Friday Friends - Honiara, Solomon Islands

We all have different experiences when we live in a different country.  On Fridays, I share the experiences, memories and pictures from others living across cultures.


Do you want to contribute?  Email me a picture accompanied by a short description / story / poem / whatever inspires you! I'll put it up!

Woodford International School
Honiara, Solomon Islands
Tina (American)
1980


I am the small, curly-haired blond hiding in the left center of the photo (4th in from the left).


My memories from this time frame include walking to and from school with  my dad as chaperon (it was not safe for a little white girl to walk two miles unaccompanied).  The older boys who "lieu"-ed every where would harass and cat-call etc.  And I always hated being called "misses" so it was just better for Dad to walk with me.  We would chat about different stuff and I think he enjoyed the chance to get out and walk each day.  


We played jump rope and "elastics" (aka Chinese jump rope) at recess.  I was excellent at "dutch doubles" on the jump ropes and could run in and out of the swinging ropes without missing.  Even though I was tiny I did very well at elastics because I was quite flexible and learned to kick high with my legs and grab the elastics with my toes to keep from missing.  At home I would practice alone by hooking the elastic over two dining room chairs.  We had many jump rope poems/rhymes we would chant, some I remember all the words to even now.


Thanks for sharing your memories, Tina!  I, also, abhorred being called, "misses", and spent hours practicing my Chinese jump rope skills with the help of dining room chairs.  If YOU have a submission, send it my way and you could see it here soon!

Friday Friends - Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands

We all have different experiences when we live in a different country.  On Fridays, I share the experiences, memories and pictures from others living across cultures.

Do you want to contribute?  Email me a picture accompanied by a short description / story / poem / whatever inspires you! I'll put it up!

Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands
2008
Micah (American)


I want to tell you about a humble man. This man’s name is Mr. Simon. He is called Mr., because in the Solomon Islands, “Mr.” signifies that he is or was a school teacher. He is old… so old, that I could tell even carrying a light object with both hands for any length of time was hard. He is 87 to be exact. And it just so happens that 14 years before I was born, at the age of 55, this man – this Mr. Simon – began a great work. He began it at the age at which my parents finished it.

When (you see) the blind, titanic faith of a man who above all else in his life sought after God’s word; a man who loves the Lord his God with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and with every fiber of his fading strength; when you see this man – this humble, quiet, old man, I’ll tell you that his name is Mr. Simon.

Thanks, Micah, for this beautiful character portrait of Mr. Simon!  If YOU have a submission, send it my way and you could see it here soon!

Friday Friends

Sometimes I come across pictures of other people who lived overseas.  They always make me curious.  What was their experience like?  Was it different from mine?  Even families who lived in the Solomons at the same time as we did, but in different villages than ours, have experiences that vastly differ from my own.  Heck, I'd venture to guess that in some instances, the four of us Gentry kids all came away with uniquely individual perceptions of events.

This curiosity of mine, coupled with the fact that my blog is sadly lacking in the photography department, has inspired me to create a new segment:  Friday Friends.

I am sending out the plea to anyone who has in the past, or is currently living TCK (in a culture other than their own), to send me a picture accompanied by a short (a few sentences to a few paragraphs), description of the shot.  I will post the pics here on my blog on Fridays.

1.  You can email me your pictures, or Facebook message them to me.
2.  Please include where you are from (originally, like what your passport says), and where the pic was taken.
3.  Include when the pic was taken.
4.  If you only have the picture in hard copy, just take a picture of it with your digital camera or phone, and I can post that.

I can't wait to see what you share!!!

To show you what I'm talking about, here's an old pic of mine:

Bontazi Island, PNG
1989

This was the 'village living' part of our missionary training.  You see the fish windsock in the background?  We found out later that the villagers thought it was where we kept our ancestors (usually they are kept in weapons that are passed down through the generations, but hey, white people are weird like that).

We lived here isolated for three months.  Upon returning back to the missionary base camp, my dad asked what had been going on in the world while we were away.  The reply he got was, "Nazi Germany fell and the Berlin Wall was torn down."  Can you imagine?!!