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 2nd 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
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