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Greetings, from the Solomon Islands
Yeaps, our team of 8 have safety landed in the Solomon Islands!! The first thing i have to say, 'ahh its hot!' and im soo tired (waking up at 2:45am = not happy) but thats all part of the travelling experience and yes, i will treasure it all (including the early mornings to chase after the plane; its all part of the memories that will remain with me after all this) but right now, im lapping up the sunshine and taking in the beautiful scenary.
The flight was quite short, thought it would be further but nevertheless, am happy that we still have half the day to explore before lights out. Flight was from Melbourne via Brisbane to the Solomon Islands. At Brisbane airport, we met a lady that works on SWIM base (the base that we'll be staying at) so she told us what to expect and what not to expect from the locals.
The trip to the SWIM base was awesome! Kevin (the owner of the base) came to Honiara airport to pick us up. We did a quick introduction of names and then he showed us where his car was parked. We came to this ute and were told that we'll be sitting in the back alongside our luggages! COOOLL!
About 10 minutes along the bumpy gravel roads, possibly a few bruises on our backsides and some awfully red faces, we reached the base; we were shown the transit house that'll we'll be staying at. Kevin ran through some quick rules and regulations then we did some quick unpacking (mostly the food and gifts for the locals, which was about half my total luggage weight).
We then went to explore the base, set on 5 acres. There was a lot of exploring to do. Yumin and I came upon a group of girls sitting underneath the bush lime tree. The eldest girl, Rosalyn, 17 was leading them through some songs which we later found out she wrote. Such a talented young lady and we're feeling a little intimidated by their beautiful angelic voices! She insisted we joined her in singing her song 'I need your comfort', so she wrote out the lyrics for us and told us to join in. We were lucky she knew some basic English because we still had a long way to go in learning their native Pidjin English. This went on for most the afternoon/evening.
Pastor then went with Machi (Kevin's wife - owner of base) to the local market to have a look and buy some ingredients for tonight's dinner. When he got back, all 8 of us went into the kitchen to help prep dinner. After dinner, we did a quick run-through of the program that we were going to run with the OMEX timber children tomorrow morning. (OMEX timber is the timber mill next to the SWIM base that we're staying at. The workers that work there also live there and their children will be coming over tomorrow for a program that our team will run).
Anyways, its 10pm. Which according to the rules means lights out! Girls on one side, Boys on the other.
With lots of love, jo xx
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