The bush knife seems to be the main tool of work here in Vanuatu. It is used as a mower, edger, whipper snipper, axe, pruner, spade, fork, weeder, peeler, fruit picker
and I am sure it has other uses. The men use them with precision and make short work of any task they are given.
What would we do without friends. Philip and Serah are quickly becoming good friends. Philip is the Dean of Students here at JBI and lives on campus with his wife Serah. They recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary. They are teaching us Bislama in return for Robyn teaching Serah to cook cakes and biscuits. ( A fair trade we think) Tonight we learnt a new phrase. “lookem you tomorrow” every new phrase we learn we practice for the next few days, slowly our vocabulary is growing.
Today the 24th was Robyn’ birthday, one short of the next “0″. We celebrated with our friend Pam at Chill Resturant on the Waterfront after the morning service. Here the staff are surprising her with a birthday cake and birthday song. For her birthday she got a new washing machine, no more Mr. Hoover (Russell’s muscles). 6 weeks is nearly too long to handwash big items like sheets and towels. Later in the day we sat on the grass at Iririki Island and watched the Pacific Dawn leave, and finally friends Philip and Serah called in and we watched a Gaither Video. Robyn considers it one of the best birthdays she has had.
Our friend Pam was on a cruise on the Pacific Dawn. This is the biggest of P & O’s Pacfic fleet. Over 2000 passengers. 56 cruise ships will come to Port Vila this year, bringing in many American, Australian and New Zealand dollars. This helps to boost the local economy.
Many of the ladies travel into Vila to sell their produce. Instead of selling at the market they set up a roadside stall. Robyn was talking to a lady last Tuesday who travels in from the bush to sell her produce on a Tuesday. She set’s up just near the bakery, not far from JBI. It costs her 2000 vatu ($24) for the return trip, so she must come a long way. It is common site to see trucks laden with produce, with ladies sitting on top, hanging on, driving through town. Robyn gets pleasure out of sitting with the ladies on their mats, talking to them and asking them how they cook the various vegetables they have for sale. It is all part of relationship building. Produce at these stalls is even cheaper than the markets. Robyn bought a hand of little bananas for 30 vatu (36 cents) a taro root 30 vatu, and a bunch of island cabbage 50vatu.
