Island Of The Sleeping Lady

kosrae is known as the island of the sleeping lady. the locals say that if you look at the main island from one of the smaller islands( lelu island) you can see the silhouette of a woman lying down. decide for yourself. when you watch the video the camera will star at her head and well... work it's way down. i also posted some still photos of the main island and of lelu harbor. say what you will of the "sleeping lady", but on the evening when i took these photos i couldn't help but appreciate how fortunate i am to have visited this island. it is breathtaking more often than i can express or relate through these images. i'm a fortunate person.... wish you all were here, miss you all very much, even you jordan:) love, matthew

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A View From The Afternoon

1st picture- view from missionary home looking north. 2nd picture- fridays end of the week group photo)

here are some pictures from friday. this is the view from the roof of the missionary home. work wise, we have finished decking and putting up the guardrails on the missionary home, monday we'll finish forming for the roof pour and we'll begin placing the steel mats. i hope the pictures give you a good idea of how beautiful this island truly is. love you all very much... even you stephen!

3rd- johnny, sami, & melani hard at work. 4th-view from the westside of missionary home)

Lunchtime At The Site

so here is a typical noontime meal. meals range from ham sandwiches to spaghetti. we eat like kings compared to how everybody else eats on the island. i kid you not, today our neighbor to the right spent half the day walking around with his gun looking for one of his chickens( he eventually found him, draw your own conclusions.) we really are spoiled when it comes to food. donna, dawn, and val( pictured above) do a tremendous amount of work when it comes to food preparation. everday they make us iced coffee or iced chai tea, onion rings and cucumber salad. with temperatures regularly in the 90's, without them there would be no missionary home. everyone appreciates them very much, including our mascots- from front right to left( itchy, scratchy, and zippy)

when i arrived on the site these guys were nothing but skin and bones. as kind as the people of kosrae are to humans, they have little respect for animals. these puppies have learned, everyday at noon they show up for the noontime lunch. they have easily put on a couple pounds each since ive been here. everyone benefits from the hard work of donna, dawn, and val!

You Know Very Well What This Post Is About

Land on LOST island.... check

Find black smoke.... check

Find Dharma beer....

Find Juliet& Kate....

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is... how is it out here? Kosrea is a beautiful island. The weather is tropical, fruit is a plenty( 10 different kinds of coconuts, 6 kinds of bananas), the ocean is beautiful and blue(but there are no real beaches to speak of). The island is very green and alive, the island is defined by the beautiful mountains in the center of the island. The sun rises every morning around 5:30( if you manage to sleep through the early sunrise, yu usually are greeted by the crowing of roosters just minutes later). At dusk you will routinely see large bats roaming the sky. There is not much commotion on the island, so even from a distance, especially in the evening you can often hear the roaring of the ocean. (i'm pretty sure that was a run on sentence) It rains almost everyday, but so far, seldom does it rain all day.

The people of the island are extremely kind. Riding to and from the construction site you often find yourself waving and greeting all those who pass by. It seems like everyone on the island is also paying attention to the project. From the moment i landed to every time we dine out, people ask about the kingdom hall and missionary home that is being constructed. kosreans are so supportive of the work too. food is not cheap here, especially food not grown here. for example, a watermelon here can cost up to 20 dollars( does not grow on this island). the average income here is about 700 dollars a year. but people are constantly giving gifts( e.g. the watermelon) to the construction volunteers.

the site itself is coming along. we're about two weeks away from pouring the roof of the missionary home. following the pour, we'll start working on the footings and foundation for the kingdom hall. i'll try to post pictures of the work and the island as often as possible, but as of now, it's difficult to find reliable internet service, and it gets expensive quick when you do get service. I'll post a picture of the construction crew today. hope everyone is well, love you all. please give stella a kiss for me.

(left to right, from top row- dave, brent, dawn and jarrod, allen, johnny, javier, shem, vincent

bottom row- matthew, barak, shawn, louis)