27 dresses - well,close anyways

Isn't "27 Dresses" the name of that newish movie that came out about the girl who'd been a bridesmaid a million times and never a bride so had all these crazy dresses? That's what I thought of when I hung up all the island dresses I was given over the last 5 months and it made me laugh. Sure, they aren't bridesmaid dresses, but there are a lot of them and they certainly aren't the sort of thing one wears on a daily basis - in the States anyway. In Vanuatu, especially for those over 40, yes, they are everyday attire. Younger women tend to wear t-shirts and skirts but all females wear island dresses to church and for special occasions. I decided that since everything in my brain is in the process of being replaced by translation, language learning, literacy, and linguistics information, I'd better document who gave me what. Plus, it gives me a fun chance to show you the ni-Van friends who gave them to me.

Some of you remember my first ni-Vanuatu friend, Elodia, who showed me a local kitchen and how to prepare various island foods out at her home in Pango village on S Efate island (just 1/2 hour or so away from Vila). She gave me my first island dress. Check my August posts for pictures and stories from hanging out with her.

I first met Magreth at a church I visited. She was visiting as well and we chatted afterwards. She told me she wanted to give me something later that same Sunday so she got my phone number and rang me later from SIL's driveway. She was there with this dress and that was the start of our regular hang-outs. Her family is from Tongoa island just north of Efate.

Talua College up north on Santo island had a ceremony for Ross, Lyndal, and I on our last day at the school last October (see Oct. posts for those stories). Lyndal and I received dresses and lei's and Ross, an island shirt and lei. Someone must have told the ladies that I was tall because this is by far the longest dress I ever got. Ross, Lyndal, and I matched for several hours, but changed into our regular clothes when we left campus to catch our flight back to Vila. We felt a little too much like silly, matching tourists. :)

Wini, Magreth, and Jen - the sisters! At the katikati (check out that post), Magreth won a few dresses and then proceeded to pass them on to Gretchen and I. Wini sewed it, we helped put elastic in the arms, Jen was as always, fun and provided comic relief! :) You'll see them throughout my blog, my time with friends was largely dominated by hanging out up at their place.

Claudia is my friend from exercise class. She's from Malakula island northwest of Efate. She's also the friend I mentioned in my e-mail with my December newsletter whose boyfriend/husband? was in the hospital for blood issues. She gave me this blue dress the last day I saw her. Afterwards, I went with her to to visit some relatives who were to be married the next day. She brought some gifts to the family property, where one room in the house of the couple-to-be was set aside for receiving gifts. Yards and yards of fabric for making island dresses, pounds and pounds of rice, and stack and stacks of weaved mats nearly reached the ceiling!

Madeln and her daughter Bali are new friends from Pakaroa Presbyterian church, where I visited most often on Sundays. Bali quite often came up after services, held my hand, and chatted with me. She told her mom that I was a good friend and should be given an island dress! Madeln asked me if I had a picture of myself that she could give to a seamstress so that the dress would be the right size. Not sure how a picture would have helped, but for some reason she was surprised when I wasn't carrying one with me in my Bible. :) However, even without the aid of a picture, the dress I was given is the closest to being even remotely close to my size of any I got so she must have described me well. Island dresses seem to be made to be unflattering so it is still that, but at least I wouldn't be able to fit 4 of me in it!

The last time I was up at her house, Magreth gave me this red dress as a farewell gift. She also saw me off at the airport this last December as I was taking off to come here to Australia, which was very sweet, but very emotional.

Finally, here is Anna, a friend my expat friend Anna introduced me to. I know, Anna and Anna... :) She didn't give me an island dress, but I haven't put her picture or story anywhere in my blog yet so this is as good a place as any. Anyway, Anna is a cooking mama at the market with her own little table and cooking area. I went and storied on with her quite a bit. When I had time, I bought a meal from her for around $3.50 and sat and chatted, but if I didn't have time, I just went by and squeezed her hand and said hi. She is from Malakula island and is very sweet, although was definitely one of the hardest people for me to understand in Bislama. She has this horrible habit of mumbling and then turning her back when she's talking. I went to practice Bislama with her and felt pretty pleased when I was able to follow most of her words just before I left Vanuatu.

I hope to put some updates and information here about Australia, but expect that posts will be less frequent. Everyone who told us before we came that school was going to be so hard and so intensive was right! I'm working hard to stay afloat so be patient but do keep checking back. :) Please pray for all these lovely women in the pictures above. I miss them and ask that God would grant them understanding of Him and of the Gospel, that they might be saved!

Katikati

This is going to take awhile to load so start it, read below, get some hot chocolate, make some popcorn, and come back. :)

My friend Magreth has 3 sisters. Gretchen and Tania both have gotten to know her oldest sister, Wini. Wini invited us to come up to her place (on the same grounds as Magreth's) for a katikati. I guess what a katikati is is a sort of raffle game. Two deck of cards are used. In this case, for 5o vatu (about 50 cents), a card could be "purchased." Once all cards from that deck are purchased, a card from the 2nd deck is drawn. People holding the purchased cards check theirs against what was drawn. Whoever's card was drawn wins the prize (example: 7 of hearts), which in this case was an island dress. Wini sells the dresses for 1500 vatu each (about $15). This isn't much for something hand-sewn and for a dress in general, but it is a pretty high price for island dresses here. The one dress I did buy when I first arrived was 1000 vatu (about $10) so she's getting a bit more profit than others do. Wini just stepped down from her other job working as nanny and housegirl for a New Zealand woman, so it seemed she was using this katikati as a kick-off to let women in her neighborhood know she is selling dresses out of her home now. The older generation of women wear island dresses nearly exclusively, but otherwise women and children wear them for church, weddings and funerals, ceremonies, and other special occassions. Doing the sale allowed Wini to make a bit more on the dresses (assuming lots came to the katikati and bought cards) and also allowed some women a chance at a new island dress for a fraction of the cost. Wini asked us to come up to help with prep and set-up so we had some nice times to hang out, practice Bislama, see a new aspect of culture, and deepen relationship with her and the rest of their family. Thanks to Wini's daughter Beverly, I got lots of pictures I'd never have gotten on my own!

Church

Pakaroa church is a Presbyterian church a 5-10 minute walk away from the building where I stay. I've gone there the most consistently of any so I know a few people and quite a few faces. It is interesting to see and surprising to learn that the institution of church here and the practices of church are very much a part of culture. (The exercise class I go to always ends with everyone standing in a circle holding hands and someone praying to close class. Prayers I've heard here are pretty prescriptive. Less like conversation to a God they can have a personal relationship with and more like following a formula.) This group is new recruits to the VMF (Vanuatu Military Force) along with the elders of the church. They were making rounds various Sundays to different churches singing a song and sitting through services. The leader of their group (not sure what his title was: captain?, commander? - some military person...help me out here!) said that not only is he responsible for his group's physical growth and growth in skill areas, but also for spiritual growth. Interesting. The issue with Vanuatu is very similar to the problem in America. Everyone says they are Christian but no one really knows what that means and everyone associates being a Christian with church attendance or making sure the balance of good things done in life outweighs the balance of bad things done in life and just believing that God exists. Well, Scripture says "even the demons believe, and shudder."

There are several different denominations here in Vila and many villages have a church in them, but churches are either weak in doctrine or in many cases with most ni-Vans here, mixing Christianity with animism/kastom (spirit-worship and practices going along with that). God is then just another spirit, another god to appease and to try to make happy. A tiny fraction of Vanuatu actually has the Bible in their own language. Those who do have a language Bible in many cases do not know how to read it or study it. Most churches here either preach from an English Bible, or a Bislama Bible' if a Bible is used at all in the service. Buying a Bislama Bible here would put a ni-Van out about a week's pay so very few have them. There is a Bible society in town that sells Bislama Bibles and has some Good News English Bibles in paperback that are pretty inexpensive, but that would be like me trying to read a French Bible and get much out of it. Sure, I know some vocabulary, and could probably pronounce all the words right, but no way would I have good comprehension, which is kind of the point...

Some things about the Presbyterian church here. It is a big denomination - in the top 3 with Seventh Day Adventist and Catholic. They have a women's organization called PWMU (Presbyterian Women's Ministry Union) and women take this very seriously. PWMU does a lot of fundraising and a lot of outreaches. The mamas in PWMU were just returning from an outreach on Malakula island (where they went to help other mamas with cooking, cleaning, watching kids, and just meeting and talking with new women about church, etc.). PWMU women have "uniforms" they wear when they have a church function so their Sunday back from outreach, they all wore their blue island dresses. There are quite a few women here in town who know how to "somap" (sew them up) island dresses. Island dresses here are the clothing of choice for any "dress up" function and definitely for church. I've been given 4 dresses so I rotate those on Sundays. They are in no way flattering and should be quite cool because of their baggy flowing nature, but are completely see-through so require another layer of clothing underneath so actually are amazingly hot. They are also made in a way that the elastic at the arms makes long-lasting rivets in one's arm; ouch! The see-through factor is due to the cheap Chinese cotton ("calico") available here. You can get any color or pattern your heart would ever desire (especially if you are into VERY colorful) but it's thin so easily tears and frays. Not my favorite to wear, but I do have one that I like. From the looks of my dresses though, I'm guessing that an average of 8-9 times in the washing machine and an island dress is officially a pile of threads. I've sewed up holes and frays in mine several times already and I'm only up to 4 or 5 washes on each.

Back to church practices. Vanuatu is full of very welcoming people who live in community. Therefore, when the PWMU women were coming in to service following their outreach, a line of people went outside to form a line and shake each of their hands. If anyone is new at church, the custom is to acknowledge them, have them stand and introduce themselves in the service, and then following the service, they are to join the line of pastors and elders outside the entrance and have the entire congregation shake their hands upon leaving. I've done this several times now, having visited several churches. It's an interesting experience in a big church like Pakaroa because it means standing in that line shaking somewhere around 200 hands. Good way to get to know people's faces though! :) Another thing Pakaroa does is have the elders come in in a line just before the start of each service, one carrying a ginormous book. I assume it's a Bible, but I'm not sure. They are also first to leave. Everyone sits until they go past in their line, then the church begins to empty from one corner to the other, one row at a time, in a line to shake hands outside, like you'd leave a wedding to hug the bride and shake the groom's hand. The Sunday that the VMF was there was my 1st time to visit and the Kenners came with me. We had to introduce ourselves and after the service, the elders went out, then the VMF, then the Kenners and I, and we all stood in one huge line. Whew, that was a lot of hands for the congregation to shake that day! The line of us went from the church door out to the road!

Last Sunday, I visited an AOG (Assembly of God) church with my friend Elodia. She's the one from Pango village who very first taught me about local kitchens and cutting and cooking root veggies (see August post). I was hoping to visit the church where her dad is an elder out in the village, but when I ran into her at her work, she told me her brother-in-law is a pastor at this AOG church in town and she's been attending there. I tried it out with her.

Tomorrow I plan to go to a Presbyterian church close to the Kenner's house with them but I think I'll head back to Pakaroa again for the rest of December unless I'm invited somewhere else in the meantime. It's been fun to visit so many different churches, but I'm starting to be weary of so many changes and new names and faces. I've been to a Nazarene church, a Baptist church, a Church of Christ church, a few Presbyterian churches, 2 expat churches, an SDA church, the AOG church, and maybe more but that's all I can think of now. :) Some were upon invitation from ni-Van friends, some were to check out what other expats were doing in their ministries, and others were just ones I'd heard of or seen. Most I've gone to have Bislama services but pastors tend to be more educated so throw a lot of English in too, some more than others.

Last Sunday when I went to meet Elodia, I found myself there a full hour early. She told me church started at 9 so I came a few minutes before. Some Churches have acappella singing (just spontaneously led) before service and other churches just start sometime after they've rung their bell and enough people have showed up. Because it can vary so much beyond Western ideas of time, it's hard to know what time to really come. When I arrived not only was no one there, I saw signs for the church saying service was at 10. Hmm, an hour to burn and I was downtown on a Sunday when nothing is open. There is a park right at the sea front just a bit away from the church so I went there to sit and read my Bislama Bible. I found some shade under a Christmas tree and started reading.

Just as a sidenote here, I first learned what a Christmas tree was from a ni-Van friend. She called me and asked me to meet her at the market under the Christmas tree. Hmm, my Bislama wasn't very good at that point so I tried to clarify, then realized she really had said what I thought but I couldn't recall ever seeing anything remotely like a Christmas tree EVER here. So I told her I had no idea where that was and we'd have to meet at a location I determined so I could ensure I'd actually find her. When I got to the market and met her, she showed me the Christmas tree, a tall tree with branches up high and locust-tree looking pods coming off of it. She assure me that when Christmas was coming soon, it would be covered in red flowers, hence the name "Christmas tree." Sure enough, they are budding out all over right now and are very beautiful. Here's one by a hardware store not far from my apartment that has a small market underneath during the week where mamas sell a few produce items. They just sit on mats on the packed ground and lay out their produce on the ground. I just bought a pineapple there this morning before they closed for the weekend.

As I sat reading and waiting for the church service to start, various people passed by. At one point I acquired a "hanger" who stood around just inside my peripheral vision behind/beside me. After a good 10 minutes, he came over and in English asked me the time, and as I was pulling out my phone to check, sat down next to me. Well, I was going to have to work to get rid of this one! It took him 10 minutes to figure out how to come sit by me and bar ME leaving, this would be tricky. I've had some practice in this over the years and quite a bit over the last few months here in Vanuatu, so as he asked me questions (now in Bislama after I answered him in Bislama), I kept my eyes looking straight ahead to the sea, not ever smiling or looking in his direction, and answering with as few words as possible, not asking anything in return, and not having any affect or enthusiasm in my voice or face. Sometimes that works in the States (but now that I think about it, it's never worked here, unless I partner that method with walking away...) :) Well, Jack (my new companion), was good. After asking why I was here (in Vanuatu) and at the park, and realizing I was sitting holding a Bible, he followed up with "will you tell me something you know from the Bible?"

How do you blow someone off when they come right out and ask that? It was obviously not his motivation to learn about the Bible, but rather to continue to engage me, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity! I silently prayed for wisdom about what to share and got some background info from him. I asked if his language has a Bible in it yet (he's from Iriki island, which is the tiny expat resort island seen across Vila Bay right where I was sitting). Nope. I asked if he has a Bible in English or Bislama (he was schooled in English). Nope. I asked if he ever goes to church. Yes, Presbyterian (but seemed like not so much recently). Well, of any denomination here, from what I've experienced and heard, they are the most likely to have some Scripture read in their services, so it's probable that he knows some basics. I decided after praying to share Creation to Christ, followed by a bit about eternal things. I figured the worst that could happen is he'd get bored and wander off, which is what I was hoping to begin with so no huge loss there. Or really, I was thinking, the worst is my Bislama is horrible and I confuse the heck out of him and when it's time for me to leave, he's in worse shape than before he asked. Well, that's where prayer and God's sovereignty come in I guess. And this would be great practice for me to organize my thoughts about the Gospel in Bislama.

So I shared about how God created the world and the 1st man and woman and wanted to be with them. They sinned by doing what he said not to do so it made the road to God become closed off because God can't be around sin. God made another road where people could come back to God because their sins were paid for by killing certain animals and having their blood be the payment. But God wanted a better road back to Him so He sent His Son (Jesus) to earth. He was human just like us and faced temptations (explained this as times where you want to do bad stuff or Satan makes you want to do bad stuff that would hurt God and break His laws - I didn't know what the Bislama word was for this). Jesus didn't do the things God said not to do though so didn't sin but He knows that life is hard and it is hard to stay away from sin so we have a God that understands that. God let Him die on the cross and Jesus' blood paid for everyone's sins and made the road back to God open again. Everyone who believes that Jesus is God's Son and that He died to pay for our sin so we can come on that road back to God is a Christian. The Holy Spirit is a present for them and He lives inside them and helps them do what is good and what makes God happy and them happy. They become a whole new person because the part of people that goes on forever was dead but now is alive. The Bible tells about how to live as a Christian and get to know God better. We can pray to God and have Him hear us and help us. Also, when our body is dead, instead of going to a horrible place called Hell because of the broken road to God, we get to go to heaven and be with the One who created us and who loves us and we live forever.

I realized later that I didn't talk about Jesus raising from the dead and taking over the power of death and being alive right now and being the one that takes our prayers to God so we don't need a priest to do that. Stink. I also obviously had a lot of other areas that I didn't share real well. When I shared all of this though, he stayed put and was really quiet and he looked out at the ocean the whole time and so did I. We just sat quiet for a few minutes and I needed to head out to meet Elodia. He didn't have any comments or ask any questions so I said I had to go but that I hoped he understood the story well and thought heavy on it. I shook his hand (greeting and leaving requires a handshake - light grip and no real shaking, just usually one up and down or just a light squeeze) and walked away to church. I really don't know exactly what I communicated to Jack or what he understood from what I said. I think I said the above, but I'm obviously still learning culture and language and have a long way to go to know how to best share a message like this and get all the vocabulary and grammar right. Please pray for Jack that the Holy Spirit would work in his life and that he would be given understanding and that there would be a guy he could talk to more about this in the future; that he would be saved and on that road to God! I'm guessing he's probably in his early 20's and he told me he works at one of the Chinese stores in town. Pray also for my other friends here - Evelyn, Magreth and her family, Illian and her family, Rachel, and Claudia - for their salvation and for me to be a witness to them of the life they can have in Christ.

Custom dance and song

The evening after I learned to make laplap, I was able to go with friends Pete and Liz, who are support staff for SIL/Wycliffe (and my across the hall neighbors) to a fundraiser for USP (University of the South Pacific, which has a branch here in Vila). Liz needed to leave early to help a friend, but Vanuatu dance and songs were at the top of the program so I got some short video. I really need some more practice with the video camera thing - sorry I'm aweful, but at least it gives you an idea of custom clothing, dance, and song.

Culture and Spiritual Need

Culture

Ni-Vanuatu culture is obviously very different from American in hundreds of ways (many of which I'm sure I didn't even begin to realize on this short trip)! Here are some things I was able to pick up although please realize I am writing from an outsider perspective with no pretense of interpreting what I saw and thought with any great accuracy. Is that enough of a disclaimer for me to be able to continue on? :) I hope so. The first thing one notices and realizes upon entering Vanuatu is the slower pace of life, the greater enjoyment of life. At any time of the day, one can find men playing boules/petanque outside the market area. (I don't actually know what they call it there. My sister and I learned the game name as boules in French class but Brad learned it as petanque while in France. In my vastly extensive - right! - research on the internet, it looks like boules is the overall game name while petanque is a specific version of it. If someone knows the specific name in Vanuatu, let me know and I'll delete all this unnecessary verbiage!) That there is a shady place here in Vila makes this game all the more appealing I'm sure. I didn't get any pictures of this, but at the market, Ni-Vans lay on their handmade mats on the floor all day unless someone shows interest in their goods and then they magically appear from under the table or behind the table or something. It is very funny to see them pop up and say "halo" and tell you the price for the item or tell about all the items they have to offer. One thing of note when paying for items is that it is not polite to dicker like one would in Mexico or even at a farmer's market in the States. The asked price is the price one pays. At restaurants this is the same in that it is not polite to tip. The same goes for bus and taxi fare.

Kids

Along with the enjoyment of life and slower pace goes a love and appreciation for children certainly not seen in white cultures in general. In America and it would seem in European cultures, decisions about having children are made more on personal preference or on money or convenience for the parents. In the store, the movie theater, and most public places, children are seen as a nuisance if heard and are most appreciated if they are quiet and out of the way. This is not the case at all in Vanuatu nor did it seem to be in Fiji. Everyone from women to men to boys and girls light up when there is a baby or small child around. Gretchen often had her hands free because some stranger would come up and take Gwenyth or Jesiah and play with them and get them to laugh. Jesiah freaked out about this (except when it was other boys playing with him, he loved that) and he also got very upset, yelling "Gwenie, Gwenie" whenever someone would come take Gwenyth. This picture is a woman who was walking on the street near us in Fiji that just came and took Gwenyth out of Gretchen's arms to hold her for a bit. If people didn't just take the kids, they at least patted them or talked to them or touched them in some way. They would often say to Jesiah "kam" (come) and clap for him to come to them. Fortunately, Gretchen is about the lowest maintenance mom I know and wasn't worried or concerned, just enjoyed the free hands! She did always end up with the kids again sooner or later (usually if they were crying and couldn't be consoled).

Music

Music seems to be another important part of culture. When we got to the Port Vila airport at 10PM their time, we were met by a ni-Vanuatu band playing us some songs. Keep in mind that there were about 15 people on this airplane and they still met us late at night to sing for us. Here's a blurry picture of our greeting musical band. Notice the box with a string on a stick for the bass! (This is the only time I saw guys in skirts in Vanuatu but Fijians wear them quite a bit). We saw either this band or others like them around town some too. As I mentioned on a previous blog site, when ni-Vanuatu sing, they bust it out! They are all about clapping and singing with everything in them. There is radio in Vanuatu too. Often the radio was played on buses and in taxis in which we rode. Many times the stations were fairly contemporary ones to what many people listen to in the States, which was interesting!

Kava

In Vanuatu, the night livens up as it is cooler and people come out of the woodwork! There is a whole culture around a drink called kava. I'm not sure I even understand a fraction of that, but from what I understand, kava is a root that is ground and then made into a drink. It is non-addictive and causes a calming affect and a general increase in amiability. Drinking large quantities can cause a hangover-type reaction. In many areas, only men are allowed to prepare and drink kava and it traditionally was used in war councils between villages. In town, kava "bars" are marked out with red lights in the evening for when they are in business. The light is turned off when they run out of kava. This picture is of kava drying on tin sheets. Kava is something one can purchase at the store. I saw it at the market for 4500 vatu (about $45). Compared to a bunch of bananas at 40 vatu ($0.40), that is pretty spendy! The guys said that on Malakula, there were meat grinders everywhere that they were using for mass production and grinding of kava to be shipped off to other Vanuatu islands and around the world. Hopefully I can get a picture of that to put on here later.

Dress

So how does one dress in Vanuatu? I guess the answer depends on where one is visiting. In the towns and everywhere we went in Santo, as well as just the general expectation, women wear skirts to the knees or longer. Girls can get away with Capri-type pants if they are loose, but I never saw women wearing them. Always the t-shirts worn with a skirt or Capri or long board shorts covered the backside. When a ni-Van girl was asked what ni-Vans think about a female wearing shorts or skirts much above the knee, she was very embarrassed and tried to refuse to answer, but finally was coaxed into it saying "vila." I guess this is the term used on Santo anyway for what they believe to be prevalent in Port Vila (the capital city on Efate island) - prostitutes. Wow, that puts most North American women and girls in the category of "vila" then, at least in the ni-Vanuatu estimation. I have to say though that after seeing everyone in knee-length or longer attire, at the end of the trip, seeing tourists in Vila right off the cruise ship in short shorts and skirts was a bit of a shock. Guys mostly wear long shorts or board shorts and t-shirts. In the villages and always for church, most women wear "island dresses" like what these girls are wearing here. The "kastom" (custom) dress on smaller islands and in the more remote bush typically involves wearing items made of leaves and nothing else. Children often run naked. Where we were on Efate and Santo, we didn't see any of this, but Malakula definitely has areas like this.

Men vs. Women

In town both men and women hold professional positions, although it really is more male-oriented. However, in the bush village, there was a definite separation and at all the churches we were part of (in the bush, at Matevulu College, in Luganville). In church, men sit on one side of the church and women on the other. In the bush village the women prepared the meals and typically don't eat with the men in the cooking house, but eat separately outside. When we ate at the bush village at the pastor's house, Gretchen and I were allowed to come in and eat with everyone else. The pastor's wife ate in there too but she sat apart and by the doorway. When we ate with a larger group of several pastors, she sat outside with some other women. It was awkward not knowing what was appropriate and offensive when we were eating there. I tried to wait until I was offered a plate or some food but we were told that we are given grace since we are visiting so that was reassuring. When we go to live we'll have to be a little more savvy with the whole deal. In town we only ate at restaurants where food is served up pretty much like a restaurant in the States. At the camp it was self-serve from Ashley's tasty creations and in Vila we just bought our own groceries. You can see in the picture here that in the cooking houses (different from sleeping houses with different roofs for ventilation from smoke from the fire) we ate on mats on the floor. It is interesting sitting on the floor in a skirt, by the way. No matter how you try to modestly arrange yourself, your legs still fall asleep. That will take some getting used to. One never wears shoes into a house so stuff isn't tracked in. Shoes are left outside the door. Here Gretchen is sitting with Jesiah, who was pretty great pals with Joab, the little boy sitting to his right in front of me. Joab played a game during most meals of going around the circle of seated people and touching them. When I kept teasing him and poking him back, he would come around and lean on me and run his hands through my hair and pat my back. Anyway, back on the men and women topic! Division of labor in "kastom" villages is pretty much women doing childcare, cooking and cleaning, and men hunting and fighting (and preparing and drinking kava)! :)

Health

It is amazing to think about living without health insurance and easy access to doctors, hospitals, and medicine. As I think I mentioned on an earlier post about my getting cellulitis, many people die from things easily treated in the States. There are clinics around on the islands and a some care available in the towns. However, for anything big, from broken bones to childbirth, missionaries and other non-natives fly out to Australia for care. We were told that we should bring any and every medication we might have need of for our group. Something of interest to me was learning that the people here cover any area that is causing them pain. For example, in the bush village, a teenage girl had a sore that had swollen the area on and above her eye. She was wearing a t-shirt on her head to drape over the swollen eye. She was very embarrassed about her eye. At one point a friend pulled the shirt away and she very hastily got the shirt back and put it back on her head. We saw a child with a cloth tied around her head showing that she had a toothache. If someone has a sore or a pain in their leg, they tie a cloth around their leg. I was told that this is to signify to others "stay away, this part is sick" so that others don't touch them there for fear of possibly contracting the same problem.

Spiritual Need

Vanuatu has a lot of syncretism, or mixing of traditional beliefs with all the beliefs that have come in with missionaries of various denominations and groups. There are a lot of denominations serving in Vanuatu, as well as Mormans, Jehovah Witnesses, and some other cults coming in with a large Chinese presence in the country. The traditional island view is animistic, which is a belief in spirits and forces, to generalize a whole lot. To the right are some idols. From my understanding (from a woman at a market), only chiefs can carve these idols. These range from a few inches to these here that were 7-8 feet tall. Our hope in going into tribes is to go where a Biblical foundation has not already been laid and to teach chronologically through the Bible. In doing this, the prayer is that greater understanding is gained so that confusion about beliefs does not occur, like what is happening with the syncretism. Obviously, much of this is the work of the Holy Spirit in giving discernment and spiritual understanding, but this seems to be a method most easily understood, especially in tribal settings. Firm Foundations, a curriculum developed by New Tribes Mission, is a Bible study series with related materials that "centers on following God's progressive pattern of revealing His character and plan of redemption within the context of history." Here is a link to these materials: http://www.ntmbooks.com/index.jsp?categoryid=3 There are a great many people in Vanuatu who have never heard the gospel, or good news, about God whose Son paid our penalty for sin (Romans 3:23, 6:23) by dying on the cross (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). Nor do many of them know that believing in this Son grants us eternal life and freedom from the punishment of death and hell (John 3:36; Romans 1:16, 3:22-26). Please pray for the ni-Vanuatu people that the Holy Spirit would be preparing many for salvation and release from the bondage and fear of spirit worship, magic, and animism.