parked blog

latest family photos

2009-07-18T16:32:00.000+11:00

Hi, have put some photos up at http://picasaweb.google.com/jonviv

New Blog Started

2009-04-01T19:36:00.005+11:00

Hi - I have started a new blog related to St. David's Presbyterian Church, Richmond, New Zealand.

The Blog is http://to-chew-on.blogspot.com/
Hopefully there will be a weekly thing to chew on.

cheers and God Bless

Jon http://stdavidschurch.co.nz/

http://stdavidschurch.co.nz/index.htm

2009-03-17T06:48:00.000+11:00

It’s been over a year since the last blog.

We are now in settling into NZ life in Richmond Nelson.

Kids are at school – back into it. Vivienne looking for work and Jon is minister at St David’s Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Nelson.

http://stdavidschurch.co.nz/index.htm

God Bless

signing out

2007-12-01T05:07:00.001+11:00

its quiet
we leave Talua today
everyone in our house is asleep its 4am
maybe its not so quiet
i can hear devotions being sung from Ps Mata's house
also, the crickets are chirping, the bats are flying outside our bedroom again - the berry's are back in the tree, and the roosters are beginning to crow.

we went to bed last night with all our bags packed, ready to go,
the bus picks us up in under two hours, we fly south from Santo leaving Vanuatu in a few days,
the house is clean, the new staff house PCANZ paid for is finished and has been opened, it has been named "Heniko House", graduation 07 is over so my final talk talk at Talua complete - I was guest speaker. some students have left, others leave in the next week or so, several are staying at Talua cos boats to their islands are few and far between the students will stay over the summer break working at Talua till Feb 08 when it all begins again. by then two new kiwi's will be here living in Heniko House and we will be living somewhere in NZ.

there were tears in our family last night, the excitement that we are going back to nz had disappeared, much sadness over leaving behind close friends and leaving such a special place. my heart is heavy, saying bye to the new house, our house, the bursar office - spaces i needed or spaces i put a lot of energy into - last night i finally completed journaling all November transactions into the laptop before the generator went off, I only have December to complete when back in NZ. Thursday night i had to start the generator and turn it off two hours later - my last time at doing that, there have been plenty of 'last time' for this or that. no more long church services J, graduation was long but also gut wrenching shaking hands realizing this is the end, that some of these friends go back to the bush and I might never see them again, thank God for coffee in heaven and plenty of time to catch up and storian with mates, and thank God that heaven will not be very white at all but be filled with people of every race, nation and colour, white will be the minority - that will be good - heaven will have some character, soul, loud singing and charm that white people can't crank up. I'm going to miss being here, the whole family will miss being here.

God has been good, all the time, He has been good

this is Jon, signing out off from Talua

papa God bless you all
amen

Three weeks to go

2007-11-11T13:47:00.001+11:00

Three weeks to go and we will no longer be at Talua - that is creating many mixed feelings. Last night the children at Talua put on a farewell for Connie, William and Simon. It wasn’t last night, I should say it was yesterday, as most events here involve a day of preparation, where everyone comes together to prepare. It would be like having guests around for a BBQ, but they also all come around during the day to cook and prepare the food together, sitting under a tree organizing who will say what and being community together. I will miss that. I will miss many things. I will miss some things I don’t even know about. And yet I desire to get back to NZ. I am looking forwards to be “normal” again, to eat normal food, to not have students or staff knock on the door at 5:30AM asking for this or that in their roundabout way, to have good health care available, to not be ‘stared at’ as if we are strange, to be able go to a church service in English and enjoy theology that is developed and the list goes on, some things I can name, other things that are too hard to express. On the other hand we have feelings of hesitation about leaving due to the friendships made, the number of needs, the simple way of life and the knowledge that NZ life is hectic, materialistic and complicated. No doubt we will have some kind of reverse culture shock, probably not initially but later as we each slowly process things we have seen and experienced and decide to buck the NZ system, not wanting to lose certain aspects of life we gained or adsorbed in Vanuatu. What will make this hard is we will have absorbed some things that we don’t realise or are too difficult to articulate. Therefore no doubt we will have various times of frustration and not know why.

I preach for a call soon after getting back to NZ. That will be interesting, I wonder if I drop some Bislama in by mistake - not that my Bislama is very fluent.

I don’t want to be a successful minister - in the way the world see’s success, with numbers, flash clothes and slick church services. On the other hand I do want to be successful in the sense that people grow in their relationships with each other and God, and yes, there should be new converts but not cos of me but because peoples relationships with God and each other are richer. On the issue of success, from the world’s perspective Jesus Christ failed. He died when if he had kept alive he could have healed more, preached more, travelled more……..but he died. I think that somehow a minister has to die, die to the need for success, for slickness and sophistication where amazing programs are run and people come to church for entertainment, escapism and not true spiritual growth. One beauty of Jesus dying is he rose again three days later - no one else has ever done that! It confirms that profound words he spoke during his few short years of ministry were true and not just a kind of philosophy and clever sayings. It proved that to be successful one must die. Jesus said “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” I wonder if I will be able to die to self…………………

God Bless
Jon

PCV General Assembly 2007

2007-11-09T10:28:00.000+11:00

It was a privilege to attend the PCV GA.

Getting there was as much an adventure as the event, and getting back was a test of in patience.
Talua staff all ready to head off to the boat when we were told it was a day behind schedule.
24 hours later we arrived to find they were still loading cargo. After another four hours waiting we could board. Our luggage was loaded and piled up with a tarpaulin put over top. Then another tarpaulin put over us for sun protection. Before we boarded the skipper assured us the boat was safe and legal, and that there were enough life boats if we needed them. He also asked that once everyone was settled, they stay put due to the overcrowding.

So everyone found a space, lying or sitting on cargo, or luggage, a few seats in the back and some sitting on 44 gallon drums of fuel. At around 8pm we headed off, with most people trying to get some sort of sleep.

I had been told before that one normally sleeps 10 minutes at a time, waking up and going back to sleep for another 10 minutes repeating the process for the whole night. Up till around midnight I used a 44 gallon drum as a kind of pillow – I got my 10 minutes doze now and then. Around 1AM I was given one of the crew bunks, and I managed longer than 10 minutes at a time, getting up around 5AM.

Upon waking it was a pleasure to see the day would be a cracker and we were passing Ambae Island. Breakfast crackers and mugs of tea were passed around for breakfast.

Two hours later we arrived at the very north of Pentecost and the day’s journey down the cost of Pentecost began.

The barge dropped off supplies to the scattered villages down the cost of the island.

Drums of fuel would be tossed into the sea, a crew member would then hold the drum as a small dingy would go inshore.

The cargo unloaded was a mixture of items; iron, cement, food and clothing were loaded onto two small dinghies’ to be delivered to the villages.

As we made our way down the island, crew looked out for smoke rising from any beach, the smoke being a sign that a village had cargo to be loaded onto the boat.

We spent the daylight hours going down the coast of Pentecost. This frustrated some of the people travelling to the assembly but I enjoyed the boat trip as the weather was nice, the sea was calm and Pentecost is a beautiful island.

We arrived at North Ambrym in the dark, more cargo was unloaded and loaded before we headed for South East Ambrym, arriving around 1AM. It took 2 hours to unload all our bags and selves into the small dinghy’s which then navigated through the reef landing at Moru Village. It was a very special feeling to arrive at Moru. In 2005 I helped build water tanks and in 2006 helped paint the church roof. The first voice I heard was Ps Jackson – it was a joy to meet him again and hear his familiar voice. We then hopped on a truck and headed off to Utas. It felt great to be back to South East Ambrym, seeing familiar faces and places. I got to bed around 3:30AM and up again at 5AM as the day kicked off with showers, breakfast, and the opening of the assembly. It was a good thing our boat got us there in time for the opening as the PCV moderator was on our boat.

I enjoyed being at the GA, it gave me hope for the future of the PCV because there are plenty of keen & committed pastors. When praying together I sensed the Holy Spirit (it can’t have been too much coffee in my system – I only had one cup a day). I did find the meeting procedure tedious but when a lot of people can’t read, the previous days minutes have to be read out, word for word.

One highlight was the daily Bible studies – the theme was Evangelism. The speakers were good with their talks leading to good discussion in the small group sessions. Many of the issues talked about are issues PCANZ congregations need to be thinking about.

The living conditions at GA were basic, although (thanks to St. Ninian’s Church, Blenheim); there was a sit down long drop available as well as the plenty of swat hole toilets). The shower was not very private and the water only worked now and then so I came home a bit smelly! My accommodation was a temporary thatch hut with a thatch floor and I could see the sky though the thatch roof. There was no door – just a curtain.

The food was OK but as time went on I think the cooks got a little tired – who wouldn’t having to cook around 400 people? When it rained – and it rained a lot near the end – it must have been very unpleasant to cook for so many people on open fires.

The evening before I was due to fly out it started to rain. A couple of tropical depressions turned up (a high out towards Fiji and a low out towards Aussie) and so it blew and poured for the next few days. The grass airstrip was closed until five days later, so my time at GA was nearly doubled.

The main meeting hall was a temporary structure with thatch walls and a corrugated iron roof - the iron just sitting there with concrete blocks holding it down. When the rain began people would be shifting around trying to dodge drops of water. After one particularly heavy downpour, we thought our huts and everything inside them would be soaking but amazingly not much water ended up inside the thatch roofed huts. This surprised me because I could see daylight through the roof of my hut. Some groups did have small streams of water flow through their huts but a bit of digging soon stopped that.

The rain caused damage on South East Ambrym. The main road to the airport had a 15meter wash out. On the way to the airport climbing down and back up out of the wash out on foot was a little tricky. The water supply was also cut off, most likely due to the dams being clogged up with ash (happens every big rain), and presumably pipes lying in the creek being damaged from flood debris.

So I got back to Talua, five days late but it didn’t matter – it was a blessing to attend and spend time with neat people.

God Bless
Jon

blog blong Vivienne: Good Sports in Vanuatu

2007-10-26T11:43:00.001+11:00

I miss being able to watch sport while we are living here in Vanuatu. I am an enthusiastic sideline supporter of our kids' sport in NZ and watching some TV sports coverage is an enjoyable form of relaxation for me. We cannot pick up any broadcast TV here without a satellite dish. So I was a bit sad to miss coverage of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games last year and I had thought that 2007 would be another bad one to be without televised sports coverage. Remember how much promise there was at the beginning of the year with the prospect of the Cricket, Rugby and Netball World Cups approaching and finally another chance to bring back the Americas Cup? Now, of course, we realize that it was false promise only and the prospects of the Netball World Cup yet to come are looking less than rosy.

We couldn't watch the rugby or even listen to radio commentary. The best that we could do for the recent AB's- France game was go to a website that updated the progress of the game and gave brief written comments on the action every few minutes. This was agonizingly slow at our internet speed, especially as the end of the game drew near and the score wasn't looking good. Any way perhaps the less said about that the better. There is a good side to being out of NZ in this 'Year of Sport', and that is not to be subjected to endless analysis and recriminations in the fall out after the All Blacks' failure.

I must share with you, however, one of the Bible readings which was read out at church here on that black Sunday morning (Bear in mind that these readings have been planned since the beginning of the year and almost no one follows rugby here anyway).

Lamentations 3 v19 – 26 talks about downcast souls, bitterness and gall, but also turns to hope and waiting quietly. How appropriate as another 4 years of waiting begins. Perhaps a bit less boasting about being the best in the world and a bit more waiting quietly to demonstrate it on the field might be in order for 2011.

So while we may not be able to see
the cut and thrust of the world's professional sport, there is still plenty of cut and thrust sporting action around here, too. I am amazed at the variety of sport and games that the children of the Talua community here play together. They often organize themselves into team games with complex rules without any adult input. And the games usually involve children of a wide variety of ages, and both genders, all playing together, even if the game needs the best sporting skills for success.

Sometimes it is a local version of a well known game like Bat and Ball, which is like rounders or softball but utilizing whatever type of ball or bat is handy. Or 'Stonem man long middle', which is a type of Dodgeball. There are also distinctly Vanuatu games like Shell Coconut which utilizes a stack of empty coconut shells which must be knocked down by a thrown ball and restacked before all members of the other team are tagged and out.

Whichever game is the game of the moment, that game tends to be played to death for a few days or even a week or so. Then it is dropped and not played again for months. There are also less structured games like the war games that the boys were playing a while back. Of course with this game much of the fun was in the preparations with all manner of weaponry being constructed from bush materials or whatever bits and pieces could be scavenged. When played, this game involved lots of tearing around the houses and in the surrounding bush, hiding out, laying in wait, and of course 'killing' others.

Whatever game is being played there is no such thing here as a quiet game. All games are accompanied by HEAPS of noise – enthusiastic yelling, shrieks, complaints of cheating, claims that someone is not actually 'out' or 'in', name calling and insults... This even applies to games like cards or marbles which are fiercely competitive and in the case of marbles or elastics, are almost never 'friendly's. Mostly this is all noise, but occasionally a game will end acrimoniously when the obligatory cheating gets too hard to take. I wonder how our children will adjust to refined, self-controlled games back in NZ. Games with refs and rules that must be adhered to, and where you can't hurl verbal abuse at your opponents (and then be best friends with them afterwards, of course!).

The game of 'elastics' is one that has remained popular here for a month or 2. It involves the acquisition of rubber bands. It is played on the concrete (especially under our veranda if the weather is wet) or on a clear patch of ground. It involves throwing a rubber band down in turns and trying to overlap your band over those of your opponent to claim those bands for yourself. There are complex additional rules that I really haven't got my head around. The bands are available quite cheaply in town and it is played all over the region. Some people (like Simon) accumulate great chains of bands, and some people (like Simon) sell on their winnings to other less skilled players who keep losing all theirs. I feel the 'elastic season' may be on its way out as just lately the bands have been used more for flicking at people than playing the game! I guess that was inevitable!

I should also briefly mention the 2 main 'official' sports that are played here in Vanuatu. Every week the students have about 1 ½ hours to play sport together on a Thursday afternoon. This is traditionally Volleyball for the women and Soccer ( football) for the men. Occasionally the genders swop codes or play something else but not often. If ever there is a gathering of people, for example Independence Day celebrations or big fundraisers, these almost always include volleyball and football competitions. Even small villages in the bush will send teams to such events. Interestingly there isn't as much vocalization going on by the supporters watching these games. You don't hear very much cheering of the home teams on – although there will be plenty of laughter if someone makes a fool of themselves by falling over or scoring an own goal, etc. Maybe the enthusiasm of the kids' is tempered a bit as they grow older. It will remain a strong memory for me as one of the 'Sounds of Vanuatu'. I wonder if the children will be conscious of the difference when they return to school and sports teams in NZ?

one happy mum

2007-09-22T18:41:00.000+11:00

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

Canoe races, snakes and more visitors

2007-09-22T10:54:00.000+11:00

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

2007-09-18T17:01:00.000+11:00

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

2007-09-15T07:37:00.001+11:00

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

2007-09-06T00:40:00.000+11:00

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

More Comings and Goings - by Vivienne

2007-08-22T20:18:00.001+11:00

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 13^th 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 21^st 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 3^rd world nation? I hope so!

Comings and Goings

2007-07-30T09:48:00.001+11:00

It has been a busy time of late at Talua and our home, with lot of people coming and going. The first of the New Zealand teams to come to Talua for the purpose of building a new staff house arrived at the end of June. They were a mixed age team from Katikati and they enjoyed a great time here, making steady progress on the first stages of the house building. They also spent time with the women's programme, the kindy kids and 2 local schools. They were hosted by student and staff families and ate their meals with the single students. They built up wonderful relationships with many people here and no doubt both sides learnt heaps from each other.

Just before they left, William and I went to Australia for a short break in Brisbane. We met up with Jon's sister, Raewyn and stayed with kiwi friends there. This was a continuation of a family tradition of each niece and nephew having a turn for a special trip with Raewyn. We had a good break and enjoyed a taste of normal life for a while. William went with the aim of getting up close and personal with koalas and enjoyed a wonderful day out at a wildlife sanctuary where hands on contact was encouraged with kangaroos in particular and we have wonderful photos of William holding a koala. He also got to spend a lot of time on the play station which was also a real treat for him!

While we were away, our places in our home were filled by a couple from Australia. They came to Talua as part of a small team doing some field work associated with their study to become bible translators. Jon managed to cope marvellously with hosting Mel and Shane and they enjoyed their time here.

Also arriving just before we returned was the Mission Partners team from Australia. Some members of this team have been faithfully making twice yearly visits for a number of years, gradually working on Talua's new library. It is hoped that the new library will be able to be opened early next year after another work party comes at the end of the year.

Last Sunday our family was also pleased to be able to welcome my brother Stuart who made his first visit to Vanuatu to come to see us and look around a bit. The weather, which has been wet, wet and more wet recently around here did improve a bit for Stuart's visit and he had opportunities to go diving on the wreck of the President Coolidge and at Million Dollar Point, go horse trekking and take local motorbike rides and swims. He had a taste of what life is like for us here and then on Sunday left to try out some of Vanuatu's other delights. He was also privileged to be part of the farewell of the Aussie team and also the welcome of the next Kiwi team.

That's right – no sooner had one team gone, but the next one arrived this time coming from Canterbury to do the next stage of the new staff house. This team of men hopes to get the roof on the house. They are also billeted with staff and students, with one man coming to share meals with us for the next 2 weeks. We hope that the weather will hold for them. They look to be a hard working, hands-on team who will get plenty done, weather and circumstances permitting.

Phew, it is definitely the time of year when people make the most of cooler conditions to come to Vanuatu. We enjoy the company and stimulation of new faces as it helps to break the routine of being here. We have to say that we particularly like to have Kiwi visitors – there is just an automatic connection there even if we have never met before! We were a little starved of kiwi contact last year, but this year has made up for it. Still to come, in September is another team to work on the staff house – hopefully to come close to completing it. This group is from Rotorua. We are also very much looking forward to Phillip coming in September. We miss him being together with us here – although he is having such a good time in NZ that he really doesn't miss us much.

Everyone appreciates the contribution that these visiting teams make to Talua as a whole and to individuals. Talua would not survive without a lot of outside support. We get a bit "feasted out" though, after all the welcomes and farewells, and feel for the cash-strapped students having to contribute so often. This is another interesting part of our lives at Talua in 2007.

No phones

2007-06-25T15:09:00.000+11:00

Anyone trying to contact us – the phones have gone down at Talua. They went down on Saturday and have not started working yet. This email is from Luganville.
The first Katikati team arrived last Saturday and are fantastic people mixing really well.
God Bless
Jon

blog blong jon ulcer update / sports Day / raining kiwis

2007-06-17T08:25:00.001+11:00

Well the ulcer is fully closed over so no more stockings. Thanks for your prayers. Also thanks to Andrew and Susie - medical staff at Wairau Hospital.

Yesterday was the Talua Sports Day. It's a fundraising day by the sports committee (committee this committee that - they love meetings here, in fact I think they think that that is all an ordained person is to think about - committee meetings for this that and the other thing). It was a tad wet - bucketing down - but that didn't dampen the fun or the arriving soccer and volleyball teams. With island music blaring in the background, plenty of soup (meat stewing in the pot), stickmeat (kebabs without the marinade), rice rice everywhere, green coconuts for drinking, cakes, popcorn and laplap - yesterday was an agreeable day. In the evening we cranked up our data projector and everyone watched one and a half movies before the generator was turned off. We also watched video footage from the sports day - that created a lot of laughs.

How not to kill a bullock! Talua does not have a rifle, and the Navota Farm manager was away this week in Port Vila - he usually does the shooting. So on Friday, students in charge of killing the bullock spent most of the afternoon chasing one with an axe. What did that stress do to the meat you ask? I went to the kitchen and paid for the fillet and striploin cuts… … … as tough as boots, just like the stew and stickmeat at the sports day. At least our jaws had a good workout at the sports day. The rest of the week has been pretty normal with teaching continuing and all bursar work up-to-date.

The week before last it rained Kiwis and at the end of next week it will begin to pour down. The head honcho of the NZ Pressie Church - Martin Baker (Assembly Executive Secretary), Kerry Jones (Office Manager for the Global Mission Office & one of my bosses) and Ross Davis (Director Youth and Community Projects BGI) visited South Santo. I nearly got them stuck in mud with the Talua truck when out and about on Navota Farm. They had a look around Talua and Navota but were too chicken to swim to Tangoa Island … … I wonder why, and I am still not sure why Kerry wore high heels when visiting a farm … … but it is was great to have them visit. On Friday we escorted them to Arore Island for a swim in the resort's pool and some western kai. It was a hard job but someone had to do it!

Next Saturday 6 kiwis fly in from Katikati to begin work on a new staff house for Talua and then a week later 20 more drop in from the same church. If you are the praying kind of person, pray that all the building materials are here when we need them - because that seems to be the hardest thing to keep organised. The Talua students are making the concrete blocks but time is running out and we need plenty more. Prayer for safety would be a good thing as well.

God bless

Jon

Game Fishing

2007-06-13T14:46:00.000+11:00

Geoff (from Seascape Charters) helping William bring in a massive Barracuda. Vivienne and Liz watching on. South Santo in the background.

The 18kg Yellow Fin Tuna

Liz with her Mahimahi. It was a good day. For more infomation see the blog called Clay Pots and Tuna

The Journey.........to Wusi and back

2007-06-13T14:25:00.000+11:00

Marshall's Ute - thats THE UTE!

The rugged West Coast between Tasiriki and Wusi, Santo Island, Vanuatu.

The famous Wusi Clay Pot (ground pot)

Back at Tasiriki, looking back up the coast line and that is the dinghy we went in. Wow - what a journey!

Clay Pots and Tuna!

2007-06-13T13:44:00.000+11:00

Ulcer update: Your prayers are appreciated as the ulcer is nearly closed over - only a few more days of changing the dressings regularly and wearing surgical stockings.

It’s the trip, not the destination! It was great to have my sister (Liz) visit a couple of weeks ago. One reason being it was a good excuse for us to get out and about and do some of the tourist stuff. One adventure was a trip Wusi village. I’d had it in the back of my mind for a year or so, it’s just the getting there as that is not easy. Wusi is a very remote village halfway up on the rugged west cost of Santo. Accessible only by a 12 hour walk from the end of the road or a 2 to 3 hour precarious journey in a small dinghy up the dangerous coastline, from the end of the road. We took the dinghy option.

Over all - the destination was not the highlight - it was the actual trip, the getting there and back that was such an experience, it was fun, new, scary, wow, weird, friendly, beautiful, breathtaking, and real-good-to-get-back-in-one-piece sort of an experience!

First was the Ute trip to the end of the road. One of the current Bush Mission students, Ps Marshall Ray (of the Protestant Church), drove us the 2 ½ hour trip to the end of the road to a village called Tasiriki. Early on the Saturday we jumped into Marshall’s Ute and oh………what a Ute. The deck was tied on by one piece of rope (or the deck would tip up); there were no windows (so when it rained we got wet); the windscreen wipers were not there (so when it rained Marshall stopped in a creek to wash the screen for our 2½ hour trip back in the dark); the radiator leaked and did not have a cap (so when passing through a creek Marshall would refill the radiator and a spare water bottle); there was only one headlight (it had to be switched on from the outside by twisting a few wires and giving the fuse a bit of a shake, at least the headlight worked!); some of wheels would come loose (every now and then Marshall would get out and tighten the wheels), the starter motor did not work (Marshall never turned the ute off until we got to the end of the road and then he parked it back up the hill a little); and then there’s them breaks, Marshall stopped at one village in the middle of nowhere and replaced a break drum part he had left at this village previously. The part had no break mechanism inside of it but at least it meant the wheel stopped coming loose. I asked Marshall how many breaks were working and he replied one on the front and one on the back.........no worries!

On arrival at Tasiriki we asked around for a dingy and skipper for hire. After waiting two hours a 5meter dingy turned up (had a 25hp outboard) and we set off in the ocean up the rough West Coast of Santo. It was a highlight to see the coastline, with villages scatted along here and there, (some that Talua students come from). On the hills, halfway up certain ridges in the jungle we could see smoke rising where people were no doubt clearing new gardens. Along the coast, in places there were beaches with the occasional dugout canoe pulled up above the high tide mark, other places sheer cliffs with nowhere to land.

We were fortunate because our boat was the fastest one based at Tasiriki and that meant only a two hour trip. Some boats take up to four hours for the journey, we past two other dinghies that were also heading north. None of us wore lifejackets, we were exposed out the ocean and yet it was just a normal journey. After two hours of hugging the coastline (most of the time) we arrived Wusi.

Wusi is just another village, but very dry compared to anywhere else in Vanuatu. Why go to there - it is the only place in Vanuatu where they continue to make clay pots the traditional way. So we spent time watching a pot being made. Clay is gathered from land near the village - an alluvial plain. There are no potters wheels spinning, just the shaping of the clay into a ball by hand, then hitting the clump onto ones knee to get the basic pot shape, then using a bamboo spatula to create the rest of the pot including patterns and decorations. They leave it to dry for a month or so before red coloured clay (found high in the mountains) is used for colouring. Then it is time for the firing process in a earth oven. For this a heap of wood it burned to heat up rocks in a hole (like a NZ Hangi), the pots are place in the hole on top of the hot rocks before being covered with a heap of Bamboo - the Bamboo ignites, there is a huge fire and the kilning process is finished. We purchased a number of pots, had a bite to eat and then began the intrepid journey back to Tasiriki.

The trip back was into the waves and therefore more uncomfortable. When the waves were at their biggest I did turn around to gage the expression of the driver, and he had a huge smile and gave me the thumbs up. Obviously this was normal weather although Liz and Vivienne thought I was trying to drown them and Connie was freaking out for a while until Vivienne turned counting the bigger waves into a game. Simon, William and I just enjoyed being "out there", as well as the rugged coast and feelings of remoteness, we saw a Turtle swimming by and flying fish with one in mid air for a over 30 meters. It rained a bit of rain. When we got back I lifted up the fuel tank it was empty - the driver judged the amount of fuel needed to the last drop! We were all smiles and a tad relieved.

After that it was the return 2 ½ hour drive in the dark to home. On the way we stopped at Marshall’s village so I could take a family photo for them. In some ways the ute trip was just as dangerous and eventful as the dinghy trip. The road was incredibly rough, at times the wheels spinning and slipping flat tack to get us up a steep section of the “main road”, there were river crossings, ford crossings and careful monitoring of on coming vehicles with only one headlight shining - in fact if you see one headlight over here, it means a ute, not a motorbike. We also stopped for each oncoming vehicle to talk to the driver, this is the custom whether on foot or in a vehicle, to exchange where one has come from and where one is headed.

In all a memorable day with the journey being the highlight rather than the destination.

Tuna! The other tourist activity we experienced during Lizz’s visit was game fishing - we went out for an 8 hour charter. It was a tad rough at times - one of us managing to spray the skipper with vomit, he was working at the stern of the boat when the seasick person was leaning over the side halfway up being sick, the wind spraying the skippers. But in all, we thoroughly enjoyed the day, catching plenty of fish that we brought back to Talua for all students and staff to have a good feed that night. All of us caught fish with a total of 11 Yellow Fin Tuna (one was 18kg), one Mackerel Tuna, three big Barracuda, and a Mahi-mahi. I also hooked up a huge Marlin - I couldn’t believe how hard it was to wind in with my arms were getting tried. After several minutes winding the Marlin was off again, with plenty of line going out further and further. I started again bringing it in when some of the others in the boat saw it jump out of the water about 500m away (just like on the fishing programs on TV), then the line broke, right up by the trace so perhaps its own sword cut it, that's what the skipper seemed to think - he lost his $150 lure. It was a great day!!! At one stage when heaps of fish (including Yellow Fin Tuna) were having a surface feeding frenzy, we saw a very big Shark enjoying the easy prey, its fin poking out of the water as it swam around. Later we also saw a pod of Dolphins - they were smallish so we think they were Hector Dolphins - they swam with us for a while.

Add to all that - Liz being is a top chief - she cooked us up a treat that night!

Mate its hard work working for the Boss.

Boss bless

Jon

Blog Blong Jon: Bali / Ulcer / Term Two

2007-06-02T09:33:00.000+11:00

It has been a long time since posting to this blog. The main reason is I had to go to NZ to get the Tropical Ulcer on my ankle under control and before that, we had the difficult task of just having to go to Bali for a conference - such a hard task! We are all well and my ankle is slowly getting better.

The time in Bali was great. Thank you mum and dad (Judith and Basil) for coming to Talua and putting up with hot humid conditions and looking after the kids so we could relax at a hotel in Bali. We thoroughly enjoyed the Council for World Mission (CWM) Global Missionary Gathering. There were 65 missionaries present from UK, India, Caribbean, Pacific Islands, Taiwan, Africa, Singapore, Korea, New Zealand & Australia, of which 2/3 were non-white! Having so many different cultures and ways of being gave the gathering a depth and richness that spoke of the Kingdom - and to be honest - gave a glimpse of the truly colourful display of cultures and peoples that are and will be gathered-around-the-throne. Being white it was great to be among the minority.

One themes of CWM is ‘Everywhere to Everywhere’. So at the gathering there were people from UK working in Africa, people from Africa working in Caribbean and people from Caribbean working in UK and so on – a full circle.

Even though my ankle was very sore during that time, Viv and I got to see parts of Bali, Viv saw more than I did (she even had a go at paragliding one day) and CWM organised a tour for us to see various places of interest. We enjoyed convenience of hot water, power, air conditioning etc. and managed to see some of the scenery and experience the hawkers telling us we need to buy this or that because it would bring us good luck!

At the gathering various people spoke, it was good to learn more of the history of CWM and future thinking. There was also time for conversations. It was special to hear so many different stories of the good things the CWM missionaries are doing, and hear some of the hard conditions they have to work in - life at Talua is a picnic. It was sad to have to say goodbye and yet we are all thankful for the rich experience of the gathering.

At the time my ankle was still very sore and even though the idea of going to NZ to get it checked had never occurred to Viv or myself, some of the doctors at the gathering advised us my ankle needed more specialised attention. We travelled back to Talua and after a few painful days decided I should go. The three weeks in NZ coincided well with the Talua exam week and two weeks term break.

The highlight in NZ was spending time with Phillip, he is doing really well, going to three different youth groups, and enjoying the lively singing at Elim Church in Blenheim. I also enjoyed meeting up with so many old friends and family. It seemed a long time to be away but the ulcer only started to reduce in size during the last week before coming back. Since then thankfully the ulcer has reduced in size each week - ½ml and 1ml respectively - so at that rate it will be cleared up in 4 - 6 weeks time. Viv is great, patiently changing the dressing twice a day and I have the privilege to dress in ‘Drag’, wearing a surgical stocking to keep the circulation pumping down on the ankle. Another good thing is it is no longer painful.

Term Two has kicked in and we can’t believe two weeks have gone already. Last week has been a lot of fun doing special “tourist” like things because Elizabeth (my sister) visited us. More on that action in the next blog!

God Bless and thanks for your prayers.
Jon

In Bali

2007-04-17T16:05:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone
We (Jon and Viv) are in Bali at the moment for a CWM Global Missionary Gathering. It is great except Jon has a major health problem, a "tropical ulcer" on his ankle and he might have to go back to NZ for it to come right. Please pray for Jon.

We get back to Vanuatu on 23rd April.

God Bless
Jon and Viv

Tsunami Warning 2nd April

2007-04-05T04:03:00.000+11:00

Tsunami Warning
I do not want to take away from the sadness of what happened in the Solomon’s last Monday as a result of the earthquake and following tsunami………that was tragic.

The following is our experience of the tsunami warning for Vanuatu on Monday 2^nd April 2007.

Last Monday I was in the middle of teaching a class when mama Cindy came to the room looking all worried and asked me to take the old Talua truck to the local school (Tata) and collect all the kids blong Talua students......as there was a tsunami warning.

This warning message arrived around 10:40AM from a nephew of the principal – not an official warning. He said he had heard on the radio a tsunami was expected around 11AM. So it was off to the school in the old blue Talua truck driving it as fast as possible with one eye on the ocean in between the coconut palms. Got to the school to find they had just heard as well……not from the Government Disaster Centre but the boyfriend of the school secretary had rang from Luganville.

Luganville was totally shut down, all shops, banks and whatnot closed for the whole day. On Tuesday when chatting with a few Luganville shop owners, one had known about the tsunami warning from around 9:30AM while another was working in her shop at 10:45 when a friend walking past asked her “why are you still open……..” Rather sad really……..what if there had been a big one.

At the school I asked the teachers what their tsunami warning procedure was...they didn't know, so I suggested they get all the kids up to the medical centre quickly, there was about 5 minutes before the 11AM deadline, the medical centre is on a rise about 10 - 15 meters higher than the school and only a 3 minute walk away. Well in the process of the teachers telling the kids, about a third of them (and some teachers) tore off into the bush helter-skelter back to their homes - potentially serious if there was a big one coming. It was emotionally upsetting seeing the kids run off towards their villages as if it was a big one…….……..their houses are along the beach (up a few meters but still at risk).

I drove the Talua kids back to Talua and we waited. Viv listened to NZ radio and it sounded like the wave would have hit by the time we had had the warning - the earthquake was 7:30AM Vanuatu time…..we later found out the tsunami tidal surges actually arrived around midday.

When talking to folk in Luganville on Tuesday, some people went down to the wharf to see what would happen (not clever)…….about midday there was a strong unusual tidal movements, with the tide going out and then coming in, all much further than normal etc. It sounds like this happened about three or four times.
Back at Talua around midday, some staff and students took to the hills. Monday night some staff and students were still frightened and stayed ether in the hills or they went to Luganville to sleep in the hospital or houses on the hill. Later during the day we heard NZ radio say the wave would hit NZ in the late afternoon, we figured it was well past. Pastor Fiama (Talua Principal) was frustrated with the National Disaster Centre (he said it was the disaster), as he tried to ring them all day and never got a definite answer - either way, so he was quite worried all day not knowing what was happening.

The last time a big tsunami hit the Talua / Tangoa region in South Santo (sometime in the 60’s), it was during the night and no one was hurt. Back then it sounds like most people around here lived on Tangoa Island - which is reasonably high. People got up and went to the main land to work in their gardens and instead found fish and whatnot lying inland about 500 meters on the road. Today many of these people live in villages along the stretch of land where the water washed through………..where the school kids went running off to.

God Bless

Jon

couple more photos

2007-04-01T09:39:00.000+11:00

Getting ready for the movie Storm Breaker (part of Williams Birthday party). A good name after having Becky visit last Tuesday. The actual film was great, plenty of action and heaps of gadgets……the only problem was the DVD we had was a dud with the last 5 minutes of the movie missing.

So now it is quieter and things are kind of back to normal. In theory the bursar work should become more straight forward with less students around…….but I am discovering that things are not as simple as that and in the process of trying to help fix past financial errors I am finding it more and more weird. If you are the praying kind of person -wisdom would be a good thing to pray for me. Also health as I have an infection on my ankle (slipping over when checking the water supply a few weeks ago). The rest of the family are well. Yesterday Simon and William went catching fresh water prawns – they came in at tea time saying there was no need for tea as they had already had it, then they shot out the door again to watch Flubber at Mama Linda’s house. Connie was out most of the day, swimming and playing. Viv, Connie

Becky visited

2007-04-01T09:27:00.000+11:00

We had a visitor this past week. She arrived without warning around midday on Tuesday and left just after midnight. Becky was her name. She wasn't too bad. She caused a rough night with plenty of wind and rain but all in all she was a mild cyclone that ended up passing us on the west of Santo. A few trees fell over, knocking out the power at 8pm. But by midnight the wind was calming down. After dark the male students were split into 6 groups patrolling Talua until the storm settled. When they knocked on our door to check we were prepared.....it all seemed a bit of a joke to them. At least it was a mild one and we all slept fairly well.
In these two photos we are checking things for Becky. One photo we are about to go onto the roof to ensure the solar panels are fastened securely. The other Andy and I are sliding a sheet of timber along a window to protect it. Our own windows were not protected and if there is a next time I would find something to protect them from flying debris of branches, iron and whatnot. With only louver windows and fly screens for protection - they didn’t seem very secure against a cyclone. We even had water coming in through a porous section of the concrete block wall.

William turned 10 on Friday so we had pizza for tea on Thursday and lunch Friday (bought them from the Beach Front Resort this side of Luganville). American Hot Dogs for Friday dinner and Bacon and Eggs for Saturday breakie. Added to that William had friends around for a movie Friday night.
Its been a quieter week at Talua as Friday 23rd March the 67 Short Course Lay Ministry Students graduated and have left campus. Our water supply is now working properly again with about 70 less people consuming water. There is now room to sit in the dinning hall /church for services and devotions.

Graduation Day was a special day, starting at 4:45AM, taking photos of food (pig and bullock) preparation, teaching my normal English Classes and then after lunch the Graduation Ceremony. I took nearly 100 photos that day (and another 100 of students during the 6 week course) and spent until very late on Graduation day printing photos for students. The next morning I was woken by a student at 4AM and thought it was a tad early for more photos to be printed. But instead I was asked to drive the bus into town to drop students off……the bus driver was sick. So by 9:30AM I had completed two trips into town, and also spent an hour at the airport waiting for an arriving Certificate Two student – a tiring few days.

Its good to be back - sort of

2007-03-25T08:23:00.000+11:00

I am unsure why but I thought I uploaded this blog 4 weeks ago. Cos the internet is so slow out at Talua, we rarely check out our blog....instead we just send stuff to it, but during the last week we were asked if "parked" could be linked to www.laplap.com so I checked things. My initial blog for 2007 was missing. So have a read of 4 week old news.

Today we are OK. It still seems weird having Phill in NZ. Viv and I head to Bali for a Council for World Mission - Global Conference early in April, so we are starting to get ready for that (or at least think about it). My parents will come and look after the kids.

Anyway - here is the old blog that never made it

----------------

It’s been a while since writing to this blog. I am very grateful we had a long break in NZ cos it’s been flat tack once getting back. My job has changed, I am also the acting bursar, and it’s taking a while to suss everything, and reconcile who owes what, and a heap of other things.

What’s it like getting back”? This time round its all about commitment - there was no excitement on arrival (except it was good to get back, get back to work and back into “normal life” and meet familiar faces). In some ways I wonder if we noticed the differences more this time round because last time it was all exciting and so the differences were exciting but perhaps we didn’t fully realise what the differences meant, this time coming here life is normal, but vastly different to NZ and so the differences seem more acute. Even getting of the plane from NZ, the first thing to hit was how outside the heater had been turned on to high - the air was heavy and damp. I couldn’t remember that last year - although the kids said they did. Perhaps last year I was too stressed with taking the family on the wild adventure.

Regarding the weather, we have adjusted quickly this year - and to be honest it’s not too bad. Sure we sweat heaps - the bursar’s office does not have much air going through it and so just sitting buckets of sweat fall off - no need to go to a gym!

The day after we arrived in Vila from Auckland, we bumped into friends who live on Pama (translating the bible into local language). It was very good to meet up with them - we had lunch together - it really helped in feeling OK about coming back, because there are days when we wonder. Why? It can be lonely and hard, you know the kind of day you can’t be bothered to cook and takeaways would be sweet - we can’t have those days. We can’t jump in the car and pop down to see our mates. Perhaps Sundays are one of the hardest. Church is not innovative here and in NZ it’s a day to visit, touch base with mates at church and the beach and/or do other family things. Well Phillip is in NZ (enjoying himself from what his emails tell us), so we aren’t not a whole family anyway, and the number of “family things” we can do are limited. Walk to the beach or walk down the road or walk up the road - that’s it.

I am the fortunate one as I am busy. I don’t have time to miss western convenience. If you are the praying kind, pray for Viv and the kids. Pray that the kids make the most of this last year here and that they really enjoy it. Also pray for our health. Connie and William have sore throats and runny noses; and Simon and I have toe infections. About school, the new online correspondence school course for William and Simon is going well, but the learning curve is high for all of us - a few prayers for all this to be sussed quickly would be good.

Final thought
We are very grateful to people in NZ who made our NZ break so good. You have been such a blessing. Mum and dad - thanks for the use of the bach, it was good. Team Wright - thanks for shouting us to Parachute and the host of other things you helped us with. Diane (and John) you have a gift for thinking what would be useful - thanks for the things in the envelope. Bob and Barbara, your help saved us and the GMO lots of money, thanks for your great hospitality, you guys are amazing. To the GMO office - you guys keep us going, thanks. To many other St.C people and others I have forgotten about - thank you.

God Bless
Jon

Kids fun

2007-03-18T09:20:00.000+11:00

Connie and some of her friends dressing up.

As you can see - we have had plenty of sea food. A student borrowed our mask and snorkel the other day. The next morning he gave us this.
The kids still have plenty of fun. Here they are in the middle of gymnastics

Mould and fish

2007-03-18T08:56:00.000+11:00

This photo is of two IBM laptops I have brought for the students computer suit. One of them was stored on a shelf here Dec / Jan when we were in NZ. The other one we brought over with us in Feb. Look at how fast the mould grows. One wonders what’s happening inside. Anyway – they both work and I’ll will be setting up the computer suit next weekend after all the Short Course students leave Talua – with nearly 70 Short Course students, there is no room for the PC lab. By the way, if you are ever going to donate a laptop to somewhere like Talua, an 3rd world institution based in a humid climate. Don’t donate a brand new laptop – it’s a waste of money, the laptop would never be used to its full potential and the climate might kill it too quickly. Instead – donate a refurbished one – they are about a 1/3 of the price, get one that runs Windows XP so memory sticks work fine with no need for extra drivers. They work fine over here – that’s what we use.

Some fish we brought, (we just wish the supply was regular). Only NZ$14 dollars. Not bad. We had half and the Williamsons the other half. We also boiled the head to get another meal of fish meat. Talua brought another one for the singles. The day before Talua brought two more for the Short Course students – that was two weeks ago. Sadly there have been no more.

A good day at Aore

2007-03-18T08:39:00.000+11:00

Last Thursday we took the day off, spending the time at Aore Resort. A free boat trip over the canal from Luganville. If we have a meal at the resort we can swim in the pool, rest and go snorkelling around all the topical fish in the sea. It was good to get a way.

I have been flat tack with acting bursar work. People coming all the time for things to do with the bursar, light bulbs, nails, fuses, money and whatever else. Regarding the bursar work of sussing Talua’s finances (the cash flow), the cash flow physically is not good but at least we now know what is happening and what to expect.

The new focus at the moment is a healthier diet for the single students. When buying one of those big fish (see the photos I hope to put up soon), I spent sussing how much the singles meals cost, and discovered that last year they ate tined meat for every lunch and dinner. What is strange is fresh meat works out cheaper – of cours refrigeration is the problem. But with the bus goes into town every day – the new aim is for fresh meat for the single students each evening – and we can store a little meat in our 100 litre 12 volt fridge. No doubt this “change” will cause major problems cos any “change” here is-just-so-hard-to-deal-with. I do get tired of that.
Anyway – it was a good day at Aore!

some photos

2007-03-01T22:39:00.000+11:00

The photos below.

Some of the lads, getting the food out of the earth oven, ready for the opening 2007 feast. It is interesting how much food these guys eat -not a lot made it to the table. Perhaps that is why the guys eat last at the "feast"

The church/dining room was crowded for the opening service so some students and other people sat outside.

Back to new tricks, a banana tree fell on the power lines, stopping power to a part of Talua. Here I am fixing the problem - now which wire is + and which - ?

We had coconut crab for a meal - not bad at all. The restrictions on catching and eating coconut crab have been lifted this year for the first time in several years. Notice how brown they are before being cookd.

A few photos so far this year

2007-03-01T22:08:00.000+11:00

First Blog for 2007

2007-02-10T10:52:00.000+11:00

First Blog for 2007

I am sitting in the bursars office frustrated by the slowness of the internet and the fact that we don’t have our own phone line yet and now there is no dial tone at all so… time to write a blog.

It seems that we are straight back into life as we knew it at Talua a year ago. Straight back into the frustrating internet conditions described above (If Jon were not so busy that he hasn’t had time to be on the internet much, I’m sure that he would be pulling his remaining hair out by now), straight back into stifling heat with high humidity, so hot that you don’t want to step out the door, back into careful monitoring of our power use so that we still have enough electricity to run our wee fridge and computers, etc. Jon is straight back into infections on his toes and has some kind of a bite that has swollen up his foot and lower leg, and we are all back into treating every little cut and graze as if it will turn nasty because it probably will. We are also back to people knocking on the door and asking for things or needing help at all hours.

But I really should not have started with the negative things that we have come back to because we are also back to a whole host of good things as well. We arrived back at Talua on a beautiful clear evening just on sunset. Many of the views on the drive here were postcard perfect. The kids arrived with great delight to see their friends again and were met with shrieks of greeting. They have loved being out playing with their friends again and always having someone around to play with, other than their siblings for a change. We have all enjoyed getting back into the wonderful warm water and the kids went to the nearby reef 3 days in a row, enjoying getting back into snorkeling. It’s just a few degrees warmer than the cool waters of the Marlborough Sounds! For me it is lovely to come back to having Madelyne working in our home and garden and to find it has been kept so clean and tidy over the summer. We are also very pleased to be able to return to the same house that we spent the year in last year as it is relatively cool and tidy.

Some things are of course different on our return. The major and saddest difference for us is the fact that our family here is missing one member. As I write this Phillip is having his first day at Marlborough Boys College. He is living in Blenheim for the 2007 with Jon’s sister Raewyn in order to attend face-to-face school and have a wider range of activities and stimulation. We continually feel that we are not complete at the moment and feel such along way from our boy with our irregular email contact.

There have been staff changes, too with our friends and immediate neighbours Glen and Rachael Conner returning to Australia for the birth of their baby. They will come back to Talua around the beginning of term 2. In their place next door to us are the Williamsons, also from Australia. They had hoped to come during 2006 but never made it because of Andy’s PHD commitments. We expected to have to move out of our home during the year to make room for them but didn’t need to in the end. We are thrilled that we haven’t needed to move and that they were happy to shift in next door. They have 2 lovely daughters aged 10 and 8, so needless to say Connie is happy to add to her large group of friends. Our kids are also quietly thrilled that they brought with them a large selection of books and a variety of other toys and games. Andy and Rosemary intend to be here for a number of years as they work on moving Talua towards a degree programme and work on producing a Bislama study Bible.

There is also a new COM Father/ lecturer and his family to get to know, and of course a whole host of new students yet to meet.

Another major change for 2007 is Jon’s role at Talua. He will continue with his English teaching but adds on the complicated task of Talua’s Bursar. He really hit the ground running arriving just in time to start taking fees from registering students. He is developing a database to keep clear and accurate records of fees and allowances paid or owed, and an automatic spreadsheet for wages paid, etc. Nothing is straight forward in Vanuatu, however and this is proving to be a convoluted task. A challenge for him!!

So 2007 will see new challenges for us as a family and some things will be easier because we know how things work, at least to some extent. We intend to enjoy this our second and final year in Vanuatu and make the most of all opportunities that come to us.

A few days break around Port Vila

2007-01-02T18:42:00.000+11:00

Before getting back to NZ for the summer, we had a few days in Port Vila. We never had any of these visitors when at Talua.

Island Gateway to Port Vila

2006-12-09T04:56:00.000+11:00

For some weird reason we decided to travel from Santo to Port Vila on a boat – the Island Gateway. We won’t do it again. It’s new service (been running one year) that offers a quick comfortable trip, stopping at a few islands on the way, leaving either Port Vila or Luganville at 7AM arriving at the destination around 4PM. So last Saturday we were up at 4, on the bus at 5, at check-in by the required 6 and all ready to sail at 7 but for some reason the boat didn’t leave until 8:30AM.

From the outside the Island Gateway looks like a slick, fast catamaran, seating about 56 passengers in an air-conditioned cabin, with DVD’s movies played for passenger comfort during the 9 hour trip. Well after 20 minutes I wondered how we were going to survive the 9 hours. The air-conditioning didn’t work and the temporary fans cut out after 10 minutes. The DVD was a Karaoke of those poser English Boy Bands - every song sounding the same. Added to that the sea was rough; within half an hour Viv and the kids had all been sick - some more than once (and most of the passengers). After 2 ½ hours we arrived at the first stop - Malakula - normally a 1hr 15min trip. It was nice to be sheltered and calm for a short time. This also gave people a chance to dry out a little as a few of the many waves that went right over the front of the boat, some of them had sent water into the broken air-conditioning / vent system, pouring water over unsuspecting passengers. We were fortunate that it never happened over our seats.

We then sailed out for the next leg to Epi Island. Within 4 minutes of leaving the boat stopped and just drifted along for about 30 minutes. During this time a crew member jumped overboard helping onboard crew repair the steering, a great confidence builder; not that the trip seemed dangerous, the waves were big but not too big. Anyway, we were off again and within a few minutes back into the rough weather with more waves crashing over the front, more sea sickness. I didn’t get sick but felt rather bad putting the rest of the family through such a bad experience.

We arrived at Epi Island around 4 PM (the time we should have been at Port Vila). During this leg of the journey the sea conditions had deteriorated and after a while four main poles between cabin roof and floor slowly came loose - with the floor of the cabin visibly separating from the boat hull when going over certain big waves. We think this may have caused concern for the crew cos the skipper said we would stay the night at Epi because of bad weather; not wanting to sail in the dark for the last part of the journey. On arriving at Epi the crew cranked up a generator to charge drills and whatnot, getting to work doing a few repairs. We enjoyed the peacefulness of Epi. Later all the crew and passengers were fed at the Epi Secondary School and given accommodation in various rooms or dorms. We slept in the Secondary School guest house - it was great, no rats or cockroaches.

At 2:45AM we were woken and asked to head back along the road to the wharf to get on the boat, at 4AM we sailed out for Port Vila. The sea was a bit calmer with not as many peopel getting sick and finally we arrived in Port Vila around 8:30AM. So the 9 hour trip took 24 hours. The stop at Epi sort of made the trip worthwhile - but next time……..........we’ll fly!

Our stay at Port Vila was great. One day we went right around the Efate Island, visiting a few Talua students in their own villages. We could buy any food we wanted in the supermarkets - stuff we haven’t eaten all year. Perhaps best thing was the accommodation. We stayed in an SIL house; we had power, hot water, ceiling fans and plenty of space. A real blessing!

graduation 2007 plans HIV-AIDS

2006-11-22T20:58:00.000+11:00

Things are beginning to wind up here at Talua. Last week students finished exams, all papers and assignments have been marked, most pastoral care groups have had their End of Year feasts. On Thursday 23^rd we have the Talua Graduation and then on the 24^th most students leave. The graduating Certificate of Theology students normally return to their home parishes to serve, whereas the Diploma of Theology and Mission students are told at graduation their placements for 2007. Many visitors come to Talua for the special day so the past week has been busy, making bush shelters, tidying up the campus, setting up decorations and preparing. The night before (tonight) the generator will go nearly all night as kaekae is prepared - heaps of it. The generator will stop at about midnight, and then restart around 3AM as students and staff prepare to bake food in earth ovens (bit like a Hangi). Even though its busy here there is also a relaxed feel to this winding up period - all exams and assignments are all finished, students have time to hangout. Last Monday night we set our data projector outside with a big screen - about 60 people enjoyed watching Shrek Two. What our family enjoyed was sitting outside under the stars, the cool temperature of the outdoors, and listening to people laugh to parts of the movie we wouldn’t normally laugh at. It was a good time had by all.

For our family, we are winding down as well, the kids are finding it hard to settle into school work as the day we leave Talua for the summer draws closer. We leave on Dec numba tu, spending a few days visiting students at their home villages on Efate. Then we fly to NZ on Dec numba 6. We come back to Talua at the end of January 07 - although Phillip will stay in NZ for 2007, attending Marlborough Boys’ College, living with family in Blenheim. Viv and I felt he needed more social interaction and to be in a college environment before year 10.

In 2007 I will be the English teacher again at Talua, but it sounds like I will also be a kind of bursar as the current one is finishing next month. It will be a challenge as Talua is always strapped for cash, and due to poor financial management in the past, things are in a mess with a lot of over due accounts and no real understanding of how much it really costs to run Talua. So prayers would be appreciated.

Last week Jeffery Vutilolo (Medical Lab Technician in charge of all of Santo’s blood testing) and I ran an HIV-AIDS seminar at Talua. In some ways I feel this was the most important thing I have done this year at Talua. HIV-AIDS is a ticking bomb in Vanuatu with the STI rate climbing at a scary rate. Added to that, Jeffery has found it frustrating that in the past the church has been reluctant to know about it. Well, the seminar was very successful. The introduction explained how big the pandemic is globally, also outlining what is happening in the South Pacific and Vanuatu. The next section was medical information about what it is, how it spreads, and prevention and protection. The conclusion was what the church should do about it. After the seminar the Talua principal asked if Jeffery and I could take the same seminar to the PCV General Assembly next year. So hopefully the rest of the Assembly Executive will agree because it is important the pastors in the PCV know how to help Vanuatu deal with (and perhaps prevent) a disaster waiting to happen. Again - your prayers on this matter would really help.

God Bless
Jon

Phones down

2006-11-10T11:01:00.000+11:00

If someone is trying to email us, or ring us.
The phone lines are currenlty up and down all the time.

God Bless
Jon

blog blong mama vivienne - mango season

2006-11-04T21:00:00.000+11:00

mango season

The long awaited mango season has begun here in Vanuatu. We enjoyed a few mangoes when we first arrived here at the beginning of the year, but that was the very end of the season. If you‘re ignorant of the joys of mangoes, like we were a year ago, then you may be interested in this description. Our previous experiences of mangos amounted to seeing (but not buying) expensive imported ones in the supermarket, eating the canned ones occasionally and tasting the juice in fruit juice mixtures. We hardly even recognized what they were when we first saw them in the markets in Port Vila.

We have a mango tree near our house here at Talua, the fruit of which is for the residents of these 2 houses. Glen and Rachael, our neighbours, said that last year they didn’t get to eat any of this fruit as the local pikinini raided the tree before the fruit was ripe ( fruit is very rarely eaten really ripe here - maybe there is too much competition from critters like rats and fruit bats to leave it on the tree too long).

This year our pikinini declared that they wouldn’t let that happen and repeatedly warned off anyone who showed too much interest in the tree! They wouldn’t even let anyone rebuild the tree hut in the tree when tree hut building was the craze in the last holidays, in case they should knock off the flowers or young fruit. Unfortunately their good work hasn’t resulted in a very good harvest. There was an extended spell of very heavy rain a while back and perhaps that resulted in a loss of young fruit, but anyway we haven’t had more than a couple of dozen off the tree. Mangoes flower over long period so there will be a few more fruit gradually ripening over the summer.

Fortunately other parts of Santo have heavily laden trees so we should be able to source plenty of fruit over the season. Different villages sell their produce at the market on different days so it’s a bit of pot luck what you can find there on the day you go.

Anyway, onto the actual process of eating a ripe mango.

1: Either position yourself over a sink or basin, or else go outside. Make sure you are not wearing white or light coloured clothing, as mango juice stains badly (and in case you intend to go climbing a mango tree the sap is terribly sticky and impossible to get out of clothes!)

2: Bite or cut a small piece from the non stalk end of the mango, then peel off strips of skin downwards. If the mango is ripe enough the skin will come off easily. If you want to get the most from your mango you will give the insides of these strips of skin a bit of a suck before you toss them.

3: By the time your mango is skinned the juice will be running off your elbows and you can take some big, luscious bites if you want to. If you want to cut slices from your mango cut one from each flat side. You will not get many bites which come off cleanly. Mangoes have a large stone and the flesh gets more and more fibrous the closer you get to the stone. It should be very tasty so you will want to bite and suck as much of the flesh off the stone as you can. You never get it all!

4: Wash the juice from your hands and arms and then spend the next 10 minutes or more getting all the little bits of fibre out from between your teeth!

So is it worth all the effort?? Well they do taste wonderful, so much nicer than the canned variety - there must be a tremendous amount of waste in canning mangoes. But I have to admit I am looking forward to eating some simple fruit like an apple or a plum - not so much hard work!!

blog blong viv

2006-10-30T15:30:00.000+11:00

PWMU and the end of the year.

Yes, you know that you are getting close to the end of the year when you begin to have breakups and end of year feasts (that’s if you happen to live in Vanuatu!) These have started this week for me with the PWMU closing service. Vanuatu loves acronyms - PWMU stands for Presbyterian women and mother’s union (I think that’s right). I haven’t been to many activities with the Talua PWMU because they usually meet on a Wednesday afternoon when I am teaching at Tata School. I missed this week’s lesson so that I could attend this special service.

The service included all the obligatory elements of a normal Sunday service including Bible readings, a number of hymns and choruses (including a couple of hymns performed by special ‘choirs’ pulled together for the event), numerous prayers and a mini sermon slot. In addition to this, the women students/student’s wives/ staff wives who will be leaving at the end of the year were specially welcomed to the service with salusalus (floral garlands given on special occasions and worn around the neck) and sat at the front for the proceedings. They were also given special leaving gifts from the PWMU.

The next part of the proceeding was an end of year exchange of gifts. Some months ago all the women were given a name drawn from a hat of a ‘secret friend’ from among the women on campus. This was the person that each one was to give a gift to. I found out some time later, but fortunately before the actual event, that the way things work here is that you are expected to actually give 2 gifts. One to the person whose name you drew from the hat and another as a thank you to the person who drew your name!! It seems in this culture it is impossible to just receive without giving something back in return.

Another part of the proceedings that I found out about only shortly before the service, was the tradition to give a salusalu as part of the gift. My usual source of information on events such as these is my Australian neighbour, Rachael. This time, however, she wasn’t able to give me a full picture as there hadn’t been a gift exchange at last year’s closing service. She gave me a couple of hours warning about the salusalus but as the real, handmade flower version is rather time consuming to make, one of Connie’s friends who was home from school that day, made 2 for me. Unfortunately, I put them down beside some others when I entered the room and they disappeared! They were used in the opening welcome for the leaving women!

So that left me without anything to give, and as the gift exchange got underway, it was soon obvious that everyone was exchanging salusalus. Rachael whispered to me to get Connie (who had snuck into watch the gift giving) to run home and get some that we had there. These are the artificial variety made from what looks like shredded plastic bags, ones that we had previously been given and fortunately it is ok to recycle them!!. So I was saved from a cultural blunder! Not a too serious one perhaps, but when you operate in a world where you only understand half or less of what is going on, you probably make blunders all the time without realizing it. Therefore it makes sense to avoid making any extra ones if you can help it!

Another interesting component of the gift exchange was the use of powder and perfume. Not everyone did it, but most women, in addition to giving their partner a salusalu and a gift, also showered her with baby powder. This was usually done by pouring a good handful into one’s hand and then smearing this onto the cheeks of the recipient. Sometimes powder was also shaken around head and shoulders a bit and sometimes even wiped on the lady’s feet. We have seen powder used before on a couple of occasions. One was when we were guests at wedding feast, when it turned into an all out powder fight! And other times when special guests were honoured or farewelled from Talua. I have never found anyone to really explain to me why it is done, but I like to think of it as visible demonstration of showering someone with blessing.

The perfume was similarly used by some women on their secret friends. This was usually sprayed in a few points on the recipient’s body. Interestingly, these usually included in the general underarm area! Rachael and I commented that this would never be done in either of our countries. Can you imagine someone you hardly knew smearing your face with powder, or spraying your underarm area with perfume?! What an invasion of personal space, and what are you really trying to say to me?!! It was fine and even enjoyable in this setting, though and added to the general atmosphere of fun and celebration of the day.

My secret friend gave me a new island dress in shades of bright pink and mauve ( a bit nicer than it sounds!) and a wok - type fry pan ( These are usually used here for cooking a deep fried, 8-shaped,doughnut type bread called gateaux - pronounced cato). The other friend gave me a set of nice glasses. I gave (thanks to Granddad’s recent visit) some NZ tea towels, a NZ pen and some biscuits I had baked. Other gifts ranged in size and probably value, and included lots of handmade dresses, hand woven baskets and mats and plastic bowls. I imagine that lots of the students have very little spare money to spend on gifts and it could have been quite embarrassing, except that no one actually opened their gifts in front of anyone else. This is done later in private. All except for difficult to wrap things like baskets and mats, and dresses which are usually put onto the recipient when they are given.

As you can imagine with a room full of people this all took quite a long time. There were also a few awkward moments when someone forgot or didn’t know who they were to give to. Hopefully a master list will be kept next year!

The next part of the afternoon’s activities was refreshments - a range of snacks and a drink served to everyone by the executive, followed by a bit more singing, a bit of dancing and general hilarity, and a couple of skits. A skit here is usually a song performed with actions to the words, done to a tape. The whole afternoon went off very well, although it did take the whole afternoon - over 4 hours! We will have to wait and see how many more feasts and gift exchanges we will have before the end of the year. Fortunately Granddad brought plenty of tea towels!!

excitement walk more walking vsa variation

2006-10-20T15:52:00.000+11:00

over the past week the children have been getting more and more excited in anticipation of granddad visiting us. Last Wednesday evening at the airport we had an almost surreal experience of watching him walk off the plane, carrying two suitcases, one filled with goodies for us. We had dinner at a local Chinese restaurant before the 45 minute drive back to Talua. There were big smiles all round.

The next day on I decided to show dad around Navota Farm. Thinking it would about 2 hours to go up to the middle of the farm and back, we ended up walking for 5 hours. When we got to the first terrace on the hill, dad wanted to get to the top. It took a while but we got there after walking halfway around the hill to find a sort of track up. Needless to say we were both a bit stiff and sore on getting back.

Last Friday we had another big walk. The family and I visited Madelyn’s home for lunch. It was a 1 hour walk to Najingo, a short canoe ride across the water to Tangoa Island. After arriving at Madelyn’s we spent about 1 ½ hours exploring Tangoa Island. We then had lunch – which included “Laplap Worm”. In October, about four nights after full moon many people in South Santo head to the sea when it gets dark, looking for sea worms that apparently only come out at this time of the year. Viv and I were relieved we ate them before seeing the left over worms in a sack - slimy and disgusting. As for the flavour, the Laplap took away some of the flavour and they were not too bad, not too strong. It was a good day, but we were all tired that night after three hours walking. On the canoe trip back, one of Madelyn’s sisters who was paddling our canoe, told us they have a shark following them about once a month - some big and some small – one never swims between Najingo and Tangoa Island.

Last Saturday Viv and I hired the farm Ute and picked up two NZ VSA representatives who were visiting Santo on reconnaissance work. They wanted to have a look at Navota Farm for possible opportunities. It was good to meet them and show them around and have visitors for lunch. I was impressed with their ability to quickly understand the issues for a particular area. They do their homework well before sending someone. If you have ever thought of spending two years on a VSA placement – don’t hesitate – give it a go.

My class topics have changed a bit over the past while - I do enjoy the diversity and variation. I have gone from teaching Lukan Christology to teaching the Navota students small business skills like receipt books, cash books and cash flows. I also continue with the English classes and on two evenings each week teach computer classes. So the variation is enjoyable and other things pop up as well. For example last Tuesday morning having just got home from teaching at Navota Farm, the Talua accountant Ps Frank arrived asking me to help him with the Talua Cashbook. (I had mentioned to him a couple of months ago I’d help him with the monthly financial reports for Talua). There were five months of transactions to process. After a while it was all sorted – except I will need to spend a lot of time reconciling everything. He did have a hand written running balance but the computer had a different result - this slowed my progress down significantly as I had to double check each transaction. I have yet to discover how he came up with his balances cos they don’t add up.

In general we are all well, and are enjoying having granddad been here with us.

God Bless
Jon

note to the photos

2006-10-08T20:04:00.000+11:00

Hi all, there are a few photos below, the relate to Vivienne's blog. So enjoy, have a look and a good read. I am feeling a bit tired - the water pipe line we fixed today is about 6km. But at about 8pm tonight the water started to flow again.
cheers
Jon

2006-10-08T20:01:00.000+11:00

William investigating flight - school work.

2006-10-08T19:59:00.000+11:00

Finally the road is a bit smoother from Canel to Talua ... well slightly.

2006-10-08T19:57:00.000+11:00

Simon being part of the marble craze.

2006-10-08T19:56:00.000+11:00

Connie adopted by Shena, Georgiana and her family, wearing traditional Pentecost clothes and musical instruments.

2006-10-08T19:55:00.000+11:00

Church service at BP Burn - World Communion Sunday

2006-10-08T19:54:00.000+11:00

Ps Frank and Kalmara fixing the water line.

family happenings - blog blong viv

2006-10-08T18:36:00.000+11:00

Family Happenings

October has arrived. We are into the down hill run to the end of the year.

Jon has finished lecturing on The Gospel of Luke. This course, for which he prepared all his own material, was for only half a term. He very much enjoyed it, especially the opportunity to lecture/preach on some of his favourite themes. Now that is finished he will have a bit more time to go up to Navota Farm and teach the boys there. There are prospects for a 2 years appointment for the farm from VSA. The NZ co-ordinator will be visiting next week to discuss this with the farm manager and Jon, among others. They need to ensure that the job is a realistic proposition and achievable. We get rather frustrated at times with the farm operations and what is or isn’t done around the place. The wild peanut weed problem is just shooting away again since we have had recent rain and the weather is warming up. Soon you will not be able to see the grass for the shoulder high weeds, as it was when we arrived at the beginning of the year.

We understand the farm will be visited by at least one NZ work party next year. Jon will be pushing for specific, achievable projects to be assigned to them. We would dearly love to see the farm run to meet its potential. It has a long history of NZ connections and investment – both of labour and manpower. It has the potential to be a very productive operation, a good witness and educational model to surrounding farmers, and the students who study there, as well as a good money earner for the Presbyterian Church.

Another side interest of Jon’s that he will be able to devote a bit more time to now, is running some computer classes. This year he has set up a small computer suite for students to use some second hand computers to type assignments, etc. Some of the lecturers also have their own laptops. He would like to help the lecturers to make the most of their computers and also give some students the chance to get to know the computers better. He has started a weekly class, but with limited facilities only a few can be taught at once. He has also enlisted the tutoring aid of the whole family (some of us being more useful than others!) Even Connie is helpful in putting some things into Bislama, and of course she knows her way around a keyboard and a mouse better than most of the students. After the first night we feel there may need to be 2 different classes as the lecturers know a bit more than the students, most of whom are at a very basic level. Jon, of course does not know how it feels to be afraid of the computer and doesn’t find it very easy to simplify it enough (this from my slightly techno phobic point of view!)

For the rest of us our correspondence work continues. NZ schools have just had 2 weeks break, but as we work to the local school timetable, to enable our kids to be on holiday when their friends here are also around, we are well into the 3^rd and final term of the year. The kids have been running low on booklets lately and the variety of work available to them to choose from has been limited. This has resulted in motivation issues for all of them to varying degrees. William had some more work arrive a few days ago, so he is set for awhile. I hope that Connie and Simon get some soon. Phillip will be right once the NZ term starts this week as he gets fresh tasks regularly over the internet. During the holidays he has to mainly do maths, which is just about all he does on paper. Last term most of his work had a food theme which was enjoyable and interesting. I hope that this term’s work will also have an interesting theme.

We are hopeful that when we leave here at the beginning of December, we will have done enough work to be able to stop for the year at that point. This will be easier than carting extra material around with us, and we will be travelling around a bit before we settle down in Blenheim for most of the holidays. The local kids have just had a ‘midterm break, around one of the many statutory holidays that Vanuatu has. We have also taken 2 days off and hope that we will all return to our work with renewed vigour and enthusiasm this week. Well, we can hope, anyway!

Kids are the same all over the world in lots of ways. The kids here are more easily entertained and find a lot of enjoyment out of simple things. Their game of the moment goes in cycles or crazes just like elsewhere. The current favourite is marbles, which the local kids are very skilled and competitive at. You even see little guys of 2 or 3 practising with rocks, so it’s no wonder they are so good at it. The game has a number of variations and is almost always played for keeps, so our kids have tried to come up to speed quickly! Sometimes the marbles are thrown at each other with so much force and accuracy that they smash!

Another recent popular activity was bubble blowing. While a couple of kids had ‘real’ bubble blowers, the majority used the ‘local’ version: pawpaw stalks. These are hollow and can be used to blow huge bubbles by a skilled practitioner. It was commonplace for a few weeks to see big groups of kids with 1 or 2 blowing bubbles from a container of soapy liquid. They would be surrounded by many others trying to blow the bubbles higher up into the air, or trying to catch them in their mouths!! Great simple fun.

For a wee while the game of choice was all out water fights. The weather has been warming up so this may have prompted this activity. These fights are usually boys against girls and involve lots of running, lots of yelling (most games here involve that!) and lots of water. Any plastic bottle or container may be used and it’s easy to see that a bucket can be a more effective ‘super soaker’ than any water pistol!

Speaking of the weather, we are pleasantly surprised how long the weather is staying coolish. We feel if anyone is thinking of visiting Vanuatu, then a good time of the year would be September. The weather has been very variable, however and you can never guarantee that it will behave for visitors as Bob and Barbara found out when they visited us in August and as a group of Australians here last week found out. We have just had a rather wet, miserable week, but yesterday the sun came out and it was again hot and clear. When the skies are clear it will be hot no matter what time of the year it is, but across the middle of the year there are a lot more grey days that keep conditions cooler. The main difference now compared to summer and autumn, when it seemed that the hot weather would never cool off, is the humidity. On the hot, sunny days the heat isn’t yet accompanied by too much stickiness. Even last week with the rain, there weren’t the oppressive conditions with heat and lots of thunder and lightning. I’m not sure when these conditions return but we are enjoying the temperature as it is at present. There are also plenty of gentle breezes at present to help keep us cool. These have kept us cool enough at night to keep our light blankets on the bed, as we have windows open to the predominant winds.

This year will be memorable in our family for many, many reasons. One more unusual one is that this is the year that Simon learnt how to whistle. He had been very frustrated by his inability to whistle, but then a wee while ago it clicked into place and he has hardly stopped whistling since!! I can always tell when it is him approaching as I hear him coming. Sometime we have asked him to stop whistling in school time as the others get a bit sick of it! He is becoming more tuneful with the practise. Sometimes he and I even whistle duets!! Lately he has been trying out whistling and humming at the same time. The results are not as pleasant sounding!

Life here can be very unpredictable as we have found out on the last 2 Sundays. Last Sunday morning Jon got up to a knock on the door at about 6.30 (this isn’t particularly early here where the bell goes at 5am!). It was the principal asking Jon to go and preach at a town church because it was World Communion Sunday. Why he didn’t know about this sooner, I don’t know, but Jon is able to pull old sermons out of the files for such an occasion so he was able to oblige. We enjoyed a change of scenes and the people were very friendly.

This morning(Sunday again) at 6 am there was a knock on the door and Jon went with others up into the bush to try and effect temporary repairs to the dam from which our piped water is sourced. The tap water had stopped late in the afternoon yesterday because of a leak in the dam. So Jon accompanied a group of students and staff up to the dam and together they blocked the hole with some plastic and then followed the pipeline back to try and find the any other problems with the flow. They got back about 12.30pm. Hopefully the tank will refill overnight and we will have some water tomorrow. There have been short interruptions to the water supply before.

We are not short of drinking water which is rainwater runoff into a tank nearby that we then bring to the house in containers, but we are now carting water for everything. The students are using bush toilets (long drops) and many people went down to the river this afternoon to wash. We usually live in 1^st world conditions, even though we live in a 3^rd world country, but we are occasionally reminded that this is the 3^rd world! This is the way many people have to cart their water most of the time in the villages.

I am sitting here typing this in the half dark before the generator turns on, but we usually have enough power through batteries and inverter to have a light on when we need it and to keep the fridge running and the computers, of course! We are indeed privileged to have sufficient running water and electricity - most of the time! And we appreciate it a little bit more today.

The Mangos are all go

2006-10-07T08:32:00.000+11:00

The Mangos are all go. Viv came home from the market yesterday with a basket full. It’s good to have another fruit cos lately it’s been only bananas and grapefruit.

With only few months till spending Christmas in NZ - the kids are beginning to ponder that time and our return to Talua. Thoughts like ‘what DVD’s should we get for 2007’ and ‘what will be the first thing I do when back in NZ’. Phillip has been searching the net for the latest CD’s by his favorite music groups. Simon intends buying a 1kg block of Cadbury Chocolate as soon as we land. The first thing William wants to do it ring up some mates. Connie wants meet up with friends but first get some chocolate skittles and buy a certain book. For Viv it’s some new clothes (being sick of Island Dresses) and strawberries and apples (fresh fruit). For me, I am not sure what I miss as we can get most things here, there are times when we can’t get a good supply of fresh fruit, or fresh vegetables or something else. But most of the time we wait till going into town, we either get it or if its not there, we wait till next week when it might be in stock. One of the beauties about this is simple things have become special again. We can only buy small blocks of chocolate - so we only get a few pieces each, each piece becomes important. Perhaps for Christmas 2006 - the meal will be truly special, sure in the past it has been a good meal - better than normal but because every meal, every day of the year, is good - the Christmas meals (yes plural) loose their significance. So Kiwi food is one thing I miss, but most things are sort of available here. I do miss being able to blob in front of TV to chill out and slow my mind - some nights we watch DVD’s of TV programs we’ve never watched (Lost, 24) or old reruns (MASH). IN all thought, I think what I miss most is convenience. In NZ, we can just pop down to the supermarket and get whatever. We are never out of anything cos of the convenience and because of that, we never have to think much. Also there is a sense of security. Think to Christmas time and the supermarkets being shut for Christmas Day, “oh…we will have to stock up just in case”. There are other ways at Talua we miss convenience; we had hamburgers last weekend. We had to make the patties, make our own buns, cook on a small fry pan etc. Not a meal of convenience whereas in NZ, if feeling knackered, we just pop down and get some Chinese or Turkish or Indian or burgers etc. So after giving some thought to it - I miss convenience most.

I finished teaching the Gospel of Luke yesterday. I really enjoyed it; found Luke very challenging (this is one of the reasons I like Luke). Today I mark the exam papers.

We are all well, it’s a bit cooler - I guess somehow linked to the blast of cold weather NZ just had; wore a shirt in bed last night and had two light blankets on the bed.

Take care and God Bless
Jon

A typical day - Simplicity - Candles Bush Man Style (by Simon)

2006-09-30T08:32:00.000+11:00

Introduction:

The following bits of news were written for a CWM newsletter back in July and also as short articles for the GMO Global Mission Gazette. If you have not had a chance to read them – you are welcome.

A typical day at Talua (by Jon)

Life in the community of Talua Ministry Training Centre, South Santo, Vanuatu.

The clang rings at 5AM to let everyone KNOW its time for personal devotions. Between 6AM and 7:15AM the daily timetable sets out times for swim (bath – which means shower), breakfast and family devotions. The wooden Tam Tam is hit at 7:15 to tell everyone community devotions have begun.

7:30AM lectures begin – with four, 55minute classes ending at 11:30AM. This is followed by the lunch break. For meals the married students and staff eat in their own homes and all single students eat together in the dining hall (also used for church on Sundays).

Lunches are often cut short with meetings of various groups - pastoral care groups, prayer groups, Presbytery groups – to organise some event, perhaps a community social night, or creative worship for a Sunday evening, or whatever.

From 1PM to 2PM is study time and then till 4PM it’s either Garden (students walk up bush to their allotted garden to work in it), Choir and Sunday School Prep (students prepare for next Sunday), Work (students do caretaking work around Talua Campus) or Sport (female students play volleyball and male football). 4PM to 5PM is tidying around homes / living quarters, then its swim (bath – which means shower), evening meal and family devotions. The power comes on around 6PM and from 7PM to 8:30PM its study time. Class devotions are held till 8:45PM and the power goes off at 9PM.

Staff use the afternoons for lesson preparation. Also there are monthly meetings for the many different committees (they are not called workgroups yet). Evenings for staff are a mixture of more meetings, professional reading, lesson preparation, watching DVD’s or correspondence.

There are also one off events, for example last Friday/Saturday Talua held an all night prayer, a time to celebrate the anniversary of the PCV with prayer. I was woken at 1AM by a student telling me it was our prayer group’s time to meet for prayer (I didn’t hear my alarm go off). The night before we had a repentance service – two hours long – culminating in each Presbytery Group asking the community for forgiveness over various matters. Then all night prayer began. When praying in community here it is easy to be lazy, or at least hard to concentrate because most of the praying is done “Korean Style”. That is, everyone out loud at the same time (some very loud). So it’s a chance to fall asleep or to try to pray, but as you can imagine, all the noise gets in the way.

Other one offs include various fundraising events, for example, the Talua Open Day. This was an organised football and volleyball competition for two days with teams from around South Santo coming to compete for prize money. During that time a lot of Lap Lap and other food was cooked and sold, which was the main source of money raised. The small petrol generator was cranked up so a very old stereo could play plenty of string band music to accompany the sport.

There are many other happenings as well – it’s community life.

Simplicity of Life, South Santo, Vanuatu. (by Jon)

Looking out the window there is a group of boys walking back from school, singing at the top of their lungs. The songs are worship songs but that’s not the point. It is the simplicity of lifestyle and the ability to find pleasure in simple things like singing at the top of ones lungs for the sheer pleasure of it. Kids in the west need to watch movies that cost $US200 million to produce for simple fun. Kids in South Santo need a road to walk on and some imagination… “quick…lets jump the fence and grab some Nakatambol” (fruit), or the make popguns from bamboo, shooting out flower buds (our kids thought they were very cool).

A couple of weeks ago Talua had a community games night. The fun had by all was a delight – what was noticeable was a lack of sophisticatedness that hinders fun. Adults were playing simple games like musical chairs and laughing their heads off, laughing at innocent things. On another evening our pastoral care group played Wink Murder at our house (read our blog http://talua.blogspot.com) - there was much laugher and fun in the simple things. It would seem that back in NZ we can’t even sit still through halftime at a rugby match without entertainment, and loud music is played whenever someone is down injured.

Yesterday, our four kids were playing with fire with other local kids, melting wax to make candles. The moulds used were from various bits and pieces they found – including fruit. In the weekends we hardly see Connie (7) as she spends all day playing simple games with her friends, coming in for food and toilet stops and then out again.

And so I must confess that from an experiential perspective, I am glad we came to Talua. Of course there is satisfaction to be gained from being able to help people, but the chance to participate in the spirituality of simplicity is deep, a treasure, and a joy.

CANDLES BUSH MAN STYLE (by Simon Parkes)

Its been great over here, yesterday we made candles and it was fun…we made some really cool ones.

HOW TO MAKE CANDLES BUSH MAN STYLE: 1^st - you gather up as much wax as possible (the night before was a praying night and heaps of candles were used and thrown out). 2^nd - make a small fire. 3^rd - find a can that has been thrown out and put it on the fire. 4^th - put all the wax into the can and wait for it to melt. 5^th - while waiting, get a small, empty, plastic container. 6^th - when the wax becomes a liquid pour a little into the bottom of the plastic container to make a seal to stop wax from running out the bottom. 7^th-wait for it to dry. 8^th - get a string and put it at the bottom of the container (the string is the wick) 9^th - pour the rest of the liquid wax into the container while someone holds the string to make it straight. 10^th - once finished pouring wait for it to dry. 11^th -carefully cut the plastic off, so its just wax and string. That’s how to make it.

Last night we tested it and it was as slow as a normal candle, and a cool shape.

God Bless
Jon

2006-09-23T14:22:00.000+11:00

The big news! Simon is a dad. Yes - this is his chicken given to him by the people of Moru Village for helping paint their church roof.

2006-09-23T14:20:00.000+11:00

action shot

2006-09-23T14:19:00.000+11:00

...and the girls begun to conquer...

2006-09-23T14:18:00.000+11:00

It was boys verse girls - after while more girls turned up to reinforce their numbers

2006-09-23T14:17:00.000+11:00

Yesterday the kids had a great water fight

2006-09-23T14:15:00.001+11:00

And Jon - well watching The Edge and Bono of course - yeah - the important things in life.

2006-09-23T14:15:00.000+11:00

Connie weary from full on day playing with friends, Viv reading.

2006-09-23T14:14:00.000+11:00

three lads, three PCs, three games.

2006-09-23T14:13:00.001+11:00

What do we do at night when the power comes on.

2006-09-23T14:13:00.000+11:00

Its a battle - bugs, heat, chickens and whatnot, but here are some rewards from Viv's garden.

2006-09-23T14:11:00.000+11:00

The small boat taking us back to the mainland. Further out the sea was a bit choppier along with the ocean swell.

2006-09-23T14:10:00.001+11:00

Some of the fury little critters - small aye.

2006-09-23T14:10:00.000+11:00

Viv with bats flying overhead.

2006-09-23T14:09:00.000+11:00

As you know, we went to Araki Island. After church we explored a large cave. See the bats.

some sad news - some good news - some current news

2006-09-23T07:09:00.000+11:00

Some of you reading this already know this - others don’t. Two and a half weeks ago, Diploma One (D1) student, Bridley Toa died at his home in Luganville. He was going to come back to Talua the next day for the new term.

As you would expect, it came as a real shock to our community. At around 10:20 the morning after he died the Tam Tam started being hit at a slow solemn beat. I was teaching the D2 class, and asked what is happening - the students knew it must mean bad news. Then Father Tieone came into the room and explained Bridley had died. The whole community met in the meeting hall (dining room) where Father George and Father Tieone lead a time of prayer and some thoughts etc.

Bridley was a COM student (Church of Melanesia - Anglican), hence the "Fathers" leading things. All work for that afternoon was canceled and lectures for the next day were cancelled as well. All the students and most of the staff including myself went into town that afternoon to pay respect to the family. We had been told the funeral would be the next day - but in this culture it is considered more important to visit the family instead of being at the funeral.

In town we all walked together to the house, about 100 meters away our group started loud wailing etc. We arrived and went inside and spent about 20 - 30 minutes in loud wailing. Bridley was wrapped up in blankets etc. We the Talua community gave a few bags of rice and other food to his family. Then after a few words, a song and prayers we went outside. Soon after we were given a meal.

The meal reminded me of going a marae for a Tangi, perhaps it reminded me more of the differences. Here we ate sitting around outside on wherever we could find, be it a branch or stump or perhaps a chair - we were not in the wharekai. Also there was no powhiri, no walking in line pass the whanau and mate, and no custom of washing hands. Because of this I found it difficult, there wasn’t a chance to say good bye to Bridley one on one. Also this was all happening so fast, it was within 18 hours of his death.

During the meal we heard how he died. The night he died he drank too much Kava. According to the doctor who came and investigated, it would seem he slept on his stomach, head in a pillow and was out cold from way too much Kava - possibly numb in the throat, without any control. He vomited and the food got stuck in his neck/mouth? He died from asphyxiation in his sleep. Very Very sad. We will miss him (nearly three weeks later we still miss him). My memory is his smile, his leaning against a wall, a smirky kind of smile, the laid back Bridley - with so much ahead for him to live and experience - so very tragic.

After a while we were told they would have the funeral that night due to the fact he was beginning to smell bad, so at around 5pm we went to the funeral at the local COM church. It was a short service and then family and COM students went to the burial. The rest of us slowly found transport back to Talua.

So a very sad day (and week), and kind of weird as the funeral happened the same day...without us westerners having chance to sleep on it and think about it and grieve. The next day it felt like it was all over, a new day began, new things happening, with the only difference being Bridley no longer in my classes. One less copy of notes and handouts to print out, one less……………..

A prayer issue at Talua that has come out of the tragedy is that some students are breaking the Talua bylaw of drinking Kava. No doubt this will be talked about. So please pray that the talk is helpful and not damming of Bridley or others. Pray that those addicted get help, and those who drink just the occasional shell, stop while at Talua. Pray also that they think NOW about what their stance will be when they are ordained.

some good news - many know this already but for those who don’t. We are coming back to Talua in 2007. I will be lecturing the same topics as 2006 as well as being the Talua accountant for the year. So it will be a tricky year trying to run Talua on the smell of an oily rag.

Being a training institution in a 3^rd world country is difficult. We can’t charge students much as they don’t have much. But things like books, printers, photocopy toner, fuel for generators, staff wages, paint and plumbing for “western buildings”, all cost 1^st world prices (not the staff wages), and therefore more often than not this year Talua has had little cash for things. On a few nights the generator has not run because there was not enough cash for Talua to purchase diesel - the sad thing is if the generator does not run, the combined value of Kerosene used in lamps in the student and staff housing is more than the diesel cost for 3 hours of power.

About the decision to come back. Before arriving in Vanuatu we decided as a family we would all make the decision about 2007 once we had settled and understood what living in Vanuatu was really like. Also it was agreed that the decision had to be unanimous. So I think the principal found it frustrating that I could not let him know if we would be here for 2007(he asked after a few weeks of being here). I explained that as a family we would make the decision and that would be later. Anyway, Council for World Mission agreed to fund us for another year (with a bit extra from the Global Mission Office of the PCANZ), and as a family we decided to stay. We will go back to NZ for Christmas 06. While in NZ I hope to visit a few churches that are coming over to Vanuatu in 2007.

some current news - week three of term three is nearly over. I think we are more used to the weather as it doesn’t seem as hot. The kids are having a ball - most of the time. Last weekend Viv suggested they make a mountain bike track through the bush. So we didn’t see them for ages. Yep - they came back with cuts and bruises but also all excited because they had seen their first snake in the wild. I still don’t know how big it really was as no one says the same size. They all agreed it was big but now I am not so sure.

Simon can climb a coconut tree (not the really tall ones) and get himself a free drink. Just like in NZ where there are crazes at school when everyone plays this game, or buys that toy for a few months / weeks until a new craze hits. Crazes happen here as well. During the school holidays one craze was slingshots - with birds and whatnot being shot; only a few people were hit. The kids also built plenty of tree huts, lately it’s been marbles and yesterday a massive water fight broke out. The innocence, the laughter, the smiles, the tears - it’s a great place to be.

Once the term started it was back to correspondence school. Viv finds this challenging as there are four kids at once, on different topics, using different material, all wanting her attention at the same time. With Viv being their mother as well as the teacher, subconsciously the ‘students’ do not think of her as their teacher - this also makes it problematic, when they get grumpy they say “but you are not my real teacher”. And then there is William. He does like to sit in a chair and day dream. The others get through their work fast but William takes forever. We even noticed yesterday when making sandwiches for lunch he was still crafting his sandwich, considering what to put in it next, when we were already chomping. So Viv finds the teaching hard work, as she feels very responsible for the kid’s education.

I am enjoying teaching the Gospel of Luke. I think that church here tends to focus on looking good, that the “church service” has to be “how the missionaries taught us” about a million years ago. So in Luke I really enjoy pushing all the Lukan themes that have nothing to do with “church service” but with caring for the poor, of how Jesus had run in after run in with the powerful of the day and how he lifted the powerless, how he lifted women up, how salvation is meant to be for all - but there still needs to be repentance, that Jesus was God’s son, was the Messiah the Old Testament spoke about and not just some “nice prophet intelligent fella”, its real kingdom of God stuff.

Its great - and what is even better is the students are beginning to see this. They are being spiritually challenged - Luke emphasises the role of the Holy Spirit heaps (Luke and Acts) and they are beginning to see the importance of obeying the Holy Spirit. They are beginning to see that being religious is wrong, and that it is the inside (our hearts) that counts, and this is proved by how we treat our neighbour, not by how well the church service went. So as you can tell - I am enjoying the teaching.

I am learning heaps as well. I think when I finish I’ll be a better bible teacher, I naturally incline towards preaching and not teaching so this is helping me. Also I am much more aware of my English - not that its perfect - but I now understand a lot more of the rules and whatnot.

So thanks for your prayers - no matter if they are only a thought or a good deep petitioning to God for us, we appreciate it.
God Bless
Jon

Talua Sunday

2006-09-18T16:12:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was Talua Sunday, a day when all students and staff led services around different churches in Santo. So Talua spread to churches as far away as Hog Harbour (2 hr bus drive north east), some in the Canal and a few west of Talua. The Parkes family went to Araki Island. It was a great day - the boys found the service a tad boring - but apart from that it was interesting, new things to be seen and new experiences to be had. We all got home tired.

The return trip. After an early breakfast, at 6:45 we started walking the 45 minute walk on the road to Najingo. Then we piled on to a small wooden boat with a 25 hp outboard. We dropped off one group on Tangoa Island and then on to Araki Island. The trip was slow, and fortunately for us, the sea was not too rough - no white caps - just a big gentle ocean swell. After about 35 minutes we arrived at Araki. Then it was another 25 minute walk to the third village on this isolated island where we met up with the chief, saw the new church that will be completed by Christmas 06 and made final preparations for the service with the local elders.

The service started at about 9:30 and by 11:15 it was all over. The two Talua students led most of the service. Viv read the bible reading and I did the pikinini talk (really a game as an object lesson).

The only differences on the return trip was the sea was rougher, for that reason the boat travelled a lot slower taking about 50 minutes. No waves broke over the boat though but some of us got quite wet from the sea spray. The other difference was once getting back to land; most of us had to carry additional boxes of Laplap given from the people of Araki to Talua staff and students. So it was a slow and heavy 50 minute walk back to Talua. We all woke this morning rather tired.

All in all, for us this Talua Sunday we walked over two hours, spent over 1½ hours in a small boat in open sea and had a great time.

Araki Island has a population around 225, three villages with one chief for the whole island and as per usual - all the people are friendly. They are a very united people - I presume because of the small population and having one chief for the whole island. It is a world away from the rest of the world being very peaceful and tidy. The gardens and general layout was well presented, everything seemed to have an ordered way about it, and even the toilet by the church was clean and not falling down. Many houses had been painted, there were plenty of flowers and of course the view back to the main land was stunning.

The Island has three terraces, being a similar shape to a three tier wedding cake. From the sea level which is mostly cliffs with a few beaches, it goes straight up about 30 meters to the first terrace. This is a flat terrace about 400 meters wide encircling the whole island. Further up about 70 meters is the 2^nd terrace – the climb to this terrace is not as steep or pronounced with the terrace not as flat as the top of the island or the first terrace. We didn’t walk up there but it looked to be about 400 meter wide encircling the whole island. Beyond that it is another 70 meters up to the top of the island. From a distance it looks like a flat table top – the top being perhaps 1000 meters in diameter. On each terrace and the top, locals have some gardens and coconut plantations.

Possible Projects: After church I spent a lot of time talking to locals about various things on the island. If any church in NZ would like to help. There is plenty that could be done. It would also be a great chance to form long term relationships.

Water supply: Recently they had two 38meter deep bores drilled – with the current water level only 10 meters deep. The problem is they can’t afford any pumps. Perhaps a church could fund raise for a windmill pump, cement to build a water holding tank up the hill and for some pipe so as to supply water to the three villages using gravity. Currently they use rain water and at low tide they can get water from a spring below the high tide mark. But that is a steep and long walk.
Paint the new church: Another project could be to help them paint their new church – the roof and walls inside and out. If a NZ church could supply paint and even come over helping them paint - it would save them money for other things. This kind of project is a good introduction type project into the world of sending work parties. Buying paint and painting is easy. The main part of this would be meeting the people, learning cultural stuff, having a good experience, eating Laplap, drinking from coconuts and learning how to say no to further requests (or saying you will pass the idea to the GMO office). Why not give it a go!

Small Primary School: A very easy and enriching project could be to create a friendship with a NZ primary school and Lehilehina Primary School. It is a small school with only 23 children. From the outside the school looks similar to much of the island. Very tidy and well organised with an island sand pit and island (wooden) jungle gym. There is one government paid teacher and also a parent teacher. Speaking to the head teacher she said thought it would be a good idea for her school to have a friendship with a NZ school. This would involve the NZ and Vanuatu children exchanging letters, hand made cards, photos of each other and stories about their homes and life in NZ/Vanuatu. Possibly the NZ School could send a few items such as small sports equipment, books (old journals) and writing material. Give it a go –the current PCANZ person at Navota or Talua can take photos and help with the correspondence. Invite your church and local school into a cross cultural, life enriching experience.

Deep freeze and power system: Another very helpful project could be for a kiwi church to raise funds for an energy efficient deep freeze and solar system. This would help the island run a small fishing business. They have recently purchased a small fishing boat but because they live so far from Luganville, any ice they buy from town melts and therefore any fish they catch go off before getting to town. They found that having to get their daily catch of fish to town on the day they catch them was cost prohibitive. Therefore a solar powered deep freeze would make their dream of a fishing business viable as they could catch fish, freeze them and only have to pay for transport once a week. This would truly bless the island.

Any kiwis coming over to help would fall in love with the island. It has an X factor about it; it is peaceful and remote with stunning views. The only issue would be the 30 minute boat trip to the island.

Bat Poo and whatnot: After lunch we also visited a big cave on the island. We had to write our names on the cave wall using bat pooh before going inside – a local tradition. Once inside it was fascinating to have bats flying around our heads. It was not at all scary like the movies enjoy portraying. There was an almost silent fluttering sound as they woke up and started to fly - hundreds of them. While clinging to the ceiling of the cave they look as small as a mouse and once flying with their wings stretched out they look much bigger – more bat like.

So it was a good day. Last night for dinner and this morning for breakfast the students of Talua ate lots of Laplap, and other cooked food given to them from the villages they visited.

God bless
Jon

New photos uploaded

2006-08-28T10:31:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone
Over the weekend Viv and I sorted some more photos for the website. If you would like to have a look click on the following link: http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~jvp/Talua/TP3/index.html

The weather over the past week has increased a notch or two - its sticky and muggy once again - just sweating typing this. Yesterday Connie and I had our first swim for the season.

Today (Monday) is the beginning of the second week of the holidays. One term to go for 2006. Most staff are away at PCV General Assembly and most students are away trying to make a little money. So I spent most of the past week researching for next term. Again I am teaching English but I
will also be teaching D1 the Gospel of Luke. I am looking forwards to
this as I like Luke - its grunty and rips into ones worldview.

The kids are busy building tree huts and trying to shoot birds with
slingshots. Viv is enjoying the break from teaching for a couple of
weeks - although she is getting a cold - a few prayers would go down
well.

God Bless
Jon

prayer deemed harmful while pornography seen as harmless

2006-08-25T14:38:00.000+11:00

Perhaps Winky Pratney’s comments in the Challenge Weekly newspaper a month or so ago were correct - NZ is going down the gurgler to hell very very fast. I did a screen capture of a NZ news website a few days ago with two main articles on the same page side by side.

It seems a lot of kiwis think pornography does no harm to a person while Christian Prayer is very harmful. What incredibly pathetic thinking! Have the leaders of NZ and the general population really lost their ability to discern what is good and what is harmful?

Also - the article about prayer was discriminating against Christianity. It said non Christian prayer is OK but Christian prayer is bad – what has happened to human rights? If one kind of prayer is OK, why is another not? How does one determine which is which?

end of term, ambrym island, memorial lectures, hot chips, dog food, and mosquito’s

2006-08-22T09:28:00.000+11:00

end of term, ambrym island, memorial lectures, hot chips, dog food, and mosquito’s

Its 5AM, I’m listening to The Vienna Boys Choir sing Angus Dei…I feel human and spiritual. It’s the end of the 2^nd term so things have been very busy with the visit to Ambrym Island - which was excellent - the marking of tests and essays, preparing of various reports for the Pressie Church of Vanuatu (PCV) General Assembly and various correspondence for groups in NZ connecting with groups in Vanuatu.

So what have we been up to over the past few weeks?

This term has been one with many different things happening a lot of the time. There has been varous groups coming to Talua, work parties from Aussie and Korea, medical teams, friends visiting, sports days, open days, Vanuatu Independence Day week long celebrations, PCV independence celebrations and normal work - it’s made the term interesting and irregular which at times has made it hard to focus - especially for the kids doing school work. They would settle down to work to find all the local kids not going to school cos it was some kind of public holiday.

One of the pleasant things has been the cooler weather for the past couple of months. I have had to wear a sweatshirt at times - we have even thought we should have brought a few extra warmer clothes with us. It’s only been last week that things have warmed up.

In the weeks leading up to going to South East Ambrym we enjoyed the company of Roy and Anna Pearson at Talua. They were up in Santo checking on several projects. It was good to catch up. That same week Vanuatu celebrated 26 years of Independence…so up the road about a 40 minute walk at Najingo week long celebrations were held (I will upload photos of this to our website soon). The celebrations included another sports tournament of soccer and volleyball, a horse race (two horses along the beach), a marathon, a string band competition, a choir contest, a canoe race and a tug of war contest. During the each day many people cleared a bit of bush around the soccer field and setup stalls selling island food. A small petrol generator was powering a sound system with local music. Talua got involved having a stall selling rice and meat, coconuts to drink and eat and gataux (a donut like thing in the number 8 shape). Phillip purchased so much sugar cane from one stall that he was given a massive cane for free. On the last day of celebrations there was a church service with the moderator of the PCV giving the sermon (he lives on neighbouring Tangoa Island).

Phil with his free bag of sweets

On the Tuesday after the celebrations we flew - island hopped - to South East Ambrym where we met up with Bob and Barbara Walls from St. Columba Pressie, Otumoetai, Tauranga. The aim was to reunite with friends we made at South East Ambrym last year and paint the Moru Village church roof (we stayed in the church) and I did some reconnaissance for St. Ninians Pressie, Blenheim. They are sending a work party to Utas Village early 2007 to help repair the church (built by Kiwi work parties in the 80’s…Utas Village is holding the PCV General Assembly in 2007). It was great to meet up with old friends (it was the 3^rd time I’ve been there). It was also great to be able to share with my family the experience of going and living in the church, eating island food and experiencing a more authentic village life - cos life at Talua is not typical village life. While there a couple celebrated their wedding they married 7 years ago but could not afford the wedding feast, so 7 years later Tom and Mary had saved enough money, breed enough cattle and whatnot and celebrated in style with ten 25kg bags of rice, 4 bullocks, 1 pig, 50 laplaps, a massive Kava root to grind for drinking, about 3 days of work getting prepared, and finally a lot of fun and dancing on the night of the actual celebration. Plus a spectacular talcum powder fight - a must for every wedding.

When saying island hopping to get there the plane goes from island to island making its way to Ambrym, picking up and dropping off people and cargo on its way to Port Vila, we went as far as Ulie airport. We arrived the day after Vanuatu Independence Day and when arriving at the airport were told there was no diesel on the South East Ambrym - it was all used in the Independence Day celebrations - so it would be a good two hour walk Moru. Oh well…just go with the flow. We walked past a couple of villages then were told that Kalangai (the nurse at Utas) had found four litres of diesel and would pick us up soon. He had already walked 1hour to the airport and back again to his village looking for diesel. So in the end we only walked for about 45minutes.

Not only was it good to meet old faces, it was good to see things still working from our work party last year. The books and gifts given to Senai school were still there - even though we learned its very important when a group gives something to a school to say very very clearly “this …(whatever the gift is)…is for the school”. Otherwise teachers might think it’s for their own personal use and when the Vanuatu govt moves them on to another school they take the material with them. A few books did move on with a teacher from last year but I am able to report most are still at Senai and being used.

At Moru it was good to see the two water tanks still operating. They haven’t been used for the whole of the year but have been used most of the time. We arrived in the dry season and so they were low but being used. Also a couple of months ago there were major ash fallout from the neighbouring volcano island Lopvei - at night if the sky was clear we could see lava flowing down the mountain.

the following photos are Lopvei at day and night time (night time photo taken by Roy Pearson in June) and a Pama Loo (photo by Roy Pearson). The loos on South East Ambrym are the same

With the ash fallout the roof and guttering needed to be cleaned - which the locals did when the ash fallout stopped. Another problem was an earthquake caused a crack in one tank. Again the locals repaired it themselves. This proved my theory that if we build a water tank, they would repair them cos they can afford the one bag of cement to repair a cracked tank…what they can’t afford is the 1 to 1½ ton of cement to build a well from scratch. There had been other problems with the spouting (due to the ash) which we refined a bit and I will send some extra parts from Luganville to help.

So all in all - last years project was a success and the weather was kind to us as Bob Walls managed to finish painting the roof - it was a delight to fly over Moru on the way home and be able to photograph the bright blue roof of the church and the two water tanks. I’ll be back to South East Ambrym again next year to the PCV General Assembly and if it’s OK with St Ninians, when they go to repair the church.

After getting back from Ambrym we had exam week at Talua. Also Bob and Barbara Walls came with us to visit Talua - this was great and very sad to see them leave. They got to see a few places and even experience a rushed “transport” to the Canal.

This last week we had the Talua Memorial Lectures. Rev Feyak from Sydney gave ten lectures on the Spread of Islam. He was born in Egypt into a Presbyterian family. He became a Pastor in Egypt and forced to leave due to persecution. It was good to here some of the unreported truths behind what’s happening around the world. A very challenging week…also a busy week cos when I wanted to be marking papers and whatnot we were busy with lectures.

Yesterday as a family we took Feyak to the airport. I asked the bus to be back by 4PM. It arrived at 5:05 - flat tyre. Anyway I dropped Viv and kids in town to purchase supplies and took Feyak to the airport…we weren’t too late. Then we went to a restaurant for dinner…and had some hot chips…man they tasted good, real good. Talking about food, last night was I chatting with an expat in the butcher shop, he was buying food for his dog, the scary thing was the meat and other tinned fish he brought for his dog was the same food the students eat at Talua, the same except the students eat less.

There is a slight reprieve today from Mosquito’s due to the rain. But during the last week has been an explosion of the number of mossies. We’ve all been bitten to billeo standing outside one gets eaten alive. Currently there is no Malaria around so that’s good. Bob and Barbara picked a good week to be here cos two days after they left the mossies arrived in mass!

God Bless
Jon

Away for the week

2006-07-31T21:19:00.000+11:00

Hi all, we are off to Ambrym for the week, painting a roof at Moru
village.

God Bless
Jon

Jon & Viv Parkes
Talua Ministry Training Centre
PO Box 242,
Luganville,
Santo,
VANUATU

blog blong jon

2006-07-23T21:59:00.000+11:00

It has been cooler, I have a sweatshirt and shocks on while writing this. Not many bugs flying about, the ants seem to be a lot less and no bites from centipedes.

What have we been doing this week? I’ve spent a lot of time bleeding the generator. The coconut oil is not all its cracked up to be and even though the concept is great, a renewable local resource, because it is not refined and therefore pure enough, it will end up damaging the generator – so sadly we will be going back to diesel. Add to that a week of mainly cloud and hence little solar charging, we have had to use the batteries sparingly.

So some nights this past week we have sat around the table with candles, in fact we thought of writing a blog called, 101 things to do with a candle. Phillip found burning hair was cool (but it stinks), so he began pulling out more hair and burning it. By the way, Viv’s hair is fine and fine hair tends to curl up faster and burn quicker, and perhaps not smell as much!

About the cloud - again when we tried to watch the All Blacks the cloud stopped the signal to the Tata schools’ new satellite dish, so we went online to read what was happening.

Even though it’s been cloudy, there has not been much rain. All of Talua’s rain water tanks are empty. So we are drinking the water from the tap which is not very clean – we boil it. Many of the students walk up the road a few kilometers to get water from a clean stream. We have a gas top and so boiling water is easy and quick. The students cook on open fires.

Last Sunday I preached at the evening service, the topic was the Kingdom of God - see a bit of it below. Some staff and students didn’t like it, why? Well, cos I’m from a different culture therefore I am removed from the Vanuatu culture; I can bring a measure of objectivity to what I see. So last week I named a couple of small things that happen in Vanuatu that are un-kingdom of God, they happen here without people really knowing they are happening.

So what do I think the kingdom of God is?

The upside down kingdom

The Kingdom of God is where people’s hearts and relationships have been enabled by the Spirit of God to live in subordination to the reign of God.

The kingdom of God is the upside down kingdom. We as humans tend to put us first whereas the kingdom of God does not work that way. It is where the first come last and the last come first. Where the rich are the poor and the poor are the rich. Where winning is losing and losing is wining. The Kingdom of God is where to live for oneself is to die and to die to ones own live is to live. It is where justice, compassion and mercy rule.

It is where the poor in spirit are in possession of the kingdom of heaven. Where those who mourn are comforted, where the meek (that is humble in spirit and manner) will inherit the earth. As for the proud - well woe to them - they miss out. The proud, the arrogant, the ones who think they have life all sorted - they miss out.

The upside down kingdom is where Jesus calls us to be helpful to our enemies, to be good friends with those deemed to be despicable or contemptible. The upside down kingdom is where we are to be friends with prostitutes (try it sometime), where we become friends with a kava bar owner or a criminal. Where we are to exchange pursuit of status to a pursuit of slavery. The upside down kingdom is where we change our whole approach to money

…ohh that hurt, you can blog about anything but keep away from talking about money, preachers always stuff up when preaching about money…

that last bit is not from the sermon, its more thinking over things since then. I mentioned in an email to someone how we as a family we went to a resort and ate two pizzas last week. Tasted pretty darn good to be honest. The tricky part is the cost of the two pizzas, chips and whatnot equated to a reasonable percentage of a Talua student’s annual fees. Today I ordered a part for the laptop. Simple as abc, just a few clicks on the laptop and its done, painless and effortless and more money than the students or staff get in a month. It’s scary to ponder what we do with our wealth. It is also scary ponder that we rarely have the ability to suss and critique our own cultures spending habits cos we are part of the culture and spend in the same manor.

So when it was explained to some of the staff what I meant when I said it seems many people in Vanuatu lie, “that its culturally acceptable to lie”, they said “no we don’t” but when lying was explained fuller they said “but we do that all the time, its normal,”. They don’t consider the lying to actually be lying and can’t see that its “wrong”

In NZ we spend up large on stuff we don’t need, “but we do that all the time, its normal,” We don’t even think twice that what we are doing is against the kingdom of God. In fact the previous sentence seems way over the top cos we have become so enculturated. I wonder if in NZ we are doing a pile of things that are “wrong” but don’t even know? It seems we complain about the past generations mistakes very quickly yet forget we are digging our own hole.

Oh well
lets go to hell
with a pile of shopping

God Bless

Jon

aussies all blacks waves & whales clouds prayers blessed p.s.

2006-07-16T15:01:00.000+11:00

Things are busy around here. Currently there are 3 teams of work parties from Aussie, two working on the new library and doing a few other odd jobs and the other group doing various work. Each group is staying about 10 days - most of them billeted in with the student’s accommodation - single and married quarters. So it’s different around here, at times its hard to teach cos of the noise from the building and whatnot.

Last Saturday night we went to Tata Primary and Secondary School hoping to watch All Backs against the Aussies. The school brought a satellite dish for the Football World Cup - but there was too much cloud for a signal (and we don’t know if it would have been shown on the TV stations anyway). Cos Radio NZ international have not been able to secure rights to play the test I did a google for All Blacks live and found a website that had the score of the game and commentary of what was happening - updated every 1 minute or so. It was great to be able to know what was happening, we only logged in for the last 15 minutes of each half cos internet is expensive here. With all the Aussies here I’m pleased we thumped them.

We have been enjoying big seas lately - great body surfing. Sometimes the waves take us right up on to the sand like stranded whales - speaking of whales…yep been eating a lot of bread and stodgy food. We miss the lighter food one gets in NZ.

The past week or so has been very cloudy so the solar charging didn’t happen at all. We had to turn of the fridge for a few days so not to ruin the deep cycle batteries. All of a sudden we couldn’t use the laptops whenever but had to be careful - it is amazing how we take things for granted.

If you are the praying kind of person, pray for William as he is finding it the hardest at the moment, he misses his NZ mates a lot. For William friendships are important and when the local boys tease him - he gets very upset. We presume the teasing is more cultural misunderstandings (on both sides) but some days he wants to go back to NZ. Also pray for Phillip cos two nights ago be was very badly bitten by a Centipede. He came into our bedroom late one night saying his arm really really hurt. Turning on a torch he had four round bite marks on his upper arm. We found a large centipede under his mattress. So pray for Phillip and our protection in general - don’t really want any logging trucks causing disasters – read below about the dream. On Monday a truck flipped near Luganville with people killed and injured, the hospital barely coped. Talking to a nurse yesterday (from one of the Aussie work parties), she had a look at the hospital and thought it would not be a good place to be in an emergency.

So if you are the praying kind of person please do.

The following is possibly a Melfoquine induced dream.

Yesterday our family hired the Navota Farm Ute for the afternoon to go to town. It was nice to go to a restaurant and have Pizza for tea. It was scary buying supplies when they are so expensive over here. I guess the dream came from the fact we used the ute.

In the dream, a student brought the ute to Talua from Navota - this does not happen in reality as the farm manager (Ia) does not let anyone drive the ute…in fact it is hard enough for me to be able to use it as Ia prefers to drive it, it gives him mana, makes him a big man and the resulting problem is he drives it too much. Instead of running the farm he is driving into town and back all day long. Like all dreams - other things were out of place, i.e. the road was on the wrong side of Talua and therefore the ute came from the wrong direction.

Anyway the student parked the ute poorly leaving the main road half blocked. Soon a logging truck passed Talua and in order to get past the ute drove up on a ledge on the side of the road. (In reality there is no ledge). The next thing I know the truck had lost its load and massive logs were rolling everywhere. I and a few students went running around campus to see the damage, it was horrific - one student had his arm stuck - I presumed crushed - between a pile of logs - there was no blood and guts in the dream, another weird thing was this student still has his usual grin even though he was indicating there were people stuck below the logs. The prospect was grim and I felt hopeless - there was no way to get the people out, the logs were too big, running around the fear rose about Viv and the kids - total horror began to take over as I felt more and more helpless about my inability to shift the massive logs. My mind raced to the bombings in India and earthquake victims and how they must feel. I then woke up. Not a good dream…but worth thinking about.

Often on TV one sees earthquake victims from the comfort of a lounge. And often it is hard to imagine how horrific the situation is for the people. The dream brought that to life - the horror and hopelessness, especially when the panic set in that my kids could be buried and I have no idea. Including no idea if they were somehow still alive under the logs but due to the limited resources and size of the logs, there was now way to do anything - total hopelessness.

It was good to wake up - as you can imagine. I hope in the future I can show a deeper sensitivity to those who have lost love ones in such horrific tragedies. As one would think, my prayers after the dream were of profound gratefulness to God for his blessing on me and our family. I think I have been taking his blessings for granted - way too much. The blessings of having children, having a fantastic wife - a great whanau. I have always wondered about doing research into ‘what does it mean to be blessed by God and therefore what does it mean to be cursed by God, for that matter, is a person cursed by God or by some other way’. Well the dream reminded me that as a family and for me personally, we are tremendously blessed by God.

God Bless

Jon

Its been a couple of days since writing the above. Being the dry season we have run out of rain / drinking water. The photo above is Connie and Beryl sitting back enjoying a good coconut drink.

Also - the Aussie groups have left, leaving us feeling a bit flat and lonely. It is great to have them here - they did a good job. Its interesting on the night after they left - the generator broke down. Using the new Coconut Oil fuel, even though the filters were changed and the tank fully cleaned out, it would seem we need new filters. Since the problem happened on a Saturday night - we will have no power till Monday night. Not good since its cloudy a lot at the moment.

Tata School

2006-07-02T19:01:00.000+11:00

Not much bloging lately. Maybe cos it's been cold here - we tend to put on a warmer shirt some evenings at the moment.

I have updated our website with a page about Tata school. Have a look. Click on the link
http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~jvp/Talua/TataSchool/TataSchool.htm

God Bless
Jon

Aussie vs. NZ spenders

2006-06-19T19:06:00.000+11:00

On Wednesday a cruise ship from Auckland with mainly Kiwis was in
Luganville. On Thursday another cruise ship was in port - the passengers
mainly from Aussie. At the end of the first day Viv overheard a tour
operator talking to the owner of the supermarket we go to, saying how
the first ship was full of NZ'ers and on average they spend half of what
Aussies spend when on holiday.
Does this mean, kiwis are conservative, or two Scottish or poorer?

God Bless
Jon

Back to work

2006-06-16T09:39:00.000+11:00

Blog Blong Mama Viv

We are already 3 weeks into the new term here at Talua so it’s time we caught people up on a few things that have been happening.

We were all pleased to get back to work again because the kids were getting a little sick of each other and spending a bit too much time in each other’s company – not just within the family, rather within the community. The new term saw more kids come back from their home villages and islands and a bit more life around the place. Personally, I found that without the structure of the school day to work around, I was a bit lost and at rather a loose end. Even though I don’t always enjoy the teaching, it is my purpose in being here and without it, there isn’t much for me beyond the daily grind of feeding and looking after the family.

We have struggled to get back into good productive work patterns since recommencing because there has been quite a lot of out of the ordinary stuff happening around the campus. In the first 2 weeks of term the mamas took part in a cooking course, run by some people from in town. This did not include me of course, because of school commitments, but was part of the women’s programme. The second week saw them holding restaurant meals for lunch and dinner. We were delighted to be able to wander over and purchase meals for the family quite cheaply. I thought that our kids were confirmed riceahloics, but even they were sick of rice by the end of having it 2x a day for 3 days! Still, it was a nice change from cooking ourselves, and not having to do the dishes either!! Simon is particularly fed up with having to do dishes all the time here, but we have a strict roster to adhere to for every mealtime except weekday breakfasts when Madeline does them.

The other main focus for life at Talua of late has been preparation for and holding of the Open Days. These were on Thursday and Friday of last week. The main feature of the Open Days is lots of sport, with soccer and women’s volleyball competitions being held, and food selling. The objective is for fundraising and perhaps increasing the profile of the college locally. The preparation involved major tidying up of the college grounds, building of temporary huts for food preparation and sale, mowing the football field which for most of the year is a cow paddock across the road (!), weaving of mats for those visitors who stayed the night to sleep on, etc, etc.

There is usually choir and string band competitions as part of the Open days as well, but there was apparently some kind of clash and no visitors turned up for that. The sport team entries were also down , so I’m not sure how successful it was as a fundraising event. Still there was plenty of food being sold – 2 cattle beasts were killed for the event, and lots of cakes and other goodies were made and sold. Our kids enjoyed the novelty of being able to wander over and spend money on sweets, cakes or gum. Just like being able to walk down to the corner dairy! There is a small campus store here open limited hour, with limited goods, but we don’t buy much there.

In general, a lot of people put in a lot of effort. I found it a very long period of time when I was surrounded by lots of people I couldn’t understand well. In other words – hard and a bit lonely despite the number of people around. Even the kids felt a bit like they were more conspicuous because there were lots of people who are not used to seeing them around. Jon used the time without lecture commitments to do some wiring work in the ceiling that he had been meaning to do for ages. The rats had been chewing on wires and so some circuits, and therefore plugs and lights, didn’t work ( he was mightily relieved not to see any rats in the ceiling space while he was there!!) and he also rewired some places so that we now have 12 volt lighting in more parts of the house. This can run straight off the battery and doesn’t need to go via an inverter.

It’s back to work this week, but we have some visitors coming from NZ to see us so there will probably be more opportunities to escape our work commitments this week too. What a shame! But it will be nice to have some Kiwi conversations and to catch up on what’s been happening back home.

2006-05-25T19:47:00.000+11:00

Jon swimming at the Blue Hole

2006-05-25T19:28:00.000+11:00

Viv and Simon at Champagne Beach

2006-05-25T19:26:00.000+11:00

The blue waters of Champagne Beach

GODS TOP TEN, JON'S JOB, CENTIPEDES & CIN

2006-05-24T05:28:00.000+11:00

Gods Top Ten

A song I enjoy at the moment is "God's Top Ten" by INXS (on their latest album ‘Switch’). I think the song is dedicated to the late Michael Hutchence and his daughter. I presume it is about M H being in heaven singing. his songs being in God’s Top Ten. I like the mellowness of the music, the voice of the new lead singer J.D. Fortune , the attractive Suzie McNeil sounds good as well.

But back to the issue of God’s Top Ten. I’m wan lucky fella. I wake up each morning beside one of God’s Top Ten (click here for a recent photo). But that’s not the Top Ten I want to tell you about. During the holidays we went on a on a bus trip (2½ hour drive each way) to what some tourist books call “the most beautiful beach in the world". Champagne Beach. And yep - it is one of God’s Top Ten, a little piece of Gods’ handiwork, a place in paradise, well worth the long drive.

The water was warm, turquoise and so very very clear - the whole beach was like one massive swimming pool. The white sand is so fine it feels like white powder, when scattering it underwater it leaves a trail that spreads like white dye mixing in the sea.

In the background there is lush bush, coconut palms and little thatched roof shelters. Out to sea beyond the waves breaking on the reef - a reef that kept the water calm - we saw mysterious looking islands with high cliffs and rugged bush that evoked memories of James Michener’s book “Tales of the South Pacific” and his vivid descriptions of places like Bali Ha'i.

Under the water there were colorful tropical fish. Back on top there was a wharf to jump off. There were even mini secluded fine white sand alcoves for romantic rendezvous, and perhaps best of all - we were the only people there. We had the whole of this ‘God’s Top Ten’ to ourselves. The experience of being there heightened the feelings of “its good to be alive” and the feelings and thoughts of gratitude to God that go with those feelings.

Jon’s job.

We have added a page explaining what Jon’s job involves.
Go to http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~jvp/Talua/jonsjob.htm

Centipedes and Sin

Like sin - I have a love hate relationship with centipedes. Like sin, centipedes look very intriguing, their many legs, lots of hooks, lots of twists, they do look amazing but also kind of creepy - especially the big ones and mate they can scamper. And when they bite - it hurts, it really hurts - especially bites from the big ones.

I woke up at 1AM this morning, looked up and wondered what that long narrow thing on the window above my head was. Viv turned on the torch and yep - another big creepy centipede. Suddenly we were both wide awake.

Last night a small one had already been on Viv’s neck - fortunately no bite. Three nights before a small one had bitten my arm while we were sleeping in bed.

Yesterday William went hunting for a large one, he and a friend found it they played with it for while. When they went to kill it it hid itself. Eventually we found it lurking behind some boxes and we killed it - the creepy enticing little critter. Somehow centipedes hold a weird hidden attraction but if played with can hurt like hell. All sounds like sin really……

God Bless
Jon

THE GARDEN.doc

2006-05-06T14:06:00.000+11:00

THE GARDEN - BLOG BLONG MAMA VIVIENNE

We now have a vege garden up and running (well, maybe only walking pace so far). It’s only taken 3 months! It is understandable really that it has taken so long. When we first arrived we were too shell shocked by the heat to even consider going outside to do anything as physical as digging a garden. Also we didn’t think that we would be staying in our present house for more than a couple of months, so it didn’t seem sensible to put any effort into establishing a garden near this house if we would soon be shifting to the other side of the campus, or even further away to Navota Farm. So anyway, it has cooled off a bit, mainly in the evenings, but we can cope with a bit more physical activity now if we pick our times and shady spots. In addition we have been told that we will be staying in this house until at least the middle of the year.

Now the need for a garden is more than just the need for a hobby, or the need for physical exercise, as it may have been in NZ. Here we are struggling to keep up with our families vege needs on a day to day basis, so the need is more significant. We get into town once a week to do grocery shopping and at this time we also go to the local open air fruit and vege market. The ‘grocery’ shop is not a supermarket as we know them in NZ. It, like most of the shops in Luganville, is owned by Chinese, and has a real variety of stock for sale from pots to spear fishing gear to sewing supplies, clothing, sugar and beer. The one that we use for most of our food buying has the best selection available here in its 3 aisles of foodstuffs. Most of it is from Australia, and some from Asia. There is a small amount of imported fruit and veges. We buy onions, garlic, and occasionally potatoes and carrots if they look reasonable. We also sometimes buy frozen peas, but our freezer space is very limited.

The rest of our fruit and veges come from the market and that varies lots from week to week. We can usually, but not always, get spring onions, small green peppers, cucumber, Chinese cabbage, kumara, avocado, tough beans, corn (not sweet, maybe maize) bananas, pawpaw, oranges, mandarins, lemon/limes, grapefruit, coconuts, as well as veges that we don’t want to buy like kava roots, manioc, taro, huge yams, cooking bananas and banana leaves, island cabbage (we buy it sometimes - it is similar to silver beet) and things that we have no idea what they are. Sometimes if we are really lucky we can get lettuces and small tomatoes. Today for the first time I saw and bought a pumpkin. When I write the veges in a list like that it actually sounds like a lot of variety, but really it isn’t and we can only buy enough to last us a few days at most. We have a small fridge and that enables us to keep a few things fresh like peppers and lettuce if we can get it. Otherwise nothing stays fresh very long.

The second opportunity that we have for buying fresh stuff is at the weekly Saturday market held not too far from the college here. The college usually sends its bus down to the market for the students and staff to buy supplies. It is much smaller than the town market and what’s available varies heaps in both quantity and variety from week to week. The cost of the fresh produce is generally very reasonable.

So we were very keen to supplement our diet with fresh veges from our own garden, and particularly to grow the salad type veges that we are really missing. The cost isn’t so significant but it will also help to keep our food bill down as the rest of the grocery items are quite expensive.

Where do you start in establishing a garden here? Well, all the staff and students are allocated space to have as gardens. This is to help them financially as many students have little or no money in reserve, and having a garden reduces their dependence on bought goods like rice and flour. Most of the garden land is down the road a bit on Navota Farm land and is used for growing the bulky things like taro and manioc. Some land in the college grounds has also been ploughed up for use by the students this year and has just this week been planted in a variety of seeds provided by the college. I complain about our limited food availability but really when I compare what we have to what the students live on - often just bread at breakfast, and rice with a tiny amount of tinned fish for other meals - what have I to complain about? This is the single students who eat together and roster the cooking I am meaning. The couples and families do their own thing, mostly in their outside “bush kitchens”.

Our allocated garden space is not far from our back door. Anything that is not actively kept tidy very quickly begins to revert to jungle here, so this piece of garden didn’t look much like a garden, except for the wildling taro and manioc plants, grown up from small pieces of tuber left in the ground. There are also some pineapples and the odd banana, lemon, coconut, and pawpaw trees. These are actually dotted all over the campus, apparently wherever they have come up. All the students do various duties around campus, including most of the ground maintenance and lawn mowing. As staff we are able to ask for students to come and help clear the ground for the garden, which we did. The main tool for any job in Vanuatu is the bush knife (machete). Many people carry one with them all the time. The guys all came with bush knives in hand and set to work. They slashed away at the overgrown garden and brought it under control in no time. Wilson, one of the students also managed to slash his big toe - quite a nasty cut. I felt bad that he’d done that in doing our job for us. They also turned the soil over (with shovels, not bush knives!) so that it was ready for seed sowing, and transplanting some of the small plants that I had already raised in pots.

We are very close to the coast here and the soils are thin and coralline. In our spot there are lots of small pieces of coral and also some large chunks in the soil. The soils are very light and friable. The rain sometimes falls very heavily but always drains away very quickly. We are learning about the importance of shade and keeping up the water to our seedlings. Some of the first things we planted didn’t come up, or didn’t survive because we had a very hot, dry spell earlier in the month and the garden suffered before Jon put in a hose to bring water closer to the garden and we bought a sprinkler.

Another major problem that we needed to deal with is the chickens that wander freely around the place. On the first day after the guys had cleared our patch, some ladies walked past and commented in Bislama, most of which I didn’t understand. I did pick up the bit about “fowl I scratchem”. In other words “watch out for the chickens they will scratch everything out”. So the next step was to get a fence up around our plot. Jon used his Navota Farm contacts and a few days later the students and farm manager came down with a tractor and trailer load of logs fresh from the bush, some still complete with epiphytic orchids. They then dug these logs in by hand at intervals around the garden, nailed up split bamboo horizontally between the posts, and stuffed dry coconut palms in between. And there you have it - a chicken proof fence. Well it is so far - I’m sure a really determined chicken could get in but there are easier pickings elsewhere.

We have planted corn, broccoli and carrots which didn’t come up, lettuce and Chinese cabbage seedlings that don’t look too great, cucumbers which came up marvelously but then proceeded to disappear until I put some cans around the last few to protect them from whatever (you should see the size of the land snails here!), tomatoes that I raised in pots, dwarf beans, peppers and radishes looking good so far, climbing beans just coming up, and watermelons planted out from pots too. The melons and some other things are subject to attack from small brown beetles, but most things seem to be suffering more from the heat than anything else. Locals put up shade frames over their seed beds which seems a sensible plan to protect them from the heat of the sun. The dry season is coming when water will be an issue as it is hard to keep enough water to the garden already with the low pressure and sharing the water with the neighbours. I want to make compost and mulch the thin soils. Most rubbish of any kind is burnt here. I need to rescue some and add organic matter to the soil.

In general I am really enjoying getting out into the garden despite our early failures and the mossie bites. Sometimes one does feel rather shut in in this place as we are not very free to come and go, and there isn’t really anywhere to go to just here anyway. So at least I can escape from the house out to the garden. Unfortunately I can sometimes still hear the kids arguing from there!! I don’t think too much about the wildlife that is rustling around me. Usually it is just a little gecko, but sometimes there is a large frog or a land crab or even a rat. There are snakes in Vanuatu, but they are not venomous. We have only seen one on display for tourists, not in the wild. I am getting used to using the machete as my main tool and have a blister to prove it! Hopefully we will soon be able to provide both our family and others with an abundance of fresh veges. The kids have also been involved in sowing seeds, etc and Connie was delighted that the beans she planted were so quickly out of the ground. Simon planted the radishes which are also flourishing. Crunchy, fresh veges in no time, yeah!!

Phone line down

2006-05-06T14:05:00.000+11:00

If trying to email us - our phone line is down and so it's hard to send
and receive.
God Bless
Jon

Wink Murder and more photos

2006-05-03T14:54:00.000+11:00

Last night we celebrated the end of exams. Our pastoral care group met at our place. After devotions, a shared meal we played various games – kind of mind twisters. It was good. Then at Connie’s insistence we taught everyone Wink Murder. A great game for people that often never look one in the face.

Some laughed letting us know they were the murderer before they killed anyone. Others sneakily killed off people - a good game, a good time, and lots of laughs.

The photo is Kalangai strumming away at out place with little Sammel (Peters and May's boy) sitting beside him. Our Pastoral Care group is made up of students from Efate.

By the way - we have added more photos. Goto http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~jvp/Talua/tp2/index.html to see them.

God Bless
Jon

Blog blong Jon

2006-04-28T11:14:00.000+11:00

Sailing, another dream, ANZAC Day, selflessness, new inverter, stiff neck and end of 1^st term.

It’s hard to believe this time last year I was on a 32 foot yacht sailing from Auckland to Port Vila. The trip took 11 days. I then visited Utas and Moru village on Ambrym Island and now I’m here with my whole family on Santo Island - my how things change.

Had another dream, in the dream it looked as if a large group of cyclist were killed in some horrific accident near Blenheim - off the edge of a cliff - during the dream I had recollections of the Crave Creek Tragedy. My father was very upset wanting to get to Blenheim from Tauranga ASAP for the funeral service - it was in talking to dad I heard of the accident. There were a lot of dead people, a lot of caskets. I ended up at the funeral service - taking more note of how the celebrant led the service than the actual service (something I tend to do since it’s my job at times - why in the dream did the celebrant walk out backwards after the service?) At one stage Viv and I were telling Phillip, Simon, William and Connie to stop going over to the caskets and touching the dead cyclists.

What brought the dream on? It was not a premonition. Perhaps it was more to do with the previous evening. Last night I finished reading the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker. A sad ending, but how can any book that is faithful about war have any other kind of ending? (Writing this coincides quite well with last Tuesday being ANZAC Day.) The last book in the trilogy, The Ghost Road, moves between the head hunters of Vanuatu (with their skull houses); enjoying and living for the fun of the chase, the thrill of the hunt, of the capture, the buzz of brining back a head, or bringing back a live person who’s head would be required at some stage in the future - albeit that day could be several years away and a such a person could in the mean time live-it-up, even acquiring great wealth, but live with the constant knowledge that their head had to be available at a moments notice. Now we might say that way of life is barbaric yet Barker cleverly juxtaposes the skulls houses of Vanuatu with the skulls French farmers uncover while ploughing their fields - fields that were once covered in rotting German and English soldiers during World War One.

I didn’t like the crude graphic vulgarness in the book - the morals were disgusting (just like war is savage and disgusting). And I guess when one does not believe in God, then logically there is no need for any kind of objective moral standard because we as individuals become God. And ‘we’ can then do whatever we want. And so, human thought up ideas, codes of ethics so to speak (like bill of Human Rights) become nonsense because by whose ‘human right’ do we make the basis for all ‘human rights’, i.e. if I impose my ‘rights’, they will impact and hinder someone else’s ‘rights’. Hence we need God. Why? God is objective, outside of our subjectivity, outside of our communities collected subjectivity (that currently seems to be collectively on a moral downward spiral - what used to be bad is bad no more, only that that once was shocking.)

I guess Barker was trying to compare the carnality of certain solders living-it-up before they die with those caught in Vanuatu whose head is about to be used. The three books don’t focus on Vanuatu, but on World War One. Anyway, I wonder if we at times, question the “stupidity” of “natives”, of “head hunting”, or perhaps even the silliness of the unsophisticated ni-Van way of live now in 2006, letting ourselves have smug thoughts of how-civilized we in the west are, when we forget the barbaricness of our modern, rather too clinical, killing machines that are used in war today, or of the immorality and shortsightedness of how we in the west eat and use so much of the worlds food resources (two thirds of the worlds resources used by one third of the words population), add to that the weird reality that current generation of children in the west are the thought to be the first generation in human history whose life expectancy is calculated to be less than their parents - due largely to overeating, to luxury, and ‘comfortable’ lifestyle. Perhaps we are not as sophisticated as we think.

This makes me think of selflessness and a couple of examples of it. Daniel (the guy from the Lions Den), when hanging out with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, didn’t want to join in with the palace luxury and rich food and whatnot (Dan 1:8). A palace official was concerned thinking it might mean Dan and his three mates would fade away but after a ten day trial “they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food” (Dan 1:15). Even Nebuchadnezzar noticed them, they stood out. These four Hebrew men practiced the spiritual discipline of selflessness (and not selfishness). They became great leaders who helped a nation.

Another example of selflessness is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Here we have God the Son, super cool, super powerful, with the ability to do anything. While in his penthouse flat in heaven, he takes off his crown and de-powers himself becoming a human. Not only that - he suffers death on a bloody cross (even though he was innocent) in order for us to be able to have close friendship with him, for us to be able to have peace, that deep inner peace and joy that is often hard to explain. How does this work? Simply put (no doubt too simply) - because of the forgiveness of sins by the death of Jesus on a bloody cross. His dying paid a debt I could not pay. How do I know it works? Well I’m a professional sinner, I don’t want to be, it’s just part of being a human. When I (and zillions of other people) have got on our knees, and talked to God about the problem of our errors and sins, and asked for forgiveness, something actually happens. Weird as it seems - we often experience a profound sense of deep forgiveness. Give it ago.

To give some closure to the thoughts on war - since it was ANZAC Day last week. May we never forget the bravery of those who selflessly gave their lives so we may live today! May we make our lives count and be worthy of their sacrifice, as well as the sacrifice of Christ.

What’s happened during the past week?

We received a new inverter (to replace the one that blew up) kindly given to us by friends of Viv (a bible study group at St. Peters that Viv went to in Tauranga - thanks heaps guys - it’s working well). I had fun picking up the inverter. It arrived in a suitcase packed with ink for our printer, another computer keyboard (for the Talua library) and a laptop. The suitcase arrived on a inter island ferry from Port Vila - about 6:15pm last Friday. I was at the wharf waiting. Picked up the largish suitcase and rested it on front of me on the motorbike and drove home - slowly as the only light working on the bike was the park light. Each time a vehicle came the other way I’d have to virtually stop as I could not see where I was going. And as for the bumps on the road, they show up clearer in the dark, they are the dark spots on the road (even if I could only make out the next few meters ahead of me). And it didn’t rain much. The fun of living here!

The only problem with the bike trip is it might have been what put my neck out, for a few days this week I’ve had a rather stiff neck, at least its getting better now. Riding the bike back from town I’d put my neck on the suitcase to stabilise it.

Lectures finished yesterday - exams start today. I spent much of the last weekend marking essays. I found this hard - trying to be impartial, and fair. I developed a simple format to help me mark the papers objectively (to a point). I then went through each essay individually with the students to try to help them in future writing.

On the weather side of things - it is cooler at night but still can be very hot and sticky during the day. Yesterday was particularly humid and unpleasant. We have our ups and downs. There are still days we could just pack it all in. Today William vowed and declared he wanted to go home and coming here was a major mistake. He does not enjoy correspondence school much at all. He will just sit there looking at anything but his school work. So if you are the praying kind of person, a few prayers for us would really be appreciated. For Viv as she teaches the kids, for the kids as they do their school work, and for our health. I’ve had stuff start to weep straight out of my leg for no apparent reason. Its in-between (by at least 25mm) two cuts made from slipping on old coral. So I guess something got in I didn’t see and treat.

Nothing is simple in a way, be it cuts and bruises, they all take longer to heal. Today we opened a Weetbix packet to discover they tasted and smelt tainted from some kind of washing powder. No doubt stored in the shop or a ship beside the powder and the smell has cross contaminated. Not a great thing to happen considering a medium size packet of Weetbix costs over $6.

God Bless
Jon

eruptions, gremlins, Lenten thoughts, Sapi, Tubana Is

2006-04-18T07:27:00.000+11:00

blog blong jon eruptions, gremlins, Lenten thoughts, Sapi, Tubana Is,

its been a long time no blog. Why? Not sure. I guess we have been busy.

The other day, after disembarking off a boat, about to climb up to the volcano on Ambrae Island (not Ambrym Island where a team from St. Columba went last year), once we were on the beach, all of a sudden the volcano actually erupted. Plumes of smoke and ash everywhere – quite spectacular. Then much to my horror a huge chunk of rock (size of three houses) broke off the top of the mountain and started falling towards us. Somehow we managed to get back onto the boat, by which now in the dream had turned into a cruise ship. Luckily no one was hurt. It was a vivid dream. We are still taking our Malaria tablets - and apart from a few vivid dreams, none of them “horror movies”, things are fine, perhaps mostly fine.

We have been here three months and are settling in. We still have weird gremlins affecting power supplies and whatnot. The other day I went to show a short DVD to the English class and our portable DVD player would not work. The next day – the same DVD in the same portable DVD player did work? Why? Who knows? Likewise sometimes the Desktop PC starts and other times not? Why? Who knows? In the past I could usually suss these kinds of things. Here there is no logic to what is happening to let “intuition” work things out. Things are just random. (The word random is no longer a favourite word of Phillip, but William says it a lot – meaning anything from the actual meaning of random, to good or bad or whatever).

Again I’ve had to bleed the generator, so I installed a 12-volt light above it and in the workshop so next time we will be able to see things. It’s tricky trying to bleed the engine with holding a torch. Also it’s dark when the generator is started and therefore tricky just to start it. No easy turning a key and the engine fires into life. First get a jumper lead - not two leads (which would help when the battery is flat but the second lead is nowhere to be found!), then connect it to the positive on the battery, turn the key on and touch a part of the generator where a switch used to be – sparks fly and usually the generator fires into life. So in the dark this is a little bit tricky. Also the diesel tap must be turned on. The new student who looks after the generator, the other evening walked into the generator shed to start the generator, (in the dark), turned the diesel tap, and started the motor (I still have no idea how he does it in the dark). And after 30 seconds or so the motor conked out. Why? The person turning off the motor the day before never turned the diesel off, so Kalmara actually turned the diesel off – thinking he had turned it on. That’s another reason I installed a 12-volt lighting system in the generator room.

We must be settling in as we are noticing things that we have seen before but not noticed. Last Thursday evening Viv and I walked around the campus. I wanted to look at the plumbing around the place as I had spent the previous day in town finding parts to repair a cut main pipeline (a plough had cut the pipe). It was our 2^nd time of no water in less than two weeks. No big deal really - just like living on the farm in a previous life. After our walk around I now have a list of repairs that need to be done. Things like broken taps - that no longer turn off - not just the washer, no rosettes in many of the showers (one outside shower for the married students is just a tap with black plastic to give a bit of privacy, no drain, no sink).

Anyway, after the walk around looking at the leaking taps and whatnot, I was a bit shocked at the conditions the students live in. Perhaps “bit” is an understatement.

Last Thursday - lent was fast coming to an end. The last few years I have given up meat and a few other things for the 40 days prior to Easter. This year I haven’t even been aware of Easter (no Warehouse TV adverts reminding us to buy more sugar). But during Holy Week I had been thinking about Easter, I was even conceited enough to consider “our coming to Vanuatu” as a kind of Lenten thing. We had “given up things” to be here (not that we did miss the U2 concert in the end, and it was the only thing I was really concerned about missing). Yes, our house here is small, only two bedrooms and William currently sleeps on a mattress on the lounge floor. Yes it is a change from our big house in NZ, with plenty of rooms, views and whatnot. But we still have power (via solar we have it power 24/7), a fridge, internet, and food. Have we really given up much? Yes and no but perhaps in the end we have gained more than we have lost. No TV adverts. The kids are reading more than they ever have. Viv and I chat more. It is hard here, but also easy. Things are special again. Like a ice cream is a treat where as in NZ, its usual. Last Night Connie had her birthday party - yep our little girl is now 7. She had eight girls from Talua turn up for the party. They brought her presents (which considering their poverty was embarrassing), things like a block of soap, a card, one girl brought a 100 vatu coin (NZ$1.47), a bible puzzle book, a lava lava, a woven hand bag etc. Connie was over the moon – they had fun late yesterday playing with a Video Tape. Not watching the video but playing with the tape - pulling it out and using it, one game was kind of like chasing, another a kind of limbo and a series of other games – they probably got more out of that than the actual movie J. No piles of lollies and fizzy for the party. Just a banana cake, some candles and heaps of smiles.

So what is hard? Getting out of Talua, making “friends” who are not part of Talua the community. Having somewhere to go. The power does play up at times, it is hot, the water does stop now and then, the loo does not flush properly, we get tired of itchy bites, at times walking through long grass I can be a bit jumpy…was that a snake…my imagination can get the better of me. Our main outings tend to be going to the river for a swim, or going to the reef for a swim, or going to the Canal (Luganville), which is a 40 minute bumpy road, costs money and while there tends to be a busy time of getting supplies for the following week. Yet the simplicity of life covers all the problems. Yes - reading between the lines there is ambivalence about being here, but it’s a healthy ambivalence. And back to the issue of waking around the campus last Thursday, of noticing things I have seen but not noticed. Our house here is like a #$#$@% castle and its embarrassing, its humbling, its baffling to figure it out, including what the “it” is.

One thing that frustrated me when walking around was - why do they (the students and ni-van staff), not fix things when they break down. It’s like they wait for the chief (or authority person) to tell them what to do. I don’t like that - people become lazy, letting others do the thinking – I wonder if that kind of authority-yielding hinders people from reaching their potential (and plays into the hands of power mongers). Jesus seemed to break down the power mongers (that’s why the he was killed - he confronted the power brokers of the day). Yet even in the church today, sadly people use “church” as a way to have power over others. People have to learn to think for themselves - including living with the consequences of there choices. (It was our decision to come here and its both easy and hard!).

Easter Sunday several of the staff preached in different pressie churches in the Canal. So Viv, the kids and I went to Sapi church. I brought along two students to help (and give them practice etc.). It was nice day, long but nice. We left at 8AM, church started at 10AM, the church put on a “smol kaikai” for us at midday and then we waited around till 3 pm for the Talua Bus to pick us up (another hour before getting back to Talua). At least it was an outing. It was good for us to see another part of the Canal and not just the shops etc. The Sapi church is slowly being built (probably over 10 years or so), no ceiling, no windows, concrete blocks, even the roof looked temporary. Another church where we dropped Ps Masia off was made up with a few sheets of corrugated iron.

Yesterday for Connies birthday (Easter Monday), we went to a nearby deserted island (Tubana). The island belongs to Talua, but has no water and so no one lives there. It is a few acres in size. We paid a guy to take us there. He dropped us off at 9AM and picked us up at 4PM. A teacher at Tata School took us there - he was our guide, so to speak – but he forgot to bring his bush knife, fishing net and matches. So we explored the island, swam, tried to catch fish (we found a old holey net), and tried to light a fire with sticks – we got plenty of smoke and tied arms, but no fire L. We ate jam sandwiches and surprisingly ants did not invade them before we ate them. It was a good time - and more importantly for us (at present so it seems), it was another outing.

cheers and God Bless

Jon

parked blog

latest family photos

New Blog Started

http://stdavidschurch.co.nz/index.htm

signing out

Three weeks to go

PCV General Assembly 2007

blog blong Vivienne: Good Sports in Vanuatu

one happy mum

Canoe races, snakes and more visitors

Urgent prayer need for Dillon Boe

Urgent prayer need for Dillon Boe

A week on Mota Lava

More Comings and Goings - by Vivienne

Comings and Goings

No phones

blog blong jon ulcer update / sports Day / raining kiwis

Game Fishing

The Journey.........to Wusi and back

Clay Pots and Tuna!

Blog Blong Jon: Bali / Ulcer / Term Two

In Bali

Tsunami Warning 2nd April

couple more photos

Becky visited

Its good to be back - sort of

Kids fun

Mould and fish

A good day at Aore

some photos

A few photos so far this year

First Blog for 2007

A few days break around Port Vila

Island Gateway to Port Vila

graduation 2007 plans HIV-AIDS

Phones down

blog blong mama vivienne - mango season

blog blong viv

excitement walk more walking vsa variation

note to the photos

family happenings - blog blong viv

The Mangos are all go

A typical day - Simplicity - Candles Bush Man Style (by Simon)

some sad news - some good news - some current news

Talua Sunday

New photos uploaded

prayer deemed harmful while pornography seen as harmless

end of term, ambrym island, memorial lectures, hot chips, dog food, and mosquito’s

Away for the week

blog blong jon

aussies all blacks waves & whales clouds prayers blessed p.s.

Tata School

Aussie vs. NZ spenders

Back to work

GODS TOP TEN, JON'S JOB, CENTIPEDES & CIN

Gods Top Ten

Jon’s job.

Centipedes and Sin

THE GARDEN.doc

Phone line down

Wink Murder and more photos

Blog blong Jon

Sailing, another dream, ANZAC Day, selflessness, new inverter, stiff neck and end of 1st term.

What’s happened during the past week?

eruptions, gremlins, Lenten thoughts, Sapi, Tubana Is

Sailing, another dream, ANZAC Day, selflessness, new inverter, stiff neck and end of 1^st term.