Senior Missionary seminar

Back a few weeks ago our Mission President and his wife hosted a 3-day Senior Missionary seminar. They brought all the outer island missionaries here to Suva and we got to meet and enjoy each others company and share our unique experiences. We had many activities such as a Temple session, an all-afternoon training from the President and his wife, an evening of sharing photos and experiences about Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The final day we got to go out on the Navua River for an all-day boat trip to visit an up river village and enjoy the gorgeous scenery that Fiji is known for.
Here we are loading up on our wooden, 25-foot long, 4 feet wide, wooden- planked seated, 30 hp outboard-motorized engine, about 6 or 8 passenger boats that sailed about a foot above the water.

Here is our dear, very competent captain: Maciv

He was really good at bailing out the water and keep us from sinking!

About a mile from our boarding point, we passed the Navua Ward Chapel that sits atop this hillside near the bank of the river. Interesting bit of trivia about this site. Besides being the Church's worshiping location it is also a designated, Government assigned evacuation center for when this river floods. There was a huge flood some months ago and 500 local neighbors spent 2 weeks residing there. The waters that were flooding this area were as tall as half way up that hillside. People had to use boats to even reach the building.

There was a lot of normal, daily life going on along the banks of the river as we traveled upstream.

The terrain along the shores was very lush and beautiful... low in some areas and other areas reminded me of sailing through the canyons at Lake Powell (but a lot more lush in the vegetation category).

There were lots and lots of waterfalls: small, medium and very impressively large.

More of the locals just living life beside the river.

We arrived at the village and climbed up the mountainside. This is a village that earns income by hosting visitors and tourists almost every day except Sundays.

We were greeted by the traditional beating on the wooden truck that has a carved out center. It is very effective in announcing to everyone in the village that the guests have arrived.

Then we were ushered into their village group meeting hall. This was probably one of the nicest meeting halls we have been in anywhere.

They began with the traditional Kava ceremony but they had no idea that our whole group did not drink Kava... no problem, that just left more for the villagers. Notice how beautiful the inside walls, floor and ceiling are. All covered with hand-woven mats and tapa clothes.

After the initial welcoming ceremony, they toured us through a lot of the village. Here we got to visit the preschool kindergarten class. All the older children travel some distance to get to Primary and Secondary (Elementary & High School) schools but the children that are about 3 - 5 stay here and attend this school.
It was just a one-room building. What you see is what all that it was. The children each told us their names and then they sang about 3 songs. One song was a Bula (hello) song and as they sang they walked around to everyone and shook our hands and warmly gave us BULA greetings!
So sweet!

All schools here hang everything from lines scattered long the ceiling. They had lots of stuffed toys hanging along the walls also. Very simple.

Here are list of all the students in this year's class!

Next we were shown how they do their handicrafts. It was fascinating to see how they continue to make these traditional woven mats and painted tapa clothes.

These are the stencils this woman has used for ever... well, at least since they switched from making their stencil sheets out of leaves to sheets of plastic that hold up much better and longer.

Here is one of the finished tapa clothes that depicts traditional symbols of Fiji and includes the name of the village: Koromakawa
From left to right the items are:
bure (Fijan home), kava bowl, the welcome drum, "head basher" from their cannibal days, turtle, another cannibal weapon, woven fan.

Here these women were demonstrating weaving of mats. This is a really arduous project. Notice how EVERYONE sits on the floor! Not all that comfortable. I asked this cute woman how old she was... she is 85! I think she's made a few mats over the years!

Then they did a coconut presentation which included cracking it open and shredding the meat and sharing the milk and squeezing the meat for the lotion. Coconuts are a lifesaver to all the islanders. They use everything from the leaves to the trucks to the fruit; every bit of it is valuable.

Even coconut JEWELERY!

Lunch was included in our visit. They served the traditional lovo which is the meal that is cooked in the ground. It included chicken and vegetables. It was really quite good.

And then as you would expect, they set up LOTS and LOTS of handcraft souveniers. But we enjoyed taking advantage of the accessibility!

This is what I bought... I love it! I reminds me of a quilt! I have it hanging on the wall in our bedroom and I am really enjoying laying in bed and gazing at it!

After we left the village, we stopped at this beautiful, huge waterfall. Our boat captain here told us we could go in the pool right there below and swim around but no one took him up on it!

Here are our dear friends, the Scherns. They are the senior missionaries in Luganville, Vanuatu. They go home the end of September so the next time we get to visit with them will be back in the USA.

For some reason, after the waterfall, they decided to but us all on these bamboo rafts. It was quite the simple version of river transportation. I think they just wanted us to experience how a lot of the local villagers access the river. Glad we didn't have to do the whole outing on these rafts!

This is not part of the SM seminar but I thought I'd show you a few pictures of some of the SM in action. Sister Sewell and Sister Allen are based in Port Vila, Vanuatu. When we were there about 3 weeks ago, I sat in on their English class. They teach this class twice a week and have about 16 students in attendance.

After the class portion of the evening, they spend about a half hour playing games which is a huge it. Here they were playing musical chairs. I don't think they had ever played it before but they caught on really quickly and it was very entertaining to watch.

Here is Sister Lesuma who lives in Taveuni. She has just begun learning how to applique. Some of her stitches were looking more like basting than applique so I asked if she'd like to see how I applique and hide my stitches. After I showed her how, she caught on in no time. Just what I've been looking for... another quilting fan!

These next few pictures show Sister Erickson in action. She has been sewing flannel diapers non stop while she has been here. She is the mission secretary but when she goes home at night, this is how she has spent a lot of her evenings. Not everyone in Fiji can afford disposable diapers so flannel diapers are still a necessity.
This was a Relief Society meeting and she taught about 8 or 9 women and young women how to make them. I was very impressed because all the women knew how to use the sewing machines. They usually can't afford their own machine but at least they do know how to use one.

So there you go... just another small glimpse into our Senior Missionary life! Great! isn't it!!!

(I hope you don't think that this is all we do but pictures of us sitting at our desks doing our normal office work just doesn't seem like much of an interesting blog post subject!)