Busy last week

We chartered an airplane and flew to nearby Atauro Island to check out our humanitarian project. It was only a 20-minute flight. If we took the ferry it would have taken two and a half hours each way. It only cost $290 for the round trip including about an hour and a half of waiting time for the pilot.
 We took off from the Dili airport. We landed on a short dirt runway. The plane was in excellent condition and we had a very professional and experienced pilot. They are part of a NGO that provides discount charters to charitable organizations and they also do the Medevac flying for the country.
 Upfront is our replacement sister Gruwell. Behind her is the head of the NGO who rebuilt the building for. Her name is Maria and the NGO is called Diak
We were met at the runway with a modified golf cart that was used to transport us to our building.
This is the building we financed to be constructed. It will be a dormitory for a mentoring program for young adults on the island. They will come to this location and be taught entrepreneurial and business skills. They will then return to their home districts or find employment elsewhere for their skills.
Here is the interior. Eventually the beds will be converted to bunk beds. The dorm will hold 8 people.
 It was our last Sunday at church so we had a little dinner afterwards. Cheryl and I were the speakers. It was a nice meeting. Afterwards everyone cried.
 Here is our group.
 After church we went to the graduation of our sponsored English class at the Village of Tibar.  They made a banner with all the graduation information on it
 We received ceremonial ties as their appreciation for us funding the project. They graduated a class of about 70 adults and about 20 youth.
Here are most of the graduates. The gratitude that the students showed was impressive. Even though the class only met twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes for a total of 16 weeks the ceremony had the feeling of a college graduation. All of the participants wore white shirts or blouses. All arrived early. The graduation took over 2 hours and included in meal.

President McKay visited us. He was part of the transition to the new missionaries being here and also to give us our exit interview. Part of the mission tradition is to have one of your old ties cut off of you and then with your name and dates of service hung on the mission office wall. For Cheryl she used one of the ceremonial ties and put her information on it. It was fun.

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