Home sweet Home

At last! We have heard from Kevin and can pass on information about his new home. Kevin spent one day in Guam and said it was gorgeous. He then took a plane to Chuuk and landed in Weno. It is not pronounced anything like Reno. It is pronounced Wooda. (We checked Weno out on Google Earth and you can see the little landing strip) He then took a boat to Tonoas which is pronounced Todoas. Kevin was warned Tonoas would be very primitive. He also said Tonoas was "beyond any paradise you have ever seen. At least until you see the houses." They are made of three walls of plywood and a sheet metal roof. The windows are screens. There is no electricity. Kevin said there is only one road that goes all the way around the mountain but you can't even tell there are houses around because the forest is so thick. He said the area is so poor that the houses in Tijuana, Mexico look like the White House. The weather is always about 85 degrees but the humity must be 1,000,000%. It is the dry season right now and so it only rains every other day. This is good that it rains because Kevin says they live off of the rain. They have rain gutters which send the rain into two big tanks. This is where Kevin gets his water. They do have filters for the water they drink. Since it is the dry season they often have no water, but Kevin says if that happens they drink coconut milk. Anyone who knows Kevin well will laugh here as Kevin has always disliked coconut. He does say that coconut there is way better as they eat it fresh there. He says we eat the ones that have fallen off of the trees and are rotten. He says the milk is clear and like water and the meat is the texture of egg whites. He also makes the statement that he is sure he will like it more in the future. Kevin also says the only food they have is white rice, ramen, tuna, and spam. "If variety is the spice of life, I am not having much spice in the diet category." Kevin's home does have solar panels so they can do a little bit of cooking. Many of the locals cook over a fire. Kevin says the people there are nice. At least he thinks they are... he is not sure of what they are saying. He is working on learning Chuukese. Kevin currently has two companions. One is from Arizona (Elder Tyson Peterson) and the other is from New Zealand. He says they are very patient with him. Despite the hard living conditions Kevin expresses that he loves it there and is glad to be there. As you can imagine Kevin does not have internet service. He does have an internet address he can check when he goes to Weno to get supplies but he does not have time to sit down and respond to e-mail. Tonoas does not have mail service, but he can pick up mail when he goes to Weno. Kevin will be in Weno about every three weeks. If anyone has time to write I am sure he would love to hear from you!