Out with the Clark’s, Sisters and coconuts

This is the mat that the family gave us for transporting the body to the cemetery in Labasa. The mat is hand woven! They also harvest the stuff and dry it. (don’t know what it is made of, probably coconut trees)   I’m sure it took a long time to make. It is huge.

 

This is our favorite spot on the way back from Tacilevu! Lots of pictures here.

Sister Chand and Elder Keck chopping coconuts.

Sister Wahlstrom is scraping the coconut. The tool she is using shreds it. The tool was in a drawer in our flat when we got here.I thought it was a board to filet fish on. Ha! Nope coconut shredder.

This is a dead spider that was on the bench on our front porch. We pulled it out of a crack, took a photo of it and just left it sitting there. We took the sisters home and came back and the only parts left were the legs! I think the geckos ate it.

This sister from our branch just returned from her mission in Australia. We met her at the airport and Elder Keck released her from being a missionary. She lives in Vunavesi which is a unit in our branch about 1/2 hour away. He brother is the second Counceler in the branch.

 

Part of our meal at Grace kitchen this week. Sushi was not too bad. Not fish though. It was all chicken.

 We purchased a big metal mouse trap for the Elders in Tacilevu because the previous Elders said they had a large rat in their flat that they were not able to catch. We were sitting on the front porch having our district council with the Elders and Sisters and we hear this loud commotion in the house. Elder Curtis jumps up to see what was going on and finds the bird in the trap. Poor thing! Not a rat!

One of the stops on our adventure with the medical team. This was their van we followed around all day.

 

Water was running out of the white pvc pipe creating a stream that ran down to the river/swamp directly behind their house.

 

We teased that the photo on the left was going to be a new missionary flat. The photo on the right is typical of the open space in every village. Elder Keck thinks it’s for Rugby matches (which it probably is) but it is for village gatherings we were told.

 

As we were walking to the beach from the village I heard snorting. This pig was laying under a tree with its snout buried under some dried brush. It was tied up! 

 Brother and Sister Clark with Dan.

These two ladies were headed to the other island at low tide.

Pretty view from the road.

These kids we’re playing in the water. The boy picked up this star fish. He also picked up a small crab and proceeded to pull off its pinchers and legs.

 

This is one of the patients we visited. Brother Clark blew up the rubber gloves and gave it to these boys. They weren’t interested in the balloon, but untied it and put the gloves on.

Some sort of moth! It was huge!

Beautiful child! She is a granddaughter of the family the Clark’s we’re looking for that they had met years ago.

 

The last house we went to was way back in the bush. The lady they saw was an amputee. Missing one leg. There is no way for her to get out of there. If they were to need to get her out they would have her lay down on a tarp and have several men carry her out. Crazy! 

We hiked to a house just below the two you can see in this photo. It was quite a way back crossing the creek and other streams. Glad it hadn’t rained before we hiked back cause that would have been a mess!

View from the trail back in the bush.

Pounding Kava at the last house back in the bush. Elder had to get in on the action.

Beautiful sunset on the way home to Savusavu!

This video is from an Indian wedding that was down on the corner at the end of our road.! We watched them setting up for the event as we drove past the week before. They celebrated for 3 evenings!

 I think that we interrupted the ceremony! Whoops! The little boys at the end of the video liked having their photos taken! Not sure the wedding party did though!! Turn on the sound to get the full effect.