Brisbane and Hobart

We've almost completed the first two parts of our holiday - visiting some friends in Brisbane and visiting sponsors and bosses in Hobart.

Brisbane was lovely - beautiful temperature. Balmy but just a little cooler than the Solomons. We had a relaxing time with our friends, hanging out, having d&ms and as you see in this picture, going for a lovely walk in Queen's Park. Brisbane was the first time that Theresa had worn clothes for a full day!

Thankfully, Theresa travelled really well to Brisbane from Honiara. But the flight to Hobart was a bit more unsettling and she screamed and screamed when we were descending... well, when she wasn't occupied by looking at the t.v. screens.

Hobart is freezing... Not that we expected any different, but in real life, 19 degrees is cold... for us because we're used to 35. This is the first time in Theresa's life that she's wearing long pants and cardies all day long.

But she enjoys going for a walk with me... so much so that she falls asleep. This whole walking thing taking her in the pram/stroller is quite new. The roads are so bumpy in the Solomons that walking with her in the pram gives a new meaning to off-road buggy-ing.

We're enjoying our walking in this little snug part of Hobart. It is quite a novelty to be able to go for a walk - and it's safe - and it's free.

Not to mention, beautiful.

Yesterday it warmed up enough for me to wear shorts. We've had cool, crisp nights but a few nice warm days. Well, warm if you're in the sun.

But, Goodbye Hobart, because we're leaving for Melbourne and the open road tomorrow. We've had a great time, enjoyed the hospitality of our host and met with lots of lovely, dedicated people who support us and pray for us. Thank you to them all.

about to go

Today is the day we leave for our annual holiday. Yay. We are so excited. The only reason I slept last night is because I was so tired of rushing around, finishing things off and packing.

First we'll spend a few days in Brisbane with some friends, then a few days in Hobart with some friends, sponsors and the SWIM workgroup. Then we're heading off to Melbourne to travel around for just over a week, before we fly to NZ.

So I'm not sure where you are, but hopefully we'll see you somewhere!

Two things: kind of funny that all three of us travel under different nationalities' passports.

Also, how ironic that the last people we saw in Australia before coming here, are going to be the first people we'll see when we get to Australia! What lovely friends we have.

The Tsunami That Never Came

Jair was at rugby training when he rang to say that Japan had had an earthquake and tsunami. There was a tsunami warning for Solomon Islands as well so youth group had been cancelled. I promptly googled Japan and tsunami and came up with lots of info about it. Then I thought, hey, wait a moment... Japan isn't so far away from Solomon Islands. Maybe this is for real (I mean, we get tsunami warnings every time there's an earthquake somewhere... well, except for Haiti and Christchurch.)

In the end many of us at SWIM decided to evacuate. After all, we are quite close to the sea - just 10 minutes stroll away! It must have been quite a sight, to see five vehicles leaving in convoy, heading to different places around Honiara, where the hills make it safe.

We went to SITAG, the local Wycliffe base and enjoyed their hospitality in a house that was, quite providentially, vacant. At around 12:30 ish we were awake (it was the first time we'd shared a room with Theresa... she actually is quite noisy in her sleep!) and we said to each other, well if anything happens, it'll happen now (It was the projected time the wave would hit). It was raining, and we heard the sounds of people talking, shouting. I remember thinking later on in the early hours of the morning, as I waded in semi-consciousness, either the tsunami was really bad and everything in lower Honiara has been wiped out, including all the helicopters that would hypothetically be coming in to help, or nothing has happened, because it's very suspiciously quiet.

The next morning, I got out to feed Theresa when she woke up at six. I went outside on the verandah. You could see Lunga Point and I thought, well, it looks fine. So then after Theresa had fed and Jair woke up, we packed our things and snuck out of the house while the other evacuees were still sleeping. It was quiet and peaceful (for a change) in Honiara as we drove through at 7 am.

And the sea was still.

Pomelo

We have been here for more than a year and yet I have never bought a pomelo - the largest sister in the Citrus family. It's like a giant grapefruit. That's pink. So since there were heaps in the market and they were cheap, I bought one. The one I bought was $4 (SBD).

When I got home and cut it up it was rather sour but I guess you've got to start somewhere. I have tasted pomelo that were sweeter before so I'll have to work on my pomelo picking skills.

I also bought some oranges, although admittedly, they are rather green. In the Solomon Islands, the fruit ripens quickly, so in the case of oranges, I mean, greens, they ripen on the inside before the outside has a chance to change colour. But they do actually still taste sweet, and are especially nice if you juice them as they can be quite stringey inside.

An odd thing happened at the market. There was this guy walking around with a loudspeaker making high pitched squeals so everyone could hear the racket. Anyway, he was walking all over the central market and when he came to where I was I noticed that the Honiara City Council man who monitors marketplace behaviour was walking behind him looking rather exasperated. So I asked someone, is the guy drunk? (waswe, man ya, hem spaka?) No, he's dumb, the lady told me, dumb being the word locals use for deaf.

Then the deaf man stopped squealing, the Honiara City Council guy takes the loudspeaker off and says, "look everyone, even though this guy is dumb, he can still see that you're putting the food under the tables when you're supposed to display all your food on top of the tables. That's what he's been telling you. Even though he's dumb, he can still tell you that you need to put the food on top of the tables."

Anyway, I thought that was odd. Well, it seems odd to us Westerners. I mean, you'd never make an announcement like that in that fashion in New World or Pak n Save.

and he came back!

So, after Theresa's bad week (which was, mind you, ages ago... I'm a bad blogger, bad blogger), Jair came back! yay. And she settled down. Even yayer.

Jair had a great time with the team in Fulisango. He enjoyed spending time in the village, spending time with all the kids and families, and then also, getting to know the people on the team. All his Jairisms came out and when I went to pick him and the team up from the wharf, the young guys were all saying "sweet bix" and "cheers bro" and "weapon". Jair came back relaxed and energised.

Then something cool and special - three guys from the team gave Jair this choice as present for helping them - would you believe it - a kiwi, on a rugby ball made by a local carver. Jair was stoked as.

Since then, he's been getting back into jobs here, working with the boys on this amazing chicken house... I'll put a photo up when the chooks are all in. Keeping chooks are one way SWIM pays the local staff - a bonus for them because they can have a stable job - the local staff, I mean, but also the chooks!

Then yesterday, as Jair was doing mechanical repairs with our new apprentice, he decided to take the motorbike he was working on for a test run. Well, I began to wonder after a while, where was Jair - some test run, sounds more like a cruise!

Then he came back - with the motor bike on the back of Mike's truck. Oh well. At least we know it's not working 100%

Emotional Wreck

On Monday Jair went to Malaita with a team to help them with the project they are doing in Fulisango. So this week, it's just been Theresa and I at home. I've been fine, but Theresa has been an emotional wreck (these pictures were taken a few weeks ago, but I thought you might like to see them).

Any small thing goes wrong and she cries (which is not normal). She doesn't want to fall asleep easily (she usually falls asleep within 10 mins). She wants to sleep on Jair's bed. In short, she has been an emotional wreck ever since her daddy left for a week. I told her the other day that there were only 45 more sleeps to go (including all her scheduled nap times you see) and then she decided that she would not go to sleep for her next nap - as if that would bring her daddy home sooner.

It's sweet though, in a way, to see how much she loves Jair, how much she misses him and how even though she's only nine weeks old, she knows that he is her daddy and something's wrong when he's not there. Aaawwww.

brand sparkling new

I know it's already the fifth day of the year, but I've been thinking about this whole "new" thing.

You know, it's a new year (congratulations, btw), so it's the time when

we think about newness.

Well, on Sunday at church we had a sermon on newness. I arrived half way through because I had been feeding Theresa, so I can't tell you the passage, but the gist of it was that in Christ, we have a new heart, a new life, a new self. In fact, every day, God renews us. Every day we must walk in the pattern of this new life that He has given us.

So as I was sitting there, listening to the sermon, mulling over this newness in Christ, and a Big Thought hit me. I love it when Big Thoughts hit me. It's like, all of a sudden, the penny drops, something ticks over in my head and some I finally understand something properly, well at least a little bit properly.

I was thinking about the buzz of newness. You know, there's nothing like getting something new. I remember back in my former life in NZ, the incredible feeling of money burning in my wallet and the urge to buy something new, an urge which I sometimes satisfied. But after a while the new thing, wasn't so new again and after a bit more of a while, that urge for buying something new burned within me again. Here in the Solomons, the only new thing I buy is food (at least, I hope it's new ;). Sometimes I go to the Chinese second hand clothing stores (which by the way, if you come to the Solomons and don't go to one of them you're really really missing out...) and even though the clothes there aren't new, there's still a bit of a buzz about newness.

And then there's the buzz of newness that I get with all these parcels and pressies people have sent for Theresa. (Thank you sooo much, by the way). Lovely. Look, Theresa, here's a new dress for you, or a new bib for you, or a new rattle for you. It's great. Every week or so for the last month, I've got a buzz over the new pressies for Theresa. But invariably they won't be new forever.

But this buzz of newness isn't just a by-product of clothes and presents. Sometimes I wish I could watch a new movie, not the same old ones, or eat a different meal, listen to some new music, or paint a wall a new colour, or (well, back when I had a flower garden in NZ) plant a new flower bush. Sometimes I like other people's places better than my own. Why? It's new to me. It's a buzz for me.

I don't know if you're the same. Maybe you might be because our culture is quite crazed about consumerism and newness.

But the snag is this: eventually this new whatever will lose its newness and buzz and you'll have to get a new whatever to get back the newness and the buzz.

It was at this point (believe me, it didn't take me as long to think about this as it's taking to write) the dollar dropped in my head. All my life I've been going after a newness that doesn't last, but maybe this desire for newness is ingrained in us humans. But like that "God-shaped vacuum in our heart", our lust for newness won't be filled by material possessions or different experiences. Our desire for something new can only be filled by us becoming something new in Christ. That's a newness that doesn't lose it's buzz, or if it does, it's a sign that we're falling back into our old ways, our old life, rather than relentlessly pursuing Christ and our new self in Him.

So, there's a brand sparkling new thought for the new year. A newness that renews its newness every day.