Solomon Islands July - August 2013

SOLOMON ISLANDS

We are home after five weeks in the village of Nafinua,  Solomon Islands.
 

Six years ago we were at the same place, teaching English for ten weeks.  This time another couple from our church, plus the Korean girl who has been living with us for almost a year, came with us to help with the teaching for the first two weeks.  Six years ago we lived in a house in the local village with 7 other people – no bathroom or flushing toilet, no electricity or running water and we had to walk 20 minutes up to the Bible College to teach each day.  This time we found things easier, as there was a visitors' house with two bathrooms and toilets (cold water only) and tank water piped into the kitchen – real luxury.  We christened it the Nafinua Hilton. 

The Hilton is on the right.

 It was also much more convenient, as it was built in the Bible School complex, with only a couple of minutes’ walk each day.

Inside the Hilton.

As this is a second world rural area, second hand clothing (apart from “home-made” school uniforms) is chosen for price, availability, size and perhaps colour.  Brand names, logos or printed messages are immaterial.  This leads to unusual combinations between the wearer and the message......

            A young woman, who has probably never left the island, wears a T-shirt proclaiming proudly “I still call Australia home”.

            A young boy who has certainly never ridden in a car with a T-shirt that gives excuses to the motor-cycle policeman writing a speeding ticket (eg, ‘I was rushing to buy you donuts’)

            In church:

            An angelic 8 year old singing choruses and emphatically stating on her T-shirt  -

                      “Bad Attitude”

            An 11 year old girl announcing on her T-shirt  

                     “My next husband is going to be normal”

            An old lady who could barely walk and only spoke the local language, haranguing the men in the congregation about how bad their treatment of women was before Christianity was introduced to the Solomon Islands – her bright pink T-shirt said 

                    “Boys are stupid – throw rocks at them”.

CULTURAL

In the 21^st century, in the mountain areas, there are still so-called “heathen people”.  These are small tribal groups who basically live a primitive, almost stone-age lifestyle.  They have few, if any, clothes, no modern plates or cutlery.  They hunt with spears, bow and arrow and slings.  They come out of the jungle to trade live pigs for basics such as machetes.  They are being contacted by local church groups, which often involves a day’s walk to reach them.

There are also the “hidden people”.  They are very small, with a lighter skin and different facial features.  They probably don’t wear clothes in the villages, but wear very ragged clothing to come down to trade.  The Christians in the churches have very little themselves, but are asked to contribute clothing, kerosene lamps, eating utensils, etc. 

One of the students we were teaching in the Bible School was Joshua (one of the "heathen") – his ‘tribe’ had been contacted and his father asked if  his son could be taught to read and write, so he was accepted as a student.  He is probably late 20's? He appeared to be enjoying the experience.  The other students looked after him and helped him.  He sat in on all the classes and even though he could understand little, he tried to participate.  We think that we were the first white people he had had any close contact with – he was probably more amazed by not only meeting us, but also meeting our Korean girl.

Bible Students

As last time, it was an amazing experience.  These people who have so little are friendly, happy and generous.  

 

Robin's class.

 It makes us realise just how decadent our lives can be.  The students in the Bible School have no breakfast (finances don’t stretch to such a luxury), they eat plain boiled rice for lunch and plain boiled sweet potato for dinner, with occasionally some cabbage from their gardens.  One student, whose grandmother had died, had to walk home to his village for a period of mourning.  He left about 10.00am.  Aileen asked her class, “How far is his village?”  “A long way.”  “How long will he have to walk?”  “Mmmm, he will probably reach his village about 9.00 tonight.”

Coming home from church.

US

We are well and were fine when away. 

We ate simple food and walked a bit.
Traveled by boat, truck and outboard.

A 6 hour boat trip and Robin trying to sleep.

The roads were  ............ interesting!






We may return.  That is in God's hand.
If you would like to see where we were - "Google Earth" and search " Nafinua, Solomon Islands"

We will be returning to South Korea on November 9 for 10+ weeks. So some further blogs.  Winter ....... great.

We hope and pray you are all well.

Peace and Grace
Robin and Aileen

Aileen with a friend Rose at the market.