Hard life

Dear Family and Friends,

Wednesday night was our returned missionary class.  We never know how many, or who will show up to the class that we hold on being temporarily and spiritually self reliant.   This week we had two new students, Sam and Moses.  William is always there, he really wants to learn.   He has a good job at the Toyota dealership in town as a car salesman.  He also has a property here on Port Vila, and in Umbi, a little island where he is originally from.  As he sits in class, he takes many notes on the things that we talk about.  This week we talked about what it takes to make a living, and how to get a job. So we talked about the steps they needed to take.  We then started talking about marriage.  There are so many stumbling blocks here in the islands.  For instance:

Bride Price:  If a young man wants to marry, he has to pay the father of the bride for her.  Most of the time it's in money, and can be in the thousands.  It could also be in animals; pigs, chickens, cattle...Most of the time it's impossible to come up with what it takes, so they end up living together.   That includes members of the church.  It's hard for them to break tradition.  These are tribal people, and usually have a chief in their village, and things are done his way.  

If the young man wants to marry a girl from another tribe other than his own, many times, the couple would be required to give up their first born to replace her being taken from the village.  

If you are driving in a car and you have an accident that kills someone outside of your tribe, then you have to replace that person with someone from your tribe.  There are many unusual things that go on.

We usually take someone home after class.  That night we took Sam and Moses home.  Sam just returned from England on his mission three weeks ago. He speaks quite good English.  You can tell that he's wondering how to proceed in life after that experience, he is a very quiet young man and so sweet.  They do have a junior college here, and some go away to BYU Hawaii or to Somoa.  We're going to do our best to keep an eye on these young men and help them the best way we can.  In order for the church to help them with college, there are classes they need to take to help them qualify for college.  The Lindeman's do a great job with that.  

When you drive someone home, you usually turn off of a main road onto another road that leads out into the jungle.  Sam had us pull over to the side and let him out.  He said that we wouldn't be able to get to his home.   I don't think he wanted us to see where he lived.  It made me want to cry.  When we took Moses home, we felt like we were in a national geographic documentary.   We drove down this dark dirt road that our truck could barely stay on.  We had to drive slow because the pot holes were so deep.  The tin shacks on both sides of the road were close together and lots of people had their fires going to make dinner.  We could hear alot of ranting and raging, Moses laughed and said that was the Seventh Day Adventist preacher.  People were sitting around  a fire listening to him.   It was a very uneasy, evil feeling and we couldn't wait to get out of there.  When we pulled into where he lived, his parents were there and smiled and waived to us.  Moses got out of the truck and thanked us.  They are so used to all this, it doesn't phase most of them.  It's just unbelieveable to witness.  We are so thankful for EVERYTHING that we have been blessed with, especially to be born in AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL!  Greg said, "when we get home to American, and I walk in our house, I'm going to cry like a baby."  Me too.

One thing that is a real problem here is kava.  Kava is a drug that is made from the root of a plant.  They make it into a drink.  It calms anxiety, but can also make you high.  They have kava bars all over the place, and you can hear them whooping it up every night.  It's not a good thing.  It's actually a problem in the church.  Customs and habits are hard to give up.

On Saturday mornings Greg and I drive down town and park on the water front.  We walk for exercise and then have breakfast at a little cafe by the water.  They have really made it nice down there.  They've made it very presentable for the tourists who come off the cruise ships.  As I've mentioned, the Chinese have a million little souvenier shops where they sell trinckets from China, but say they are made in Vanuatu.  

After we got back from our walk, we got ready for our weekly snorkeling trip with the other couples.  We went to a place where we got to see giant clams.  These clams were the size of a suit case.  It was a site to behold.  WOW!  Anyone that says, that there isn't a God, a supreme creator, is not a rational human being.  I just can't explain how incredible those guys were to see.  They were really pretty colors too.  We are seeing things that most people will never have the opportunity to see.  This is an experience we will never forget.  We are so blessed to be here.  Tonight we are going to a Chinese restaurant with everyone.  We all order a different dish and then share.  It's quite fun.  As I said in the last post, we are off to the island of Tanna tomorrow morning.  We'll be gone for three and a half days.  I'm not sure if the internet is there,  but when we get back, I'll besure to catch you up on what happened.  

For now, we love and miss you all.  We'll check back later!  Love Elda and Sista Robison