Flora and Fauna (and food!)

I thought I'd write about and show pictures about some of the plants and animals seen quite a bit on Vanuatu. For local wildlife, the most commonly seen things are geckos, which are very cute and make a crazy chirping sound. They are everywhere. Here's one very tiny one on Jim's hand. Most are like 5 inches long. I guess the locals view something like this (catching one and having it on your hand) as being voodoo, akin to one of us holding a cobra. I guess they watch you after to see what terrible things will happen to you since you messed with a gecko, like you are calling down curses on yourself or something. I think Jim was one of the few in our group who never got sick or any infected cuts or bites so the "gods" must not have minded him messing with the gecko. :) Another really common thing is spiders, much to my dismay. This one is an orb spider and they were everywhere but most weren't this big. This one was about 4 1/2 inches long and about 2 inches across and was hanging above our drying laundry. Nasty! The one nice thing about all the spiders (and they had some kind of brown one as large as a tarantula too!) is that none of them bite or have poison. The worst thing they can do is just get on you but they do help by killing flies and mosquitoes! Flies and mosquitoes are everywhere of course so mosquito nets are a must even if sleeping inside a building. Here are Gwenyth and Jesiah inside a mosquito net in the room the Richards family stayed in at Camp Shining Light. The flies love sores so they are to fault for my infected mosquito bite. They crawl all over that stuff so it is essential to keep sores covered during the day and away from the flies! Some more pleasant animals are the cows, horses, birds and chickens. There is an "emerald dove" there that is truly just like our doves but is bright emerald green! They have lots of beautiful birds but they aren't quite so friendly and fearless as our robins or sparrows, so I couldn't get any pictures. The chickens are a little different than ours (taller with longer stronger legs and some different colors) but still chasable by 2 year old's. Cows and horses I think were imported from Australia but they do have native pigs. I didn't get pictures of them. They do have a decent market for pork there and the beef is awesome! Chicken wings are reasonable, but chicken breast was like $5 a pound! The interesting thing about having cows is that there is no dairy. The people don't drink milk or eat cheese. We found cheese at one store for $18 a pound! The only milk you can get there is the Australian long-last stuff. I don't like milk anyway so I won't miss that, but the cheese lack is sad! I guess the amazing bread makes up for it. Here is some of what the beef we ate looks like (on the menu this was stew and rice). This meal was $2.50 at a restaurant. Here is a picture of that "restaurant" in Luganville on Santo island. The woman behind the counter here took all of our orders and cooked all of it in her tiny little kitchen and had everything ready all at once for our big group. It definitely wasn't fast, but you learn not to be in a hurry in Vanuatu. We filled the restaurant so others trying to come in left when they saw us packing it out. I don't think this place had a name and was just a random doorway in a wall off the main street, but it was by far some of the best of what we tried on Santo. Food was just good in general there though. Ni-Vanuatu know how to cook up a great meal!

To finish up on the animals topic, there are cats and dogs around but they really aren't seen as pets in Vanuatu except if they are owned by white-folk. They are more just part of the food chain to kill off the rats. People don't pet them or feed them so they are pretty mangy and diseased, like what you'd see in Mexico. We were told in the bush village in Ipayato that we'd want to be in tents we brought even though we were put up in cement buildings because of the rats coming in at night. I never got any company in the night that I knew of so they didn't bother me but there were some living in the storage room at Camp Shining Light so I had some run past me several times there. There really aren't any other animals that I know of in Vanuatu, other than the flying fox I posted a picture of before my survey trip. On Malakula, the guys ate at a "restaurant" that had flying fox (a bat that has a face like a fox) on the menu. They tried it and the owner was very excited to serve it to them. Fortunately, he served it just as cut-up meat, not just off the fire like in the bush. They informed me that it tastes very strong, similar to liver. They got other meals in addition to the bat and decided that if they don't have to, they'd rather not eat flying fox again. Fish is prevalent too but I'm not a fan so I stuck to the chicken and beef for eating. There are lots of fish for looking at though. Here's a "Nemo" we saw.

I'll move on to flora now. Vanuatu is just in general a gorgeously green country. Everything is in season all the time and everything is green and growing. Here are a few trees that are everywhere.

This is a papaya on the left. On the right here is a plantain tree, which is similar to banana in shape but definately not in taste. Plantain is cut and fried while the bananas in Vanautu are typically smaller than those we get in the states but a thousand times sweeter. They taste fabulous! We had as much fruit as we wanted pretty much at all times, which was awesome! Here's another fruit tree, a citron. They are similar to grapefruit, although not needing sugar for sweetening. They are very messy to eat and no one has napkins there, but they are worth the mess! This is a citron tree outside the building we stayed in at the capital city, Port Vila.

Here is a picture of a typical breakfast for us - fruit (citron and banana here), bread, and something to spread on it (Nutella, peanut butter, jam). The bread is incredible, like what you can get in France. It doesn't get hard like American "French bread" so you can keep it in the pantry several days and it's still just as good as when it was purchased. It is about 50 vatu (50 cents) per loaf. One could get very fat on all the rice and bread that is available! There are lots of starchy vegetables, like manioc, taro, yams and potatoes so the people here are more often somewhat overweight than underweight. All the fruit and vegetables I tried were very good. I had great pineapple (which I guess was out of season so not very available), mango, passion fruit, limes, lemons, and oranges (which are usually green!). I pictured breadfruit and noni fruit on one of my earlier posts and I didn't try those. There was a noni fruit tree in the yard at the camp but the staff all called it "stinky fruit" because of the vomit-like smell coming from those that were rotting on the grass. Maybe I'll try one another time but I know I'm not interested in trying an old one! I did drink from a coconut, which had little taste and I did eat from a few coconuts. The ones I tried were pretty bland but I guess taste varies like shape so I'll have to try some more. This picture is of a guy in Fiji (Indian, which was like 1/2 of who we saw in Nadi, the capital city there because they are really immigrating in mass numbers to Fiji I guess) who cut open some coconuts for us when we were there for our 16-hour layover on our way to Vanuatu.

The vegetables were interesting. Yams were fabulous and manioc was prepared like french fries (frites) and tasted just like them. Taro is boiled and then cut into pieces. It tastes starchy and was strange the first few bites, but it grows on you and I really liked it. When boiled it is taste-wise somewhere between a baked potato and a dumpling. This picture with the long dark roots in the middle is taro I think, coconuts are the lighter round brown ones on the outside, and the green toward the back is plantains. They have enormous beans (about 1 1/2 feet long) but we didn't try those. Cucumber grows and is good there and we had tomatoes at some of the restaurants, but I don't remember ever seeing either of those at market.

So, when you all come visit me in Vanuatu in a year or so, you'll be set up for food and won't go hungry! Bring your own cornmeal, dairy and apples though cuz you can't find them there. God did some amazing things when he made Vanautu!

My tasks on the survey trip

I'm sure the main question most of you have about the survey trip is "what did you do?" My tasks there were mainly the things I would be doing for my team when living in country, Lord-willing. Those tasks fit in with my role as "logistics lady." On this trip that looked like the following: typing up team meeting notes and distributing them to the team (this picture is me typing up notes from our big meeting with other missionaries there on Santo island) and doing financial paperwork. (This picture is me checking out the market in Luganville, the one town on Santo, to get prices on fruit and vegetables. Just FYI, we got there when it was closing so usually there is much more to it than what it shows here. This is contrasted with the huge produce market in Port Vila, shown here.
The next picture is of LCM, a Chinese-run store that is the closest local equivalent to Walmart. It's far shot from that for sure! Most of the businesses in town are Chinese-run so it is an interesting dynamic.)

For finances, I was also asked to keep track during the trip of all expenses paid by each team member on behalf of the team so we could even out the expenses at the end. For example, we bought about $136-worth of food for our trip to the bush village. Rather than each of us paying a little and driving the cashier crazy, I paid the full bill. Others paid the full gas bill, others paid the full flight bill for those who went to Malakula, etc. All these expenses were tracked by me (and Brad for the Malakula expenses) and I divided it all out in the end to see who owed who money.

I was also very involved in helping my sister out with childcare, which was certainly no skin off my back! We got to do some really fun things together. This is me on the left holding Gwenyth, my 6 month old niece after I finished soaking my infected leg! To the right is me swimming with Jesiah, my 2 year-old nephew.

The whole team was also involved of course in making connections with local missionaries and in getting familiar with people there and some of the ministries going on. Here are some pictures of the staff who work at Camp Shining Light where we stayed most of our time on Santo. Phil Pinero is the main missionary there (he is pictured here in the blue shirt). He has college-age students for the most part who make up mainly shorter-term (a few months to a year or so) teams working at the camp, which is new as of November 2006. The girls pictured here with me are Cara (New Zealander), Lydia (from Indiana), Ashley (from Oregon) and me. Zach (New Zealander), in the middle of the picture of the guys is more long-term staff as the maintenance director at camp. The other guys pictured are Daniel and Tim (Australian). These staff groups were very accommodating and were a great blessing to us while we were on Santo.
Here is Nurse Jane (Australian) and I. She is a full-time missionary serving as a nurse. Locals come out to see her for medical issues. She was a great help to me with all my infected cuts and bites (since they flared up after my nurse brother-in-law left for Malakula)! Houghton got some good notes from her about medicine and supplies needed for a bush medical facility. Nurse Jane was also a great help to me in getting lists of personal items and other things needed for living in Vanuatu.

Two missionaries who live in Luganville (not at the camp but who also help Phil out) are Gladys and Bill Scrimsher. Gladys gave me invaluable information on utilities costs and items that are best to ship over from the States rather than buy in Vanautu.

A very special person I met on Santo was Esther, who is Ni-Vanuatu. I am so bummed I didn't get her picture! She came during the mornings to help with meals and clean-up at the camp. She was very gracious to me and allowed me to record her reading in the Bible in Bislama from Romans 3. I am planning to use this recording to practice the Bislama accent and pronunciations. I bought a Bislama Bible as well as some other books so I can start to learn it stateside. Esther gave me her address and said I could write to her to practice my Bislama and she would write me back in Bislama and English.

Another task of my team was to meet some of the local people. Here is a picture of me with some kids at a church in Luganville and a picture of some of the girls at a school called Matevulu College (for grades 8-13, which would be our 7th-12th grades). I got to go to this school for a chapel service on Sunday. I got a great voice recording of them busting out in song - wow, was that ever an experience! If any of you are technologically savvy and know of a way to put voice recordings on a blog site, let me know and I'll post it. It'll give you chills! These kids are not afraid to lead out in song or harmonize or sing at the top or their lungs! When 400-some students sing a capella at the top of their lungs, it is a joyful noise! Brad from my team preached at the chapel service but high school kids led out all the singing.

Another ministry we were introduced to there was one called Frangipani ministry and is for disabled children. Some of them stayed in my "dorm" room at the camp a few nights so here is a picture of them all sacked out. Many chose to stay on the floor rather than on beds because that is what they are used to. Part of the Ni-Vanautu culture is a love for kids but most disabled kids are not allowed to live. This woman, Drusilla, has a ministry of educating villages and families about care of disabled children and is working to make sure they are treated with respect and given the same opportunities to live and enjoy life as their able-bodied peers.

I met a separate missionary, Christina, who is in town (Luganville). She introduced me to Andria, who is a teacher in the primary school there. Maybe I would have some kind of connection during my short time on Santo at that school or up at Matevulu College. Here are Andria and her daughter and Christina and me. I was blessed by the librarian at my current school to bring over to Vanuatu some school supplies to give to kids. I was able to give these supplies to the principal of the bush village, Ipayato, that I visited at the beginning of my time on Santo. This is a picture Phil took of the kids at that school

(I was there on the weekend so couldn't be a part of the school experience there). He had as his picture caption that at that school there are 3 kids per pencil! I was able to pass off to them some crayons, pencils, rulers, and paper thanks to Lynn Wangen at Willow Creek Elementary. Brad got video of me presenting that to the principal so hopefully I will get to show that to some of you. The Ipayato Ni-Vanuatu only spoke Bislama and French so since I don't know Bislama yet, I had to do the presenting in French so it was pretty limited on my part, but he got the point.

I met some missionaries in Port Vila with an organization called SIL that does Bible translation but I didn't get pictures of them either! This is the building we stayed in there. Those missionaries, Ross and Lyndal, did have a chance to meet with us one time. It was great on this survey trip to have people in-country to set up accommodations with so we knew we had places to stay! I was in charge pre-survey trip for the Vila accommodations with Ross and Lyndal and Steve took care of the Santo and Malakula accommodations with Phil. This worked out very nicely!

The final task in Vanuatu was applying for visas. The area director for Biblical Ministries Worldwide for our area (South Pacific and Asia) came with his wife to be with us at this end part of our trip. Bill and Deborah Lake assisted us in our meeting with missionaries in Vanautu about entering the country. I in turn was able to assist them with some of the flight plans for them to come in from Port Vila to Santo. Here are Bill and Deborah and I in Luganville at a Chinese (Australian run...?) restaurant we went to one night.

I helped in the paperwork collection aspect of the visas and also went into the immigration office with Phil Pinero and Steve Gibb (on my team) to watch Phil do his sweet-talking (in Bislama) with the secretary there to get her to go through our packets. Praise the Lord, our money was taken (a whopping $700!) for visas and work permits and a receipt was given so we are able to come live in the country at any time! In Vanuatu the receipt for the money is all that is required to come live in the country. They'll still process our paperwork and give us the actual visa later, but we are all welcome to move there as soon as we have the support raised to do so! It was very stressful to go through that process but the Lord gave favor, praise Him!

Well, those are the main things I was involved in on this survey trip. (The guys checked out Malakula and costs there as well as opportunities so I hope to add a post about that when I have pictures from them.) There was certainly plenty to do and to soak in but it was nice to have some down-time to rest as well. It was a great mix of both. The Lord allowed much to be accomplished and many connections and new friendships to be made!

In the eye of the storms

While in Vanuatu, there were many natural disasters and dangers. Most of these were completely unknown to me at the time so the Lord was gracious and protected. Known to the world were the earthquakes and tsunami warnings when we first arrived on Espiritu Santo island. These earthquakes occured while I was in a bush village, Ipayato in south Santo. Here is the information on those earthquakes (that I never felt). http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260983,00.html?sPage=fnc.specialsections/naturaldisaster

Also known to the world was the tsunami that ended up devastating part of the Solomon Islands to the NW of Vanuatu (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6516759.stm). This did have some impact on Santo island as noted by some missionaries I met while I was on Santo(read below). However, the day of the tsunami, I was down south of Santo, having just arrived back on Efate island at Port Vila, the capital. I was back at Vila to do visa applications and fly out the next day (Tuesday the 3rd of April) to the States. I heard about the tsunami on the radio while in a store copying paperwork for visas for my team but the locals were all saying it wasn't a big deal and wasn't going to hit so we weren't worried about it. Fortunately, our flights were still on and there were no problems for us. Here is how it impacted Luganville though (where I spent most of my time and where my team is looking at being stationed our first year in Vanuatu). This is quoted from some missionaries, the Scrimsher's. "Yesterday the ocean rose about a meter here at Luganville and then slowly receded after an 8.2 quake up by the Solomon Islands where they did receive devastating damage. The poor people here were in panic. It was all handled so poorly. They don’t know what to do, where to go, when it was coming or when it was over. It was so sad. Our domestic help was here so when we learned of the tsunami and could still see from our house the ocean was high (we never received any warning before it hit here) we drove to her village just outside of town and the people there were just panicked! They were packing things and moving on top hills and the problem had already come and gone plus they were quite some distance from any water and would have been safe at their homes. The police here weren’t even notified until just minutes before it was to come and it came early so in about 10 minutes they went up and down main street and people closed up businesses, and people scattered. They let schools out, but the kids didn’t know what to do and were hiding in the bushes and scared to death. Oh, my, for an emergency system that works here. It reminds of when the Rapture will occur and people left behind will be in panic."

The one natural disaster that did directly impact me was a cyclone, but it was very mild and passed over, praise the Lord! This one was seemingly unknown to the world. Here is the picture of it's starting path with Vanuatu being the green on the far right in the widest band. When this was to hit I was with my sister and her kids and my dad on Espiritu Santo island and the guys from my team were all on Malakula island. When we were getting reports, it was to hit Santo and Malakula specifically but it ended up losing steam and dying out. Here is an article about it: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD155410.htm and this is the link to where I got the picture of "Cyclone Becky" shown here http://www.fijiworldnews.com/news/publish/News_1/Cyclone_Becky_Hitting_Vanuatu.shtml.

Here are some of my pictures of what it did do right in the camp where I was staying and in the ocean a football field away from where I was. It ended up being just really windy, really rainy, and felling quite a few trees and branches. Some of the guys who work at the camp where we were staying shuttered up the buildings and vehicles were moved, but otherwise we just waited it out. The guys on Malakula were in a tin building waiting it out and saw about the same kind of damage there. They have some great video footage though of kids from a local school there who were launching out their little canoes in the crazy waves to get to a nearby island they row over to Malakula from every day. I guess all the kids made it over to their island. Wow. Just for contrast, I included a picture at the bottom of what the ocean normally looks like from this same vantage point.

Last Days on Santo

I get another chance today to put another post in before leaving for Vila. Thanks again for praying. Today we brought the Richards into town to Luganville for some air conditioned rest and respite for Gwenyth. She's been covered in heat rash since we've been here and the last few nights is somehow getting covered in some kind of bite. We aren't sure if it is mosquito or ant but she's been pretty miserable. They decided not to risk infection of them and just came into town for tonight and tomorrow night. (Here is my infected mosquito bite so you can see what they can do. The blue dots are where it swelled out to, which is called cellulitus.) One of the staff guys here found out this AM that he has malaria so we are being very careful with mosquitoes, especially for the kids.

The rest of us are just doing our own thing for today. We had a big meeting this AM with some missionaries here that was very pivotal for our being able to get in country. This is us just before the meeting (minus me, the picture taker). Praise God, it went very well so we are just recuperating from that. When we go back to Port Vila (on Efate island) on Monday we'll be preparing our documents for obtaining visas.

Below are some pictures of some of the things we've been doing here:

1. The market (where you can buy amazing fresh fruit and vegetables very cheaply).

2. One of part of the bush village Ipayato that we visited. (it's Jesiah, me, and Gretchen here)

3. Housing for many people here.

It has been a pretty amazing experience. I'll be getting pictures from all my teammates so I can show you some of what we did and more of the bush village experience. I need to get off of here though so I don't rack up too much of a bill for my time. Maybe I'll be able to get on again in Vila on Monday. Please pray for continued health and safety for all of us. Praise God with us that we seem to be able to move forward with coming into the country now!

Blessings to you!

Laura

A short one from Santo

Hello everyone! I hope you'll forgive me and check my blog rather than e-mail. I have access at the moment but it is 25 cents a minute and I have very limited time. Things are going very well especially due to your prayers, thank you! There have been plenty of opportunities for very scary things to happen but the Lord has protected us. I'm sorry I can't load pictures here, I have so many amazing ones! Some of the highlights your prayers have helped with:
1. the kids are doing very well (they hate the heat and are often crabby, but are not sick)
2. I have 3 sores on my legs and feet that are infected and yesterday I had a fever from it and my leg was swelling really huge. Today it is much better but this is the sort of thing the nurse said people in the bush die from in just a few days because they don't take care of it. I still need to heal up but I am on the mend.
3. This AM at 5 a cyclone was projected to hit (the first in 7 years I guess). We had lots of trees knocked down and lots of wind and rain, but it passed by us, praise the Lord!
4. On the way back from a bush village a few days ago, 2 of the guys (Brad and Steve) were knocked out of the truck (the roads are pretty much potholes with a very few areas of flat). They got scratched up and bruised, but are ok.
5. The guys are all on Malakula island right now (south of where we are on Santo island). We are praying they were ok with the cyclone but they are to fly back tomorrow so we'll see then.
6. The food is amazing!
7. The people are awesome and very friendly! We have seen a bush village and survived the amazing culture shock of that - wow. Camping seems so immaculately clean compared to that experience.
8. I love Vanuatu! We have a lot we are going to do still but I am soaking this up. You'll all have to come experience it by visiting me in Vanuatu in the future when I can speak Bislama. It is very frustrating not knowing the language. I've had some chances to practice my pathetic French though, so that's been fun.

Ok, I have to run. If I am able, I'll try to post pictures later this week before we head back to Port Vila. God bless and thanks again for your prayers.

The trip begins in LA!

The survey trip has officially begun! My family got to my house Friday night and we hung out and ran errands that day and the next before flying out Sunday for LA. Gretchen's high school friend JJ and her husband, Chris, graciously hosted us at their apartment and a guest apartment on the Fuller Theological Seminary campus (where Chris is going to school). To the left here is my nephew, Jesiah, contemplating life at a fountain on campus. We have mostly just been hanging out here but we did get some hook-ups at the last minute (like finding out this morning that we need sheets in Vanuatu at the camp we are staying at in Luganville up on the island of Sant0). It has been relaxing to be here, but is somewhat frustrating to be all ready to go but just have to wait. We leave for the airport in a few hours though to begin the real journey!

One really awesome thing for me just today was that I got to visit for several hours with my friend Stephanie, who was my roommate at Bible school up in central Montana (the link to this school is off to the right). I haven't seen her since graduation there in 1998 so it has been a long time! Here is a picture of us: She lives south of here about an hour and a half so she made the trek up to see me and showed me her wedding pictures from her wedding just this last year.

Tonight we head out to the airport and then on to Fiji. Please pray for the kids - Jesiah and Gwenyth - as they have NOT been happy campers on this trip so far. They've been troopers but there have been a lot of tears and screams. :) Thanks or praying and staying up-to-date! I'll try to do the same! :)

Itinerary update

Well, it looks like we are switching things up again in our itinerary (the lizard is supposed to stand for change...I know, kind of random). This will make for a bit of a cheaper trip for me, which is awesome, but a bummer to leave out some parts of the trip too. Here is the proposed change:

Thurs-Fri, March 22-23 Stay in Vila with SIL

Sat., March 24 Fly to Espiritu Santo island (to the town of Luganville) NOT going to Malakula island in between. Stay on Santo until Sunday, April 1 when we fly back to Port Vila on Efate island. The reason there isn't a stop now in Malakula is that accommodations weren't firming up and having a 2 year old, a baby, 2 women, and an old guy with a bad leg :) (that would be my dad) was making this very remote area not the greatest place to show up with iffy accommodations, possible transportation lack, and greater cultural differences. The guys are hoping to fly over for a few days at some point when the rest of us stay on Santo so it may still work out for them, but it most likely won't be a whole-team effort. There will be plenty of opportunities for further survey on Malakula if the Lord allows us all back to live in the country next year and begin ministry based out of Luganville.

Sunday, April 1 Fly back to Vila and take care of visa "stuff".

Tuesday, April 3 Fly to Fiji and then on to Los Angeles, to arrive back home that night!

So in a week or two, I'll be eating breadfruit, flying fox, taro, and noni fruit. Here are the pictures of those things. Just kidding, I have no idea what I'll be eating, but these are all eaten there so who knows...

Thanks to all of you who have supported me. I only have a few hundred more I need to cover things and then the trip will be totally paid, praise God! Please pray for God's wisdom and direction about my ministry in Vanuatu, for connections with officials and opportunities to begin relationships with the people (the Ni-Vanuatu) there, for health and safety, and especially for calm and happy kids (the 2 year old and 6 month old nephew and niece of mine who are coming). Thanks so much!! I hope to keep updates coming on here during the trip but I don't know what my access to internet will be once in Vanuatu. If nothing else, I can meet with all of you and show you pictures after the trip, Lord willing!