Here I am, trying to give you a taste of Vanuatu. I so wish that I can bring all of you with me here so you can see it for yourself. I just love being here. I've been in Port Vila for a week. I still do not know when exactly I will be going to Malakula Island, but I think it will be in a couple of days. A missionary's life is full of surprises – I just love it. Until then, I am trying to do the shoppings (and believe me, I need to buy a lot of stuff from small things to stove and propain bottle, pots, matresse).
It has been very good to be here with my friends. I like that we are a team. God has really blessed us with a wonderful time together. I've been used to working alone and being alone and it is such a blessing that we can be here together. It is true that I will be going alone to the place where I will volunteer, but at least I will have signal for my phone and I will be able to keep in touch with my friends. I've been told that it is cheap to call here in Vanuatu.
Port Vila is a very small town. Georgetown is much more developed than Vila. They have two supermarkets. The majority of shops are Chinese shops. One can also find very expensive shops for tourists, but they are not for us.
I've been gathering information about people and customs, food and life style. I am so glad to find many similarities between Guyana and Vanuatu. A lot of the fruits and vegetables are the same (here are a few of them: papaya, mango, pineaple, bananas, pomelo, tania, sweet cassava, avocado, plus the vegetables that we are also using – carrots, peper, tomatoes, cucumber). As for people, they are as relaxed as they were in Guyana, if not even more relaxed. They are just taking their time and making sure that they do not get tired. I understood that it takes ages to start and to complete something. Why should they worry and stress when life is short? As for food, they are eating mostly Lap-lap. Even if they have vegetables, I understood that they do not know how to cook them. If one asks how to cook a certain vegetable or root, he will be told he has to boil it. That's all. Food is not really tasty because they do not know how to give taste to the food.
People are very, very friendly. I was amazed to see them greeting me on the streets of Port Vila. I was also surprised to see that it is not dangerous to walk through the town at night. Coming from Guyana where men will call you all kind of names and try to get your attention and where it is dangerous to walk through town by yourself especially at night, I really came to appreciate that people are so different here.
From what I have been told, I will be teaching in a Malua Bay SDA school. I was told that I will be living with the minister's family (they call here minister the bible worker) for a while until they will fix my house. I have no ideea what I will be teaching, or how many students has the school but I like this life full of surprises. Florin told me that they were glad to hear that I know a little bit of music.
I can hardly wait to go to Malua Bay. I know God has wonderful things prepared for me there. I know He will do whatever it takes to grow me there and to shape me more and more.
