Birthday Time in Tarawa

In January we celebrated the birthdays of Sister Bonnemort (January 3rd), Sister Thorne (January 12th), and Sister Ogborn (January 13th) with some interesting and fun events.  

First, I had contacted a local artist, who is a member of the Church, Bainrebu Nathan to paint a picture of the Nativity Scene from a I-Kiribati perspective.  He attended BYU Hawaii to study art several years ago.  His Polynesian friends couldn't pronounce his name, so they called him Pineapple, which is the name he uses for his artwork.  After working on it for a few months, the painting was finally delivered about 2 pm on Janis' birthday .  Pineapple sent a note with the painting with a saying his father used on special occasions such as birthdays: 

"TEMAURI, TE RAOI, AO TE TABOMOA IAOM”.   

“May the flowers of love, friendship and laughter  

Perfume this special day"   

What a wonderful poetic verse to introduce such a beautiful artistic rendition, from an islanders interpretation, of one of the most sacred events in human history.

Brother Bainrebu Nathan “Pinapple” in the process of painting the Nativity Scene

The painting shows baby Jesus laying in a seashell under a thatched roof hut.   Mary and Joseph are in traditional Kiribati dress.  The three wise men traveled from distant islands, in an outrigger canoe and were guided to their new King by the new star in the heavens.  The man with the shepherd's crook is herding pigs instead of sheep (there are no sheep or cattle in Kiribati, thus no shepherds or mangers).   Also in the background is the "New Star",  and three white seabirds in flight as well as coconut trees.  The picture is painted with acrylics on a mat woven from pandanus leaves partially shown just outside the black border.   

I have commissioned another painting from him on the "Tree of Life" which hopefully, will be completed in a few months.  The limited availability of acrylic paint, larger canvas board and other art supplies on the island greatly hinders his productivity and ability to make a minimal living from his art work.  Most have to be ordered from New Zealand.  

Note:  If any of the blog readers would like to donate and send him art supplies, send them to me and I will make sure he gets them.    

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Pineapple's unique signature for his paintings

Sister Thorne received the painting wrapped in butcher paper, as a late Christmas gift.  For her birthday present, I went to the Catholic Women Center, where they have a gift shop with locally made arts and crafts.  I purchased a platter made from pandanus leaves and seashells tied together with small string.    Sister Bonnemort also made some long tubular shaped door stoppers to keep the bugs from crawling under the door jams and give two each to Sister Ogborn and Sister Thorne for their birthdays.  Sister Bonnemort is the mission nurse for Kiribati missionaries.                 

Woven Platter made with Pandanus Leaves and small SeaShells (note the 5 layers of seashells)

Sister Thorne holding 2 door bug stoppers (made by Sister Bonnemort) and the woven seashell platter

 Christmas Present, a few weeks late, but still before the packages from home have arrived 
(no Air Marshall flight again this week, many packages are still undelivered)

Another special birthday surprise,  Lita (Principal of Moroni High) and Bishop Brechtefeld knocked on our door and sang 'Happy Birthday' and presented Sister Thorne with a cake and a beautiful smelling fresh flower lei.

The person who made the cake had an interesting spelling for Thorne - - "Dorn"

Because of the unique spelling we were able to bring the cake to the birthday party for all three sisters.  We told them the Dorn stood for Sister OgDorn (Ogborn), Sister ThDorn (Thorne) and Sister Dorn-emort (Bonnemort).  Three candles were put on the cake and they each made a wish and blew out their own candle.  For the birthday party we made home made pizza (can't buy any on the island) and watched a flick (Bee movie).  President and Sister Shaw are here for a week and so they joined us in the birthday celebration.  It has been a fun few days and we are appreciative of the love, friendship and hospitality shown to each other.  This the second time we have had pizza and a movie night and it was very good both times.

Elder and Sister Ogborn sing their unique version of Happy Birthday with several versus (lasting 4-5 minutes)

One other fun thing that happened on Sister Thorne's birthday, we were invited to the Ogborns for breakfast, where whole wheat pancakes were served (we haven't had them since we left Utah).  The syrup is from coconut toddy (gathered from the sap and boiled similar to how maple syrup is made.  It was sweet and quite tasty.  On sister Thorne's pancake  a plastic Happy Birthday sign was placed along with a candle.  It is a long standing tradition with Elder and Sister Ogborn to have a birthday breakfast of pancakes with a candle and sing happy birthday.  This was another fun surprise and a great month to celebrate birthdays.  It was a birthday Sister Thorne will remember forever.