Baby Chickens

Mother hen and 2 baby chicks

I think we've commented before about the roosters and chickens in our compound.  The roosters crow all hours of the day bur rarely at sunrise. I think they still asleep.  This time of year we several families of baby chickens following their mothers around looking for things to eat. The mothers are very protective of their young. It is hard to get a picture of them.  I spent about 10 minutes maneuvering to get this picture of a mother and her 2 chicks.  A movie of me maneuvering to get the picture might have been more interesting.

Last Saturday evening we were walking back to our fale.  There is a long driveway behind the distribution center with a wall about 14 inches high on one side.  There are bushes and trees growing on the other side of the wall in a raised garden area.  Apparently there are things chickens like to eat around the bushes because there was a family of 7 baby chicks rummaging around them with their mother. One of the baby chicks had fallen off the wall and was seperated from his family.  He was running back and forth along the base of the wall trying to find a way to get back up with his family. He was "peeping" to let his family know where he was.  His brothers and sisters were also "peeping" so he would know they were up there.  The young chick made several attempts to fly.  He would run as fast as he could and flap his wings but he couldn't quite get enough altitude to reach the top of the wall.  We watched the scene for quite awhile wondering if there was someway we could help without causing a problem. We were able to guide the little chick around to the front of the building where there is a sidewalk that sloped up into the garden area.  The wise mother brought her family around to the front of the building and the family was united again.

The Malie Zone

This week we travelled to the Malie zone for zone meeting on Thursday.  I learned a little bit about village naming. The name of the village we went to is called Malie but there are actually 2 villages one called Malie Tai and the other Malie Uta.  The suffix Tai means the village is close to the ocean on flat ground. The suffix Uta means the village up on the hills close to the mountains. 

Elder Feagai, who is standing in the back is 6'9".

10 Baptisms in the Pesega Lua Ward

Saturday we took our walk down to the water front and ate breakfast at McDonalds.   We enjoy walking along the sea wall of the harbor. They are getting ready for a festival the first week of September so there was a long boat out in the harbor practicing for the races. Saturday afternoon we attended a baptism in our ward. 10 people wer baptized, mostly as a result of referrals from members.  There are 2 young man that have been called on missions to serve in Samoa. They have been spending a lot of time working with the Elders that are assigned to our ward. They each baptized 2 or 3 people yesterday.

President Leota and Sister Leota came to our meetings today. The confirmations took most of the meeting but there was a little time left over for him to speak.