All Work and No Play . . .

All work and no play probably makes for a pretty dull Blog. Not only don’t we have very many pictures, we didn’t even go anywhere new this week. (What a bummer). Actually, we both agreed that we needed to spend some time cleaning our apartment, doing laundry, and stocking up on groceries – things were in pretty bad shape after weeks of play, play, play... at least that is what it probably sounds like for our recent reports. It really hasn’t been all work and it really hasn’t been all play. We work hard, then we play hard, then we go to church and get ready to start a new week. Whew!

We don’t have any pictures of our own, unless Diane took one of me scrubbing the kitchen floor, while I wasn’t looking. But I have captured some pictures from some recent activities we’ve had at work.


Numero uno, were the wild fires in Victoria, Australia. There were 400 separate fires burning at one point. Several hamlets of 400 -500 people each were completely destroyed. About 1800 homes were burned to the ground, leaving more than 5000 people homeless. Many other homes and a lot of property were damaged. Diane included a couple of photos in her last update. We worked pretty non-stop for several days, trying to determine what relief could be provided.

The Australian government established a special fund and asked the Red Cross to manage it. The Red Cross agreed to do so, without levying any administrative fees (normally their administrative costs are pretty significant). A committee of well respected community leaders was formed to establish the criteria upon which the donated funds would be dispersed. All of this red-tape and administrative gobble-d-gook paved the way for our feeling comfortable with making a recommendation for a significant cash donation to the Victoria Bushfire fund. The church accepted our recommendation and approved a donation of $250,000. The funds for this donation came directly from the surplus Australia Fast Offerings. The local priesthood leaders are now mobilizing to help with the clean-up efforts. Our involvement in this new effort is yet to be determined.

Ingham, Queeensland, Australia – February 2009

While the bushfires in Victoria were running out of control, several hundred miles to the northeast Queensland was being inundated with rains that spun off of a seasonal tropical cyclone. The cyclone season here runs from November through the end of March. One of my daily activities is to check the weather reports for all of the South Pacific Islands. So I check everything from Western Australia on the west to French Polynesia on the east, and from the Marshall Islands on the north to southern New Zealand on the south. That is a huge area, big enough that something is happening somewhere almost every day. Back to Queensland; the town of Ingham was isolated from the neighboring cities when the local river overflowed its banks 38 feet (almost 13 meters) above normal. I stayed in almost constant contact with the District President assessing conditions and opportunities to provide relief. There too, we will mobilize the “Mormon Helping Hands” to assist with the clean-up efforts.

Rebuilding a road in Guadalcanal

I believe it was the same cyclone that fed the Queensland floods that also spawned the floods in Guadalcanal, the main Island of the Solomon Islands. As mountainous as this region is water doesn’t build up, like it did in Australia, but almost all roads and bridges washed out. This made it impossible to provide relief supplies over land. The Red Cross made arrangements for several ships to take supplies in from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea to Guadalcanal. You’ll have to be a WWII expert to know about Guadalcanal.

Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

When we aren’t responding to floods, fires, or cyclones we pick up on our Humanitarian Initiatives. Some that we are currently working with include distributing wheel chairs in Papua New Guinea and a very complicated literacy program for the Aboriginals in Alice Springs Australia. I won’t bore with the details of these, but I remarked to someone today about the wheel chair project: “That project has been snake-bit from the beginning.” “Snake-bit” isn’t a term they use here, so she just laughed and laughed. But she understood what I meant. Nevertheless, I am still amazed at how difficult it can be sometimes to just do good.

Lastly, to disclose a little personal info – which I don’t indulge in very often – but I believe I achieved my personal best this week by running 4 miles in less than 40 minutes. Actually, I'm sure it is my "personal best" since I don't believe I've ever run 4 miles before. Cycling and walking -- yes, but not running. It wasn’t a race, just a normal workout – I probably would have done a little better if I hadn't brought my hand weights along. My course (around Lake Pupuke) must be a popular one. I counted 105 others on Tuesday, and 115 on Wednesday. They were split about 50/50 between cyclists and runner/walkers.