Life...

Well…It’s rained solidly for three days now – boring!! Not much you can do really ‘cos its such heavy rain. And snorkeling is no good in the rain cos the water gets really murky. So its been a few days full of playing guitar, praying, reading, and playing solitare! I’m heading along to youth group tonight to help out so that should be a bit of fun!

We had a house warming sat night with other vols – a string band were going to come and entertain us (which would have been random) but there has been some tribal conflicts so people are a bit scared to venture out, so no string band. Its all to do with people from other islands wanting to come to Vila, but Vila people don’t want them ‘cos there already isn’t enough jobs and they think it will increase crime etc so it’s a very contentious issue really. So one group burnt down houses, and a few guys were killed! The streets are eerily quiet at night (absolutely dead) and yea, pretty interesting. I had friends who were on a bus and they got to an area called Blacksands (about 2 mins from my work) and they said about 1000 men were lined the road, about to have a meeting of some sort. But I think its settled down now.(DON’T WORRY THOUGH!!)

The guy at church on Sunday morning kept jumping between English and Bislama, so it was...interesting. I think I got the gist of the sermon, but I cant be sure! Am really looking forward to youth group. Will update in a few days to tell you how it is all going!

This week at work is a workshop on Health stuff (AIDS, family planning eating etc) so i have no classes but have to help facilitate discussion (in bislama??) anyway, am looking forward to hanging out with the kids a bit more. I had some laplap the other day (local food)....tasted mainly like boiled cabbage but aparently there was banana and chicken in it. Not sure I believe them tho! Nah, it was alright. I guess if there was nothing else id be happy to eat it! Have tried a local fruit, naus, which was interesting. Not a favourite. Coconut milk is really sweet but the coconut flesh is alright. Pineapples here are really nice (very sweet) but almost out of season. Otherwise, its kumala(kumera) and rice! Local veges are pretty good. Local bread great...o, im getting good at handwashing my clothes too! lol ROck on - read eph 1:19 (ish) the prayer for spiritual growth. Its cool.

Hi!

Hey Dudes!
Well, it official, ive been emailing too much - the guy at this place knows my name! Oops! Here are some more pics from work, and home, and around the place. Just finished a pretty full-on week...good to be getting to know some local peeps though! Seeing as its friday night, and on friday night we have adventure night in dunedin i fugured id do it vanuatu styles - go play in a terrential downpour! Very fun (can you tell ive been hanging out by myself!!!) Anyway, enjoy the pics. Will write properly soon.
p.s. the bug is the one thing we have been warned about that will bite on land...Simon found it in his sock!

Bus rides...

Imagine the crappiest scungiest Toyota van you can….thats the Port Vila bus fleet! It truly is an experience. Its considered a luxury bus when there’s no gap between the door and the floor and when the windows fit the holes for them! The roads here are fairly dodgy so you spend the whole trip cluthing your seat (to keep it in place) and listening to the windows rattle out of their holes! They pump out black smoke like nothing else, its classic. The cool thing is that they don’t have any set routes so you just flag one down, say ‘Mi stap long ……..” and then jump in.They drop everyone off in order so most days you get a great tickytour around town!

So my English class that started off with 3 mamas, and grew to include about 7 teenage girls before the first lesson has again grown….today I walked into teach the teenage girls and there were 17, yes 17, girls all sitting at tables, looking at my expectantly….I only had brought stuff for 7 so I had to flag the whole plan I’d made and come up with a new way of doing things, quickly! Ah, the joy of teaching!

Had first girls hockey session and 15 girls rocked up so that was a bit of a surprise too! Talk about being kept busy! I’ve learnt that everythings ‘stret’ (fine, smooth) If no one turns up – stret! If 17 people turn up – stret! If the place floods – stret! If no one knows whats happening – stret!

Here are some more pics of my work and some cool palm trees!


O, and the mamas today told me I was a good teacher and they like me. So that was great feedback to hear when I was feeling like I really had no idea what I was doing! Praise God!

Alo! Me got sam fotos long yu! Sipos yu wantem toktok me, levem a message long blog blong me!Me stap long Vanuatu long wan yia! (Hello, I have some photos for you. If you want to talk to me, leave a message on my blog! Im in Vanuatu for one year! haha)

I have photos! For you! Please forgive me, they do seem a little touristy perhaps, i went for a walk around the bllock from my house, but couldnt take photos of the houses to show you - it seems really wrong taking photos of tin shacks to show you when so many families jam into them and live and try to survive, so use your imagination, youve seen pics of slums before, its just like that. Unreal. Such inequality in this place.

First real day at work! Man, talk about going to be a busy year. Some girls heard about my literacy class and they came along now too so instaed of having just a few older mamas to teachi now have about 8 girls as well! at least the girls can understand me when i talk english though! We got by. I made the mistake of starting the lesson wiothout opening in orayer so they correwcted me and then i was away and racing!! Opps, but it was cool to come together in prayer, praying to the same god, despite the language barrier. Very cool.

Then spent the rest of the day coding data for a research analysing the effectiveness of the yut senta!(youth centre)It rained, my goodness it rained. The whole front of work flooded and all the kids got out and had showers and and rain dances. Very cute.

Will post more pics soon, cant stess the computer out too much! Love to all, please continue to pray for these precious people, for their english, for their families and for the work we are doing. Also, that i find some christian people to encourage me and get excited about the same thingsa as me!

P.S. the photos are a canoe, the view from our house, us uplifting luggage and travelling round town vanuatu styles, and a reef at a snorkelling spot!

what im actually doing....

I had my first dasy at work....they sent me home at 11.30am 'cos they dont wanna stress me out too much!!! Haha, it was great! I'm going to be teaching a mamas literacy class (older mums) who are really keen to learn english! They want to learn so they can write letters and read the bible so its a pretty cool chance to help them out! Quite a challenge though figuring out the best way to go about teaching english, in Bislama (they cant understand much english!) so its good practise for me as well as them!

Also overseeing an art club and am coaching hockey. Had the boys this morning..(it was 9 in the morn and soooo hot!)but they were pretty good at it so it was lots of running roung trying to keep up! Got the girls later in the week which should be cool. And other than that im writing up a research paper for my counterpart, who has questioneered heaps of youth about the centre but she needs me to put it into a report to present to AusAid!! SO thats exciting.

The people here are just great, so friendly and so capable with what they have, its inspiring. Am starting to miss you all alot, it will be good in a few weeks when ive made a few more aquaintences! But love to all, please pray for my english lessons - what a priveledge to be able to teach women english, so they can pass it on to their families (none of the kids go to school cos its too expensive), and especially to be able to do it so they can read the bible! Very cool!

Looking forward to the dry season when its not so humid and a little cooler!
WIll post photos very soon
Me

The first few day

Sorry about the lack of photos but ive forgotten the cord that goes from my camera to the computer! So hopefully its in the post and hopefully I can get it through customs and then ill post lots!

We’ve had a good introduction to island time – we were meant to go and stay with a family in a village for the weekend but our host didn’t turn up! At all! Shes still not here! So its quite funny really – no one here obeys any rules(road rules, they fish in marine reserves, turn up late) but such amazing people! This morning I went to church and we had to stand up and introduce ourselves, and then at the end we stood at the door with the pastor and everyone shook our hands on their way out to welcome us! Amazing!

I’ve seen both sides of island life now – the tourist side and the local side. We went to a snorkeling island yesterday and it was so nice , clear water, coral and colourful fish but you could smell sewage slightly (one of the big problems facing small islands, where does it go???) but at the same time as it being nice I was so aware that tourism is such a consumerist activity! Minimum wage here is 100 vatu an hour which is $1.50 – for a place that costs similar to NZ to live you can imagine the inequalitles! Huge hotels beside small houses (tin shacks once our about 5 nins out of town). As soon as you’re off the main road, the roads are dirt and heaps of potholes – its amazing – like two completely different worlds living in the same place!

Ive been to work which was exciting – flip they speak fast! My first project is to help the teachers doing literacy to create lesson plans and to help them teach better (tips anyone!!!??). Sounds like they have a busy year in store for me! It seems a great place though. Al the kids are so cute! The kids there are all ages and do not go to school (don’t know why) so it’s going to be interesting! I need to get a whole lot better at Bislama before I can do too much!

Please pray for these kids – that the work we do will have lasting impact, also that I get my baggage! Im finding the heat much better now (its only about 25 today so about 10 cooler than a few days!!!) So thankyou for prayers regarding that!

Am hoping to move into our house today or tomorrow. Thankyou so much for reading and leaving messages - its nice to read them!
Better let that do for now – will post photos soon I hope!
Lukim yu bakagen (see you later)

From Port Vila...

Flip is it hot here!!! Its unreal, at the moment i cant comprehend ever being cold here! Im wondering why i bothered to pack socks, and jerseys!!! Vila is a crazy place - a mixture of town and village with lots of local people sitting under trees, or riding on ther back of utes. I have just been to visit my house which has a million dollar view of vila harbour and the biggest mango tree in all Vila (apparently!!) So looking forward to moving in! Its got a tree house in the mango tree too!

So far have been trying to navigate our way through immigration and baggage clearance, all of which hasnt been very successful for me yet but im sure itl get there, pacific style (slowly!)

Also went to my work today which was really exciting! I met sdome of the kids, my work mates and it just has this awesome vibe about it - lots of fun and good stuff happening! So im vvery excited to start! Its going to take ages to get internet set up and phone so hopefully i can keep updating you fairly regularly!

Prayer requests - that i keep acclimitising (very hard to sleep in heat!), that my language keeps improving - most of all for favour with officials and paperwork so i have no major hiccfups when clearing myself and so i dont haver to pay lots of money!

Have been to the market for some fresh fruit which is pretty nice! Otherwise, im feeling ok about things - pretty excited, really looking forward to settling in. Will write again soon, love to all, Miri

I'm going!

Wow, talk about the 11th hour!
Have just got clearance to enter to Vanuatu so im really excited!! Its been quite crazy thinking I was going, not not going, and now I am again! YAY! So all praise to God for being faithful - something I'm going to be taking with me and holding onto!!
Next post will be from Vila!!

Please pray...

Hey, this is my first of many (i'm sure) prayer requests! My visa has been held up in Vanuatu with immigration there requiring more than usual documents - please pray for favour for my application! Due to this hold-up my flight is also going to be a week later 'cos I was meant to leave wednesday!!! So i'm hanging out here for another week! Thanks heaps, love me

Summiting Earnslaw!

Summiting Earnslaw was very fun. We had stunner views and amazing weather. Could see Aspiring and Cook and every other mountain around! Big climb to Esquilant Bivvy at 2260m. Next day waited for the ice melt on the rocks so we could safely climb last 500m. Great to be up there with Jude, Ryan, Viv, Hamlin and Anna! A great way to remember tramping in NZ. Check out the pics! P.S. God is very big.