one happy mum

Our eldest son Phillip arrived at Santo airport today from Blenheim, NZ. The photo says it all.

Canoe races, snakes and more visitors

Hi all, today is an exciting day as Phillip turns up for the school holidays.

In the garden right behind out house, some children were climbing a tree to get across to come coconuts and came across a snake. We first knew of this with a whole lot of yelling and excitement. Look at the photo, kids throwing rocks, coral, branches and coconuts into the tree and as you can see. Finally with a mixture of fear and excitement – the kids had their prey.




What was interesting was how everyone was scared of the snake. It took ages before anyone picked it up. Sheila (the student in the middle of the photo where two guys are holding it) would run away even if the snaked took a breath or winked an eye. Watching the students and children was more interesting than the snake……what with the shrieks and how everyone was so jumpy.




It was fascinating – especially since no snakes in Vanuatu are dangerous. Someone would touch the back of another person and they would jump – even if the snake was 10 meters in front of them.







The kids put the snake in a box, hoping it would be around the next day when Phillip arrives from NZ . Well – in the morning when they checked the box the slithery fella had escaped. So somewhere, out there is an angry snake. Often with their teasing of it it would lift its head and bare its teeth.



















SIL were here for the first two weeks of the term teaching students how to translate from Bislama to their own local language. So it meant less lecturing for me which was handy for getting paper work and more items for the new staff house sorted. The middle weekend they were here the Santo Students held a fund raiser down at Najingo, one photo is Ross from SIL taking a short devotional talk. The day included many canoe races from Najingo to Tangoa. I was not keen cos if things went wrong – I didn’t want to tangle with any sharks – when asking students why they didn’t race – they didn’t want to become shark kai kai either!





Last weekend was Talua Sunday. It’s the Sunday when all Talua students and staff preach in different churches around Santo. We went inland to Vunavos village. A bush mission student Helen came with us. She led the service and I preached. It is quite away inland so I took the motor bike to save us walking too far (carried us halfway there as the Talua truck took the others the first half and we all came back on the bike. It’s up hill as well as inland, we had some great views on the way.











take care and God Bless
Jon

Urgent prayer need for Dillon Boe

Hi guys,

 

You will be pleased to know that Dillon is out of hospital. I don’t really know what was wrong with him as many ni-van people seem to have a very naïve understanding of medicine. Daniel said it was some king of blood infection. Dillon will need to be careful for a while but will be OK.

 

So thanks for your prayers. My ankle is the same – at least it’s not worse.

 

Jon & Viv Parkes
Talua Ministry Training Centre
PO Box 242, Luganville,
Santo, VANUATU.
Photos while at Talua: http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~jvp/Talua/Talua.html 

Urgent prayer need for Dillon Boe

Hi guys, D4 Students Daniel and Margaret took their son Dillon for a check up yesterday as he had been a little bit ill for a few days. I was to pick them up at “Bamboo” later in the arvo for the return to Talua. When they didn’t turn up we went back to the hospital to find Dillon had been admitted with some kind of blood infection.

Now the hospital is kind-of scary, not cos it’s a hospital, but cos of the scary stories of poor medical procedure we have heard from various Talua staff and students (sometimes diagnoses made without any testing resulting in wrong diagnosis and procedures). The place is not that clean either, yesterday Margaret was sitting on Dillon’s bed and a massive cockroach was taking a stroll over the bed and across her dress, later it was watching us all from the wall.

This is a stressful time for Daniel and Margaret as last year their other son died from cancer. So if you are the praying kind of person, please pray for Dillon and his parents.

I need a few prayers on my behalf as well. I have a small ulcer on the inside of my right ankle. It started as a scratch when we were visiting Mota Lava but it is now a small hole. Cos it’s right on the bone there is not much flesh for circulation so healing will take some time. Also I am back to wearing a surgical stocking to keep the blood pumping – not that pleasant really since the temperature has risen in the past two weeks. So some prayer will be good.

Thanks

Jon

 

Jon & Viv Parkes
Talua Ministry Training Centre
PO Box 242, Luganville,
Santo, VANUATU.
Photos while at Talua: http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~jvp/Talua/Talua.html 

A week on Mota Lava

The reason for no blogs lately are varied. Been very busy with visiting teams and building the new staff house. Another reason is we spent a week up in the Bank Island's - staying with Bishop Charles and Mary Ling on Mota Lava. The first photo is from the south looking up the east side. In the photo people are waiting for a boat to drop of cargo into a small dingy that will then bring the goods ashore. The supply boat was the first one to the island in around 5 months. And for some reason it was chocker with cement for building projects on various islands and therefore did not have much room for food supplies. Many of the orders for supplies the small shops had made back in May and June - did not arrive. Charles had ordered a lot of stock for his small shop - he was heart broken as nothing arrived.
The next photo is also from the south but looking up the west side towards the airport (just off the edge of the photo). These four guys had been to their garden (a 2hr walk) and brought back some of the produce on their 'local trucks'. Right along this coastline rubbish from fishing boats and other vessels is scattered everywhere. The wheels for the 'local trucks' are bits of foam cut into wheel shapes - the foam was found washed up on the beach.
The day we left - Charles and Mary looked after us so very well. On the last night they killed a pig and we had a small feast. Charles and Mary's son, Father Tione Ling teaches with me at Talua. We also meet with Tione's inlaws - we visited them in their village and they came to the feast. At low tide we could walk to a small island called Ra. While there we met up with the parents and family of a student at Talua. So it was a good time, and I was reminded how the students live in the real world of Vanuatu - I think too often my views are based on the false impression of living at Talua and the busy life of Luganville and Port Vila which host less than 20 percent of Vanuatu's popluation. Yet even on Mota Lava DVD's of recent films are watched by the locals in the grass huts and a small generator running to power it all - so even in the remote parts of Vanuatu the west is encroaching.
Bishop Charles is very forward thinking and hard working. His section and house were lovely with a track down to the beach (right where the photo of the four boys and their local trucks was taken). Charles took us for an hour walk up into the bush in middle of the island, here he has a large "farm"(garden). Everything from plenty of Pineapple's, and lots of local island food, to Pepper and Vanilla. Also African Yam - which is the closest thing to Potatoes we can find on Vanuatu.
So the time at Mota Lava was great. The day we left we had a 5 hr wait at the airport on the island (a shed with no loo, and the air strip was overgrown with a guy mowing a part of it with a small lawn mower). A flight to the north from Santo had been double booked so our flight had to fly to an island and back to Santo before returning further north to pick us up. The airport is a 2 hr walk on the north end of the island - we went on the only working on the island to the airport - that took 50 minutes, that was 50 minutes of wondering well the wheels fall off (sounds very simular to Ambrym when the wheel did fall off the only ute when we arrived at the airport - back in 2005). The chassis of the ute was not in good shape so the vehicle did not drive straight - it kind of crabed along partly twisted.
Thanks for your prayers
God Bless
Jon
see more photos of while we are at Talua: http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~jvp/Talua/Talua.html