South Pacific Division (SPD)

Women's Ministries in the Solomon Islands (SPD)

  


Solomon Islands women walk to meetings

 

 

  

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Fly 'n Build Trips in South American Division Assist Communities (SPD)
( An Interview with Anne Cram, Fly ’n Build)


Q: How many times have you been on fly 'n builds?
Since 1994 I have been to twelve locations.

Q: When and why did you first start going?
In 1994 I visited Penrith church and Gordon Southwell had a notice in their bulletin asking for someone to cook for a team he was taking to Malaita. I told him I was planning to visit my son David at Atoifi who was a volunteer nurse at the time. Gordon asked me if I would consider going with the team first and then visiting Atoifi. This was my introduction to the Solomon Islands and my first fly 'n build.

Q: Which has been your favourite fly 'n build?
I can truly say I have enjoyed every trip I've made, but my favourite destination would be the Solomon Islands. This year was our third visit to Tenakoga High School on Guadalcanal and because of the friendships we have made during these visits this place is very special to us. They appreciated the fact that we came to them in spite of the tension in the country and travel warnings on our first two visits.

Q: What do you do on these trips?
My official job is cooking for the team. Mostly this is done over a gas burner. My first trip also had the added extra of an open fire and stone oven to work with. I also patch up the wounded from the work site and some of the local people who come with minor ailments. Our most serious injury to date was when one of our men almost severed his thumb with a power saw, but mostly its just cuts and scratches.

Q: Why do you go on these trips – what motivates you?
I have always enjoyed hearing mission stories from the Pacific islands and to visit some of these places has been a great pleasure for me. I enjoy experiencing a different culture – often just as the local people live their lives. I know that in isolated areas our coming really gives the people a lift and is a blessing to them. I'm not put off by pit toilets, mud, mosquitoes, rats, frogs, cockroaches or bathing in the river, but I have yet to overcome my lifelong fear of spiders (of which there are many in the islands). To be among these friends is always a blessing to us, in ways that would perhaps surprise them. We are so abundantly blessed in Australia and it's a delight to be able to share what we have. They think we sacrifice to go there but I have always seen it as a privilege, not a sacrifice. Also I think that God knew this was something that would suit me.

Q: Where exactly do you go each time?
I have been to Vanuatu three times, to Kiribati twice and the rest of the time to the Solomon Islands. The projects we have been involved in have been building school classrooms, houses, compost toilets and village clinic repairs.

Q: What is your most memorable trip?
Most trips have moments that stand out.
A thirty-six hour boat trip to Kukudu in the Western Solomons.
Visiting Viru Harbour where Captain G.F. Jones pioneered the work in the Solomons.
Visiting the island where John F. Kennedy swam ashore when his boat was hit in WW11.
Picnics on empty beaches in Vanuatu and Kiribati.
And the thing that lingers long in our minds – the singing.
The most memorable trip to date though, for a number of reasons which I'll explain at the end, would have to be the visit to Tenakoga last month.

This year I wanted to do more than just cook for the team, so I prayed before leaving that we would be a blessing to the people in some way. This prayer was answered in surprising ways. With me was Brenda Dawes from WA making her second visit to Tenakoga. We think alike about these trips and I have truly found a kindred spirit in her. We were asked by the school chaplain to take a series of evening worships for the boys. We chose the topic "God has a plan for our lives". All members of the team participated in Sabbath worship services at the school and nearby villages. Brenda and I were asked to talk to the Form 4 girls home economics class about personal grooming and manners. Brenda, a teacher, also spent a morning in one of the primary school classrooms as the request of the teacher.

One of the village ladies who brought us food asked us if we had brought any reading glasses with us to give away. Her eyes were red and watering and obviously giving her problems. Before I left home Rosie Fletcher had given me one pair of her glasses she'd finished with to take to the Solomons. I fetched these and when this lady put them on she screamed and grabbed my hand. It was as though a light had been turned on for her. I saw her again a few days later and her eyes looked better and she was very happy.

A Form 4 girl expressed to us her desire to write. I "happened" to bring with me the guidelines for submitting material for the Women's Ministries devotional book and she immediately set about writing two devotionals for consideration.

One afternoon we held a cooking demonstration with a difference. The school cooks wanted to see how I made banana pikelets which have become something of a tradition with us. Armed with ingredients we spent some hours cooking pikelets on frying pans over a fire on their cookhouse floor. Helped by two students (boys) we made enough for all the students to have a taste at their evening meal. (There are 150 students at the school.)

On a lighter side, we gave the staff and students something to laugh about. As a result of the ethnic tension in the Solomons the roads have had minimal maintenance and the road to Tenakoga is impassable in wet weather. So we found ourselves walking four hours through the mud to the school in darkness. By the time we had to walk through the river for the third crossing rain up in the mountains had caused flooding. I was nearly washed down the river in our attempt to get across in water up to my armpits. The strong current just swept my feet from under me and I struggled for a time to hang on to our guide who slowly managed to drag me back towards the river's edge again while I flapped around him like a flag in a breeze. Eventually they had to get a canoe to get us across.

Our last Sabbath also gave them plenty to laugh about. We were to attend church at Geza village across the river from the school. The river again was up and flowing very fast so a canoe was readied to make the crossing. Brenda and her husband Geoff and I were chosen to make the first crossing. We no sooner turned into the current when the canoe started to rock and about a hundred metres downstream a wash of water swamped the canoe and we tipped gracefully into the river. Brenda went down holding her camera aloft and managed to keep it dry. We were never in any danger because in anticipation of what was about to happen, several people jumped in to rescue us. I held on to the upturned canoe until I was pulled to the edge by one of the teachers. True to form, my legs were again swept out from under me as I tried to get out. We were laughing all the way down. All this was caught on video and that night the students roared laughing as they watched it.

I recently found a quote attributed to Hemingway. By changing the place name it expresses my sentiments about this latest trip. "All I wanted to do now was to get back to Tenakoga. We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie listening, homesick for it already."

Hope this all hasn't been too much, but we have so much to tell about this visit. I'm sending a photo of me with the ladies of New Tenabuti village.

Love, Anne

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