Home Sweet Home -- under construction

This is more like "Home Humble Home"

Here is the sweet family that lives in this humble dwelling. Along with them are the Stenlunds. Stenlunds are one of our senior missionary friends. They have been assigned to attend the branch of our church where this family lives. One Sunday they went out to visit this family and we so shocked and disturbed by their living conditions that they decided they had to do something. A couple of weeks later we accompanied the Stenlunds on one of their visits and we decided we needed to be involved in this worthwhile endeavor also.

It didn't take them long to come up with a plan. Another one of the senior missionaries, Elder Hatch, has made it his "hobby-to-pass-away-spare-time" to help build some better houses for quite a few locals out in the more remote areas around Suva so the Stenlunds contacted him and he was on board in a flash!
After a few minor obstacles, like Elder Hatch having to take a quick medical trip to New Zealand to check out a blocked artery, people were recruited to show up this particular Monday morning at 7am.
They began by tearing down the scary dwelling, chopping down a coconut tree that stood in the spot where the new dwelling was going to be built and started digging the holes in the ground for the stilts.

Paul & I arrived about 11 am and this was how far they had gotten in just 4 hours!

Things were moving along just perfectly with everyone measuring, sawing, nailing and having a great time! Even the two oldest boys (about 10 and 8 years old) of this sweet family were right in the middle of the action. I think it was the first time they had ever seen electric saws or hammers! The tool of choice over here for everything is a bush knife!

This dear woman gets the "hardest worker" award! She is the aunt of the mother of this little family and she was the one that had actually built the previous structure. She worked like a trooper! She was cutting down trees and brush and hauling wood and tools. I think she sat down only once or twice the whole day!

By 4:30pm that day the framework had been accomplished! Everyone was so pleased and proud of their results! After this, the only thing that needed to be done was to put the corrugated tin on the sides and the roof, hang the door and install the louvered windows -- yes, actual windows and a door! What an upgrate! We actually haven't been back out to see it finished but we have been assured that all the tin was installed and they are enjoying their new digs!

Various extended family members came by to watch the progress throughout the day. I loved this mom and her sweet little twin girls and her creative backpack. So adoreable!

Here is the baby girl of the family who's house was being built. She is sweeping up around the building site. This broom is a typical sweeping device that is used over here by everyone! It is hand made using the center stem of the coconut leaves. They are really effective and do a great job. Never too early to teach children how to work.

We did feed the workers. Here are some of the guys enjoying their ham sandwiches and their 15 minute lunchbreak. From the left is Elder Hatch, then Elder Stenlund, then Elder Kasteler, then Brother (we can't remember his long Fijian name). He is a neighbor and a high councilman from the Nausori Stake. The 2 young boys were really enjoying those sandwiches and the homemade chocolate chip cookies Sister Stenlund had prepared.

Here is the best use of a wheel barrow I think I've ever seen! He was just enjoying a quick, power nap!

The women of the family and some sisters from the Branch laid down a mat on the ground and put together a huge Fijian lunch. It made our ham sandwiches look pretty pathetic though this group helped devour the chocolate chip cookies so we felt like we had made a contribution.

Meal time is very labor intensive. The woman on the left hand side has split open fresh coconuts from the coconut tree they chopped down, grated it up and now she was squeezing it to get all the liquid released from the "coconut flesh". Her granddaughter was tearing the leaves from the stems of whatever those green plants are called.

Then she mixed the greens with the coconut and took it up to the cooking shed and boiled it and stirred it and added some canned fish and some fresh chilies and that was her version of lunch. I enjoyed watching this whole process. I can't imagine having to cook every meal, every day over an open fire but when you don't have electricity, you don't have much choice.

I also watched her open the can of mackeral with her bush knife and she didn't have any hot pads either. Seriously, I am such a whimp!

Sister Stenlund and I thought we were really being tough by sitting on the mats while we made our sandwiches and ate our lunch. After sitting down for about 45 minutes, we both had to get up and walk around. We didn't want to be rude but we told the sisters that it was too hard for us to sit like that for so long. The next thing we knew, here came 2 women ....carrying out a bed frame and a foam mattress and a blanket and set it down in front of us so we didn't have to sit on the ground! We really felt like wimps!!! I think most of those women sat on the ground for 4 or 5 hours straight!

After lunch, the women began pulling apart the leaves from the coconut tree that had been cut down and stripped the leaves from the center strand. Still sitting down, by the way!

This was beginning to be more like a Relief Society activity as much as a home building project.

Now the fun really began. This woman began showing us how to weave a tray using the inside strands of the coconut leaves. She said that she had learned how to do this from a Filipino woman. Sister Stenlund and I were so fascinated and just admired this handiwork.

Just this week, Sister Stenlund came by my desk at the Service Center and presented Paul & me with these beautiful, handmade trays as their appreciation for our involvment in the new home for her daughter and her grandchildren. I'm pretty sure these baskets took about as much time to weave together as it took those men to build that framework for the house!

We are so grateful we were able to be involved with this life changing experience! I think it is safe to say that not only was their life changed by now having a strong, stable and safe home especially as Fiji heads into its' rainy season but that our life has been changed by being included in such a simple but powerful project.