Termites on the Rampage

We are all aware of the destructive forces in nature such as tornados, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanos, etc.  But there is also a very tiny insect that can cause some serious damage.  Here in the islands there is the termite that destroys anything in its path that is made out of wood.  It does not take long for this little insect to bring about its nasty destructive efforts.  We have learned that there are termites that come up from the ground as well as termites that have wings and can fly.  There are many homes here with a flat cement room because the pitched roofs have all been destroyed by this insect. 

Our beautiful Chapel here in Lelu was built and dedicated just 4 years ago in 2008.  It is a lovely building, probably the nicest one here on the island.  One day as we were helping set up chairs in the Chapel we noticed that the wood used to decorate the front of the choir loft and the Sacrament table had some water stains on it.  Later we were informed that it was not water damage but the beginning of termite damage.  

A few months later we got a called from our facilities manager asking us to come and take some pictures at the church for him.  It turned out that during the night the cabinets in the library had fallen off the wall.  Now what could possibly have caused this---TERMITES!!   The cabinets were disintegrating from the inside out.  Some of the doors only had the laminate facing left on them and all the wood was gone. 

The termites had even started eating the books that were on the shelves.  The entire library was a loss except that the family history computer that was housed there was spared.  When the upper shelves fell they did not hit the computer and it was then rescued and removed to a safer spot.  They thought that the wood they used was supposed to be protected from termites, but not in this building.  Such a tragedy. 

A Dip in the Ocean

We have the most beautiful crystal clear water here in this part of the ocean.  You can actually see through the waves when they come in, many times they look transparent.  Now you are probably wondering if maybe we have broken mission rules and took a swim in the ocean.  We have not--- although we sure would like to do as the locals, and ride on a styrofoam raft and let the waves float us in to shore.  This is a different sort of a dip.

The water we use in our house comes from the rain barrels except for our toilet which has city water piped into it.  When it rains very often the city plumbing backs up and we have a bucket which we fill and dump into the toilet tank so it will flush; we get that water from the bathtub.  Usually within in a short time, less than a day, it works again even though the water is a little brown for the next few times that we flush.  A few days ago we found that there was no water in the toilet so we started our procedure of filling up the tank.  We were somewhat surprised as it has not been raining for a few days, but we took our buckets and filled that tank and it went on for 2 or 3 days.  We were finally able to get a member to talk to the local water office and see what the problem was and then learned that there was something wrong with the pipes.   They were aware of the problem and said they were working on it.

By this time we realized that we had not had any significant rainfall and looked in our barrels to discover that they were exceptionally low and we could not use that water to fill the toilet or we would run out for our other needs.  We took one look around and said now what will we do.  It didn't take long to realize that we had  this huge ocean right in our backyard with all the water you would ever need.  So this morning, I rolled up my pants and waded out to get some water in the ocean.

 
Elder Wright thought that this was rather entertaining watching me do this.  It worked well, but was sure a lot more effort and sandy to say the least, but it felt so good to walk in that ocean water and that will probably be the closest that I will come to taking my own dip in the ocean. We would never have experienced this if we were still in Mesa and not here.  Later that night the city water line was fixed and we were back to our normal routine of living.  Our water barrels are full again as rain descended  upon us the next morning.