Its been some time since I last blogged and that can be explained by the crazy amount of stuff that we have been doing here. We are into our fourth week of work here and have pretty much finalized our work plans for the last 6 weeks and decided on solution that would best help solve the problems of our individual ministries. In my case, the ministry of finance had a problem managing the payroll system and needed a solution from scratch. I am learning to build the system on the fly and its going great. There are quite a few challenges posed by the sensitivity of the information and the political structure in place but its great experience trying to negotiate this down.

As regards to our extra-curricular activities, we went on a cross-island trek lasting four hours with Dr. Alex Hills when he visited us. Unfortunately we lost our way and reached only halfway across the island but the trek was still amazing. Jeremy and Rohan had a lot of fun playing with a chicken we met at the top of the mountain (Dont ask me how or why!!)

We also go snorkeling around the island on a weekly basis and its beautiful here. There are small islands not too far from the shore here and its fun swimming across to them while viewing the beautiful marine life in between. We have TV service now so that we can watch the world cup (Go Brazil!!!) but its kinda hard with the matches being telecast in the wee  hours of the morning here. We also went coconut hunting with our neighbors who are really friendly people and it was a lot of fun. Jeremy and I also played soccer with the national team of the cook islands!!!

Things are only getting better here (I am coming to terms with the food on the island, me being a vegetarian) and we plan on hosting a party at our house for our co-workers soon. We also plan on visiting the island of Aitutaki which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places on planet Earth sometime in the next two weeks, so real excited for that. Will update soon on how things unroll.