I was going nutty in the weekend so i treated myself to a sail on the harbour. That feeling as the boat picks up in the wind and gets going was just so refreshing! Missing you all very much, looking forward to attending an Easter Camp on an outer island in a few weeks!

Night at the movies...

Had a taste of home last night - a trip to the movies...Vanuatu styles. A cafe by the waterfront run movies twice a week. Its all outdoor and they put a big screen up on top of the fence to the water, with big speakers and you sit out under the stars and watch the movie with a backdrop of the harbour, a few lights and yachts floating a little way off. Very cool place! Had to have a few stops - intermission to encourage us to buy more food (the movie is free), then stops while rain showers passed through to make sure the dvd player stayed dry. The whole night was pretty funny, a good mid-week treat to enjoy anyway!

Hey are a few more pics from the village - one of the fire I built!!! One of what the laplap looks like when its cooked - a sticky slimy texture...and the kitchen shed behind that. And serema and me (cute!)

Am attempting to write a letter to parents in Bislama - its going to be amusing...embarrassing when i take it to get checked!!!

Thinking of you all, the bus driver this morning told me he had been to Dunedin. I asked when....1979! Everyone loves NZ!

Bettter go, i hear its cold at home...hot here!

Lelepa village

I've just arrived home from a weekend living in Lelepa Village, an island just off the coast. What an experience! I forgot my mossie repellant (possibly the stupidest thing ever) so i got absolutely mauled by mossies. But great trip. The boat ride over was in the dark - amazing night, had stars and wildfire, and the guys had a cool morse code signalling system with the torch as we came into land. Once we arrived they showed us the track through the village and sent me and another lady on our way, with vague instructions on how to get to our house (does this sound dodgy...???? Remember its dark, in a village we dont know...) So finally found our house and were warmly welcomed by a LOVELY family, who had been waiting for me for a few hours so they could have their tea. I didnt know this so when they offered me tea, i said sure and dug in. Once I had finished, they dished theirs up and sat down to eat. Felt really wierd but it was the same at every meal, i eat first, then they get theirs.

Saturday had a day of speaking bislama and hanging out with the kids, eating local food. Then sunday I helped make Laplap, the local food. The photo is one stage of preparation (soooo much work goes into this!) This was laplap manioc so its grated manioc on the banana leaves and they have grated cocnut flesh and are crushing it to make coconut milk which goes on top. Then starch from the manioc is poured over. Then you wrap up the leaves, and put on the fire. I thought id put soe different pics on my memory stick, but only these ones so ill show you the kitchen another time. But we made the fire the usual way, then put rocks on top. Once these were hot we shovelled them off and put the laplap on, put thye rocks on top, covered it woth more banana leaves, more shrubs, then iron to keep the heat in and then off to church! the whole process took a good few hours, but its a real community thing. Very cool to sit under the mango tree with the mamas and talk in bislama about stuff!

The kitchen was a tin shed just off the side of the house with a few fires smoking away, and the bathroom was another shed, with a side for toilet (a longdrop with a toilet seat) and one side for washing. Inside was a table and we all just sat on the floor. Everyone sleeps on the floor too! I got to watch my mama weaving a mat - she was doing the edging and it looked hardcore! Complicated, but otherwise similar to flax weaving. Very cool though.

And the photo of the kids wasnt the one i was expecting either, but they are my host sisters sonia, and serema (said sedema, the small one) very cute girls. Much more to tell but have to go do some proper work!

Very cool place, and have assured them ill return sometime to visit. They loaded me up with pawpaw and bananas to take back to Vila, which really felt like the return to the big city! Quite a peaceful village really though, very nice just being able to wander round, and enjoy the laid back life. But no water there, so during the dry dseason, its several canoe trips to the main land to get water each day!

Missed the washing machine for the first time last night - NO clean clothes for work, and too tired to go handwash!

Will write more soon!
Miri

Hey Team,
Olsem wanem? (HOw are you?) Mi stret (I'm fine...Well i'm glad the week of looking after the pikinini(kids) literacy club is over! Flip they take it out of me! And have no idea what to teach, how, i dont think they even want to learn, they just like singing heads, shoulders, knees and toes (the only english they know!) Fun though. And the classroom is like a giant sauna - hot enough already and then stick inside a concrete block with no ventilation - i no gud!(its not good)

Made a friend who works at Telecom in a bid to hurry the process of getting a phone up (he is a nice boy really) but who knows. Not sure what'll happen with it. A whole stack of Australian Youth Ambassadors showed up yesterday, here for a year, so it was good to see a few more young faces on the scene but I'm enjoying hanging with my local friends, who tell me off when i speak english and are pretty cool really!

Getting well aquainted with Manioc, very bland tasting, but its alright. They are providing lunch at work this week which is great for getting to know local foods!

Well, will post some new pics soon, this place really is beautiful as the sun is setting andif theres a nice breeze on the harbour. I'm still mindblown with the inequality though and the poverty and the slums. Gutting really. Its cool thinking of practical ways to help though and fun doing it 'cos people are so stoked!

Love to all
Me

Adventure of the pawpaw...

Alo! Workmates blo mi stap toktok englis todei. ARGHHH!!!! (My workmates stopped talking english today!)

Well...VSA asked for a photo showing something i dont usually do in NZ. I decided to summit the pawpaw tree outside. A brilliant idea, until i got back down with an unripe pawpaw, a hole in my shorts and an infected foot!! At least i got to use my first aid kit! It was quite exciting really!

Quite fun talking to the kids more in Bislama, at youth group they are training me to not talk english too so its good! (secretly they also want to practise too though...)

Sung with the choir in church on sunday and hid my camera in my sarong to record the singing! haha, i wish i could put it on here, dont think i can though. Very cool anyway though.

The pics are some of the kids literacy class i was looking after today (three hours of 'teaching' today!) They ran circles round me, so i just got the camera out and that entertained them! Have decided primary teaching def not for me! Also the pawpaw adventure, check out my braids too!

Am enjoying things at the mo which is great! Feeling a little more confident in bislama which is good, making friends, baking cakes...

Eph 3:20 - "Now all glory to God who, through his mighty strength working within us, can acomplish infinitely more than we can ask or even imagine."

Hey guys,
Heres a few more pics. I got a bit of a shock today when I was in a workshop with the kids. We read out a statement and they had to get into groups depending on whether they agreed (agri), disagreed (no agri), or didn’t know (no save) . The statement was ‘Ol man mas kilim ol woman blong hem’ (Every man must hit his wife) and equal numbers went to agree and disagree!!!! Thinking of the anti-smacking campaign in NZ I was reminded that I definitely am in another culture. They had reasons for both, and that’s just one example of the responses of the kids. Things that we get drummed into us at school are so different to what happens here. (not saying that this doesn’t happen in NZ but it was interesting that so many thought it was alright to happen).

In the photo of me at the market I’m holding some coconut crabs, an endangered species (don’t worry, I didn’t buy them)…and the other one is the beginning of my first hair braiding experience. As I’m writing this I’m sitting at home with half a head of braids!

Curfews!!

So you know how I said i thought all the violence was settling down...??? We were issued curfews the other night and have now been declared in a state of emergency!!! So its a tad exciting really! I still havnt seen any rioting and anything like that but i've heard lots of stories from others (living in on the chuhrch ground has its benefits...) So lots of the kids at work today were talking about how they felt very scared at the moment cos they live where houses had been burned. So who knows, some say its all over cos about 100 people have been arrested, and some say it will keep going. But it feels normal.

I went along to youth group last night - exactly the encouragement i needed! They have a big choir and i just joined in with them, singing some wierd language but flip, it was amazing! Such beautiful voices, and everyone was real passionate, and it wwas just awesome! And all real friendly and could speak lots of english so it was good! And they had a cool prayer time, and it was very different from sunday mornings which was a great thing!!! So yea, stoked to be able to be a part of that. Will keep you posted.

Had the workshop today, cool but frustrating not being able to talk Bislama! I can follow along and unnderstand the vague idea but cant speak much so hopefully ill keep improving! (Im sure i will)

Anyway, will keep you posted. Please pray for peace, and righteousness, not anger and bitterness. And pray for the safety of the kids who live in the area (and their kids!!!) and for things to get back to normal asap. Cool, i really appreciate your prayers! Rock on, love me

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!