Blog Report - 24 August 2011
Well it’s quite a while since we last wrote up a report for our blog site. A lot has happened – almost all good – and here are a few highlights ……
Visitors!! We have been incredibly lucky that people have made the effort to come over and see us. The first this year were Rachel and Andrew. We did some really good planning and had a great programme just ready to roll … we should have known better!
On the first day we were supposed to visit a kindy, catch a truck into Lakatoro for the markets, have lunch at the back of the markets, attend the opening of a new guest house and then stroll down to a Kava bar for a shell of kava. On the day we woke up to rain and it kept raining and raining. Finally there was a break and we caught the Education Truck into Lakatoro where it rained again. After walking in the rain for a bit we caught the Education truck to go back to Norsup – even this wasn’t straightforward. We got to the culvert over the river and found the river over the culvert. Our driver wasn’t dismayed he turned round and found another way through a coconut plantation which is the alternate route when the road is under water. Unfortunately the plantation was also largely underwater but our driver was nothing if not determined and we pushed on through. Shortly after us two trucks got washed downstream at the same place.
That night we had an outdoor kaekae with our Kastom family and were treated to some really amazing singing. Our family really made Rachel and Harry feel welcome and we felt proud both of our family and of the way that Rachel and Harry responded to them.
Still, this was only day one and day two which involved a truck ride to Walarano to watch Kastom dancing and eat Island food, was nailed down with preparations made weeks before. The arrangements started to unravel that night when our taxi driver told us he wouldn’t be able to take us after all. Plan B involved Maryann ringing around the taxis we knew until one agreed he would take us and ring us at 7.30am to confirm the price. Maryann rang him at 8am and after a little haggling over the price he said he would pick us up at 10am. At 11am Maryann rang the driver to find out that he had a problem with the wheel of the truck and he was fixing it.
At 12.30pm our Hostess in Walrano rang to confirm we were coming and on being told of our predicament said she would arrange a truck. Maryann duly rang our driver and told him not to bother picking us up. Almost immediately our Hostess rang back and said she couldn’t find a truck so we decided to walk and see what would happen.
Luckily we got a truck almost straightaway and the driver said he was going to Walarano. Well that wasn’t quite right. He stopped about half an hours walk from Walarano and turned off into the bush. So we walked. Finally got to Walarano at about 2.30pm – we think Rachel and Andrew thought it was worthwhile although the kava at the end of the dancing did seem more potent than usual.
It was an awesome visit from our point of view and in a sense they got to experience in a very short time what it can be like here.
Since then we have had visits from Maryann’s sister, Barbara with her cousin Christina; our friend Cherie and Margot, then, Mary Cumming and her sister Susan and we have been to Vila to spend time with Ben, Maryann Junior, Brooke and Johnny. We have really appreciated the visits and the opportunity for our friends and family to meet the wonderful people over here.
On the work side, it’s not all play over here, a lack of funding has restricted Maryann’s ability to get to all the kindis but any time we are travelling she manages to find out where the kindis are and make visits. She managed to get 11 cartons of books from Vila recently and most of these have been distributed throughout the Malampa Province. I have been running workshops on Malekula and recently journeyed off to Ambryn and Paama Island to run three workshops on each island with the Head Teachers and the Principals. So let me tell you about Ambryn and Paama ……
Ambryn first …. Ambryn is known as the Island of Black Magic to the extent that the schools often have difficulty recruiting teachers to come to Ambryn. We saw no sign of black magic and the locals just laughed about it. We made sure we took essential supplies like biscuits, nuts, dried fruit, cheddar cheese, coffee, milk powder and of course marmite. Oh, we also took the handouts for the workshops and the books for the kindis – about 40 kg overweight in all. We landed at Craig Cove in Ambryn and were taken to our guest house – not too bad actually. No electricity, a bucket shower and a waterseal toilet but all meals included and quite comfortable beds. We were happy. The next day we went with the Provincial Education Officer and visited schools in the West Ambryn area. The road was pretty rough but I had bought foam padding and Maryann rode inside the cab so all was good. We visited about 6 schools and kindis and it was clear that the teachers really felt good that we had made time to come over.
The next day was the first day of my workshops due to start at 8am We started at 8.30 with hymn singing, prayers and an opening speech from the PEO. The participants were enthusiastic about the workshops and we had a lot of fun and learning for the next two days. Maryann came in at the end of the first day and had them singing “Head, Shoulders …” in Maori. They enjoyed this so much that the next morning they asked for her to come back again. At the end they had a closing ceremony and Maryann and I were presented with two lovely mats. They really make you feel humble and privileged to be involved with them.
Then it was off to North Ambryn to spend time with our Kastom father, George at his village. This involved a three hour boat ride in a small outboard and it was well dark by the time we arrived. We were met at the beach and had a 40 minute trek in the dark up the hill to the village. George’s village is nestled in the hills amongst the bush and coconut plantations and George has nearly finished a three bedroom concrete block house. Of course there is no electricity, bucket showers and a long drop toilet but what an amazing time we had. We were made to feel very welcome and on the Saturday we spent almost the whole day at the SDA church about two hours walk away. George’s son, David, (our brother by Kastom) is the Pastor at the Church. The afternoon ended with Maryann and me at the front of the Church being interviewed by the congregation – some good questions too, like what is the difference between Anglican and SDA? David’s 3 yr old daughter is about as cute as we have seen – hope you like the photo. It took a while before she would interact with us – not used to white folk.
Sunday we went walkabout and visited a kindi about half an hour’s walk away. Again Maryann delivered books but we get the feeling that the fact we took the time to visit meant more to them than the books. Something about valuing relationships ahead of material things I think. That night when we got back the village put on an evening meal for us – heaps of food and apparently so easily arranged. David, the Pastor walked 2 hours to the village from his church to spend the evening with us and then walked back in the dark, through the bush without even a torch. How many of us would walk four hours to spend a couple of hours with new friends? It just continues to blow us away. The next day we chartered a small boat to take us back to Craig Cove.
After another night we flew to Paama – small boat trip to a village called Liro and into our guest house for the next five nights. The accommodation was ok but the fact that there were no meals supplied threw us a bit – we hadn’t expected that. With no market and no place to buy meat we lived on spaghetti, baked beans and noodles for the next five nights. Someone did find us a loaf of bread and we already had breakfast crackers which went well with our cheddar cheese and marmite.
The workshops were to start the following morning at 8am an although we didn’t start until about 9.30 the opening was done in style – prayers, a talk from the Pastor and speeches from the Area Secretary and the Zone Curriculum Adviser. The speech from the Area Secretary was very good and he spoke about the importance of Teachers setting examples for the students, parents and community. A nice segue into leadership. Again the participants were incredibly enthusiastic and open – boy, I wish some of my workshops in NZ had had such positive people! Once again Maryann was a hit with her singing. When not leading the singing at the workshop Maryann teamed up with a local Key Teacher and walked out to the Teacher’s Kindi – abut a 40 minute walk. At the end of the workshop we had another closing ceremony involving prayers, speeches and presentation of gifts to Maryann and me. They certainly know how to make a facilitator feel valued.
Next morning, Friday, Maryann and I walked out from the village for about an hour and a half to a Kindi called Vaueli. This proved to be an amazing kindi – large, airy, well stocked storeroom and two teachers. Unfortunately they only had 7 children. The other 20 or so had gone to a private church kindi with the NTM religion. The NTM people were in the process of building a kindi and intend to build a school as well. We are not sure if they will actually be allowed to do this given the new Education Policy. Such a shame to see such a marvelous kindi being underused when there are kindis all over the Malampa that are too small or in need of repair.
Saturday we pretty much just chilled out except for a two hour walk to the airport and back via the inland track. That night we apparently had three earthquakes although we only felt the last one at 5.20am. We did think about the possibility of tsunamis but were sufficiently motivated by the thought of vegetables, fruit and meat waiting for us back in Norsup that we caught the small boat to the airport for our flight home. When we arrived at the airport we got a text message to say that the tsunami warning had passed – we didn’t even know that there had been an official warning although I had decided that if the tide was way out when we went down to our boat we would stay on land.
Overall this was a great experience – a bit tougher than we have become used to in our relative luxury at Norsup but the friendliness and positive attitude of the people we met and worked with was outstanding. It sort of reminded us why we are doing this and I know I came back really pleased that we had made the effort.
