Nectar of the Gods

Another magnificent day.  Not quite as hot today, still pretty hot ... and had a nice breeze in the afternoon - I think we were all grateful.

So today was our first day of "work" in Vanuatu.  Yesterday we discovered that the classroom that we were to put the computers in had no desks, so Harvey and David went early to the hardware store early to get some wood in order to make desks.  We borrowed a sander, and a drill, and at the end of the day we have some magificent desks, with computers on them, and all but one of the computers survived the trip.  Harvey was just mentioning how good it was that everything worked today, the equipment we had survived the heat, we had enough wood - at one point they were putting legs on the desks, and ran out of wood - they looked up into the roof and there was a piece of wood almost exactly the right length.  Yay God! 

Unfortunately the keybords for the computers are currently MIA which is disapointing.  But it was interesting to watch the kids just learning how to use a mouse - we had a bunch of them playing solitaire in the room at the end of the day.  Daniel, the principal, is very happy what we've been able to achieve and he told us how excited the kids will be to be able to try them out.

We woke up bright and early in order to get to the school on time.  I went to get another coffee (take away this time) and the market had opened.  For 100 Vatu (about 1 dollar) Harvey had found a bunch of passionfruit.  The first one I had was a little tart, but amazingly fresh.  The second I had was a little sweeter.  Harv called it "Nectar of the Gods".

We walked up the hill to the church.  There is a long set of stairs to get on to the plateau.  I find that I like to turn around on the set of stairs and and take a look at the view, which is breathtaking, but not quite as "breathtaking" as the walk up the stairs itself.  Most others seem to cope pretty well with it, and I cope well enough that I am only slightly tempted to spend a buck-fifty on a bus.

We arrived roughly on 8am - and the teachers amongst us headed into the classrooms where kids broke into hearty rounds of the Vanuatu Anthem, If you're happy and you know it, and My God is so Big.  Harv and David arrived in a ute with the rest of the boxes, and we set to work unpacking them, and cutting up the wood for the benches.

I went to start us on painting of the church but it turned out there were a few hurdles to doing that.  We had to get the key, and we had to get the paint itself open.  Harvey ended up having to hammer it open.  We then started painting.  The paint was quite thick, and we started slapping it on.  we figured out a bit later that we could water it down a bit and it would slap on a bit easier, but the team got together and went really well.  Nami went up top on the ladder, I alternated between standing, sitting on a chair, and standing on a chair.  And others did similar.  We managed to get two panels of the church done, and they look really great!  I was particularly proud of my ingenuity in drinking a lot of my water and then cutting the top off to make a paint can.  I have never used a hacksaw on a water bottle before, and I can tell you that it works ok.  I bet you needed to know that :)

As we got a bit bored while painting we started doing some extra things to keep ourselves entertained.  Like singing.  I ran out of Aussie tunes pretty quick.  We did a bit of bohemian rhapsody, and even a little Katy Perry.  I need to google some more lyrics for tomorrow.  Any suggestions please!!!

Nerida and Kaye wandered down to the market and got us some lunch.  For 100 vatu they got a hand of bananas - really little ones which tasted lovely and sweet.  I think I ate three.  Also some cucumber, which I had on a bagette with some peanut butter.  Very satisfying.

We had fun playing with the kids too.  I wasn't quite as good at the scissors/paper/rock game as yesterday, but still had fun (and I think they liked our singing).  Adam and Jono continue to make relationships with some of the young boys there - and to be honest the fun I see them havihg is exactly - exactly what I was hoping we would be doing.  I keep remembering the story of Martha and Mary in the bible.  With ... Mary I think it was, sitting with Jesus, having a chat, and Martha in the kitchen getting narky.  I have had the "you guys gotta do more work" thing in my head a few times, but I turn it around almost straight away, I only hope that we all get to have a balance of our Martha and Mary time. 
This afternoon Adam and Jono went down the back of the church and the boys cooked them some sweet potato and fruit in a fire that they built.  They played soccer next to the church.  It was pretty fun to watch them play together.

Not everyone is coping with Vanuatu time, but some are growing to love it.  Tomorrow we are heading to the beach, and I'm really looking forward to a nice relaxing day.  Although I think I will be happy to get back to the church on Wednesday and teach the kids some computering, and do some more painting.

Adam has just demonstrated some self torture by eating a very hot chilli in front of us.  This is exactly what I was worried about since ... well let's face it ... a while now. I guess with the excellent relationship building and willingness to try new things, you also get the extremely bizarre chilli eating behaviour.  Umm ... and on that note, I'm calling it a night.  REALLY need a shower.