University without internet access is extremely difficult, or at the very least, entirely unmotivating.
Category: <span>General</span>
July the 7th marked the 30th Independence day for the Solomon Islands. As Solomon Islands formal ceremonies tend to go – you wind up sitting through a good 3+ hours of it all, so when the option was given to avoid a 7:30 start, my tired self jumped at it. These plans however were foiled when I was worded up. So a small conscript of us – namely my family members and Wendy made the early start without the others.
It was interesting how well set up Lawsentama (The sports ground) was, with a crowd of volunteer school children making up the Solomons flag and the 
more standard police marching band and cultural dancing. The dignitaries took forever to arrive, but the Primeminister’s speech was well articulated and in Pijin. My Dad and ‘Uncle’ Bob and the rest of the translators got to present a copy of the Pijin Bible to Dr. Sikua (the Primeminister) in honor of the Year of the Bible. There are so few countries where it would ever be the case, but much of the later funding for printing came from the government and the recent support has been really positive.
So the speech, although good, drew out, a dancer fainted in front of us from the heat or perhaps malaria, the Police men and women finally got given water after standing still 2 hours in the sun and the PM began to read out a list of medals.
My clueless dad sat there with Geoff Hall’s (Who was over doing some general filming for Wycliffe) camera chained on him. I have never seen my dad look so surprised and I cannot wait to see the footage of it. So Bob, Jack (Senior Translator) and my dad who recently had his PHD accepted can now add another set of letters to his name.
The Solomon Islands Medal Silver (there is no gold) is roughly equivalent to someone getting the Order of Australia.
Hullo. I have returned.
However I have not gotten out of bed today – flying ~7hrs does that to you, I should really get off my bum and return later when my brain has woken up enough to write more.
Geoff and I have finished up at youth and the current state of what happens with them at our church remains uncertain.
On Sunday, they came and asked Geoff for the key to the room.
3/4 through the sermon I got too curious and went out to see what they were up to. The ten there let me in and I sat down in their circle. They told me about the verses they had read and discussed – thanks to Petey – one of the older crew. And they included me in their ‘go round the circle with a few questions’ – which is what we used do in youth. What’s on for holidays? What colour are your undies? Who would you turn gay for? Had to laugh. They got to asking each other about what the could pray for and nearly got as far as doing so until someone launched into a story and it got forgotten. I was intentionally a participant and I didn’t lead a thing.
I can’t say how it made me feel except that I was extremely proud and little overwhelmed.
They are as much my friends as they ever were my youth group.
On Saturday my sister-in-law Anita married Stuart. I woke up feeling shocking and got through the day on cold and flu tablets, however the experience was still wonderful. It was really lovely day, Anita looked beautiful, everything went smoothly. I really liked her unusual choice of bridesmaid dresses – which you can see in the one photo I’ve got (at the moment) – they really suited both Tash and Julie. Adele – the flower girl was extremely cute and gave up on doing her thing and went and sprawled on the floor to do some colouring in during the service, her sister Bekky seems to be more taken with me than she is.
All the kids you can see in the front are from either Anita’s class (She is a teacher) or Stu’s work (After school care – but also training to be a teacher).
I love my newest sister and it was an honor to see her marry Stu – who’s a quality guy… and you should hear their engagement story! It’s about as elaborate as it gets.
