The confessions of a POM who just got back from Vanuatu...

A trip to Vanuatu provokes deep feelings for me, and these feelings usually stay with me for at least a month after arriving home. I think that it is a combination of culture shock, sorrow at leaving, and tiredness.
It can manifest itself in different ways.
I can find myself crying at the drop of a hat.

The fruit at the grocery store made me cry yesterday. They had mangoes and finger bananas just like the ones JohnMark brought in from the front yard.
You never see finger bananas in the USA. I bought two bunches of them for my cereal in the mornings.

A song on the radio reminded me of my flight home. I cried all the way home from aerobics.

I find that I have no tolerance for silly small talk. Okay I admit it. It's probably not silly or small to whoever is doing the talking,but it seems so whiny and trivial to me.
such as....
I don't want to hear about your shopping spree and the new skirt you settled for buying since you couldn't get it in the color you really wanted.
That conversation made me think about the lack of skirts in the village, and I wanted to say how lucky you were to have so many choices , and the money to buy it, and then I wanted to cry.

And....
Please don't complain to me about gas prices its $10 a gallon in Vanuatu if you can find it, and then they pour it into the tank with a cup.

Please....I don't want to hear you say to me, "Well, when are they coming home? How much longer are they going to be there? enough is enough, don't you think?"

Probably better if you don't ask me why the trip was so hard.

I always come home and decide to clean house. I give away lots of stuff.

I have already sent two boxes to Vanuatu with things I want the kids to have, and I'm working on the third.

I am amazed at what we find important for 24/7 news here in the USA....No wonder I did not miss it. How many different ways can we speculate about Micheal Jackson's death.

I have so many thoughts rolling around in my head and I'm trying to sort through them, and pray through them.

After a while I will calm down, but some of the things that will stay with me..... are

I am thankful to God and my husband for letting me go on this trip.

I will no longer buy stuff for my collections or to just have cause I want it.

I don't need a new outfit for every occasion, what I have is just fine.

I am so thankful for the medical care we have in this country. It is one of the best in the world, and...

I will spend more time in prayer for Erik and the people he serves.

It is good to be home, but It is hard...

For This I Trained....

I have been home a week...

I'm still tired, but last night I went to bed at midnight instead of 2 and slept until 7a.m.

I had the energy to go back to water aerobics this morning.
I had shared with you that I had strengthened my arthritic knees and lost weight for this trip doing this exercise.

Erik was always concerned that I might fall and break something. We laughed and kidded about how difficult it would be having the villagers carry me out, but we both knew that if it happened that is exactly what would happen.
The paths get very wet and slippery after the rain and it rained quite a lot the week I was there. Even when paying close attention it is easy to slip and fall.
A young man in the village made me a walking stick,and I used it constantly. It helped give me the stability that I needed, and it gave the villagers something to talk about. They were quite curious why I needed the stick. .
Because of the rain there was no way to get the truck up the hill so that the day we left Tanna we ended up walking out of the village. It is about a mile down the hill.

"For this exact thing I trained," I told Erik. We laughed, but even with the stick,careful walking, and the training I still fell one time going down the hill.

I can tell you that I was pretty happy to see the truck when we finally arrived.

Things we take for granted...

The night I came home one of the first things I did was throw a load of dirty travel clothes into the washing machine. Normally this is a task taken for granted, but after my week on Tanna Island I was very aware of the privilege to be able to do this.

I think when you are a mother a washing machine is one of the things that you really need. A family of 6 produces lots of dirty clothes.
In the village, Michele has laundry every day, but with no electricity there is no machine.
So How Do They Do Laundry In Tanna?

Michele usually has one of the village women help her every morning.
They start with two large basins or buckets of cold water, soaking the dirty laundry.
Each piece is then scrubbed with a brush using bar soap. I have seen some of the women use a rock instead of a brush, and often they will beat the garment on a board. The goal is to get as much dirt out as possible, but the dirt never comes out completely

Next step is the rinse cycle. Here the washed laundry is soaked in the second basin of water getting the soap out.
The last step is wringing each piece getting out as much water as possible.
Laundry is then hung on the line, a fence, a tree, or whatever is available.

I don't mind doing laundry in the village, but the last step makes me crazy. Each piece needs to be flipped as many times as necessary until it gets dry.

The drying is totally dependant on the weather.

The South Pacific can be miserably hot, and when hot, laundry dries fast, but the South Pacific can have relentless rain and when it is raining, the laundry can hang for days. This is were the flipping comes in. Whenever there was a break in the rain I was flipping laundry.

because of the rain last week I left many wet shirts on the line.

The moldy stinky smell of clothes is taken for granted, but I was surprised when a towel that I had brought along invoked this reaction.

Michele passed the towel around and everyone smelled it and touched it.

"We love when you send these kinds of things," she said, "we always smell it and say how much it smells like Grandma's house."

That made me smile.

Home...

Finally I am home... after 30 hours of flying we arrived home last night at 11p.m.

We were delayed in Vanuatu for 4 hours which made for a stressful time because our plane in Fiji a huge 747-400 was to leave at the time we were scheduled to arrive.

I was so tired that there was really no way I wanted to stay another night in Fiji.

An absolutely amazing thing happened because they held the plane until we arrived there.

I can only attribute that to God's gracious mercy. As jet lagged and tired as I am I have been praising Him continuiously all day, but I am still pretty teary. I agree with one of my readers, I will never be the same after having spent time in the place.







Early morning picture of our plane.

I showed this picture to the children in the village and their eyes bugged out and they started to giggle. Most have never seen a picture of a plane let alone seen one. What an amazing blessing to have the opportunity to fly. We really live in a very small world.

I have so many stories and I will share some of them as time goes by, but It always takes me about 3 weeks to get over the jet lag. Gaining a day back and having my days and nights mixed is hard especially since I struggle with tiredness in normal times.

Farewell to Tanna

As I write this I'm on a small plane taking me from the island of Tanna to Port Vila, a 35min. flight.
The tears are spilling and I'm having a hard time stopping them.
I am physically tired and emotionally numb.
We had both a difficult week with many many obstacles as well as an exciting week of fun and happy times, the kind of times that make for lasting memories.
I am well aware of the fact that our battle on this earth is not against flesh and blood, and I know that the enemy wants to thwart the work of God especially with the work my son is doing, but our God is the one true and almighty God, full of power and might, grace and mercy. And I saw this week His hand and care on each obstacle we faced, His hand and care on my son and his family, His hand and care on Sage and me.
I struggle with wanting to say, "Why God do things have to be so hard when it's so hard in this place already."
But I know that it is the obstacles that God uses in our lives to make us holy and dependent on Him.
There were times this week that I wanted to take my son and his family home with me:)
I know that is silly, and not God's will, so instead I left them this morning with lots of hugs, promises to see one another in a year, and much thankfulness for this time we have had together.
We leave for Fiji and USA tomorrow afternoon.

Tanna or Bust....

Sometimes this place surprises me. When I shop in town I always come across cards that have pictures painted by local artist Diana Tam. I have taken the cards and framed them because they portray so well the flavor of Vanuatu.
This week Michele and I had to take Sierra to a local dentist, and in the same block as the dentist was the studio of this woman. It was great. We saw some of her work in progress, and were able to purchase things that she had painted that were not available in town.

My kids always attract attention because they speak the local language and they are white.
Striking up a conversation with Diana we told her that we were off to Tanna because this is were they live and work. She was intrigued and her response made me laugh.

" I have been to Tanna once," she said, White grass resort wanted me to come a do some painting. I was there only 4 days, and at the end of 4 days I told them I need a spot of coffee, and I don't even drink coffee. Tanna is a hard place, it makes Port Vila look like Paris."

She is so right, I say that Tanna is like another planet. It is hard to explain but I will take lots of pictures and try and show you that way. I will not have much Internet access.

We leave early in the morning at 7:00a.m. Erik will pick us up and we will get to go to the village right away because our supplies will not be in port until Sunday.
So we are off to Tanna....

And the Earth shook...literally

How could I forget to tell you all that we had an earthquake day before yesterday.
I was sleeping and thought I was getting sick.
It measured 6.5.
I love this place:)

Turtles in all sizes. ...

We have had a busy week. We have been to the beach a couple of times. Had a Grandma date day. We went into town together for shopping, and lunch at Jill's an american cafe.

Burgers, fries, and milk shakes.

Today we went on a day cruise, that included a turtle farm. The kids were able to get up close and personal with the turtles.

We snorkeled, swam, and had steak lunch on the beach.

Erik leaves for Tanna tomorrow, and the rest of us leave on Friday.

Giving Thanks...

Yesterday Erik gave the sermon at church. The pastor asked if there were any prayer requests or praises. I stood and I found myself overwhelmed with emotion as I said,

" I love being here and I'm thankful that I can be here.

As a parent of a missionary I recognize that sometimes when things such as what happened to Erik and Joel,this last month take place things can go very bad, but I want to thank God for his gracious mercy and grace because Erik is doing fine and Joel shows no damage with his knee. He has been very good to our family and I am thankful."

I could barely get the praise out without bursting into tears.

I must have pushed the feelings of anxiety down, until yesterday when I acknowledged before God what He had truly accomplished with my son and grandson.

"I will extol You, my God, O King,

And I will bless Your name forever and ever.

Every day I will bless You,

And I will praise Your name forever and ever.

Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised,

And His greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise Your works to another and

shall declare Your mighty acts.

On the glorious splendor of Your majesty.

And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate

Ment shall speak of the power of Your awesom

acts, and I will tell of Your greatness.

They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness.

And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.

The LORD is gracious and merciful" psalm 145:1-8