As I wrote recently, we have been spoilt with our many visitors at Talua this year compared with last year. This pattern seems to be continuing. Most recently we have enjoyed the company of 2 NZ Pressie ministers here for a week to deliver a series of lectures to staff and students. We were delighted to share some meals with Martin and Phil and I think they enjoyed their experience of Talua and Vanuatu. Their wisdom from years pastoring and experiences of the church in NZ were challenging and well received by staff and students alike.
Today we have had a surprise visit from two New Zealanders whom Jon met up with while in town. They were Bishop Richard from Nelson and Father Dale from Havelock. Both have strong connections to our families and home town in NZ – it's a small world! They have been in Vanuatu doing some work for the Church of Melanesia and so it was a real bonus for them, and us, that they could come out here to Talua to see where the local CoM Fathers are trained.
We also have a new neighbour to visit and have here for some meals. Larry is an American Peace Corps worker living in one of the Navota farm houses and working nearby with the Fisheries Dept. He has just completed 2 years working on various community development projects on Tanna. He lived very much immersed in the local custom village life there in the Port Resolution region of Tanna. Many of the villages on Tanna have retained much of their tradition and customs so life for him was very basic. The house he is now living in at the farm is much more westernized than his previous home made of bamboo and thatch.
I have felt quite challenged by his way of life and the extent to which he was able to mix and live simply local style compared to us. Have we brought too much of our western living with us here to Vanuatu? Yes, our life is a lot more basic and simple here than in NZ and we don't have the materialistic strive to keep up with the Jones, but maybe that is because here we are "the Jones". Are we creating expectations and wants in others by them seeing the way that we live and what we have? Do we really need so many conveniences and 'goodies' to help us survive here?
Last year we visited our house girl, Madelyne, and her family at their home on Tangoa Is. We shared a meal with the family but were not invited into the home. My guess is that this is because working daily with us, Madelyne is acutely aware of what we have, what we eat, what we do, etc. and she felt her home didn't measure up. We would do our absolute best not to give any impression of looking down on her home or way of life, but maybe she didn't want either side to feel uncomfortable.
Recently, Jon bought an expensive brand of toilet paper when the usual varieties were out of stock. I was horrified to see that it cost almost as much for half a dozen roles of paper as Madelyne makes working for us 5 mornings in a week. Now that sounds terrible, but I must assure you that we pay Madelyne a good rate and help her in many other small ways as we are able to. We don't normally spend so much on toilet paper, but we do eat Western style and pay high prices for imported goods like milk, cheese, tinned goods and weetbix, as well as eating a lot more meat than most locals eat. Simon commented recently that we eat more chocolate here than we used to in NZ. He's right – at least for most of us – maybe Jon used to eat more in NZ than he does here! He would say, however, that here it is mostly Australian chocolate which is nowhere near as good as NZ chocolate, anyway! Simon has been particularly spoilt with chocolate this year with gifts for his recent 13th birthday including lots of chocolate that came with some of our NZ visitors. Chocolate is one of our treats here so when someone goes to town (usually once a week but recently a lot more often) they often bring some back. Jon would say that those little things help to make life bearable here – they are not so important to me not being a chocoholic!
Looking back as we pass the three quarter mark of our time in Vanuatu, could we have done things differently? I'm sure that we could be simpler in our style of living but we are not living in a village situation here. Talua is an unusual mix of traditional Vanuatu life (some students living in traditional huts and all the ni-van staff and students cook in outside bush kitchens over an open fire), and the Western necessities required for an academic institution in the 21st Century. English must be used for teaching as all textbooks and journals, etc are in English. Electricity from a generator /solar panels must be available for students/staff that are studying and working in the evenings. Computers need to be used for email, accounts, the library, student records and much more. As Talua develops its BD programme over the next few years computers will be increasingly used for internet research and producing work that can stand up to scrutiny by peer academic institutions. Personally we rely on having electricity and computers a lot for Jon's lecturing and bursar work, as well as the kid's school work through the New Zealand Correspondence School. We also rely on the communication tool of email and the internet to stay in touch with the rest of the world in general and more specifically our own family and friends.
So have we just done what we needed to do to help us survive while here, bringing our fridge, bread maker, microwave, laptops, dvd player, music, etc or have we been trying to be too Western and comfortable?? Good question and not easy to answer! There are 3 'white' families living here at Talua and each one is a little different in how they cope and how simply they live. I'm not completely comfortable with some of the lifestyle choices we have made but I am part of a family unit and we have to look after the needs of the whole unit. We wanted to bring our children here because of the myriad things they would learn from this cross cultural experience but we have tried to sweeten the pot a little, too at times. I should not be too hard on myself or us as a family. Ultimately we are only living here in Vanuatu for 2 years, and so the real question is how we will live when we get back to the materialistic world of NZ. Will we be different after our experience of living in this 3rd world nation? I hope so!
