Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Kev In Ebeye

Because the Kosrae project is coming to a close, I've been shipped out to the next project here on Ebeye, one of the Marshall Islands.  It's been 10 days now on this new island.  This project is going to be very different from the last one.  Ebeye is a skinny 1 mile long island with 18,000 people living on it.   The island in general is very dirty and poor.  There are very few trees.  A little bit more selection in the grocery stores, but overpriced as always.  There are 2 water supplies.  There's personal rain catchment for the sinks and showers, and ocean water for the toilets.  Right now the island is going through a drought so we've had to buy water several times to fill our water tanks.  We guess 25 cents a minute for the shower.  The internet is fairly fast for Micronesia but runs about 10 cents a minute on a prepaid card.

Service
Ebeye
Kingdom Hall
Leftover wood sent from Kosrae
Youth support
Future Kitchen and 2 rooms for couples
Antonio and the kids

The barge from Majuro
Our mountain of rock
Bike trip 
Cooling off
Meeting at the school

When we got to Kwajelin, we went into the airport, put our bags on a red line, sat down, the bags were searched and sniffed, and then we allowed to get our luggage.  They were laying on the floor in a garage area.  The first thing I noticed was a vending machine with Dr. Pepper, Twix, Reese's, and some other things that I hadn't seen in a few months.  Then were escorted to the ferry/military barge that was on the other side of the island.  We were warmly greeted by the majority of the group that's already here, several local friends, and few familiar faces: Erica, Antonio and Troy.  It's about a 20 minute boat ride to Ebeye and then a 5 minute walk to the Kingdom Hall.  Living here with all of the boys has turned the Kingdom Hall into some kind of refugee camp.  Right now we're working on the place where the Kitchen and 2 couples are going to live.  It's above a small store just around the corner.  Next we'll start building the barracks where the rest of us will be staying, including the missionaries I think.  We've also been busy with unloading containers and barges.  We have one from Kosrae full of wood and jacks, one from Guam full of cement bags, a barge from Majuro with 200 tons of rocks/sand and block for Kingdom Hall (only the first story of the building), and we just unloaded another container today from Guam full of random goods from Guam for the missionaries and the Kingdom Hall.  


Well I'm out of internet for now. Until next time.


Kevin

Monday, December 6, 2010

First meeting in the new Hall


First meeting in the new Kingdom Hall with 63 in attendance. 
It was pretty packed.  
One family that's been quickly progressing is the Segrah's. 
 Future Elder right there.
After the grand opening, we of course had to have some refreshments.  
Can never have too many coconuts.
One meeting over with and the place was still intact 

Mike's 2 months were up last week... tear.

Kitchen / Common Area : COMPLETE

 One of the completed sinks and cabinets in the bedrooms

Jamming out at the missionary home.  We were treated to some authentic Hawaiian food that night by the Millers.  Poi and Kahlua chicken anyone? 
 Another local fruit - Pandanas.  
Kind of a cross between mangoes and corn but you chew it like sugar cane...weird I know. 

 Alan riding the "best wave of his life".  
Now that I have my old camera back, I can take it surfing : )
 He was pretty stoked about it.

 Shawn having some fun
 Shawn catching a wave

 We had a bonfire and ended up playing with sparklers.  
This is 15 seconds of the craziness in one picture.
 Shawn the performer and Kathy the supporter, matching as always.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Kingdom Hall Completed

This last week we had our CO visit.  Mark and Jackie are the ones I originally came to Kosrae with last summer, so we've had a lot of good memories together on this island.
The pioneers on Kosrae, plus a few visiting pioneers that are part of the construction group (the majority)
 The door factory line.  We spent 2 days just cutting the pieces for these cabinet doors, and 3 days so far gluing and clamping them.  Once the glue is dry...
 ...Ramir and Tyrone sand, stain and clear coat the doors.  Basically they make our work look good.
Jared and Morissa from the Construction Desk at the Guam Branch are visiting this week.  They're a big encouragement to the crew and a lot of fun.
 Shawn and Kathy working over time with us so we could have the Kingdom Hall ready before Sunday
 King of the rocks: Brennen.  After eating dinner there, I think it's actually more comfortable then the 
wooden benches, and you can just recline and take a little siesta when you're done chowing down.
After working a few hours of overtime, all the boys crashed Zak and Naomi's room on their last night before leaving for the next project.  We were getting our karaoke on.
Brand new Kingdom Hall
 Testing out the new equipment
 I can't say I've tested out this new equipment though...
After we finally finished the Kingdom Hall on Saturday, we had a little going away party for Mike since he's going back to Texas on Wednesday. But as you can see, it wasn't so little by the time the night was coming to a close.  All 15 of us in this little bachelor pad played Hoopla and Mafia! 

Monday, November 22, 2010

Monitor Lizards, Spiders and More Coconuts

Before I get started, I thought I'd share a little status report on the Kingdom Hall and Missionary Home.  The Kingdom Hall is very close to being completed.  Painting is done, inside and out, the stage is tiled, the lights and fans are all installed and the doors and windows are in the process.  We're planning on being finished with the Kingdom Hall by the end of the week.  As for the Missionary Home, it's slowly getting there.  Brandon Chinen, a brother from Guam, was here this week installing all of the air-conditioners .  It was a lot of fun having him here with us.  Mike and I are still chipping away at the many cabinets that need to be finished.  He goes back to Texas on December 1st so hopefully we're done by then or else I'll be a lost carpenter.  One of the missionary couples should be able to move in by the beginning of December.  Well there you have it.      
A monitor lizard we spotted in the backyard of the missionary home.  
This guy was kind of small, they can be grow to almost double his size.
Plenty of spiders around.  Usually they're all shriveled up after they're smashed by someone but I think this one was poisoned so you can still get an idea of how big they are, probably not as big as some places, but still a decent size I'd say. 
I may have said this before, but there's nothing like an ice cold coconut on a hot day in the tropics.  Here we have Zak giving me a peek inside the cooler of goodness.
The happy couple working together, Jake and Amy Felbe, painting the doors inside the Kingdom Hall.  
Ramir doing some finish painting outside the Kingdom Hall.  From here on out I was pretty much just walking around taking a picture of everyone around.     
With the missionary rooms having air-con now, and one of the missionary couples on vacation back in the Phillipines, Jake decided to move his office into their room for now.  So down goes the old office.
Tyrone loves demolition, but first you have to take out the more delicate stuff.
And just like that, within a matter of hours, it was gone.
Secretly, Tryone isn't actually from Palau...sometimes he just can't help but let his Arabian side come out. 
Dave the master tiler.  Tiling the stage of the Kingdom Hall.
Dave's loyal tile-cutter, Brennen.    
Over in the bathrooms, we have another tile crew.  
The tiles start with Obed, checking for any chipped corners and cracks...  
...Shem cutting the tiles to size...
...and then Alan, the tile layer.  But really, Shem lays the tile too. 
Classic Sammy Face
During this weeks service meeting, there was a big event across the parking lot in the gym.  These boys were wandering around and slowly started coming inside.  By the end of the meeting, this is what we saw.  I'm pretty sure none of them had ever been to a meeting before.  They were all ready to pose for the many who wanted to take pictures, so were Tyrone and Sammy.    
As you may already know,  on Kosrae there is Sabbath on Sundays.  So we try to get as much play time as possible on Saturday before we are forced to do nothing recreational on Sunday.  We all said that we wanted to play volley ball Saturday afternoon, but after the pioneer meeting this Saturday, it of course was raining.  We were desperate enough so a few of us ran out and started playing and eventually we had a good game going.  We thought it might eventually let up but no, it started POURING.  At one point, you couldn't even look up to see the ball coming without your eyes being pounded  by the rain.  Surprisingly though, that was probably the longest we've played at one time.  It was so much fun.