Abiang

We had a great opportunity to travel to the island of Abiang, which is located just northwest of North Tarawa where we went in the fall.  This time we were able to use the mission boat which is much larger and much more comfortable with cushioned benches. The seven senior missionaries went with a hired boat captain and his assistant.  The mission president is placing two sister missionaries on an outer island for the first time.  They are both from Kiribati, so it won’t be such an adjustment for them.  The flat they will have is the typical 1 bedroom, very small modular that is placed on the church property.  Two elders were moved from there a week ago and Sister Cassita had gone out to clean with a couple of young girls.   Elder Rasmussen repaired the bicycles for them, Elder Wall put up some curtain wire and Sister Bogh, Sister Wall and I made curtains for the 5 windows in the flat.  Sister Cassita brought along an old sewing machine and we were able to buy some fabric at a small store across the road from the flat. The electricity in these flats is from 4 – 6 volt batteries that are charged by four solar panels on the roof.  They didn’t produce enough juice to run the iron and the sewing machine at the same time, so Sister Bogh was able to iron the hem and casings in place by going to the chapel and using the electricity there.  That helped us go faster. 

 The boat captain then took us down the island a way to Bebe and Ukenio’s home.  Bebe has applied for a grant to start a preschool so we took 6 of the ABC books that Kelani's family made to her.  I plan on taking 6 each to a couple of preschools that I’ve seen on the island.  I think they will get used much more there than at the hospital. We left the house at 6:30 in the morning and it was 4:30 before we got back.  The boat ride is two hours each way so needless to say we were very tired when we got home and just chilled and read till we could go to bed.