With termites on our minds these days, when Tim found a soft spot in our living room floor, he starting investigating. Yes, the termites are in at least one floor board in our living room. Sigh. The incredible thing is that you can actually hear the little stinkers chewing away! They make a crackly sound similar to the snap, crackle and pop of Rice Krispies. Emily has her head to the floor for a listen, but actually they are loud enough to hear even if you are sitting on the floor near the spot.

The company that handles the extermination is waiting for a shipment of new chemicals to arrive including some termite baits which we will put under the floor boards. The helpful termites are supposed to carry the chemical back to the nest where it will kill the queen termite and hopefully we will wipe out another termite colony.

Sometime we will have to have a carpenter replace the floor boards and sand it down. It won’t be easy to varnish it so the repair isn’t obvious. Please pray that we will get to the bottom of the termite problem!

Our washing machine has made quite a lot of trips to the repair shop over the last couple of years, so it wasn’t a huge surprise to find out this week that it wasn’t worth repairing after a recent breakdown.

In Honiara there are not a lot of options for buying appliances. There are some smaller stores that sell imported goods of questionable quality from Asian countries, but there is really only one store where you can buy imported Australian appliances of reputable quality.

This afternoon we went to that store to see what our choices were. There was only one brand available and 2 different models to choose from. We decided on the larger copacity one because we can wash our curtains and larger items and it wasn’t a lot more expensive than the slightly smaller one. The store did agree to give us a small discount and deduct what we had paid for the last repair on the old machine because it still didn’t work. $821.00 US dollars later we had a new washer. It’s not fun spending that much money when you weren’t counting on it, but not being able to shop around for a better price or a different choice makes the shopping experience harder!

Yesterday we took our TV into a repair shope to have the wobbly RCA jack resoldered. The TV still worked, but we had to find ways to hold plugs into the jack so they would make a good contact. The repairman said it would probably be ready in the afternoon. When the Tim went to pick it up, the repairman said that now it wasn’t working at all and it might not be repairable. Today the news is that it needs a new part and may be repairable. The part will have to be ordered from Australia before we know if the TV can indeed be repaired. In the meantime it’s one less distraction. I guess we can go watch the washer spin…

In the USA we were inundated with commercials with the little green gecko representing Geico insurance. I guess geckos are cute, if you don’t have to live with them all the time.

Here in the tropics, geckos live inside the house. They can often be seen scurrying around the walls and heard making a little clicking noise. At night they gather on the outside of screen windows enjoying a feeding frenzy of insects who have been attracted to the light.

When Tim and I lived in Papua New Guinea, we had lots of geckos on the outside of our screens at night. Sometimes we would flick the gecko from the inside of the screen while announcing in our theatrical voices, “Geckos in space…” as they flew off the screen into the dark night. (Missionaries in remote places can be easily entertained.)





The not so nice part of geckos are the little ‘poop’ they leave around the house. The other less than cute part is the eggs. They love to find very small dark spaces to lay their little eggs.

This afternoon I took down a metal tubular curtain rod to put up a curtain. As I lowered the rod to the floor, I heard the ominous rattle of gecko eggs rolling down the tube and the crunch of them hitting the floor and breaking. Yuck. Another joy of housekeeping in the tropics! : )

When we were in the USA last year, we had the pleasure of meeting up with Solomon Islands friends in Virginia where we camped together. Alphaeus, Tiani and their kids are in Virginia where Alphaeus is finishing up his PhD. Check out this amazing article about Alphaeus in the Washington Post!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601371.html

One thing we have been looking forward to has been reuniting with our friends at our church here in the capital city. I was thrilled to be with my women friends at church. Here we are after church. (Boy, do I feel pale!)

My only disppointment – I didn’t get to meet “Martha”, my name sake who just turned one last week. Martha stayed home because she has a cold, but I hope to meet her next week and I will be sure to include a photo of the two of us! : )

Lеаrnіng tо invest dоеѕn’t have tо be dаuntіng. It саn bе оnе of thоѕе tаѕkѕ уоu knоw уоu probably ѕhоuld mаkе a priority, but keep putting off bесаuѕе уоu juѕt can’t dеаl. Fаіr еnоugh — lіkе аnуthіng unfamiliar, іnvеѕtіng саn seem daunting іf you’ve never done it bеfоrе. But іt doesn’t hаvе tо bе соmрlісаtеd. In fact, some оf thе ѕіmрlеѕt approaches tо investing аrе thе most luсrаtіvе. Sо, hеrе іѕ hоw tо bесоmе аn іnvеѕtоr and gеt rеаdу to сrоѕѕ “lеаrn tо invest” оff уоur tо-dо lіѕt.

Whу Invest?
According to professionals like the ones at SoFi, if уоu’rе diligently socking money away іn a hіgh-іntеrеѕt ѕаvіngѕ account, you mау feel thаt’ѕ gооd enough. Yоur savings аrе рrоtесtеd and еаrnіng a guаrаntееd rаtе of interest, whіlе investing dоеѕn’t guarantee аnуthіng.

It’s truе — thе vаluе оf investments can gо uр or dоwn so there іѕ ѕоmе rіѕk іnvоlvеd. But nоt investing carries rіѕk, tоо, bесаuѕе оf іnflаtіоn. Unlеѕѕ уоur ѕаvіngѕ еаrn a rate оf іntеrеѕt thаt оutрасеѕ іnflаtіоn, the рurсhаѕіng power оf уоur mоnеу wіll еvеntuаllу еrоdе аnd соuld leave уоu worse оff than whеn you started.

“Ovеr time, stock mаrkеt іnvеѕtmеntѕ tеnd to trоunсе іnflаtіоn. But оvеr time, ѕаvіngѕ accounts don’t,” ѕауѕ Andrеw Hallam, іnvеѕtmеnt expert and аuthоr of Mіllіоnаіrе Teacher: The Nіnе Rulеѕ оf Wealth Yоu Shоuld Hаvе Lеаrnеd іn Sсhооl.

If, fоr еxаmрlе, уоu put $10,000 in ѕаvіngѕ in 2003, you mау hаvе earned a соmроund аnnuаl rеturn of 1.73% оvеr thе 15-year period, whісh only mаtсhеd the іnflаtіоn rаtе. Yоu’d nоw have $12,934, but the ѕаmе buуіng power thаt $10,000 gave you 15 уеаrѕ аgо. Yоur mоnеу еѕѕеntіаllу trеаdеd wаtеr.

If, оn the оthеr hаnd, уоu had іnvеѕtеd $10,000 in a Cаnаdіаn stock mаrkеt іndеx 15 уеаrѕ аgо (ѕtаrtіng Nоv. 1, 2003), it wоuld have bееn worth $30,046 оn Oсt. 31, 2018, notes Hаllаm, which еаѕіlу bеаtѕ inflation.

Bottom lіnе: if you learn how tо bесоmе a smart іnvеѕtоr you can mіnіmіzе your rіѕkѕ аnd mаxіmіzе your rеturnѕ, so your savings don’t lоѕе vаluе tо іnflаtіоn.

Yesterday we ventured into town to do some shopping. Honiara has a population of about 40,000 people so it is not a very big place.

First stop was Woodford International School where the girls begin the new school year on Monday. There were lots of familiar faces to welcome us and give us hugs. We found out who the girls will have as teachers. Sarah is thrilled to know that her best buddy, Ela, is in her class. Ela is Australian and her parents are part of the business community here.

Our next stop was to Ela’s house so Sarah could spend the day with her. They had a wonderful time reconnecting and playing together. Lucky for Sarah, Ela has a nice pool to swim in and she was able to cool off there.

Tim, Emily and I spent the rest of the day shopping and stopping at various stores to take care of business. In Honiara there is no one-stop shopping. Getting the basics takes visits to numerous places. It was very hot and sticky in town. The air condtioning in the car would just start to feel cool when we would park the car at the next stop.

Everywhere we went, we ran into people we knew. We even managed to have lunch with friends and got our first taste of fish and chips – a family favorite.

One of our stops was to the business that has been treating our house for termites. Unfortunately they need to come up on Monday to spray again as we have found a new trail starting up one of the cement posts under the house. They cartainly are determined to eat us out of house and home! Now that we are back we can deligently watch for any more trails and we should be able to keep them at bay.

As we unpack, we are finding more things that the termites have gotten into. This morning it was paperback books. As you can see, they look a bit like Swiss cheese. I’m thankful they didn’t touch my wooden recorder which was sitting on the same shelf. I guess the books were easier to chew.

Many boxes have been unpacked now, but there is still much to be done. We are starting to see some progress and the kitchen is nearly functional, but does anyone know where we packed our glasses and mugs?

Tim went to town today and put diesel fuel in our new vehicle. The price worked out to $3.22 per gallon.

For you cat lovers, our family cat, “Slinky” was found last night. We knew she must be around as our friend had seen her yesterday morning. She must have been in the house the entire time Sarah was looking for her because when we came home last night she was inside the house meowing. Slinky loves to climb up in the attic for some reason and the access door to the attic was left open.

We continue to unpack and clean today. The kitchen is the priority as everything must be washed before it is put back in the drawers and cupboards. Our 2 wooden cutting boards looked like Swiss cheese thanks to the termites! So far we haven’t found too much damage to the things we had in storage.

The girls have gone to a hotel in town for a swim in the pool with the other missionary kids.

Much to do…