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Aruligo Deaf and Disabilities Centre

Angela Murray of Woodville, Palmerston North, spent a year in 2009 assisting with training local staff in sign language. She and local staff person Mary Wale, wrpked to develop a Solomon Islands standard Sign Language, and train local staff in sign language.

Read Angela's stories by clicking on the title.

24 Feb 2009
Hi everyone

So I have been here in the Solomon Islands just over two weeks and so much has been going on that I must tell you. I wish I could write individual emails but I don't have the time (for myself or the internet time).  Sorry I could not attach photos- I tried but It was so incredibly slow in sending that I gave up.  Will try other time.

I arrived in Solomons in the midst of a bit of drama. It is rainy season here so you may have heard that there was very heavy rain the week before I arrived and a state of emergency was declared on West Guadacanal (the island and the area I am going to work in). Floods ruined roads, bridges, houses, gardens and I think the death toll is at 13 with many still missing assumed dead.
Our rural training centre or San Isidro Care Centre or school at Aruligo as we call it was extremely lucky to not be ruined. Thank you God! The road and gardens are gone but the buildings were protected by a hill that is behind it. Everyone who was staying there at the time of the floods was evacuated by boat and so they are all safe thankfully. We still have not been able to get back there so I am staying at a place called Tanagai which is a Marist preists house/collection of houses, like a home base for Brother George the director of the school.

Two Belgian tourists/volunteers, Dris and Stefanie were helping out at the school for a couple of months. Dris went for a 7 day hike aiming to go from one side of the island to the other. He left the day before the heavy rain started and when I arrived in the Solomons he had been missing for 10 days already. I was rooming next to Stefanie and although she was very worried she kept really high hopes for him being found or coming out the other side of the bush fine. RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands) sent NZ, Aussie and Tongan soldiers out to search the bush for Dris. They sent out a helicopter too but the bush was thick and you couldn't see the ground to spot Dris. He was spotted by two local bush men who didn't approach him but told someone in Honiara (capital city) who then got the men again so they could tell the helicopter where to look. Dris was rescued on the 13th day after he left Aruligo. He was very weak when they found him- he had barely eaten in the last week and when he did he said that every grain of rice he ate he chewed meticulously to get as much nourishment from it as possible. He had lost his shoes on the first day so his feet were all raw. He told us how one night he found a simple leaf hunters hut and thought about staying in it. It was about 2 meters higher than the river but then he thought again and went to higher ground. God really looked after him because when he woke the next morning the river had risen 3 meters or so and the hut was no more.  Thank you so much for everyone who prayed for Dris.  He is extremely fortunate to still be alive and I know that it was all the prayers that contributed to that.
Dris and Stefanie left for NZ on Tues (look out!) but before they left they held a party here at Tanagai to thank everyone who was involved in the search and rescue. It was real cool meeting all these people and bringing people together who would normally not be together. There were bishops, priests, brothers, people from the British High Commission, soldiers from RAMSI and the Police Commissioner (NZ guy), helicopter crew, some of the Deaf students who were at Aruligo with Stefanie and Dris and there were also the bush men and other locals who the Belgians has made friends with. We cooked up a huge feed for everyone :)

The first week I was here everything was still uncertain with what we were going to do with our school. I kept myself busy by going to a Red Cross school for special needs- firstly just to observe and then the principal there got me to work because they were short on staff. There are children with all sorts of disabilities there but many are Deaf kids. The little ones are sooo cute! I helped a teenage Deaf girl with her reading and I worked with the little ones just teaching them numbers 1-5- that was hard enough for them. I interpreted the story of Noah (bit ironic) when one of the teachers read it.

Meanwhile Brother George had found us a place to start school in Honiara. It is an old centre for the blind but they aren't using it. We moved in there but only as a day school- it hasn't got the facilities for us all to sleep there. We spent a lot of time last week cleaning it up inside and out. It is a great facility with power and gas and some classroom resources we can use but not the best place because we cannot all stay there. We also can't do agriculture or woodwork there. Our students are from all over the Solomon Islands so many of them are staying with extended family in Honiara and have to catch a bus to school. Some days they turn up, some days they don't so when we get to Aruligo it will be better to have everyone there all the time.
This week we are hoping to move back to Aruligo. The main road has been patched up and bridges are fixed (temporarily) but the small road to our centre is still un-able to drive on. The cute little stream where we used to bathe and get our water from turned ugly in the flood and made a huge hole meters deep in the road. We may still move there and leave the truck at the main road and walk with all our stuff to the school.

When we do move to Aruligo life will really begin to be different for me. I've been blessed here at Tanagai to be close to the city and all it has, as well as all that is here eg. Good food, a beautiful little chapel, normal toilets, showers, and electricity (except when there are power cuts). Electricity means fans, TV, washing machine, internet and a fridge. It cracks me up when Brother George puts a couple of ice cubes into his hot cup of tea! He says "Not at Aruligo huh" which is so true. We will have no luxuries that electricity brings so we have to make the most of it now.

I'm getting used to the climate. It is always hot and muggy with hardly any wind. I'm getting used to the stickyness and sweat although I keep expecting it to get cooler when the sun goes down but it doesn't really. It gets dark about 7pm which is so strange for me and it's still so hot. Daily temperature is 28°-33° and nights are around 30°. The coolest part of the day is early morning when it is about 26°. It rains every few days I guess but it hasn't been too bad. We've had enough heavy rain to last us a long time!

The best thing about being here is getting to know the wonderful people, especially all the Deaf youth. They are full of life and enthusiasm for learning.
I'm learning two new languages!  Solomon Islands Pijin and Solomon Island Sign Language which is different from NZ Sign Language.  Both are relatively easy to pick up but I'm concentrating on the sign language first.  A lot of our signs are the same but it is hard sometimes to forget the NZ signs I have drilled into me and remember to use the new signs I have learnt.

The second Saturday I was here I tried calling home for the first time and my expensive calling card ran out after like 8mins so I felt pretty down after that- realising that I cannot just call home whenever I want because it is so expensive . Mum has been unable to get through on the phone here as well. I was frustrated because I just wanted to talk! I felt pretty trapped and alone until I went into town and happened to meet up with a whole lot of the Deaf. I spent the rest of the day just hanging out with them and talking and came home so much happier realising the reason I am here is to be with them and that just being with them made me so happy.

School has been tricky. There is no timetable or plans for the day....we are working on that. All the staff, but one, are new to the school. I am learning about what kind of education the Deaf youth have had and for many of them it has been so limited. One girl is 28 and has never been to school and she has no language. Others have been to the Red Cross school I mentioned, so are more educated- can read and write a bit. Some of them are so keen to learn, it is beautiful to see. They come to me with words they have seen written and ask me what they mean. Some things are easy to teach- the word 'practise' was ok but the word 'rehabilitation' was harder! It's awesome to be able to help in that way and a good challenge for me too. Some students are just real hard work and have little or no language and I don't know where to start.

If you are the praying type and would like to pray for me I would really appreciate prayer for patience, wisdom, guidance and trust in God. Also if you could please pray for the people of West Guadacanal who have lost everything in the floods.
Thanks heaps :)
A special thank you also to my home church in Woodville for the kind donation of money, you guys are awesome!
If anyone else feels especially called to support me financially please let me know :)

There is so much more I could write about but I think this is long enough for now!  I'm not sure when I will next be able to email again so I apologise in advance for the lack of contact.

I miss everyone a lot and I would love to hear how you are all getting on.
Lots of love
Ange



Easter 2009
Happy Easter!!

Hope you have had a really good time with family and friends over this special weekend. I am really
blessed to have a week off and am staying with a New Zealand nun in Honiara. It has been so lovely
to have good food (especially toast, cheese, meat and muffins), cold drinks, showers and all those
nice comforts I have been without.

It has been over 2 months since I left NZ and I apologise it has been a while since my last email. I am
now living out in Aruligo where our rural training centre is. It is about a 40min drive from the city
Honiara. We don’t have electricity (apart from a generator in the evenings) so I try get to the
internet once a week and have so much to do when I get there. It has actually been 3 weeks since I
last got to the internet because of reasons I you will read about soon.

The rainy season is almost over and I’ll be glad to see the end of this wetness. Saturday morning
two weeks ago I tried to go to town to do emails but because of the constant rain we were stuck in
Aruligo for 4 days because the rivers were too big to cross and a bridge was damaged. We couldn’t
even get out of our road that connects us to the main road. It had turned into a river and the truck
kept getting stuck in the mud. The road is currently being fixed up but it’s still very dodgy. I drove
the girls into town one day just before the flooding. I took them to do some cooking at the centre
we were using before we moved back to Aruligo and got the truck stuck in the mud. Luckily the men
who are working on our road got it out for me.

Yes driving in the Solomons is certainly a different story than in NZ. There are so many more hazards
to watch out for like potholes (lots of them), animals, fallen trees, people, one-way bridges, fords
and river crossings where the bridge has been washed out.

The rain causes another wee problem in that our solar powered water pump doesn’t work. We have
a couple of taps in and near the kitchen which we use for washing dishes, clothes and bathing.
Bathing is done by filling the tub and getting a bowl and throwing the water over yourself. So often
it rains during the day and the pump for the well doesn’t work so we don’t have water. There is a
rain water tank that we use for drinking water but we can’t all go there to bathe. Often we make the
trek down to the stream and wash there.

The rain comes with some pretty impressive lightning and thunder storms. On my first night in
Aruligo we had a massive storm and I loved it. The thunder booms so loud that some of the Deaf
can hear it and it shakes the houses.

I share a house with Margaret who is a Deaf teacher here. She’s lovely and we get on really well.

My house is a simple little leaf house with concrete floor and wooden windows that open out when
you push a stick out to hold it. The rats love eating the leaves and getting into my house to find my
food. My food cupboard has holes so the rats can get in. So many times in the night I wake to hear
rats eating my house. I have caught 4 rats in the trap so far but a cat would be better. We had one
but it disappeared.

I woke up one morning and found a snake hiding out in my kitchen. I had actually heard in the night
but I never put the hissing sound and the thought of a snake together. I got some of the guys to help
get it out. One evening Margaret found a snake by our toilet and it was a poisonous one so I’ll have
to be careful not to walk round without jandals. There are lots of other critters here like, lizards
(check out the photo of the giant one), frogs and big spiders but I’m used to them now that they
don’t scare me.

The critters that annoy me the most (apart from rats) are the mosquitoes. There are staka (many)
mosquitoes because there is so much water around. A few of my mosquito bites have become
infected which hasn’t been nice but apart from that my health has been really good.

One day a team of men came to spray our houses, give those with old or no mossie nets new ones
and do blood tests for Malaria (thankfully the results came back clear). Still the mosquitoes come
and bite us.

Classes are going well but are challenging. There are nearly 40 students- more than last year. I am
seeing the new students really growing and slowly picking up Sign Language. It is hard work teaching
and interpreting all the time. Mary, my counterpart, took a week holiday that has lasted 4 weeks
now so I’ve been interpreting all the time. In the mornings we have academic classes like maths,
general word studies, Sign Language and English. I take the Sign Language/English class. They are
divided into 3 groups so I work with all the different levels from those who have yet to learn the ABC
to the more advanced. In the afternoons I either get a break or I am interpreting for the building or
agriculture teachers. I’ve started to encourage the other hearing girl teacher aids to try and get
them to interpret morning or evening prayer.

Saturdays are my only day off really because Sunday I am interpreting Mass where ever we go. One
Sunday recently there was a special memorial church service for the people who died from the
floods in our area. The government organised it so there were lots of big men there like ministers
and commissioners. I got to meet the Governor General and the New Zealand High Commissioner.
The NZ High Commissioner gave me her card and told me to pop into her office to tell her more
about what I’m doing. Interpreting that church service was a good publicity for our school and eye
opener for all the government people.

We also featured in the newspaper recently. For two weekends we went to another school to take
computer classes run by an English volunteer and a nun. It was an awesome opportunity for our
students who most have never even seen let alone use a computer before. They loved it- especially
using paint to create amazing artwork and watching the videos on Encarta.

The students are so cool, they love to talk to me and l love to watch (listen to) them and story with
them. Some of the guys are hilarious and real performers and can have me in fits of laugher for
ages. Our youngest student is 15 and he is tiny so he looks about 7 or 8. He’s real cute and cheeky
with this squealy laugh. His signing is pretty crazy because he’s never been taught sign language
until now so he throws his arms around and makes funny noises. He is learning quickly though
because everyone is teaching him and the other day he even signed grace before dinner. It was a bit
rough and just kept signing God, Deaf, Jesus but we were so proud of him!

I’ve been learning lots of cultural stuff. The Deaf talk to me about their customs which vary from
island to island. I’ve learnt how to open, carve and milk a coconut. I’ve learnt how to weave baskets
and prepare the leaves for making a leaf house. I’m also getting better at Solomon Islands Pijin. I try
to read and learn a bit from my Pijin Bible every day. Some of the teachers always speak Pijin and so
I am forced to understand it and often then interpret it into Sign Language. It’s not too hard though-
here is an example from the Bible:

“Yufala evriwan wea yufala hadwaka tumas an kari hevi, yufala kam long mi fo mi mekem yufala
res.” (Matthew 11:28)

Every day here is different- I have a lot of fun but I also come across some huge challenges. Life is
not easy but God is faithful and I am so thankful to be having this opportunity to serve him.

Thank you to the lovely supportive friends and family who email, send parcels, money and pray for
me.

Lots of love,
God Bless
Angela

June 2009
Hello Olketa (everyone)
Firstly I must apologise it has been so long since I have written and I also must apologise for missing
many people’s birthdays. Please forgive me on the basis that I have limited contact with the outside
world.

When I do get to town I have lots to do and internet time is never enough. Saturday mornings are
no longer free time now because I along with a group of Deaf are teaching Sign Language to families
of the Deaf and people who are interested.

I hope you are not all freezing too badly in NZ. I hear it is pretty cold and snowing in places it usually
doesn’t snow in. It is hard for me to imagine what cold feels like now.

So lots has happened in the past few months but the most exciting news lately was the surprise visit
of 2 people very close to me.

Brother George told that on Tuesday (2nd June) we have to go to the airport to meet two deaf
people who are coming from Australia. He didn’t know who they were but that they were deaf and
were coming to visit the school. I had to go with him to interpret for him. Mary, two of our Deaf girls
and myself made frangipani lei’s for them and stood waiting for them to come and signing so they
would know who we were. After waiting some time I looked down the corridor and saw two people
walking towards me, a tall man and a short woman who looked like my mum and dad. I looked
again and it really was my mum and dad! Mummy an Daddy blong mi kam fo lukim mi long Solomon
Aelans. I lifted up the barrier tape and ran towards them overcome with emotions. I cried and
laughed and hugged them and was in shock for a long time. I never thought they would come to the
Solomon Islands and hadn’t suspected a thing.

I had a lovely week with them. We swam, snorkelled, drove to sites and saw people I am connected
with. They stayed a few nights out at Aruligo with me so they saw my work and all the cultural skills
I have picked up. They got a wonderful welcome by the Deaf and one night they put on funny
entertainment for them, and they weren’t too shy to sit and story with Mum and Dad either. I was
so proud of them!

I felt so special and loved that Mum and Dad came all this way and were here for my 25th birthday.
They brought with them so many goodies like lots of food, wine, chocolate, dvd’s books and
presents from the family. I was very spoilt.

The week went by too fast and now they are back in NZ adjusting to the cold climate.

After having a sort of holiday week with Mum and Dad I went back to work for a week and now we
have mid-year holidays for 3 ½ weeks. Almost everyone has left the centre so it is more quiet than
usual. It is nice to relax and just hang out here. On Thursday I met with Christina from Mahitahi the
director of the organisation I’m with and she spent a couple of night at Aruligo checking out the
developments and we talked about how the project is going and possibilities for the future.
Tomorrow I am really blessed to be flying to the Western Province and will be meeting up with
Christina there as she monitors other projects and I tag along for a holiday. I’m really looking
forward to seeing more of the country and the beautiful islands around the west.

I’ve attended and interpreted two weddings this year- or should I say seven.... The first one was a
normal sort of wedding, quite old school and yet different from any wedding I’ve even been to. The
second one I didn’t even know I was attending a wedding til someone told me just before it started
that six couples were getting married at the service! It was the feast day of Saint Isidro which our
community is named after so at our small church in Aruligo we had this huge Mass and celebration
with six local couples saying their vows. I was surprised to see no kisses at any of the weddings. I
guess a big difference in weddings here and weddings in NZ is the budget. The brides and grooms
wore simple clothes- some didn’t dress up really at all, just wore a t-shirt and shorts. Decorations
were simple and the biggest expense would have been on the food although most of it is home
grown.

School is going well. In my class I have started reading (in sign language) a story to the Deaf. It is
called ‘The Silent One’ by Joy Cowly. It is about a deaf boy in a pacific island- they can relate to the
story well. My students love it and when I finish a chapter and close the book they all plead with me
to keep going. I don’t think anyone has ever signed a storybook to them before.

Facilities around the centre are improving. It is dry season now so we don’t have any flooding issues.
Our solar pump gives us water most days but the rain water drinking tank is often very low.

There are now three showers set up behind our houses. They are just an elevated tap on a concrete
pad so you still need to wear clothes or a lava lava to wash but it sure beats the old way of throwing
water over you from a tub.

The boys have been busy building a new wood workshop and making beds for the new girls house
which is nearly finished being built. The inside walls of the house will made from woven black and
white bamboo which our Deaf will weave once the bamboo is all ready. The girl’s house will be our
second permanent house but plans are under way for more permanent buildings.

Rats are still a problem here, keeping me awake at night, eating my food. I am getting used to
seeing them run across in front of me, running across my headboard as I sleep. I wish more of them
would run into my trap or eat the poison.

Our gardens are producing a bit more food now. Still we eat a lot of cassava. I like to make cassava
pudding- which is basically grated cassava and coconut cream cooked in a motu (stone style
cooking) It is a long process because we do everything from scratch, even weaving the baskets to
put the cassava in to drain but I find it fun and yummy to eat at the end.

I think that is enough writing for now, hopefully it won’t be too long til I write again. As always I love
to hear from my friends and family so please send an email or letter when you have time. I also
really appreciate your prayers and support, thank you for helping me in this journey.

God Bless
Love Angela
Written By: mahitahi
Date Posted: 5/29/2009
Number of Views: 730
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