A Few More Things

A few weeks ago, the Roundy's (Humanitarian) received a container loaded down with desks and chairs from some New Zealand schools.  When Australia and New Zealand replace their school desks and chairs, they send their old stuff to the islands all over the Pacific.  It happened to be Port Vila's turn for the much needed furniture.  It was all in pretty good shape, not junky stuff.  Elder and Sister Roundy called around and got the missionaries to take our trucks to the Black Sands ward, where the stash was located.  We drive an SUV, so we couldn't take any desks, but we did load it up with chairs.  There were several little bush schools in dire need of desks, so it was fun to deliver to them.  We got to take one of the loads to sister Veronica's school.  When we drove in to the village where her school was located, the pikininis came runnin!  Soon, another truck drove in loaded down with desks!  The people in the village were right there helping to unload.  They are so appreciative of the help they receive from religious groups, and the different countries that try to help them.  There was a group of little boys that loved having their picture taken.  They ran up to me and said, "photo, photo", and then posed.  So adorable!!  Greg was really cute with them, he was putting them in a head lock and wrestling around with them, they loved it.   I wish we could scoop them up and take them out of their poverty.  We've had such humbling experiences these past months, it's been hard to process some of the things we see, we just have to remember that it will all be fair one day.  That's how we are able to make it through.  We are all children of a loving Father in heaven. 

A few weeks ago, we went to dinner at the Ramada Inn.   In American, it's not one of the swanky hotels, but they've built a really nice one here.  The hotels and resorts here on the island, pretty much cater to the Australians and New Zealanders coming for holiday. There is a couple in our ward, Daniel and Juliette Ringou who regularly take members out for dinner.  They have a travel/tourism business, and do quite well for here.  They don't take people to cheap places either.  Since sister Tucker and Greg and I are about to return home, they invited us to dinner. They also brought a dear couple from the ward, Harry and Fiona Harry.  Yes, Harry's last name is also Harry!  The Nivans don't have money to do anything like this, so it was such a joy to see them enjoy a nice meal.  They seemed to feel comfortable with the surroundings, I think that was because they were among friends who love them.  We also enjoyed a show with Polynesian dancers.  They invited people to join them, and learn how to dance, if they chose to.  We encouraged Harry and Fiona into giving it a go, and they did.  It was fun to see them having a good time.  The meal was okay, but not like the meals in the good ole USA.  They don't use alot of seasoning or sauces in their dishes, so the food can be a little bland.  We also got to take a group picture with the polynesian dancers.  It was a fun evening.

The other night, I walked into the kitchen and saw, out of the corner of my eye, this black thing scrambling to get off the counter.   I about had a heartattack, it startled me!   I thought it was a gecko, and I thought I saw it go out the window, but it was moving too fast for me to tell.  They come in and out of the windows all the time, as a matter of fact, we have a tenant living in our air conditioner.  Greg just laughs, he calls them his "little buddies."  But they are not my little buddies! After a while, I saw it again out of the corner of my eye.  This time it  run under the refrigerator, now that isn't normal behavior for a gecko, they usually just run around on the walls.   There are two reasons I don't get rid of them; "numba 1) because they eat other insects, like mosquitos, and numba 2) Greg wouldn't let me!    All the other couples take their shoe off and smack them, which stuns them, then they throw it outside.   Anyway,  it then ran across the floor into the spare bedroom.  It was a mouse!!  We tried to buy a mouse trap like we use at home, but they use glue traps here.  It's a plastic tray with really sticky glue on it. The critter just walks up on to it and  sticks there.  It's kinda sad, because then it just waits to die.  So, we put  one on the counter and put a piece of apple on it. Within a day, we heard this commotion in the kitchen and here was a RAT (at least 4 inches long), flipping around on the glue trap, trying to get loose.  We just took it out and put it in the garbage.  I felt really bad about it. I wondered if we could do something to help it, but we didn't want to get bit trying to help it out of the trap.

The other day we went to the Vanuatu National Museum with the Lindeman's.   We all decided we needed to make the trip before we go home.  We were quite impressed, it had many interesting displays about their culture and customs such as war masks and all kinds of relics. Our guide was from the island of Pentecost,  he showed us sand art, and how it was used to tell stories.  He had a box with a small amount of sand, and drew in it with his finger, as he told a story.  The picture he drew was so cool, I'll attach a picture.   They also had replicas of instruments that were played at tribal ceremonies in the day, and he could play those too.  They used to beat a "tam tam," a wooden totem pole type drum, to call everyone in the village together, if the Chief wanted to talk with them.  They were also used to send messages to each other on different islands.  These islands were a harsh place to live back then.  Survival of the fittest was the name of the game.  We read a little bit about cannibalism here in the islands, it was pretty widespread. It's enough to give you nightmares, that's for sure! The first two Christian ministers to step on  Malakula were promptly eaten.  EEYikes! There are islands who don't have outside visitors, and still practice alot of the customs except for cannibalism.  I read that the last person eaten was in 1969.  Their ancestors were a little different than ours wouldn't you say?? Okay, enough of that. 

Last Saturday, we went to a sea turtle sanctuary.  There is a protected inlet from the ocean, where they had about 10 large turtles.  Two of them must have been 2X3 feet in diameter.  They were referred to as "big mamas."  We were told that one of them was 260 years old and the other 200, seems hard to believe, but that's what they said. They were so amazing!  There was cut up papaya there for you to feed them.  You had to pay attention, because they really snapped at it.  They got your attention that's for sure! They advertised that you could swim with the turtles, but we didn't, the water was a little too murkey looking.  This place also had two pools with a pretty good size shark (4 feet or so), and several smaller ones, along with all kinds of interesting fish.  It really bothered me, because you could see that the sharks were agitated, it was too small of an area, plus they should be in the ocean, along with the turtles.  We continue to have amazing experiences here in Vanuatu.  Our time here is short, with less than three weeks to go,  we want to get in as many of these experiences as we can.  I'll close for now, we'll be home before you know it!  Yu mi lovem yu ol tumas!  Ale lukim yu, Elda and Sista Robison