Aelan Laef!

Every once in awhile I get these Vanuatu-moments. They are moments when all of a sudden I become really aware of the fact that I'm in a rather random corner of the Earth, on a tiny little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, suuuuuuuuper far away from everything I'm used to (or well, now it's more like "used to be used to"). In those moments I'm usually filled with awe and amazement. It's a bit like in TV when all of a sudden the camera zooms out out out, very rapidly and in stead of looking at, say, two people talking, you've now zoomed so far out that you're looking at the globe, chilling in space with all its  planet pals. Yes, it's a bit like that, images flashing in my mind and many realizations happening all at once. These moments are always linked with extreme happiness and gratefulness.  A couple of days ago I had one while I was standing inside of a 40ft container that just recently shipped its way here from China. It...

Suomeksi alempana! -------------- Showgraon is one of the neighborhoods of rural Luganville. From the school, it's about 20 minutes walk to Showgraon, straight across the plantation. The plantation is a vast area, filled with neat rows of coconut trees, the occasional truck paths and roads going through it and heeeeeaps of cows (buluk) who are rather scared of you and stare when you pass. I'm not allowed to walk in the plantation alone because it can be dangerous. No, it's not so much the threat of coconuts falling on your head (even if I do know a person who walked across the plantation wearing a helmet - hahahah!) or because of the crazy buluks attacking you. It's because the plantation is quite deserted - which makes it a "perfect" place for a crime like attacking/raping someone. Therefore -- boys can walk across it by themselves but girls - no. Of course, I didn't know anything about this, so there was a time when I'd go walk ther...

I'm learning heaps about communication.  It's said that there are no such things as stupid questions. But, through cumulated personal experience, I beg to differ. I seem to ask them on a regular basis. Thank goodness I'm surrounded by beautiful people who are very patient with me and forgive me my ignorance. It doesn't happen too often, but every once in a while I do manage to ask the most irrelevant of questions. One example being: "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?" If travel has never, not in your wildest dreams, been a realistic opportunity for you, you don't really think about such things, do you?  The good thing is, I'm quick to realize my tumbles and sense when I've crossed the line - I'm a sensitive person with big feelers and have good intuition. Now I just need to train my feelers to work better BEFORE asking the irrelevant and puzzling stuff. It's a bit embarrassing.  This has ...

Easter time! That means 4 days of holiday! Someone said "Welcome to Vanuatu, the land of public holidays" as there seems to be a public holiday every few weeks (and sometimes, without any warning. One day we had to send our students home in the middle of the day because it had been made a holiday all of a sudden). But, Easter is, truly, a legit holiday. Also, here it's less about bunnies and witches and such. It seemed very fitting that in our spiritual education class we should be talking of Jesus and His teachings on love that Thursday morning. Then we finished school before lunch with assembly (we always finish the week with one). In this assembly we sang a really nice song to commemorate His Holiness Jesus Christ which I had had the great joy of learning with the beloved yr10's the day before. The words go like this:  Above all powers, above all Kings Above all of nature and all created things Above all wisdom and all the ways of man  -- You...