always been interested in our translation and literacy work in the Solomons.
At the moment, Rex is the head of a large non-profit organization that works in development around the South Pacific. It was great to catch up with Rex and hear what is happening in the area and to provide him with information about what our group is doing. We exchanged business cards and the networking has begun again - before we even stepped foot on Solomons soil.
Oh, yeah. At the end of the conversation, something came up about our carpenter friend from the village who has helped us a lot with building projects on our house. Rex said he wants our friend to build him a house in their village and will pay him to do the work. Our friend will be thrilled to have a way to make some money in the village.
Labels: travel
posted by Martha @ 3:38 PM
California - in the "Buffer Zone"
Friday, January 19, 2007
After an almost sleepless night, we flew out of Detroit and into San Diego. Recent changes in airline regulations regarding baggage has resulted in us having 2 checked bags at 50 pounds a piece. Previously bags could weigh up to 72 pounds, and trust me we could easily fill the bags! Keeping the weight down to 50 pounds is a challenge. Our carry-ons are heavily laden with computers and other electronics that we don't want to chance to checked baggage. 
We are staying with friends who we worked with in Papua New Guinea. We always try and stay here for a week when we enter or leave the USA. We call this time in California the "Buffer Zone" as it gives us a chance to recover from our tearful good-byes and prepare to re-enter the USA or Solomon Islands.
On Monday we visited the San Diego Zoo which was wonderful. Yesterday we enjoyed a visit to Sea World. As we walked around and saw the shows, we couldn't help but wonder what our Solomon Island friends would think of the trained sea animals.
Friday we head up to Mission Viejo to spend the weekend with friends there. Saturday we will celebrate Emily's 14th birthday.
Sunday evening we fly out of LAX to Nadi Fiji which should take about 11 hours. We have a brief layover there before taking a flight to the Solomon Islands via Vanuatu (travel time of about 4 hours). We lose Monday to the International time line arriving home in Honiara, the capital city of the Solomon Islands, on Tuesday.
Labels: travel
posted by Martha @ 12:06 PM
