Its good to be back - sort of

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

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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

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

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

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

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

 

First Blog for 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

William investigating flight - school work.

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

Simon being part of the marble craze.

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

Church service at BP Burn - World Communion Sunday