mi laekem...

Things I love....

1. Icecream
2. Cute island kids
3. Getting funding proposals approved
4. Having lunch with random people in Vanuatu (Malc's parents!!!!)
5. only 2 weeks til ma and pa come!

Well, other funding got approved so thats both my boys off to get formal qualifications!! Yes!!! It was awesome seeing how stoked they were to leanr they were ogingto uni! Very satisfying.

I met malcs gordons parents forthe first time int he weekend....in Vanuatu.....(is that wierd or what!!) So lovely to hang out with them, and get to know them, haha. Love it.

Gt another few weeks booked of being youth centre manager which is exciting! And am in the process of writing manuals for setting up the seasonal workers thing here. O and still trying to work something for computer class (but soon we'l have qualified tutors!!!)

Just a quick note today, but am alive! Just had another hockey session tonight which went well. And am really looking forward to seeing mum and dad!

Better go, but loving your emails and thoughts!

Right, blessings,
Miri

busi, busi

Pics - some pikininis from work (cute a!) and some of the kids at the completion of their opti sailing course.

Man,so much has happened in the last few weeks – its one of those phases where EVERYTHING seems to be happening at once…

The holiday camp idea has been down-sized to a morning programme due to the campsite not being available, which is cool. So we are going to do some games, and some health activities, and paint a big mural on one of the walls about youth issues! I’m excited! (hopefully it’l turn out somewhat like I’m imagining in my mind…)

I’ve managed to get funding for one youth to do some courses at uni here which is cool! So I’m going to sit with him sometime before I leave and try to remodel the computer classes. I’m hoping to integrate literacy and maths and pacidic studies etc into the computer syllabus so then the kids are learning two things once, instead of just playing games ALL day long. But that will take quite a bit of internet surfing finding resources and the like, so if anyone has secret websites that offer free resources – let me know!!

Am meeting with Rotary tomorrow to try and get some funding for our upcoming IT fixit man – hopefully that’s successful.

Then Thursday, its going to a meeting to present a proposal for a doco my cuz is hoping to come and make, all about Ni-Van values and culture, what its like to be a youth, how they express themselves through dance (we got a big hiphop comp comingup, and Vanuatus big music fest which they’ll be performing in…) and how volunteers are helping/learning from the whole process. So that’s interesting.

Leina has gone to Santo and left me with the keys for the centre (PARTY!!!) So its quite fun keeping things together, and trying to implement new systems (a registration system for each class, not as easy as it sounds).

Am making small progress on finding out info about the seasonal workers scheme, and what we need to do from this end to be a part of it. It will be very cool to set this up so fingers crossed we can get it al together.

An opportunity has come up to volunteer on an outer island at a sailing school for two weeks!!!!!!! This is the only place in Vanuatu they still sail their outrigger canoes to their gardens! Very isolated and supplies are dependant on ships which may or may not come. So they are running a month long sailing and boat building school. They are goingto build a 28ft Wharram Catamaran, and apparently I get to teach them sailing in Hobie Cats!! Man, so excited! So that’s very cool! Two weeks on village food will be interesting but hopefully i’ll cope!

Hockey is going well, Literacy is going well, Church is going great (have taught them another new Hillsong song for our Gospel mega-fest!!!)Oh yea.

But amping for this sailing school, and for seeing ma and pa soon, and for everything else that is going to come up.

SERIOUS SIDE - Have realised i may have done some things the hard way round...but thats good learning. The interesting thing with development is that people end up expecting hand-outs, or expecting someone to fund things for them. This isnt good. But then, coming to think of it, compared to them i had everything handed to me too as a kid. Hmmmm. Keeps me thinking anyway.(Point raised by the beautiful anna star, top effort i thought)

Development is also a bit like leading someone to know christ (sorry, if youre not into church you may laugh at this, if you are, youll know what I mean). You never know whether you are planting the seed, whether you are watering it, or whether you get to harvest it and see the results. Some of the things that seem to be coming together certainly havent come from me. I just get to take it the final steps. Likewise, I cant expect everything i start to be amazingly successful this year, but rather let it grow as time goes on....just some thoughts...

Well, will leave it there.

Ale olgeta,

Blessings,
Miri

Island Night

Well....country has made it to the pacific! We had an island fundraiser at church last night (good old sausage sizzle was awesome!) Heaps of different acts, some good choirs, some bad choirs, some string bands....one group did a dance to this hick country song. Haha it was awesome. They even had cowboy hats, and were doing line dancing type stuff. man i cracked up!

And saw my first group of pacific dancing girls - all shaking and swaying their hips which was pretty cute! (They were all little)But these guys really know how to have a lucrative fundraising night! so much food, and stuff. So cool to be involved and helping out!

Hopefully going to run a holiday camp for school kids in the next holidays which would be cool! Getting excited about possibilities!

Just wanted to post this picture up - arent they cute!!

More Pics

A few more pics - one of the dancers, and me with the young girls who I talked with.

"Naghol" - Land Diving

Hello!

Well had an exciting trip to Pentecost Island, home of the Land diving or "Naghol". This is true blue adrenelin junkie sport - think bungy without the bungy! Every year they build a huge vine tower and then all men hurl themselves off different levels with vines attached to their feet - why? To ensure a good yam harvest! Its also a coming of age thing for the boys so they have different levels, with the big man going from the very top. All the villagers stand around and chant and dance, the jumper reaches his hands heavenward (saying his prayers no doubt), claps a few times and then jumps! The vines are measured so their head touches the ground! Actually. They jump off and hit the ground! And if their vines isnt quite long enough then then get jolted backwards - looks sooo painful! And then then stand up, cut the vines off and limp away to join the dancers! Man, we're pansy in NZ!! (or sensible...)

They do it all in kastom dress - i've never been surrounded by so many practically naked men! Wow! The "nambas" is the kastom male dress - consists of a belt with a branch in the back to cover that side and a wee pouch for only one of the three on the front and everything else just hangs out! One poor guy lost his pouch as he landed so he got up and scampered off into the bushes to make a new one - arwkard!
And the females have just their grass skirts.

The dancing and chanting was a wee bit similar to Maori chants but pretty different too.

It was awesome getting to see another island - we hung out with another VSA who lives on Pentecost - its so isolated so he was stoked to see us all! aND just a grass runway so if it rains then you get stuck! And it rains about 90% of the time so we were real lucky! Wahoo!

It was handy being ableto speak some Bislama so I made a few friends with some of the young girls which was cool -so had a good chat about husbands and hobbies on the island...lol

So it was an awesome day - cool to see around, cool to see the naghol, and cool to meet more people! All the locals were sitting on the beach as we ate our lunch so we gave them some stuff - some ice from the bottles. It was unreal - i dont think they had ever seen ice before and they were holding it, andpassing it round, and sucking it, and looking at it....quite confused i think...and then we gave them some (precious) apple but they really weren't too impressed with that and just held it...but typical cute island kids! Loved having their photos taken and then looking at them. Lots of amazing coloured rocks on the beach too.

Yea - this place is cool! And been practising all night for performing a song at a scripture union combined schools service tomorrow morning so that should be fun! Me with 4 local friends from youth group so its fun.

Right, will email more later!
Love much, god bless,
Miri

Sailing!

Here are a few pics of the sailing kids, and the race last weekend...

Have had a good weekend, very quiet. Have been hanging out with youth group all day today practising for the album which starts getting recorded tomorrow night! Wahoo! Should be good!

And the yachts have started arriving from everywhere this weeek so i weent for a walk along the waterfront and checked them all out! Really nice place here when there are a few nice looking yachts in the harbour!

Prayer requests - that i would stay teachable! Im learning so much, i need to be like a big sponge to make good use of it all! And that God would continue to sustain and surprise me!

Love you all, miss you,
Miri

Olsem wanem?? Mi olraet. I'm always amazed when I'm teachin english how foreign my own language sounds! You know when you repeat a word over and over and it turns into just a sound - its like that when im trying to get them to say a new word. It has no meaning for them, so its just this wierd sound......sorry, random thought!

Had first opti session on saturday. The kids seemed to really enjoy it. We had about 5 knots on the lagoon so perfect for them to test out sailing! So i think they're all keen to come back again - which is great!

Sunday I was aboard a yacht for the weekly race which was awesome. Had a good 15=20kts and it was so good to be out on a boat again, feelin the wind, standing on the bow cruising through the waves! So looking forward to this sunday for the next race! Wahoo!

Had a ni-van who had been working in NZ come and isit me at work which was cool! He had been hanging out in Cromwell so he came to say hi from the Buxtons which was cool!

I saw a preview of Wan Smolbags new show the other day. It addresses domestic violence and black magic so it was really interesting to see. Some of my mamas who come to literacy class said how realistic it was to what their married life was like! Also told me that my marriage would be the same (i decided not to get married!!) But very cool to see, its a pretty powerful play - so hoping it goes down well with the public when its shown publically.

Hey thinking of y'all, hope its not getting too cold at home! We're down to 26 degrees and 70% humidity so its really plesant at the moment! Love it.

My friends!

Hey lovely people, sorry i havent updated for a few days, work has been sooo busy! And flip its a shock having to work all day after a fairly cruisey student life...but am excited to be achieving small (very small) victories, and am getting to know how I act under stress and frustration quite well which can only be a good thing...

Here are a few pics of around the place - Leina and I, and Joana (a youth)Joana is going to come to sailing lessons (wahoo!) so very excited about that!

Its school holidays this week, and somehow the word got out that we were running free computer classes so monday morning we were swamped with kids wanting to take classes - soo its been crazy busy trying to fit everyone in, and find enough tutors,and keep parents happy! Have had some positive feedback from the start of the youth committee and already have a HUGE list of things they want me to go through with them...so thatll keep me busy! Hockey games starting up next week which should be cool...literacy going well.....its all just happening!! But when theres so much on its crazy cos we are under staffed - well...if everyone did their bit and tunred up to things we might be right, but they dont so it means there one or two doing huge amounts, and the others do not much. So leina and I have been planning new approaches to running things to try ease some of the pressure. I guess its a good thing when classes are full...but busy!

Please pray that i would have wisdom in dealing with everything to make sure i do a good job with it all! I knowive got to learnalong the way but i dont want to let them down either, so im trying to get things right. But support for that would be much appreciated!

Hockey 1, Hockey 2...

These are a few pics from the hockey open day we had - a great success really. Formed some teams which will start a competition next week which is exciting. And sailing starts next saturday (wahoo!!)

Write more when im in a writing mood - love and hugs, me

kastom dancing and pasta...

Monday night I sung in an Island Night!! Youth Group were singing at a fundraiser night, so i was there too, swaying and clapping, and singing my bislama - a very fun night really! And they did kastom dancing which was cool to see. It was kinda of a mix of a haka type dance but with real retro dance moves in the middle of it, with flashing lights and upbeat chanting. Very cool to see!

Yesterday was Labour Day here so i did some relaxing, read a book, and went to Leinas house for tea. It was so nice to visit, to see where she lives. The girls we took to Easter Camp live next door to her and were keen to hang out again so we played some guitar and then ate together. I showed Leina how to cook Pasta and she loved it and was soo stoked (not sure if its a good thing...) so hopefully they wont eat that every night now! Funny though!

Shes gone to Santo (another island) for the week to visit the youth centre there (part of this one) so shes left me with all her keys, and instructions, and lists of things to do! So its good!

Taught youth group Mighty To Save (song by hillsong) which was cool the other night too. Good to be getting amongst it.

Anyway, hope you having a great day when you read this!
God bless,
Miri