T.I.V. (This is Vanuatu)

How can I describe my day yesterday.  I don't think there are any words that can give you a picture of all the things that I saw, but before I get ahead of myself let me start from the beginning:  TIV (This is Vanuatu)

Sunday, so far, has been a pretty typical day for my family.  Usually, we all sleep in, eat breakfast, go to church at 9:00, and then "spel" for practically the rest of the day, but yesterday did we do the same thing - oh no.  My mama came to my door at 7:45 and tells me we're going to church on another island (Nguna) and that we're going with the whole church, so I need to put on my island dress and come eat breakfast quickly.  I speedily grab a few necessities; my P.C. approved life jacket, since we have to take a boat to Nguna, and a bottle of H2O.  After slurping down some bread and tea I join my family and 4 others at the end of the street; luckily 3 other pcv's were going with their families, so I wasn't completely alone on this adventure.  We got picked up by a transport truck at 8:30 and drove to the boat wharf.  On a side note, money and skin color really speaks here.  There were 2 boats sitting at the wharf, but they wouldn't take us across since they were waiting for the random tourist.  We waited for an hour and a half until the boat man finally gave up.  After piling about 30 people into the boat defying all natural laws, we made it the whole 45 minute boat ride; and we only had 3 stall outs with the engine, which I hear is pretty good.  Anyways even though we were technically 2.5 hours late that made no difference.  We learned yesterday that being 2 hours late is like being 10 minutes late in the U.S., so no body cared.  Being the new church group and having white people made us #1.  For the first 15 minutes we stood up in front of the 200 group crowd and listened as various elder men came up and spoke.  Finally, my family pulled me to the side, and I was able to sit down (But I got a good taste for what its going to be like being practically the only white man on an island = a lot of stares and immediate blatant gossip in front of my face.)

I think I made myself stand out more cause I had to pee so bad during the 2 hour service that my sister and I got up and walked around until we found the toilet, which I'm sure was a comical scene to everyone else.  Concluding the service was a very progressive healing session.  I have to be honest it even threw me for a loop, and I can't even imagine what it must have been like for the other PCV's who are not religious at all.  Also, being white we had guest of honor seats in the front row.  I had a literal front seat experience to everything.  Concluding the healing, everyone went to the beach, and they had about 15 water baptisms.

My family had extended family close to the village the church was in, so after we went on a small walkabout and visited them.  Finding out that there is a new white family member caused two forms of reaction:  the first is shock and misunderstanding but after everything was explained came immediate smiles and celebration.  My mama, sat by my side the whole visit holding my hand.

After visiting the family for a short time, we went back to the church, had a big community feast, sat and listened to some olfala men talk about politics and religion, listened and watched some music and dancing, then we headed home.  The boat back was just as adventurous as the first, but it just seemed natural.  All in all, a Sunday that I expected to spel all day, took more like 10 hours but I wouldn't have traded this for anything.  I love how I'm related to everyone. haha