Becky visited

We had a visitor this past week. She arrived without warning around midday on Tuesday and left just after midnight. Becky was her name. She wasn't too bad. She caused a rough night with plenty of wind and rain but all in all she was a mild cyclone that ended up passing us on the west of Santo. A few trees fell over, knocking out the power at 8pm. But by midnight the wind was calming down. After dark the male students were split into 6 groups patrolling Talua until the storm settled. When they knocked on our door to check we were prepared.....it all seemed a bit of a joke to them. At least it was a mild one and we all slept fairly well.
In these two photos we are checking things for Becky. One photo we are about to go onto the roof to ensure the solar panels are fastened securely. The other Andy and I are sliding a sheet of timber along a window to protect it. Our own windows were not protected and if there is a next time I would find something to protect them from flying debris of branches, iron and whatnot. With only louver windows and fly screens for protection - they didn’t seem very secure against a cyclone. We even had water coming in through a porous section of the concrete block wall.


William turned 10 on Friday so we had pizza for tea on Thursday and lunch Friday (bought them from the Beach Front Resort this side of Luganville). American Hot Dogs for Friday dinner and Bacon and Eggs for Saturday breakie. Added to that William had friends around for a movie Friday night.
Its been a quieter week at Talua as Friday 23rd March the 67 Short Course Lay Ministry Students graduated and have left campus. Our water supply is now working properly again with about 70 less people consuming water. There is now room to sit in the dinning hall /church for services and devotions.

Graduation Day was a special day, starting at 4:45AM, taking photos of food (pig and bullock) preparation, teaching my normal English Classes and then after lunch the Graduation Ceremony. I took nearly 100 photos that day (and another 100 of students during the 6 week course) and spent until very late on Graduation day printing photos for students. The next morning I was woken by a student at 4AM and thought it was a tad early for more photos to be printed. But instead I was asked to drive the bus into town to drop students off……the bus driver was sick. So by 9:30AM I had completed two trips into town, and also spent an hour at the airport waiting for an arriving Certificate Two student – a tiring few days.