While we are in the Reef Islands, we are staying on Pigeon Island. This small 5 acre island was ‘purchased’ by a British couple who sailed around the world in the 1950’s before settling down here. A small one bedroom efficiency bungalow is our home for the time here and we enjoy meals prepared by the island-owners in the evenings.
Experiencing how Reef Islanders move around the islands has been interesting. Many people have traditional wooden canoes carved from wood and others have small fiberglass canoes. These canoes provide transportation between islands and for fishing as well.
Our transportation to and from the workshop venues is provided by a local pastor with a fiberglass boat and an outboard motor. The timing of the tides has to be taken into account for our daily commute. The tides of the day determine when we can travel as low tides provide a real challenge. With the pastor on the outboard at the back of the boat and someone in front carefully watching the water depths, we travel about 20-30 minutes to reach the workshop venues. In some places the outboard engine is pulled up and the boat is pushed through the shallow waters with with long poles until the boat reaches deeper waters again.
On Thursday afternoon the tides were so low, we had to wade a long way through shallow water in order to reach a point where the waters were deep enough for us to climb inside. After Tim and I were in the boat, the rest of the passengers pulled the boat along to deeper waters before they climbed in and away we went. In some places we can peer over the side into the crystal clear aquamarine waters and spot reef fish and starfish. That never gets old.
We are currently in the Reef Islands and staying at a ‘resort’ (think of it as ‘glamping’) where we have a small one room bungalow. Tim has been washing our clothes each night since he is much better at wringing out the clothes than I am.
We travel with a bar of locally manufactured coconut oil laundry soap. Tim rubs some soap on the clothes and ‘agitates’ the clothes in the bucket. After rinsing and wringing them out, we hang them on the clothesline. We travel with a clothesline and a few clothespins.
It’s all a part of traveling out to the provinces. Mrs. MacGyver says Mr. MacGyver is a wonderful blessing!
Temotu Province makes up the easternmost part of the Solomon Islands. Small islands are scattered across the ocean with great distances between the island groups. The Reef Islands are home to speakers of the Äiwoo (ay-woh) language.
At the request of our colleague, John Rentz, we traveled to the Reef Islands to conduct 3 workshops. To get to there we boarded a twin-engine 48 passenger Dash 8 and flew 2 hours to Lomlom airstrip where John met us. After disembarking, John shared with us the news that due to a dispute between local land owners, our flight might be the last one for some time. After a few days, we decided there are certainly worse places to get stuck!
Last week, Tim led a workshop for priests and clergy to help them become more familiar with reading the Äiwoo language. Due to their education, these 18 participants were familiar with reading in English but had had little experience in reading their own language. Armed with a transition primer, Tim has helped them learn how reading Äiwoo differs from English. For some time, these clergy have been asking John for help in reading so that they can read aloud Äiwoo Scriptures with clarity and fluency. By the end of the workshop and with plenty of practice, they expressed gratitude and excitement about their new ability, and we trust that they will continue to practice and read the translated Scriptures in Äiwoo. This week, Tim is leading a similar workshop for church catechists and lay leaders.
Meanwhile, Martha was in a different village leading a teacher training workshop to equip 22 attendees from various communities to teach Äiwoo literacy. The training has gone well and the teachers are gaining understanding and confidence. The two week workshop runs all day and Tim comes to help in the afternoon as his workshop is in the mornings.
You may wonder how we can teach anyone when we don’t speak Äiwoo ourselves. Good question. As we lead the workshops, we use Solomon Islands Pijin, the national trade language. In the literacy workshop, Martha demonstrates how to teach each part of the lesson using a Pijin reading primer that uses the same strategy. Then participants break up into small groups where they practice that same activity from the Äiwoo primer. One person teaches the lesson while the others play the part of the students. Moving around from group to group, Martha can check to see they are remembering to follow each step. (In the afternoons, Tim makes the 20 minute walk from from his workshop venue to help with the teacher training.)
One grade 1 student who has stayed out of school due to a cough has wandered into the workshop to watch and he has become a participant. It’s been quite fun for all of us because as a result of sitting in on the training, Raphael has started to learn to read Äiwoo – providing real proof of the effectiveness of this reading method.
The first week went really well for both groups and we are almost done with week 2. Participants are excited to start using the training they have received and they have thanked us for coming here. In turn, we feel really blessed to be here and serve these beautiful people who have made us feel so very welcome.
Our house sits at the bottom of a steep driveway. After opening the gate, we drive into the yard where a sprawling raintree provides an umbrella of shade for the house. Beyond the tree is the valley below which opens to the Mataniko River and the sea. Across Iron Bottom Sound, Savo Island almost seems to float on the horizon. When we come through the gate and see that tree, I relax and feel grateful to be home again.
Over the years, I have collected wild orchid plants. Sometimes I have purchased them in the market or they have been gifted to me in our travels around the country. These delightful low maintenance plants have taken root in the bark of the tree and continued to grow and spread. They aren’t always in flower, but there are several in bloom at the moment. The branch on which most of them sit can be viewed from our bedroom window – an added bonus.
As Christians we know that God directs our path. Sometimes when we look back, we can see how the people we met along the way have influenced our lives. It’s a special gift and blessing when that happens.
More than 45 years ago as a part of a 9th grade health class requirement, I volunteered to help in a kindergarten classroom in a local elementary school. I love kids and was thinking of becoming a teacher, so this seemed like an easy and fun way to fulfil that requirement.
Lee, Mrs. Skandalaris to me at the time, was one of the teachers in that classroom. She had raised her 4 boys and gone back to school to get a degree in education. She hadn’t been teaching very long when I met her, but it was obvious that she was a wonderful teacher. She was kind, but had a no-nonsense way about her as well. It didn’t take long for me to gain an admiration for her.
I liked helping out so much that I did more than my 20 hours and learned so much in that classroom. Lee let me stretch my wings in that classroom as well. If I had an idea for one of the classroom learning centers, she encouraged me to prepare the materials and try out the idea.
A couple of years later when I was taking a high school child development course, our teacher made us aware of a Title 9 program at an elementary school in a needy area in our district. We could apply for the job and get paid to help tutor children in the reading lab. Lo and behold, the head of the reading lab was Lee Skandalaris. Along with 3 other students, I soon found myself heading to the reading lab every day after school to work with these kids.
Each of us was assigned children to work with, one on one or in small groups. We would pick them up at their classrooms, bring them to the reading lab, and work with them. Lee would give us some guidance on what the kids needed and then let us work. For 2 years I was blessed to have that wonderful experience. I learned so much through Lee and from just being given the experience of seeing where children need help and devising ways to help them. What an amazing opportunity I was given while still in high school!
I followed my dream of becoming a teacher, and through the years Lee and I kept in touch. She received our newsletters and was especially interested when we began serving as literacy specialists. Lee’s love of reading and education lead her to complete a Master’s degree an even her Phd.
When we returned to Detroit in January for my father’s funeral, we took that opportunity to contact Lee to see if we could come for a visit. She said, “I’m frail, but come see me.” Armed with literacy materials from our latest project in the Solomons, we enjoyed a lovely time with her in her sunny living room.
When we returned to Detroit in January for my father’s funeral, we took that opportunity to contact Lee to see if we could come for a visit. She said, “I’m frail, but come see me.” Armed with literacy materials from our latest project in the Solomons, we enjoyed a lovely time with her in her sunny living room. We talked about our projects and she told us about the ways she still kept busy in mentoring others and editing the newsletter for the retirement community in which she was living. And Lee gave me a beautiful antique broach she had acquired in New Zealand many years earlier.
Lee gave us updates on her sons and their families. She told us about her son Rick who lives in the Philippines and has cottages for rent. She said, If you ever get to the Philippines, you should go visit Rick and Techie. We agreed we would keep that in mind, but we were both thinking – we don’t know when we would ever have reason to go to the Philippines…
We left Lee’s place on that cold January afternoon with warm hearts and the gift of being able to visit in person with a special friend and mentor from my past.
A few months later, we were asked to consider helping teach a course in the Philippines. We were certainly surprised and we were happy for the opportunity to serve. Then we remembered Lee’s encouragement to go visit her son. We found the link and started dreaming. We learned there was an opening at Rick and Techie’s and we made reservations to enjoy a few days of holiday (vacation) while we were in the Philippines.
I was keen to meet Rick and Techie and was planning on sending Lee a photo of all of us together. When we did meet Rick, I showed him the photo Tim had taken of Lee and I in January. It was then that we learned that Lee had passed away just a couple of months after we had seen her.
We were shocked and a bit sad, but we were also so very thankful for the memory of seeing Lee one last time and the wonderful time we had with her. I’ll be forever thankful for Lee and her part in my formation as a teacher. What a blessing and gift.
Since leaving the Solomons in October, we have traveled many miles and been in more than a dozen countries by plane, train and automobile. We have a few more adventures planned between now and our return to the Solomon Islands, in a couple of months. Thank you for your prayers and financial support toward our ministry.
Since late October, we have been in 15 countries and and 19 states! That’s a new record for us and there is more to come! Our update is available to read here: Matzkes on the Move
