Life in the Village - Part 1

Our stay in the village was filled with time spent with new friends. Really, our purpose this time around was just to get to know people and get a feel for village life. Our new friends were delighted to share their lives with us during those short ten days. Here are a few pictures that might help you get a feel for these beautiful people and what life in the village is like...

The first week that we were in the village school was out because the teachers were away for some teacher training. That meant there were always kids hanging around our place.

This little piglet was a frequent visitor as well. He is somewhat of an orphan. He was found and caught out in the bush (the jungle). Now the person who caught him keeps him tethered near their house and he is really rather tame. He is on his way to growing up to be one of the various pigs in the village who are always lingering on the outskirts ready to snatch up any discarded scraps and half coconut shells. 

We knew we would have lots of time on our hands, and everybody loves games, so between everyone on the team we brought with us Uno, SkipBo, and Memory. The games made for a fun way to stay busy for the kids and adults alike. They also made for some fun language learning games to help us learn some numbers, and quite a few card game related phrases.

The people of the village work hard, and I mean hard. During the day, most of them are busy in their garden's growing their family's food. We didn't get to make a trip to the garden this time around. I think they were concerned that either it would just be too hard for us to make the hike (about an hour and a half straight up), or that we would just get in the way. When they go they are there all day.  If they aren't at their gardens they seem to be busy at the copra plantation harvesting coconut to export as a way to earn money. There are also a couple of guys that run the local co-op store. Otherwise, it seems like the only adults seen in the village during the day are either sick or are looking after babies. Below is a picture of Iris with her little one slung on her back.

This little guy (above right) is Joel - pronounced Jo-el. If you have seen any pictures of kids in Vanuatu, you know that kids and bush-knives go together. You see it all the time, but it is still hard to get used to the idea.

You know how we learn about how the native Americans use every part of the buffalo? Well, here in Vanuatu they make use of every part of the coconut tree, or so it seems.

Right near our living area was this coconut tree that was leaning quite a bit, and maybe was rotting a bit toward the stump...? I am not sure. But for whatever reason chief Olekon thought it would be best if they just cut it down. So the Chief went at it with an axe...

These guys' job was to make sure it fell in the right direction. 

They are using a huge, long bamboo pole to push it over....

Down came the tree.

And then the fun began.

 

It became a bench...

The fronds were hacked off and became material for a fort. 

If you look close you can see Josh inside of it...

It became material for headdresses (nothing traditional, Josh just made this up)...

...material for weaving...

Here, Selly is showing me how to weave a ball. Nothing functional about it, just for fun. She has her little one, Robin, slung on her back.

Josh got a lesson in weaving the fronds to use as walls to make a better fort...

You can see how the new walls really spiffed the place up. 

Josh felt that this was the best fort he has ever made!

The fallen coconut tree became the popular hang out spot...

Did you know there is more to eat from a coconut tree than just the coconuts!? Josh's friends showed him how to get to the heart of the tree for a succulent snack. It tastes kind of like the end of a shoot of grass, sweet and subtle. 

We made so many new friends! One of them used fronds from the coconut tree to make each of us girls a fan. I got pictures of everything else so I don't know why I didn't get pictures of the fans, but I didn't. So those I will leave to your imagination. 

The kids here don't have much in the way of what the typical Western kid would think of as toys. But, as you can see, that does not stop them from having fun. Besides the coconut tree there are all sorts of things to have fun with. For example...

 ...tie a string to a butterfly and take it for a 'walk'!

Have you ever seen such a thing!? So cool!

There's volleyball...

 

And, what young boy in his right mind wouldn't have fun running down a chicken for supper! They didn't use the bow that you see here, although Josh would have been happy to. The chicken is chased and then stunned by hitting it with a throwing stick so that it can be caught. 

The kids seemed to have a lot of fun showing off the traditional sand drawings. The fine black, volcanic sand makes the perfect canvas. 

The village kids would draw in the sand and then Josh would copy them into his journal which was as entertaining for them as it was for him...

  

The girls tried to braid Gracie's hair, but it was just too thick. 'A' for effort... on Grace's part too. She was trying really hard to not let them see that it really hurt. She is such a sport!

Life in the village is not all fun and games of course. There is a lot of work to do. But I am going to leave that for next time.

- - -

People have asked how our kids liked the village. They really seemed to love it. They are tough. There are always kids to play with and things to do. That can be a good thing, and a bad thing. There are always kids to play with and things to do. We didn't get much in the way of private time during our stay. That aspect was hardest on Grace when she was sick for three days. She had a fever and felt really yuck. All she wanted to do was sleep, but that was a little difficult with little eyes constantly peering through the windows. It was difficult for her to relax without privacy. It was so sweet, though, to see how concerned they were for her. When she and I stayed behind, while the rest of the group went to a neighboring village to eat, I am pretty sure every family in the village brought us food and made sure we were taken care of!

That could be considered an underlying theme for this trip. We were taken care of. There were certainly concerns and apprehension before we left, but there really was no need for any of that. Our great God took care of us. He went before us. He planted in the hearts of the people the desire to look after us. I really felt cared for the whole time we were there. I thank the Lord for that.

Anyway, until next time...