Beautiful Giant Clam

This photo of one of the giant clams here was shown on the U.S. Embassy website. We've never seen one before with such beautifully colored "lips."  It is illegal to ship out the shells of this giant clams.  We have one on our deck that someone must have put there years ago.  It weighs about 50 lbs.  It is so solid we can't pick it up.

Some children we've met

Here are a few of the children we've met while running our diabetes screening clinics.

I think this little girl must have been born with a cleft palate but has had it repaired.

 The kids love to have their picture taken and always seem to pose with their fingers in different positions.

These good looking young fellas were hanging around hoping to get a taste of some of the food we were demonstrating at the clinic.  Of course Elder Crooks gave them some and they seemed to enjoy it.

Happy graduate!

We were invited to the graduation ceremony for 50 some people who just finished taking the Reversing Diabetes Class offered at the Wellness Center. This class is for diabetics and involves a 10-day commitment to attend each of their classes for full days and eat only the food they are provided by the Center. They are taught how diabetes affects their bodies. Shown how to select healthy food. Participate in hands-on cooking classes to learn how to cook healthy food and take part in daily exercise.  Participants' blood sugar and blood pressure are taken every day and at the end of the 10 days, they are told how their new eating and exercise has affected their blood sugar, blood pressure and weight.

As participants were asked to come forward to get their certificates of completion, they were invited to "dance" their way to the front. This lady just stole the show. She was so cute as she made her way to the front!

Graveyard

There are many graveyards on the Marshall Islands. Because the islands are coral atolls, it is hard to dig into the ground so the graves are generally built on top of the ground. This one is along the main road in the Delap area.

Funny Sign

We think this is a funny sign. It shows you the way in and out at the only gate to this gate.  You either head to the dock at the ocean or to the main road.  Seems pretty clear without the sign but...

Picture of Us At Our Pizza Place

So here we are at the Chit Chat Club, our favorite pizza place. We can sit outside and watch the waves roll in while we wait for our large combo pizza!

Presentation of Equipment to KIJLE

We were pleased to provide some new equipment Dec 16th to KIJLE, a women's group that supports some of the country's most vulnerable families. Area Welfare Manager Hans Sorensen presented KIJLE representatives with a new printer for their office and a portable speaker they can use when teaching exercise classes. KIJLE works with families affected by addictions. They promote good healthy by connecting families with individuals and agencies who can provide services, and teach families how to cook healthy food and the importance of regular exercise.

Cooking Demonstrations at Farmers' Markets

Taiwan Technical Mission has worked for years to help develop local farmers in order to create better access to local produce. They hold a Farmers' Market the end of each month.

Taiwan Farms asked for some help recruiting organizations that would help launch a new series of cooking demos at their market. We found three groups for the first market and even helped at one run by the Wellness Center.

This is one of the other groups called KIJLE. Their wonderful volunteers work with families affected by addictions. They are great cooks too!
Next month we expect to have six cooking groups.

Non-Communicable Disease Coalition

 Our Non-communicable Disease Coalition, which has representatives from the Ministry of Health, community organizations, NGOs and churches, is going through some positive changes.

We have had several meetings in the past month to review and update our bylaws and to talk about where we want to go in the next year and years ahead.

We are now in the process of recruiting new and additional members to our Board of Directors. We look forward to further work with this group as we organize more community screenings for diabetes, cancer etc.

Opening of Agroforest

We were excited to help open a new Agroforest Demonstration Garden Dec 15th at the Majuro Hospital. This was the culmination of a broad project aimed at increasing access to fresh produce in the islands.

 The Agroforest was developed by partners LDS Charities, Canvasback Wellness Center and Taiwan Farms.

 Besides being a site that the Wellness Center can use to train gardeners, it will also provide space for healthy cooking demonstrations and a quiet green space that hospital patients can enjoy.

 LDS Charities provided technical expertise on garden design and plants, some labour, park benches, solar lighting and plaques describing plants.

Agroforestry is a system where trees and shrubs are grown around other crops to create more diverse, productive and sustainable land use.

Rising Sun, Flame Tree and Bridge Pier

I'm always fascinated by light - all kinds of light. I took this soon after sunrise and love the reflection of the rising sun on the pounding surf!

Here is the pier by our only bridge on that same morning but about half an hour later.  Coconut palms in the foreground. We eat a lot of coconut. We pick up the coconuts that fall off the trees by our apartment and Elder Crooks opens them up.








To the right is a picture of one of the "flame tree" blossoms. These trees are all over the island. This tree was just starting to get a fresh crop of blossoms. The blossoms cover the top of the tree so when they are all out, it looks like a flame on the top.

Second Clinic Series Complete

We finished a second series of 4 community clinics in the last week. Here you see Elder Crooks testing blood sugar of an adult but surrounded by young kids.  He was giving kids a stamp on their hands from our clinic which says "Bamille eo Ejmour" - Healthy Families!

Here I am testing blood pressure on one of the participants. We track weight, blood pressure and blood sugar readings and put them in a little passport for them as well as post it to their hospital data so their doctors can see it.

Boot Scootin' Boogie

 This past week was World Diabetes Week and there was a host of planned activities, some of which we were involved in. One of the these was to get Sister Clark (on the left) to lead some good ol' country and western line dancing for the exercise portion of an educational session for diabetics.

We've had Sister Clark do this with other groups. She is amazing and fun and as you can see from the faces of participants, people have a great time. She is pictured above with her companion Sister Fetalauga.

Early Saturday Morning

 Elder Crooks and I headed out to the pier below the bridge one recent Saturday morning. It was a gorgeous morning. We enjoyed watching and listening to the breakers crash on the reef.

When we got to the far end of the pier and looked back under the bridge into the lagoon, we could see one of the tuna ships.  The Marshall Islands has the largest tuna transshipment port in the world. Normally the lagoon is filled with smaller tuna ships which then unload their catch onto one of these large transshipment ships which takes the tuna to a market in other countries.

Uliga Diabetic Clinic Series

 We have almost completed a second series of diabetic outreach clinics in Uliga. We run the clinics once a week for 4 weeks. Elder Crooks is great at testing for blood sugar. He smiles and makes people smile even when he's sticking them with a needle!

We also test blood pressure and weight. Nurse Tanner Smith is providing some counseling on what the numbers mean. We make referrals to the Hospital Diabetic Clinic if necessary. 

 A hands-on healthy cooking class is always well attended because people get to eat what they cook. There are always lots of hungry children who love to try the recipes too.

Physiotherapist Mina Manrique is teaching a lesson on how to care for your feet and avoid foot wounds. Our clinic runs from 5:00 - 7:30 so people who work can attend. It is dark by the time we finish.

A King Died

 One of the Iroij (traditional kings) died this past month. Jurelang Zedkeia had also served as President of the country and had been involved in many different aspects of the country's life.

Following a week of wakes and memorial services, the main road throughout the island was decorated to honor him. This road extends for 31 miles. The picture above is a shot down the street towards one end of the island and the road was decorated all the way to the other end to where the royal graves are.

Building Keyhole Gardens

Last month, we brought over 2 garden specialists from Samoa who trained 20 people to build "keyhole" family gardens. They are built on top of the ground using layers of organic components.






Because this island is built on a coral reef, digging up the ground is very hard work.
This garden was built for the new Iroij (traditional king) a few weeks ago using lots of plant cuttings.

 Neilani's garden has been in the ground for two weeks. It uses banana tree trunks as its' outside structure. Her cucumbers seem to love the environment.

 Richard put two rows of bricks on this garden. You don't have to bend over very far when weeding it. Richard has lots of different kinds of gardens. He may be young but he knows a lot about gardening.

 We had lots of help when we went out to Ajeltake to build Nesia's garden. She chose to use banana tree trunks for the outside structure. Then we put a layer of cardboard and soaked it well.  In this picture we are putting down a layer of coconut husks to help retain moisture.

 Next, went in layers of compost, manure and soil with a top coat of peat moss. Then Nesia chose the seeds she wanted, putting the tallest plants around the "live composter" shown in the middle.

Elder Crooks is just bringing the last basket of coconut husks to line the outside of the garden to make it look pretty. The seeds are in. Nesia just has to water and throw plant scraps into the composter with water whenever she has them. This is my favorite garden so far.

Taiwan Youth Ambassadors Show

 We were invited to a show hosted by the Taiwan Embassy featuring 19 Youth Ambassadors from a variety of Taiwanese universities. They put on a fun, energetic performance which we greatly enjoyed.

The students continually changed costumes and provided a variety of dances, gymnastics and other skilled performances while we watched views of Taiwan on a giant screen.

 We learned about the culture of Taiwan while we watched the performances. The students were very artistic. There were 6 Youth Ambassador groups visiting 43 countries over a period of a month or so.

 This baton twirler was particularly colorful.

Students from the Marshall Islands also performed a dance and then at the end of the night, everyone took the stage including VIP guests like the President of the Marshall Islands, Chris Loeck, who is in the light blue shirt in the front row.

Pilot Diabetes Outreach Series Completed

 Together with our health partner organizations, we completed a pilot series of five outreach clinics at Rita Chapel - one clinic a week for five weeks. The purpose was to identify "unknown diabetics," testing for blood sugar, blood pressure and Body Mass Index.

 Depending on the weather, we had the clinics either inside as above or outside which was much nicer. We usually saw between 25 and 30 adults each night.

 Besides the health screening, we also invited participants to take part in 30 minutes of light exercise and encouraged them to do that every day to help control their weight and diabetes.

We played this game to educate how diabetes affects the cells in your body.

 We also provided "hands on" cooking demonstrations where people can cook easy, nutritious recipes which include lots of vegetables and local foods.

Here are our two weight-loss winners from the pilot series. Each lost more than 6 lbs. over 5 weeks. For every 2.2 lbs a person loses, they reduce their chance of getting diabetes by 5%.