PAradise – Hey Becky Boo

Adventure August 27, 2017

Camping in Paradise

‘It’s okay, just breath deeply and go to sleep.’ I felt a giant spider scamper across my arm and a cockroach tickle my forehead as it made it’s way over my face. This was going to be a loooong week. There were a lot, and I mean A LOT of bugs here.

Seriously why are there even spiders this size?

We had decided to take the family camping because well we didn’t have anywhere to live so that made it an easy decision. When we originally were planning to come to Vanuatu we thought we would just stay for 4 months. But the time came and went so quickly and everyone was enjoying our trip so thoroughly that nobody wanted to go home. We spent a few thousand dollars, changed our plane tickets, bought more travel insurance and extended our visa. It seemed expensive, but truthfully the price was so small in comparison to the gigantic return on investment. For once in a long time our family was really content and everybody felt it and nobody wanted to let it go.

When we changed our tickets from 4 months to 12 months we needed to find a new place to stay and went camping between rentals. It’s not like I had any camping equipment so we chose a place that had tents and beds already in them. It was magical. Beach tents on the ocean, the breeze and the ocean and the birds.

We spent endless hours walking, swimming, playing with birds, roasting hotdogs, laughing and chatting around the fire. Everything was really fantastic. But there was more in store for our family.

The kids and Eric were walking down the beach when they found a path that led to a village through the bush. They ended up buying some island potatoes from them but when it was time to go home the entire village full of children followed them. For the next few hours they played soccer in the field.

At dinner time I called my kids for dinner and my kids as well as at least another 10 kids showed up. For the next four days and nights these beautiful village kids showed up at our tents at 6am, stayed around the fire laughing and singing with us and sharing our meals. Pretty soon I wasn’t cooking for 10 I was cooking for 20. I was running out of food, and you’ll see in the video the creative ways that we found to keep eating as there wasn’t a store in a million miles from us. We gathered coconuts, ate island potatoes and even collected sea urchins when the tide was low and roasted them over the fire! #gross

This group of sparkly eyed, brown skinned, big smiled children joined us for movie night cramming everyone into one small tent to gather around the little computer screen and watch Moana and home videos with us.

They followed us to the waterfalls when we went hiking and were waiting for us till well past dark every night if we ever ventured out anywhere. At the end of every night Eric would load up the truck with everyone and drive them home. It was sometimes 10 or 11 o’clock at night when kids were sprawled out all over each other exhausted from hours of playing. Some nights they just walked themselves home dissappearing into the blackness without a sound.

The BEST most beautiful part of the entire camping trip was the morning that we were to leave. At 6am we heard noises outside. The mommas, the dads and the children from the village were all there.

They came up and showered us with shell leis, necklaces, fruit, potatoes and a woven mat. The momma’s said to me “you fed our pikininis everyday and now that makes you their momma too, so we bring you presents” Everyone cried as we left this magical bit of paradise and said goodbye to our new friends. It was truly an amazing, fantastic, unforgettable experience and I now have ALOT of new children!

Watch the videos to join in the magic and it truly was magical!

Rebecca

Beach July 22, 2017

Visiting the Healing Springs of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu

Well, the day was perfectly hot and we needed somewhere to cool off. I had heard all about the powerful healing waters of Santo, Vanuatu and thought that this would be a good time to try them out. After all, I was struggling with numerous health condition that were getting worse and worse. “What could it hurt?” I thought to myself as I persuaded the others to join me. I personally had already heard dozens of stories from neighbours and friends that testified to the miraculous power of the healing springs. I thought you guys would like to join me so I inconspicuously made a little video 🙂

Santo was an entire island away so we first had to buy tickets and fly there, but we found an amazing resort for sale called Lope Lope and the three couples were interested in buying it and running a health and wellness resort.

The healing miracle of the Santo Healing Springs is very precise. You must bathe 3 times, you must go fasting and praying. You must pour the water over your head and certain amount of times and then if all of that won’t work you can also try drinking the salty water.

I was too shy to do my healing bathing with all the other island people so instead I went at night when mostly everyone was gone. I did exactly as instructed and went back the required 3x. But in the end the healing waters of Santo DID NOT heal me 🙁

What about you did you ever try to do something to get better but it didn’t work?

Beach July 22, 2017

How to Make A Moana Canoe in 15 Minutes

Okay, Today my 8 year old brought me this absolutely ADORABLE outrigger canoe that she made 100% by herself. It was tooo cute not to share:) Just to warn you- you’ll need to be in a tropical place to make this canoe.

One thing I love about our world schooling experience here in Vanuatu, is that there are so many opportunities for my children be creative. Emma did this whole project all by herself. The kids spend literally HOURS outside in the sunshine and with the absence of technology their imagination flourishes.

Today Emma was looking at the coconut trees and the dried up shriveled branches which would drop daily from the trees. In our backyard alone we have: Mango trees, Avocado Trees, Papaya Trees, Coconut Trees, Banana trees, Passion fruit vines, Watermelon and Cucumber and Pumpkin plants, peanuts, & potatoes.

It was literally so easy to grow things that all you had to do was throw the scraps in the compost pile and then just a few weeks later they would be flourishing plants.

Anyways, back to the tutorial. With these plants comes more opportunities for creating, which is how Emma came to be making a Moana Canoe tutorial for everyone. It was extra fun because we are living in a tropical place so it’s special to be doing something tropical!

Family May 9, 2017

Waiting for a Cyclone

Last night the Shefa Province of Vanuatu where we are officially got put on Red Alert (alerts are as follows: blue, yellow, red).

Regardless of what ‘alert’ level we have been on, everyone has been on ‘high’ alert for days as we’ve waited for Cyclone Donna. She’s now a category 5 and quite destructive. Category 5 is the highest category a cyclone can become with winds up to 260kmh, heavy rainfall, coastal flooding and massive waves. The islands are well aware of the possibilities of the kinds of destruction a category 5 storm can do; the memories of Cyclone pam two years ago are still very fresh.

Normally after receiving a cyclone warning you have 12-24 hours to prepare. We received our first warning over a week ago and the cyclone still has not arrived.

Cyclone Donna has gone towards us and away from us on so many occasions that it’s getting tiring to discuss whether she will come or not at all.

It’s no fun living in a dark, damp house with all windows and door boarded up so securely, and yet it’s still to early to take everything down.

This morning the cyclone moved down to a position that is right beside us but not on top of is. It’s looking doubtful that we will be hit with anything other than ‘destructive, gale force winds, and heavy flooding’, and the bright cool weather outside has me doubting that we will be hit with even that.

Already parts of our little island have lost power and been evacuated due to extreme flooding.

Dustin bought all of his workers wood and tin to reinforce their houses before cyclone Donna comes. The schools, stores, and markets all remain closed today.

Apparently Cyclone Donna World set a record for being the worst cyclone in recorded historical history in the southern hemisphere in the month of May!

At least 90% of the island believes that the reason we are getting a cyclone is because they’re dressing immodestly and drinking Kava. (Kava Is a traditional drink much like alcohol). Apparently before and after a cyclone hit there is a huge influx of people to join churches, or start attending churches.

When I was last in the market there was a preacher telling everyone to get down on their knees and pray and repent of their sins so that the cyclone would leave us unharmed.

The house girl, Matilda said the locals do not think the cyclone will hit us because they have told God that already they have suffered so much and lost so much this year with other natural disasters that He will turn the cyclone around and send it to a different place.

Members of our family are already being deployed today to leave this island and go to some of the outer Northern Islands where the cyclone has already hit. They are working with the Red Cross to deliver aid food, and water to the people on those islands. We are going to put our names on the list today as volunteers so that if our help is needed we can go as well.

Well here’s to waiting…not sure if it will come or not but it currently sits level with us and is calculated to land in New Caledonia.

Adventure May 5, 2017

Preparing for Cyclone Donna

Well we went shopping to stock up on food and water in preparation for the cyclone. This is what we got. Sound yummy?

92 bananas 10 pamplemouse 20 tangerines 4 bags of homegrown freshly picked peanuts 21 passion fruit 15 giant avocados 12 french baguettes 10 papayas 2 bunches fresh basil 1 bunch fresh mint 1 freshly grown ginger root 1 pomegrantic 6 bags dried banana and manioc chips 12 nouse 30 sweet potatoes

Of course we bought it all from the market, fresh, island grown organic produce. YUM! We could have bought a frozen McCains pizza for $22USD, a box of Cocoa Puffs for $15.00USD or a container of yogurt for $14.00USD, but I couldn’t afford those things

🙂

We did splurge and buy a battery operated radio, two water storage containers and a bunch of flashlights, oh I almost forgot and a bouquet of fresh flowers. I got the flowers because if I’m stuck inside for two days I wanted it to be pretty:)

I’ll let you know how long this lasts.

By the way, I just found out the the locals have a special name for the house we live in, Cyclone Kaikai. This directly relates to rest of this post because the name translates to cyclone food…yikes!