WEEK 7 Made it to HOT Kiribati!

Mauri moan! yoo whats up? This is my first email from Kiribati! I'm on this dank computer so I can't really send my pics this week. But it's freakin awesome here! As soon as we got out of the plane the heat/humidity just slapped us all in the face. It's soooo hot and sticky here! But it's cool because luckily I'm a baller and can handle it.

I'm working on Tarawa which is the main island right now, Betio ("Beso" area, which is like the bottom area. Me and my trainer are white washing, meaning nobodys been there. There are like 10 branches.

It's literally crazy here. Everyone is like basically black. There are pigs, chickens, and naked kids running everywhere it's awesome. There is coconut trees and just like random weird looking fruits here and stuff. Yesterday I had my first coconut! It was sooo good because you get thirsty, hungry, sweaty, hot sweaty, and also really hot. The culture is very interesting. You just walk up to a hut(house) and say mauri kain te auti(hello to the house). Then they always invite you in to sit down and do irarikin. Irarikin is basically just like a cultural introduction such as where your from, name, how many people in your family, what's are parents names, and what number you are in your family. It's all in Kiribati too. And when you do this and teach the lesson you sit in a pretzel on the ground. My back and legs have been hurting like a, but they say you get use to it.. which I hope that day comes soon.

Yesterday was my first Sunday, I had to bear my testimony in front of everyone in Kiribati, along with my dad/ trainer-who is awesome. It was pretty scary because my Kiribati is beka(poo). But I managed. And when we sing hymns they sing really slow and in a high pitch. It sounds like on the movie Avatar when they sing. It's really funny and it's very hard not to laugh. Then we had meeting in the bishops office. (like one of the only places that has air conditioning. it was beautiful). even though your wet all the time..

Everyone walks around bare foot or in flip flops. Your feet are never clean here. Well actually your whole body is never clean. Out house is nice for Kiribati. Our toilets don't flush so we have to go get rain water and flush it down which is always nice. We shower with buckets. We have to go outside and get buckets of water and fill up this cooler. Then we put bleach in it to clean it. Our drinking water has to be filtered or else you could get super sick. We have a 3 part filter in our house which we drink out of. So you always gotta be careful. Also we have a frig/freezer which like nobody has. There are tons of rats that run around in the ruff during the night and its super loud.

The people here are super nice. They know that we are imatang( white) so they always get us water or sugar water-the water is nasty so you need sugar- which is nice because you're usually dying.

We eat at members houses a lot which is fun. You always eat on the ground which kills my legs and back. And, you can't stretch ur legs in a lesson or eating or irarikin as it's super disrespectful I guess. So you just have to sit there and die. Anyways, the other night we went and ate at the richest guy on the islands house and we sat on the floor. Then we got food and I put a lot on my plate because I was hungry as frick because we usually just have one meal a day(which makes me wanna cry). It was rice, canned meat, and this apple sauce looking stuff. And I took a bite of this applesauce stuff that was on my rice and I was sooo close to throwing up. I gagged like 74 times..and then my trainer whispers to me smiling and said "you have to finish it all because if you don't it's super rude".. then I was like well.... then I turned into a man for about 5 min and shoved it down my throat while drinking water. I guess it's called te nun. It's like super healthy and can like heal cancer. There is not much fruit here that is edible and tastes good. I really miss food and fruit from America.

It rains like everyday, and when it rains it freakin poors buckets so you get even more wet. And so does all your stuff.

Some of the LDS know a little imitang (English). But, hey, usually just say aaaay imitang(white)

We sleep on the ground like on these mat things. I sleep pretty good because I get just soo tired. For breakfast I eat like bread and then sometimes with peanut butter on it. (peanut butter is like 20 dollars a container). Then we go and work and drink water and stuff, then dinner comes and then we feast on whatever they give us. There is tiny bugs and big bugs and ants even spiders everywhere.There are lots of bugs and lizards in our house too. I am learning to just get use to it. Yesterday we were in a lesson in this hut and I looked down and I realized that I was sitting in some ants....and in the culture you sit pretzel style and you can't move....sooo yea you just have to be a man and ignore them. There are lots of roads here. Lots of big weird vans and motor cycles. They drive on the opposite side of the road. and pass everyone whenever they want. They drive crazy and it's awesome.

I get bug bites 24/7...constantly.

I don't get enough nutrition because we only eat bread and rice mostly.

But, I absolutely love it. I can feel myself turning into a man, learning and participating in the culture is freakin awesome. The language is a pain because I don't know what my trainer/anyone says all the time but its cool. Everyone is super nice all the time. I'm doing good and I'll prob send my pics next week. Till then, love yall, Tiabo!

-Elder Bowen