Now visitors are welcomed by a more traditional warrior.
The primary purpose of my visit to Honiara was to look at their hospital and medical facilities to assess what humanitarian aid opportunities exist and to find out what their priorities are.
Prior to visiting the hospital, we met with the Minister of Health and some of his subordinates including the Director of Health Awareness.
This picture was taken in one of the intensive care wards. I purposefully avoided photographing patients, but the facility itself tells a lot of the story.
Like some other island nations I’ve visited, laundry is done by hand using rainwater harvested from the metal roofs. Here the washed laundry is hung or set out to dry.
This is a picture of a local family. They are members of the Church. The grey haired man is the father of the other four. The wife/mother of the family died of unknown causes several years ago. Their home is the building in the background.
In addition of improving healthcare, I was interested in opportunities for providing education, training, and equipment to improve local food production. With that in mind we visited at length with the people at the Taiwan Technical Mission. They have developed several large rice production projects on the island.
The rice fields were beautiful with their neat straight rows of green against the wet black soil.
In addition to the production of rice, the Taiwanese are experimenting with papaya, pineapple, guava, corn, leeks, pole beans, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, etc. All of these are produced using native (non-hybrid) seeds so the local farmers can self-produce their own seed crops as well as produce for consumption.
While the Taiwanese have been highly successful in developing viable plants, they have not been very successful in attracting the interest of local farmers.
One of the first things that caught my attention was the general practice of building their homes up off the ground. Someone told me that this was to keep the snakes out, but I since learned that there are very few venomous snakes and that snakes in general are not a nuisance. However, rodents and flooding are a constant threat. In this picture the space below the house is being used to dry the laundry. They also relax under the house since it is open and cool.
I was also intrigued by the raw number of abandoned automobiles I saw scattered everywhere. They were a real eye sore for an otherwise attractive island.
Another purpose for my visit was to evaluate a couple of communities that have expressed a need for clean water. This is one of those communities. We walked along a very rough and rocky path to get here. While the residents took great pride in keeping it clean and well cared for, the raw materials they had to work with were mostly discarded scraps.
We met with the owner of this home. They explained to me that another humanitarian organization had built several rainwater collection stations in the village several years ago. These were placed adjacent to some of the local churches. However, after they joined the LDS Church the other churches prohibited them from accessing the water station. They now have to walk 5 kilometres to a government source each day. They bring water back using a 3 litre container.
The lady on the right is the Branch Relief Society President. The sister in the center is a senior missionary from Melbourne, Australia. She has been teaching these sisters how to garden and raise their own vegetables.
One of the highlights of my short stay in the Solomon Islands was the opportunity to be with the full-time missionaries as they taught this family the gospel of Jesus Christ. They sat on shipping pallets and tarps as they taught them about how God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that God has always had prophets on the earth to teach the people. I was able to add my own testimony that we have a living prophet on the earth today. I also bore witness of the truthfulness of the Book or Mormon, and that Jesus is the Savior of all mankind.
This is the home of this wonderful family. Just like the homes Diane and I have been looking at on the internet recently, this one features “an open floor plan.”
It also has a naturally ventilated kitchen. Notice how all of the necessary kitchen implements are within easy reach.
One of my last stops before leaving Honiara was to pay tribute and to mourn the loss of the brave men who fought in the Battle of Guadalcanal more than 65 years ago. The local people have planted a tree next to each head stone.
After I had checked my luggage at the airport, I had to wind my way through customs and the ever-present airport security. This fellow reminded us to stay in line.
I had a wonderful time, and found the people of the Solomon Islands to be clean, friendly and poor. And, unlike these airport guards, they were very inviting.
I can't end this report without paying tribute to the great people who dedicated three days taking me around, introducing me to high ranking officials, explaining local customs and traditions, and most of all translating Pigeon into English, when necessary. The man of the left, President Rimou, is the Branch President for Honiara; he has been in this position for over 7 years -- 3 months after he joined the Church. The other two are Elder and Sister Soisoi, they are full-time missionaries serving from Australia. Originally from Samoa, as volunteers, they are helping the great people of the Solomon Islands learn and grow in the Gospel, by teaching them how to put into practice the teachings of Jesus Christ -- thus reaping the blessings and rewards of living a Christ-centered life.
No comments:
Post a Comment