New email addy!

Hey All,
Just a quick note to say I got a new email addy - miriwood@gmail.com

Look forward to your mail! Save the address now!

Blessings,
Miri

construction...

here are some more pics of the boys putting an internet cable in at work...and getting coconut palms to build a shelter to sell snacks at saturday morning sports!

Had classic talk about traffic light today (got none here) - trying to explain about green walking men and red stop men, and road rules. Interesting...!!

This week...

Alo!
Am having a good week - feel like ive been here long enough now to start sugegsting ways to improve things, and start tryingo ut some new things so thats an exciting place to be. Had the VSA programme manager for the Pacific here this week too which has been good to chat about how its all going.

Had ANZAC service this morning - was pretty cool, followed by a breakfast at the pub put on by the NZ and Auzzie high coms so that was a much better breakfast than usual! Had to explain the meaning of the poppy when i turned up at work - everyone thought it was cool!

These girls were given balloons by the VSA guy, and we played baloon hacky for a LONG time - they were just mesmerised by it - pretty fun. And they run round calling me teacha mideam which makes me laugh. (sorry...photo has disappeared...will try put it on tonight)

Opti sailing will start up in 2 weeks time with the first group of kids coming from the youth centre so its going to be fun to ge them in boats and teach them how to sail! And they super keen so im stoked that that is going ahead. Such a cool chance for them. And hearing murmerings about an outreach trip in december to another island which might be cool....otherwise looking at starting up a leadership development club for the youth here who help out with running the place - give them some training in organising, and thinking outside the square, and planning, and fun, and motivation, and goal setting, so im real excited about getting that up and running.

Must go now, but thinking of yas lots and am amazed to realise im getting almost as busy as i was at home....
Ale, lukim yu

babies!

o m goodness - check out the cuteness of this baby!!! Arggghhhh!!! I want one! A good friend from work has just had her baby - named her Dalila, and it was only 1.7kgs (smol smol) and look - so cute!!! So Annie (mama) is camping at out at the hospital until the baby is 2 kgs....it was such an amazing thing to hold a baby so small, to feel how light it was, how vulnerable and delicate, and cute, and man, life is precious! I was on a high for a while afterwards! (still am!) So photos are of Tom and Annie (mama and papa, both kids from work), and then of me, regina and annie (two close friends from work)at the hospital.

Also, some of feeding the fish while snorkeling the other day - but babies are so much more exciting! Wow, lol.

Also, a picture of mamas club. A friend from queenstown who was visiting came and took class which was a great learning experience for me (watching someone who knew what they were doing!). The mamas loved it so thats good!

Other random stories...

Had my first shell of Kava last night (you drink it from a coconut shell). Its a local relaxant drink - makes your minth and throat go numb which is quite wierd...and then you just feel really lazy. So it was good to try, tastes remarkably like muddy water (and looks like it), tasted awful but its over pretty quick so it was manageable!

I forgot to mention the storm that came through at easter camp - saturday night they had a talent quest (they love having items here, church can go for hours with different groups getting up to sing!!), Halfway through a huge rainstorm came through and they turned all the lights and sound equipment off as they tried to move it to more secure shelter. The group on stage kept singing anyway (were using guitars) but the rain was so heavy we couldnt hear them - so a guy in the audience go this own guitar, started playing and we had the loudest, most enthusiastic sing-a-long i have ever experienced. It was classic. All the while the roof was leaking and occassionally one of the tarps that was the roof would overflow, dumping a showerload of water on a poor victim - all of which caused much screaming, yelling and general good times!

Next week is Global Action Week and its focussing on education so we are making a whole lot of banners and organising human chains and questino sessions for the kids to askthe ministers why their school fees are so expensive, or other such things so thats exciting!

Will update more soon.

Easter adventures...

For photo captions see last paragraph!

Easter was always going to be an adventure. It rained solidly for the 12 hours before we left for camp which made travel and camping plans in question but the roads turned out to be ok and the campsite wasn’t flooded so it was alright!

We started with some extreme big truck 4WDing to get to a village, along this crazy tiny track into the bush. Then, once we got to the wharf we all packed into a boat and headed off into the dark night…still raining and halfway across the channel the driver throttled back, took off the engine cover and had a wee play round to try get the engine working better! I really wished I knew more about outboard motors then! Having decided there was nothing they could do we kept going. The wind slowly came up and we started surfing down the waves, in the dark, in an overloaded boat. But we arrived safely in the end, soaked but stoked to be in the middle of a real adventure!

The next few days were full of eating new and strange island fruits, A LOT of rice and bread (one morning we had bread, along with deep fried bread for breakfast??????) It was awesome to be at an easter camp – singing youth group songs and relaxing around the camp site. Quite similar to a camp in NZ, everyone in tents or in the dorms (bamboo frame covered in tarps with mats inside to sleep on). Big communal bush kitchen where everyone got meals from and they had speakers and activities and worship and talent nights and all the usual camp stuff. I could understand most of the sermons, and I knew some of the songs (not the ones in the local dialect) but I learnt a few more too which was cool. It really made me miss NZ actually, quite a different feel even though much was the same.

I stayed with a family in their house, which was really cool. I took my guitar so at night we sat round and sung songs that we all knew (old church songs) and on Sunday the papa asked if I wanted to climb the big hill behind the village. Naturally I jumped at the chance and off we went, jandals, slashing knives and handbags in tow (one of the other girls)! It was awesome to be hill climbing again! And great views from the top of lots of other islands so that was cool. Then did the most extreme bushbashing ever through thick jungle vines and muddy dirt. We climbed on top of the bushes and just tried to stay up as long as poss without falling through. Halfway down the guy sai we weren’t quite where we were meant to be and I imagined getting to the ocean eventually and having to walk for hours along the ricks, but we ended up not too far away from where we were supposed to me. I asked if the right way was an easier walk and he said no so not sure why it mattered that we weren’t in the right place!! Amazed at the strength of the girls feet who came with us – did the whole thing in bare feet! So when we got to the beach off came my sandals and I walked as long as I could before putting them back on (not very long at all!)

Then the boat trip back was even more crowded than the one there, with no freeway at al. Im stoked the sea was calm! Then we all piled into th back of a truck with our gear, food for the market and us and started the long drive back to town!

I love being in the village! Such a simple way of life and so family orientated – I was glad to eat different food and have a normal toilet when I got back though!

We ran a workshop on sat arvo about HIV/AIDS which was well received so that was cool too. I ate a coconut crab which was super tasty – a delicacy here. One at the market sells for a few thousand vatu ($50) so I was lucky that we found one on our walk and when they found out I hadn’t eaten one they insisted I eat it!

I was given an island name, which is kastom once you have lived here a while – Leiwia (lay-we-a) which means ‘the good girl’!! (Leina's a bit of a rebel so she calls me the good girl!) It was really nice just to be able to relax and understand people and get to know Leina better, as friends rather than boss/employee.

Sorry, super long but so much to say! Just loved being on an adventure and doing things outside of Vila. Straight back into it at work, real busy this week but its great to have had some time away.

The photos -one is making laplap - piling hot stones ontopto cook it. Leina is on the left.
One is sitting in the nakamal (village meeting place) preparing for the workshop. Leina is doing the peace sign!
One is me eating the cocnut crab with the kitchen and the family i stayed with in the background.
One is the truck heading back to vila.
One is the easter camp meeting place.

Alle, mi mas go nao. Mi hop se yu stret mo well. Mimi lok fored long toktok long yu. Bongwio! (ok, I must go now. I hope you are fine and well. I look forward to talking to you, Good night!)

tsunami warning!!!

Yo!

It cracks me up that in the six weeks ive been here we've had a state of emergency, riots, earthquakes, a cyclone and now a tsunami warning. I'm finding it hard to take this one seriously!

Had good weekend - got my very first invite to lunch. It quite a hard place to work your way into a group of people and be accepted as a good guy. I think the whole colonialism and white guys screwing over locals has had a lasting impacts and they take a long time to suss you out. So it was nice to be invited to hang out!

Its interesting the different learning styles the kids have here. Hardly any imagination it seems when it comes to thinking of a name to save their work as...they will honestly sit for 5 mins deep in thought of a suitable name. The other day i said, I wantr you to write me a sentance, any sentence.....talk about a half hour task! And you remember how at primary school we were taught to stand up when the teacher said 'stand up' and we had to do it quickly - no such thing as quickly here. You say stand up and a few minutes later people will start slowly getting up. So its quite funny seeing the things they really hammered into us that dont exist here!

Will update on the tsunami when it eventuates!