By: Cindy Baker
#5 – Our Thursday night study in Loun village (15 minute drive away) has a good turnout with several visitors who have also been coming to worship with us on Sundays. Aaron studies with Harry and Miswel this week to train them further, he spent one evening studying and talking with the men at the nakamal (men’s meeting place) about what constitutes a true prophesy. This subject is of great interest right now as “Prophet Fred (no joke)” is gaining quite a following here in Tanna and has all kinds of prophesies about when cyclones are coming (he missed it by a week) and when the volcano will erupt, etc. I had a good discussion with Elizabeth, our current housegirl, and was able to tell her a little about the one true church of the Bible and our desire to only follow the Bible in every aspect of our lives from our conduct, to our family life, to our worship pracitices and life choices.
#4 – Woke up Monday morning to find that our nightly Rat friend had chewed up one entire side of my Pampered Chef (my good one!) rubber spatula. The spatula boasts being heat-proof up to 400 degrees. Apparently it is NOT rat-proof!
#3 – Found out Monday morning that there was a cyclone headed our way. It is our first cyclone experience. Spent the day putting house things in plastic boxes to protect them from water damage, filtering a good supply of water (just in case), and cutting down a Black Palm Tree next to our house to keep it from blowing over and falling on our house. Aaron and Harry got up on the roof and took down our solar panel and stacked wood and cement blocks on our roof to help hold down the corrogated steel. Cyclone hits about 7:30 that night. Lots of wind and rain. Gusts of 100mph. Rattles our tin roof and windows pretty good, but everything stayed in place. Thank the Lord!
#2 – Tuesday a.m., woke up to some rain and wind, but the storm has passed and was much less severe than was expected. Some branches and a few trees down, but no major damage and no damage to the local houses. We are most grateful for that!
#1 – Last Friday when we came back from town, a dog (named “Cookies n’ Cream” by Kaela because it was black and white) ran in front of the truck. Truck hits the dog, breaks its leg. Kaela and Melia are very sad for the dog. Local friends very happy. Why? Free meat! They take the dog down to their house and proceed to kill it and prepare it for eating. I fled the scene – I DO NOT want to watch that process. Kaela wants to stay – she just loves interesting stuff like that and has a stomach of steel where blood and guts are concerned. We expect someone to bring us our first taste of dog (which we actually wouldn’t mind trying – they say it is very good). However, it didn’t happen. But, apprently “Cookies n’ Cream” made a very nice soup!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
How Far Would You Walk?
As I sit in an internet cafe sending and receiving emails, I want to take just a moment to share a short story with you about a current Bible study.
Each week a man named Thomas walks 4 hours one way to study the Bible with me in the town of Lenakel. Every Friday when our family goes to town to buy food, supplies, and of course access the internet, I have some time to sit down with Thomas and study. I am amazed that he is so committed and hugry for God's Word, that he is willing to walk 4 hours one way to study with me. Just thought I would share this with you. What a good man! I pray that he works as hard to search the Scriptures as he does just to come to the study.
More to come soon. My internet time is just about up and I'll write more on this later. Until then...
Aaron
Each week a man named Thomas walks 4 hours one way to study the Bible with me in the town of Lenakel. Every Friday when our family goes to town to buy food, supplies, and of course access the internet, I have some time to sit down with Thomas and study. I am amazed that he is so committed and hugry for God's Word, that he is willing to walk 4 hours one way to study with me. Just thought I would share this with you. What a good man! I pray that he works as hard to search the Scriptures as he does just to come to the study.
More to come soon. My internet time is just about up and I'll write more on this later. Until then...
Aaron
More Fun Than We Bargained For
By: Cindy Baker
Friday, February 11
Wow. What a day. Things started off well for our 3rd week/3rd trip to town. For our first two weeks our weekly town trip was a supply-shopping expedition fraught with overpowering heat that always left us tired, crabby, and just ready for the day to end. But, this week I was actually looking forward to the trip. Thanks to making some “good connections” we had booked lunch a local resort, Tanna Lodge, and the prospect of our first good “western” meal since our arrival and a swim in a pool gave us a reason to smile!
The day went great! We took care of our business in town early and then it was off to Tanna Lodge. Aaron and I enjoyed a “real” cup of coffee after three weeks with only occasional mediocre cups of coffee. Lunch was tasty and the girls swam (as did Aaron and I). It felt wonderful to cool off! Then, in the afternoon, Aaron drove 5 minutes back into town for a Bible study (with a man who walked 4 HOURS from his village for the study) while the girls and I hung out at the resort. The owners were so very nice (the husband is from New Zealand and the wife from Solomon Islands) and invited us to come back any time for a swim even if we couldn’t stay for lunch, offering us a cheaper option of getting away from village life! This couple also geneously offered to let us come get ice from their ice machine each week until the machine in town gets fixed. Yea! They didn’t have much ice on hand for this week, but they said next week they will be sure the ice maker gets filled up for us. Thank you, God!!!
When Aaron came back we picked up our local friends who had come to attend to their own business in town and left at about 3:15pm, applauding ourselves for leaving an hour earlier than last week! The road up the largest, steepest hill wasn’t too bad and we made it up just fine. However, then, we got to a stretch of road at slight incline that was just caked with mud. And the party ended there.
It took us over an hour to get through that mud, starting and stopping about 10 times. Each time we got stuck Aaron and I and the others would search the surrounding bush for sticks, logs, grass and weeds to fill the holes around the tires – anything to give us traction! Then, Aaron would hop in the driver’s seat, 5 of us (3 men, 2 women) pushed with all our might and we would advance about a foot before we got stuck again and then we would repeat the whole process. Mud was 10-12 inches deep in places and once we got into it we couldn’t get back out. It wasn’t long into this fiasco that I abandoned my flip-flops to the truck and pushed the truck “dry leg (barefoot)”, as they say here in Vanuatu, because I was slipping and sliding around and my shoes were just getting caked with mud! My legs and clothes were mud splattered and my hands looked like I had dyed my skin brown due to all the mud smeared on them from colleting grasses and digging sticks out of the mud to put under the tires. But, in the end, we did it! Working together we did it! Two of the young men helping to push weren’t even in our group – they just happened to be walking up the road when they came upon us and stopped to help. I prayed and prayed that God would help us get up that hill because I didn’t know what we would do if we were stuck for good. It’s not like they could send something bigger to pull us out. Our truck is only one of three that can go up our hill and the other two are in worse condition than ours. Anyway, I was never so happy to reach home! I didn’t even care that a hot shower wasn’t an option. My warm bucket-bath was plenty good enough for me that night – I just wanted to get clean!
Oh – and I had to laugh at myself. Like an American girl I had carefully chosen my skirt and shirt for the day – the nicest outfit that I have with me, thinking when I did that they were a good choice for “going to town” clothes because they weren’t likely to get dirty. Ha! I have to admit I had a sad fleeting moment of thought for all the dirt that was sure stain my clothes. And then I just sucked it up and let myself get filthy. Getting our truck up that hill was more importat than any clothes!
Friday, February 11
Wow. What a day. Things started off well for our 3rd week/3rd trip to town. For our first two weeks our weekly town trip was a supply-shopping expedition fraught with overpowering heat that always left us tired, crabby, and just ready for the day to end. But, this week I was actually looking forward to the trip. Thanks to making some “good connections” we had booked lunch a local resort, Tanna Lodge, and the prospect of our first good “western” meal since our arrival and a swim in a pool gave us a reason to smile!
The day went great! We took care of our business in town early and then it was off to Tanna Lodge. Aaron and I enjoyed a “real” cup of coffee after three weeks with only occasional mediocre cups of coffee. Lunch was tasty and the girls swam (as did Aaron and I). It felt wonderful to cool off! Then, in the afternoon, Aaron drove 5 minutes back into town for a Bible study (with a man who walked 4 HOURS from his village for the study) while the girls and I hung out at the resort. The owners were so very nice (the husband is from New Zealand and the wife from Solomon Islands) and invited us to come back any time for a swim even if we couldn’t stay for lunch, offering us a cheaper option of getting away from village life! This couple also geneously offered to let us come get ice from their ice machine each week until the machine in town gets fixed. Yea! They didn’t have much ice on hand for this week, but they said next week they will be sure the ice maker gets filled up for us. Thank you, God!!!
When Aaron came back we picked up our local friends who had come to attend to their own business in town and left at about 3:15pm, applauding ourselves for leaving an hour earlier than last week! The road up the largest, steepest hill wasn’t too bad and we made it up just fine. However, then, we got to a stretch of road at slight incline that was just caked with mud. And the party ended there.
It took us over an hour to get through that mud, starting and stopping about 10 times. Each time we got stuck Aaron and I and the others would search the surrounding bush for sticks, logs, grass and weeds to fill the holes around the tires – anything to give us traction! Then, Aaron would hop in the driver’s seat, 5 of us (3 men, 2 women) pushed with all our might and we would advance about a foot before we got stuck again and then we would repeat the whole process. Mud was 10-12 inches deep in places and once we got into it we couldn’t get back out. It wasn’t long into this fiasco that I abandoned my flip-flops to the truck and pushed the truck “dry leg (barefoot)”, as they say here in Vanuatu, because I was slipping and sliding around and my shoes were just getting caked with mud! My legs and clothes were mud splattered and my hands looked like I had dyed my skin brown due to all the mud smeared on them from colleting grasses and digging sticks out of the mud to put under the tires. But, in the end, we did it! Working together we did it! Two of the young men helping to push weren’t even in our group – they just happened to be walking up the road when they came upon us and stopped to help. I prayed and prayed that God would help us get up that hill because I didn’t know what we would do if we were stuck for good. It’s not like they could send something bigger to pull us out. Our truck is only one of three that can go up our hill and the other two are in worse condition than ours. Anyway, I was never so happy to reach home! I didn’t even care that a hot shower wasn’t an option. My warm bucket-bath was plenty good enough for me that night – I just wanted to get clean!
Oh – and I had to laugh at myself. Like an American girl I had carefully chosen my skirt and shirt for the day – the nicest outfit that I have with me, thinking when I did that they were a good choice for “going to town” clothes because they weren’t likely to get dirty. Ha! I have to admit I had a sad fleeting moment of thought for all the dirt that was sure stain my clothes. And then I just sucked it up and let myself get filthy. Getting our truck up that hill was more importat than any clothes!
Friday, February 11, 2011
10 Things I've Learned in Tanna
By: Cindy Baker
1. Rats will chew on anything…including candlesticks.
2. If you accidently hit a chicken in the head with a shoe, you basically kill it. Oops. (Aaron didn’t mean to kill the poor guy! The chicken just kept trying to walk in our house. So, Aaron lobbed his flip-flop at him, hitting it just right and breaking its neck. Kaela and Melia were not at all upset by it and were very enthralled by the whole chicken killing and cleaning process. I was just disappointed that he didn’t’ kill a fatter one. He was awful scrawny eatin’!)
3. It is a strange feeling to be two hours away from the volcano and still be able to hear its rumbling deep within the earth.
4. On windy days watch for falling coconuts! HEADS UP!
5. I thought that a slower pace of life away from the city would equal more free time. Wrong! Free time is hard to come by because of the sheer amount of time taken up by everyday living (i.e. hauling water, boiling water, keeping house, filtering water, cooking “island style” meals, handwashing clothes, etc.)
6. When it rains be sure to bring in your clothes from the line and clean dishes from the dishwashing stand or you will find a light sprinkling of volcanic ash covering them.
7. Dark nights far away from the glow of city lights offer the most breathtaking view of one of God’s most glorious creations: the stars! So many of them, shining so bright covering the expanse of the night sky. It is no wonder the Psalmist says in Psalm 104:1, 24, “Praise the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty…How many are your works, O Lord. In wisdom you made them all…”
8. I now know from where the term “nit pick” was derived. I know from past experience that nit (lice egg) picking is a bothersome, time-consuming, and almost painful process. I’m thanking God everyday that thus far we are all lice-free in Tanna!
9. I have known for quite some time that Earwigs (flat, crawly, ugly little black bugs) love bananas and I’m used to finding them on a stalk. However, I still have not gotten used to finding them crawling around on my bar of soap or my foot brush when I get ready to bathe! Who knew they were so interested in good hygiene?!
10. There is seemingly no end to the kindness and generosity of the people here. What a blessing to live and work among them!
1. Rats will chew on anything…including candlesticks.
2. If you accidently hit a chicken in the head with a shoe, you basically kill it. Oops. (Aaron didn’t mean to kill the poor guy! The chicken just kept trying to walk in our house. So, Aaron lobbed his flip-flop at him, hitting it just right and breaking its neck. Kaela and Melia were not at all upset by it and were very enthralled by the whole chicken killing and cleaning process. I was just disappointed that he didn’t’ kill a fatter one. He was awful scrawny eatin’!)
3. It is a strange feeling to be two hours away from the volcano and still be able to hear its rumbling deep within the earth.
4. On windy days watch for falling coconuts! HEADS UP!
5. I thought that a slower pace of life away from the city would equal more free time. Wrong! Free time is hard to come by because of the sheer amount of time taken up by everyday living (i.e. hauling water, boiling water, keeping house, filtering water, cooking “island style” meals, handwashing clothes, etc.)
6. When it rains be sure to bring in your clothes from the line and clean dishes from the dishwashing stand or you will find a light sprinkling of volcanic ash covering them.
7. Dark nights far away from the glow of city lights offer the most breathtaking view of one of God’s most glorious creations: the stars! So many of them, shining so bright covering the expanse of the night sky. It is no wonder the Psalmist says in Psalm 104:1, 24, “Praise the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty…How many are your works, O Lord. In wisdom you made them all…”
8. I now know from where the term “nit pick” was derived. I know from past experience that nit (lice egg) picking is a bothersome, time-consuming, and almost painful process. I’m thanking God everyday that thus far we are all lice-free in Tanna!
9. I have known for quite some time that Earwigs (flat, crawly, ugly little black bugs) love bananas and I’m used to finding them on a stalk. However, I still have not gotten used to finding them crawling around on my bar of soap or my foot brush when I get ready to bathe! Who knew they were so interested in good hygiene?!
10. There is seemingly no end to the kindness and generosity of the people here. What a blessing to live and work among them!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Welcome to Cindyville
My Week in Food
Friday (date of my last blog) –
Lunch: In town at local eatery. Fried fish, rice with coconut milk, and a lone piece of island
cabbage that looked even lonelier when it was the last thing left on my plate. I did not eat it. I dislike island cabbage (it is kind of slimy) and I try to avoid eating it when possible.
Dinner: “Hamburgers” – 50% lean, 50% grissel and fat. Patties with regular slices of bread
for buns. Kumala (sweet potato) cakes with ketchup. Burger toppings available: onion and ketchup.
Saturday -
Breakfast: Bread with Peanut Butter and Jam, and hot drinks (tea for Aaron, coffee for me,
hot cocoa for the girls)
Lunch: Rice with pumpkin leaf and ramen noodle soup and a chunk of pig meat on top. (I
think I got the knee joint)
Dinner: Manioc laplap with chicken pieces
Sunday (Aaron, Kaela and I got a stomach bug Saturday night) –
Breakfast: The usual for Aaron, Kaela (they were better by morning) and Melia. No
breakfast for me. I was still sick.
Lunch: I boiled some kumala and sent cucumbers down to Loun Village for them to share
after woship. I stayed home with the bug.
Dinner: Ramen noodles and canned tuna
Monday (feeling much better!) –
Breakfast: the usual
Lunch: Boiled susut leaf with coconut milk, rice and canned tuna
Dinner: USA night! Spaghetti (no meat) with chocolate pudding for dessert
Tuesday –
Breakfast: the usual
Lunch: “Tortilla soup” (only without all the stuff in it – broth only) with onions and ramen
noodles in it. Flour tortillas on the side
Dinner: Tuna fish cakes, rice with leftover soup
Wednesday –
Breakfast: The last of the bread. :o(
Lunch: Boiled manioc root with coconut milk and rice noodles with curry on the side
Dinner: Corn cakes and baked beans
Thursday –
Breakfast: 1 leftover corn cake a piece, plus breakfast crackers with PB and Jam
Lunch: Boiled susut leaf with coconut milk, ramen noodles, canned tuna
Dinner: Not sure yet. We are scheduled to walk (45min.) down to Loun for a Bible study. I
will take rice and canned tuna just in case we share some food there with the people. If we don’t eat there, we will come home and have flour tortillas with eggs for dinner.
We had hoped (and planned) to buy blocks of ice in Lenakel town each week, but last week found out the machine was broken and who knows when it will be fixed or a new machine will arrive. The ice would have provided us with meat for several days, as well as, cold milk and such. What to do?
Our food situation is of daily concern to me because I realize that we are consuming more starch than we ought and not nearly enough veggies and meat. And yet, there seems to be no way around it. The recent cyclone hit Tanna’s crops pretty hard, wiping out their green beans, eggplant and other veggies. At least we have cucumbers. I look forward to breakfast each day simply because I know we will NOT be having ramen noodles or tuna! Ha! We certainly have enough to eat – just not much variety. I have promised myself that I will take cooking meals one day at a time. In the mean time, I’m learning what it means to trust God to provide food for our family as I never have had to before. Pray for us (and that we might find a way to get some refridgerated food).
Friday (date of my last blog) –
Lunch: In town at local eatery. Fried fish, rice with coconut milk, and a lone piece of island
cabbage that looked even lonelier when it was the last thing left on my plate. I did not eat it. I dislike island cabbage (it is kind of slimy) and I try to avoid eating it when possible.
Dinner: “Hamburgers” – 50% lean, 50% grissel and fat. Patties with regular slices of bread
for buns. Kumala (sweet potato) cakes with ketchup. Burger toppings available: onion and ketchup.
Saturday -
Breakfast: Bread with Peanut Butter and Jam, and hot drinks (tea for Aaron, coffee for me,
hot cocoa for the girls)
Lunch: Rice with pumpkin leaf and ramen noodle soup and a chunk of pig meat on top. (I
think I got the knee joint)
Dinner: Manioc laplap with chicken pieces
Sunday (Aaron, Kaela and I got a stomach bug Saturday night) –
Breakfast: The usual for Aaron, Kaela (they were better by morning) and Melia. No
breakfast for me. I was still sick.
Lunch: I boiled some kumala and sent cucumbers down to Loun Village for them to share
after woship. I stayed home with the bug.
Dinner: Ramen noodles and canned tuna
Monday (feeling much better!) –
Breakfast: the usual
Lunch: Boiled susut leaf with coconut milk, rice and canned tuna
Dinner: USA night! Spaghetti (no meat) with chocolate pudding for dessert
Tuesday –
Breakfast: the usual
Lunch: “Tortilla soup” (only without all the stuff in it – broth only) with onions and ramen
noodles in it. Flour tortillas on the side
Dinner: Tuna fish cakes, rice with leftover soup
Wednesday –
Breakfast: The last of the bread. :o(
Lunch: Boiled manioc root with coconut milk and rice noodles with curry on the side
Dinner: Corn cakes and baked beans
Thursday –
Breakfast: 1 leftover corn cake a piece, plus breakfast crackers with PB and Jam
Lunch: Boiled susut leaf with coconut milk, ramen noodles, canned tuna
Dinner: Not sure yet. We are scheduled to walk (45min.) down to Loun for a Bible study. I
will take rice and canned tuna just in case we share some food there with the people. If we don’t eat there, we will come home and have flour tortillas with eggs for dinner.
We had hoped (and planned) to buy blocks of ice in Lenakel town each week, but last week found out the machine was broken and who knows when it will be fixed or a new machine will arrive. The ice would have provided us with meat for several days, as well as, cold milk and such. What to do?
Our food situation is of daily concern to me because I realize that we are consuming more starch than we ought and not nearly enough veggies and meat. And yet, there seems to be no way around it. The recent cyclone hit Tanna’s crops pretty hard, wiping out their green beans, eggplant and other veggies. At least we have cucumbers. I look forward to breakfast each day simply because I know we will NOT be having ramen noodles or tuna! Ha! We certainly have enough to eat – just not much variety. I have promised myself that I will take cooking meals one day at a time. In the mean time, I’m learning what it means to trust God to provide food for our family as I never have had to before. Pray for us (and that we might find a way to get some refridgerated food).
January 24 to 31
Monday 24th
Arrived in Lorakau and unpacked box…after box…after box of our books, cooking supplies, water filter, etc. All necessary life supplies, I guess, but wow, hot and sweaty work.
Tuesday 25th
Continued to unpack boxes, rearrange the house and get stuff set up so that the house is livable and our things are usable. I have a skin rash that is greatly aggravated by sweat. Try not sweating while on a tropical island, unpacking boxes. Yeah, right!
Friday 28th
This is a day I look forward to going to town. It’s about 40 minutes drive down the mountain to town where we get our supplies for the week: bread, canned tuna, fuel, ice, etc. The most important item, in my view, is the ice. Although I realize this item can be debated as a “want” rather than a, “need”, still a nice cold glass of anything on a hot day really hits the spot.
So as we’re in town visiting the fish market where they sell fish and, more importantly, ice, we are informed that their ice machine is broken and will not be fixed in the near future. If you want to see a grown man cry, tell him there is no ice on a hot day.
Possibly more important than having something cold to drink, was the fact that with no ice, there would be no refrigeration. As we have no fridge at Lorakau, we therefore have no way to keep food cool. This means no ready access to fresh meat, no way to keep our bread from molding by putting it in the ice box, and, again, no cold drinks. Sniffle.
I was pleased that my sending and receiving of emails and general internet access only took about 30 minutes, rather than the 2 hours I had anticipated. That was a pleasant surprise and welcome news to lift my ice-deprived spirits.
Other than our family all being incredibly hungry and, by extension, grumpy, we were able to buy all the necessary supplies we needed, although just moving to Tanna, we didn’t really know what we needed.
Over a plate of rice and fried fish for lunch, Cindy and I discussed how wonderful it would be if we could just get in a routine. Why does it really take so long to get in a routine? I mean, once people are in a routine, they call it a “rut” and then they want out. But, I want a routine and I want in one fast. Won’t it be nice to get up in the morning and know what you’re supposed to be doing for the day? While we’ve been to the villages before, we’ve never lived in one and this is definitely a first for our family.
Sunday, 30th
Today we drove (because of my skin problem) down to Loun village to worship. We piled Harry and his family into the truck w/our family and away we went. It was nice to see many people from the village whom I had met on previous trips there for worship as visitors. In all, there were 8 Christians present (counting Cindy and myself) as well as about 20 visitors who were family and friends of those Christians present. This will be our starting point from growing the church in Loun.
Last night proved tough as our family got sick. It all started with my stomach hurting fiercely, Kaela then throwing up, and Cindy’s stomach and head hurting all through the night. Between being sick and the noise of rats running back and forth in the house, I didn’t sleep well at all.
Even though Cindy stayed home from worship, it was an encouraging time and we all enjohed ourselves. Following the meeting, I met with the men to discuss how we can grow the church spiritually and numerically. It was actually a good meeting with a lot of participation, at least a lot more participation than one usually would get.
Monday 31st
Spent the first half of today building a bed for Kaela. We had been borrowing a single bed from the Lorakau school and now they needed their bed back. So, along with the various hats a missionary already wears, I can now add “carpenter” to the mix.
After lunch, I cut the lawn, but not in the way you would think. Here, we do it with bush knife. I discovered that Kaela and Melia could be coaxed to go get water from the water tank much easier if the grass was not taller than they were. So, I sharpened my bush knife and set to work whacking, chopping and cutting the grass any way I could. I did cut my leg, but it was only a minor flesh wound, so no harm there.
Gotta run. Need to go get water from the tank for baths. The big 5 gal. buckets are a little too big for Kaela and Melia to carry, so I’d better go do it. I’ll give them another week or two, then they should be ready for the work, don’t you think?
Arrived in Lorakau and unpacked box…after box…after box of our books, cooking supplies, water filter, etc. All necessary life supplies, I guess, but wow, hot and sweaty work.
Tuesday 25th
Continued to unpack boxes, rearrange the house and get stuff set up so that the house is livable and our things are usable. I have a skin rash that is greatly aggravated by sweat. Try not sweating while on a tropical island, unpacking boxes. Yeah, right!
Friday 28th
This is a day I look forward to going to town. It’s about 40 minutes drive down the mountain to town where we get our supplies for the week: bread, canned tuna, fuel, ice, etc. The most important item, in my view, is the ice. Although I realize this item can be debated as a “want” rather than a, “need”, still a nice cold glass of anything on a hot day really hits the spot.
So as we’re in town visiting the fish market where they sell fish and, more importantly, ice, we are informed that their ice machine is broken and will not be fixed in the near future. If you want to see a grown man cry, tell him there is no ice on a hot day.
Possibly more important than having something cold to drink, was the fact that with no ice, there would be no refrigeration. As we have no fridge at Lorakau, we therefore have no way to keep food cool. This means no ready access to fresh meat, no way to keep our bread from molding by putting it in the ice box, and, again, no cold drinks. Sniffle.
I was pleased that my sending and receiving of emails and general internet access only took about 30 minutes, rather than the 2 hours I had anticipated. That was a pleasant surprise and welcome news to lift my ice-deprived spirits.
Other than our family all being incredibly hungry and, by extension, grumpy, we were able to buy all the necessary supplies we needed, although just moving to Tanna, we didn’t really know what we needed.
Over a plate of rice and fried fish for lunch, Cindy and I discussed how wonderful it would be if we could just get in a routine. Why does it really take so long to get in a routine? I mean, once people are in a routine, they call it a “rut” and then they want out. But, I want a routine and I want in one fast. Won’t it be nice to get up in the morning and know what you’re supposed to be doing for the day? While we’ve been to the villages before, we’ve never lived in one and this is definitely a first for our family.
Sunday, 30th
Today we drove (because of my skin problem) down to Loun village to worship. We piled Harry and his family into the truck w/our family and away we went. It was nice to see many people from the village whom I had met on previous trips there for worship as visitors. In all, there were 8 Christians present (counting Cindy and myself) as well as about 20 visitors who were family and friends of those Christians present. This will be our starting point from growing the church in Loun.
Last night proved tough as our family got sick. It all started with my stomach hurting fiercely, Kaela then throwing up, and Cindy’s stomach and head hurting all through the night. Between being sick and the noise of rats running back and forth in the house, I didn’t sleep well at all.
Even though Cindy stayed home from worship, it was an encouraging time and we all enjohed ourselves. Following the meeting, I met with the men to discuss how we can grow the church spiritually and numerically. It was actually a good meeting with a lot of participation, at least a lot more participation than one usually would get.
Monday 31st
Spent the first half of today building a bed for Kaela. We had been borrowing a single bed from the Lorakau school and now they needed their bed back. So, along with the various hats a missionary already wears, I can now add “carpenter” to the mix.
After lunch, I cut the lawn, but not in the way you would think. Here, we do it with bush knife. I discovered that Kaela and Melia could be coaxed to go get water from the water tank much easier if the grass was not taller than they were. So, I sharpened my bush knife and set to work whacking, chopping and cutting the grass any way I could. I did cut my leg, but it was only a minor flesh wound, so no harm there.
Gotta run. Need to go get water from the tank for baths. The big 5 gal. buckets are a little too big for Kaela and Melia to carry, so I’d better go do it. I’ll give them another week or two, then they should be ready for the work, don’t you think?
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