Kia Ora NZ!

The Vanua-Fire boys who are my new favourite!

Well folks, I'm back on kiwi soil - and I love it!

I'm spending my days catching up with friends, thinking back on a year of memories and thinking about how these experiences will change what i do. Life is a beautiful thing - I feel like I have been really blessed this year with the people I have met, the safety while biking and travelling alone, not ever getting really sick, not losing any baggage or having any plane mishaps, not getting anything stolen....people i didn't even know have looked after me time and time again and I am super grateful!

Thanks for supporting me y'all - can't wait to see you and say hi in person!
Arohanui,
Miri xxoo

Sista blong mi hemi nambawan!

 This is Paula. And Me. In Vanuatu. Oh, yea!

It was very exciting heading off to the airport to pick Paula up.....I may have got there ridiculously early.....and since then we have been checking out the Vila sights. Smolbag boys fire dancing on the beach, snorkelling, sailing, diving, eating....and enjoying the hot weather. (well, I am. Secertly Paula does also....she just hasn't admitted it yet...) I have enjoyed getting back into speaking Bislama and Paula is fast picking it up.

 A visit to the underwater post office is on the list of must do things....

 Friendly fish - enjoying eating coral and flippers.

 Mele waterfalls - you can't see it in the picture but there are beautiful clear pools, smaller waterfalls and general good stuff. Nice jungle walk to get there...sweet deal that we passed a whole bunch of people leaving as we arrived so had the place to ourselves for a while....before a few more tourists came along.

And the challenge activity for the week - off for a scuba dive. Paula touched Nemo - several times! Woop Woop. Shes also glad she didn't die. I turned around to see her holding the instructors hand at one stage....he looked stoked!!

Hanging with some turtles tomorrow. Have been able to also get out to Smolbag where I used to work and say hi to people there - Paula tested her Pottery skills which proved to be quite good....and we have been promised more island dresses to take home with us on our departure....lol

Great to be here hanging out together!

Aussie Adventures!

 Leaving Kapuna was sad! In the last 2 weeks I have often found myself singing Kapuna songs, flicking back through my photos and remembering parts of life there. Very fond memories! I spent a week in port Moresby which was interesting. Good to have a wee look round and slowly get back into the idea of 'developed' world living! It was still a shock landing in Sydney, navigating my way into town on the train and then across to manly - everyone walks fast, talks fast and looks busy! No more of the slow way of life!

 Despite this, nice to be back in a place where I can see the sea and go swimming!! Love it.

These are my 'Aussie' cultural moments over the last few weeks....
1. Seeing kangaroos jumping round the garden and dead on the road
2. Sleeping in a real Aussie swag
3. Watching a NRL final, with Aussies
4. Seeing the golden guitar in Tamworth, the country music capital of Australia. Woop woop
5. Spending a week in Byron Bay pretending to be a hippie (see photos below)
6. Driving down "Steve Urwin Way"
7. Getting hassed for my accent.

 Me enjoyinng the swimming and sunshine at Byron Bay.

 Drum lesson! My backpackers also had juggling lessons, bush walks, talent show, open mic, Quiz night and crochet lessons. Sometimes it was hard to leave.

And I've finished my time being in brisbane - which I have loved (really nice city) and today shot up the Sunshine coast for another swim at another beach. Note the LACK of sunshine......hmmmmm

Vanuatu tomorrow!

Independence Celebrations!

 Independence Celebration!! Just fantastic to be involved with this. My group were great at kitting me out with custom dress and were uber keen to learn a haka (I don't really know any hakas....). But was great fun teaching them to sing Pokarekare ana and then changed e te ariki into a haka and whammo! Maori item in the middle of a PNG culture night. (As one group member said "We longer eating flesh and are glad that other countries are safe to come here now so we celebrate their culture too"...!)

 Akia painting us up...

 And spot the white girl....

 I swear I'm not actually this white but it is an extreme flash photo!!

 Following the cultural night we had a day of sport which started well. Classics such as Coconut shotput, and then this relay of running to collect a coconut, husking it and then scraping. Despite my practicing at husking and scraping I was still added to the kids race (kids and foreigners) and then delegrated the running leg. I completed this complete with an epic slide finish as I delievered my coconut to the scraper person. Running in mud isn't a problem but stopping is!

 Firelighting and bow and arrow competition were followed by the not-so-traditional tug of war and limbo. Tug Of War would have made a southland easter camp proud as it was torrential rain and nothing but mud to stick your feet into, and much yelling and yahooing!!!

Finally it was flying fox time, which everyone LOVED! Certainly wasn't OSH approved and I lamented that I have been corrupted by OSH safety standards but then thought it was ok as Im still alive....anyway, no-one died and i only had to look away a few times as kids fell off the ladder and dropped into the creek below.

Heading out to Port Moresby in 2 days time to wait there for a few days until i fly to Australia. Have had a mission trying to organise this but are thankful that we have just found out we can go. The other option was a 4 day boat trip! 

Th story of Wowobo Village

I recently had the priviledge of heading to a small village called Wowobo about 4hrs away from Kapuna. It was a great boat ride, going from one major river system to another through a network of narrow waterways and different size rivers. Our mission was to support a group of mothers who have started teaching the village children. 15 years ago the government run school was closed down and the village told they were not allowed to build any new buildings or get any new services. The village is the proposed site for the end of the new Highlands-Gulf highway and deep water port on their front doorstep. Hasn't happened yet. So, in true spirit of when you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, these mothers have marched down and lit the light themselves, offering a new enthusiasm for school along with new opportunities.

 Our first activity was a very entertaining game of mud soccer. One of the favourites in this province!!! Fantastic to watch and I wished I had joined in, although i don't think the kids would have been so into it if there was a white female adult playing with them! I stuck with paparazzi photography.

 Evening the whole village turned out for a game of Volleyball which was a fun way to spend the rest of daylight after meetings and the days work.

 The next day we had about 30 kids in the village long house for school. They were excited to show off their alphabet, numbers, shapes, colours and singing to us. Those who didn't have paper got a stick and drew their letters in the clay ground. We only had to turn a few 5's around and get them doing some letters in the correct way. On the whole though very good and a few bright kids!

After about 4 hours of songs, games, alphabet, maths and reading we were ready to call it a day (us more than the kids probably) and we wandered back home for some lunch and to wait for our dinghy to come and collect us. 

I loved being in the village and will remember it as a highlight of my time here i think.

Swamp day and Children's Day!

 Thursday was a school field trip up th river to the swamp! Great fun!! This is a fishing camp on the bank of the river. So not a permanent village but people will spend time here fishing before returning to their village.

 How many men can you fit in a canoe? Apparently this was a rugby team going downriver for a game! They didn't have much freeboard!

 Some of my students (from left Ken, Issachar, Abel and Shem). I think the favourite part of the trip for them was seeing of they could shot birds with the slingshot.

 Exploring up a river into the swamp. Great fun, with crocodiles, creeper vines, funny looking Dr Suess trees and torrential rain.

 When it wasn't raining it was lovely. Saw a few crocs poking their heads up in this spot.

 Saturday was a kids day for the surrounding villages which was good fun. Here te older kids are doing some bible quiz games and getting ready for some relays.

All the kids learning "Jesus got heaps of lambs". I didn't teach them the verse about ninja turtles as they had no idea what ninja turtles are but we made up a few verses that were more relevant to PNG. Went down a treat.!

Off the a village for a few days this week to check out a school. Should be great.

Epic Storms, playing in the mud and a mystery animal in my house...!

 Well, last week was learning how to cook Sago, this week I tried making Granadilla and Guava Jam. Boo-jah!! It is delicious, so much so that Uncle Colin, who grew up here and still lives here wants me to tell him how I did it! We have just introduced a new food to the diet! Very happy.

Exciting thing of the week: Watching my kids go outside during break to frighten away a flying fox. It involved one kid shooting a slingshot and then all the others charging the tree, screaming and yelling holding sticks and then chasing the bat away. Very amusing and made me think of tribal wars. Kids vs Bat.

 Thought it was about time for some pics of where I'm living - note the mossie net above the blue chair - an excellent spot for reading in the evenings by torchlight safe from biting insects!

I am feeling stoked to be getting to know some of the girls my age here more. I have had dinner with them and have plans for more. They are great, although I am gutted to only have 3 and a half weeks left here! Time flies in this place.

I had a breakthrough with one of the patient kids who watches me walk to school everyday but who has so far said nothing back to me when I say hello. My class and I sung E Te Ariki in church on sunday with me on ukulele and afterwards this wee kid jumped onto the path in front of me, mimicked playing a ukulele and sung 'ga-link-a-link-a-link' and then ran away laughing. I'll take that as progress!!

 The view out my kitchen window. Haven't had to close the storm shutters yet although we did have an EPIC thunder/lightening and rain storm over the weekend. It was incredible. Thunder just rolling and rolling around the sky and brilliant flashes of lightening that lit the whole sky up.

 My resting place! (note mossie net again).

Me off to find the mysterious animal that was doing poos in my shower for two mornings in a row. I was imagining a giant gecko/lizard like creature (apparently one lives somewhere in my house), or a family of frogs, or giant  (giant!) insects. Turned out to be a hen roosting. NOT LIKELY!! She was very stubborn when i ushered her out and I had to resort to actually hitting it and sweeping it away. This is MY shower!!!

I've had my first game of mud volleyball - badly reminiscent of an embarrassing Year 10 PE lesson. Didn't do much for my quest in getting to know the locals as I'm so bad at Volleyball i wasn't much help. It was fun finishing with mud all over my arms (proof that i did at least touch the ball on several occasions!) and mud splattered up my legs.

An important chief died here at the hospital over the weekend. I was woken about midnight by the wailing starting which continued for several hours. Then Sat morning it started again and most of us went to sit in the church singing songs until the coffin was made and we had a service for him. He was then taken down to the village where the traditional thing to do is wail and throw yourself in the mud. Pretty full on apparently. Very sad for the staff here as he was a guy who has done lots for the hospital. Another baby died during labour so was a pretty hard weekend for the hospital.

Otherwise things going well, am constantly learning about PNG culture and things. Am hoping to head up or down river at some stage to check out another village or two before i leave. I have just this week left with my class and then I'll be spending the last three weeks observing the primary class and trying to help get that running better.