Adventures in Paradise 65
Kia Orana, everyone! Our excellent adventure continues with more thoughts on transition. Having focused last week on the island culture and the memorable events of the past year and a half, I hope to leave you this week with a sense of who our new friends are and why they mean the world to us. Perhaps then you will understand why it will be so very painful to leave them.
It has been difficult to condense the relationships and experiences that we have treasured into a collection of photographs. The familiar phrase, “One picture is worth a thousand words”, seems inaccurate as we try to display these photos in a way where you might be able to appreciate these people for who they are and how they live their lives. Can I describe adequately the joy there is in living simply? Will you also be able to appreciate that our friends are happy just the way they are? Could you live here and come to see the island for what it is rather than what it is not?
I would like to introduce you to the life and times of our sweet friends, who are the people of the Cook Islands. Sit back, relax and enjoy your picture postcard visit to our little piece of heaven. It's just possible, that these are faces that you may come to miss as well when our blog leaves Rarotonga. By the way, it appears that as of Saturday, when our latest guests depart for America
We will miss the fresh fruit that always accompanies a visit to Danny's house.
Thank you Danny for your generosity over the last sixteen months. We will miss you.
There will be no more worry about people falling out of open-bed trucks. I will not miss that!
This little dancer works for tips. We will miss donating every week at Saturday market.
Ward will miss the fresh fish that Ben and Peka George cook for him each Saturday.
We will miss the atmosphere of Saturday market
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President Napa is a busy businessman. I will miss his black pearls, Ward will miss his doughnuts and we will both miss his big smile
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Ward will miss his best friend.
Chantal stopped working when her first baby was born so that she could be home with her little girl. To help provide for her family, she started designing and serwing aprons and table linens. She is showing off her second daughter, Athena in front of her shop. This shop now employes three other young mothers who also wanted to work from home. We will miss her creativity.
I will miss Sunday morning drives to church. but I will not miss the worry over a little boy, who is eating a doughnut while not holding on tightly!
I will miss FHEs at the mission home. This is all one family!
I will miss seeing Angie on her new red scooter.
I will miss hearing touching stories. Larry, the American on the right returned from his mission and decided to see the world aboard a sailboat.When the boat docked in Rarotonga, he thought that it was the best place he had ever been. THEN he met Ina, a beautiful island girl and he never went back to America. The rest as they say, is history.
This is Larry's wife, Ina. I will miss her and her beautiful head eis.
Yes, I will miss those eis!
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| I will miss the Rongo family, especially the smile of the little guy on the right. Priceless! |
I will miss sharing smoothies with my friend, Heather. Heather was director of nursing at the hospital. She currently works for the local health services, is District Relief Society president and a Sunday school teacher.
I will not miss baby Belliston, because I am bringing him home with me. (I wish!)
I will miss my second home. Ka kite!
So, as always, we are happy and still trying to work hard. We are so grateful for the experience of a lifetime. We have learned so much about another people, their culture and the island that they love. In the process, we have learned much about ourselves as well. Hopefully, we will never be the same and that's just as it should be.
Love, Ward and Susan Elder and Sister Belliston, serving in the Cooks
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