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| Flag of New Caledonia |
I wish so much I could email you all individually but I seriously have
no time. Before i got an hour and a half, but now just an hour.
BAAAAH..
Ok I don't even know where to start. I left on Sunday at 4 in the
afternoon and arrived in Vanuatu at like 9 in the morning on Tuesday,
hot out of my mind and freaking out with excitement at finally being
here!
We flew through Fiji and after I stepped out into the Fiji air after a
12 hour flight and turned to see the sun rising over the lush Fiji
mountains I really almost started crying. So so much joy and every
other positive emotion flooded into me. And I wasnt' even in "my"
place yet.
Vanuatu is probably God's favorite place in the world. Everthing is
just lush green vegetation. It's one giant beautiful jungle garden.
Like the garden of Eden. The Ni-Vanuatu people are all so dark and
beautiful and everyone smiles their radiant smiles and waves as you go
by. They do that to everyone, it's incredible. Everyone there is
willing to talk to you. Oh! I forgot, when I was in Vanuatu I spent a
lot of time in the Mission office, but I got
to go out a day with some
Sisters there, Sista Natto and Sista Teit. I LOVE them! It was one of
the happiest days of my life. Hands down. I was squealing and sighing
around every corner because it was just so surreal and perfect and
wonderful and happy. They call kids pikinninni and they are the cutest
things alive. We got to teach some people in Bislama (i testified in
English) and walk around the villages (they're a mixture actual
houses, homes made out of tin sheets and sticks, basket woven homes,
little huts, tarp homes, etc., all filled with the most joyful happy
people that show such warmth and love). And the Sisters bought me a
coconut to let me drink the coconut water and then we bought another
coconut and Sister Natto taught us how to open it and scrape the
inside and then use it to make creme de coco and then use that to make
coconut rice or candy. And then we also got some sugar cane and ate
that! And meanwhile we're just walking around town holding a giant
sugar cane in one hand and a coconut in the other, drinking coconut
water and talking to people in Bislama and hiking through these lush
green fields. Oh my, just pure joy. It felt so right. God blessed me
more than I deserve.
Oh also when we were sleeping (in the Sister's apt) I was almost
asleep, despite the chirping geckos and the lights left on to keep the
cockroaches away and the fact that we had pulled our mattresses into
the living area to be under a fan. Yes, so I was almost asleep despite
all that (and despite the fits of laughter we'd been having all
night... hahaha soooooo funny to put two Americans and a Papua New
Guinean together) when I felt something tickle my foot. THERE WAS A
COCKROACH ON MY FOOT. And a big one. Like the size of my thumb. Hahaha
they thought I was a woman possessed, I jumped up so fast ahahah.
Seriously, love that place so much.
Ok, but that's not even my island! hahah so I got to New Caledonia on
Friday and it was the complete opposite! Not really, but a lot
different. Picture Utah, with a little more green. Or Australia/New
Zealand/Peru/the rainforest/the wet part of Africa/tropical France?
Hahah really hard to describe. My mind was going crazy cause I kept
trying to compare it to somewhere I'd been but it was just a mixture
of everywhere and nowhere I'd been all at the same time. It is super
civilized in the city, honestly it's like Spain or a tropical France,
that's the best I can describe it. But I'm in an area called Paita,
and it's the COUNTRY! Hahaah again ;) God is trying to tell me
something I think. It is beautiful! We are surrounded by islanders, I
think we're the only white people I've seen so far, which I OVE. Our
area is big, so it's a driving area, but that's ok. I can't even sum
up a tenth of what i've felt or seen. But church: we are in a ward
full of Walisians, Tahitions, Caldoches, and every other island here.
It is in a beautiful chapel that's so airy you feel like you're
outside. And everyone is so warm and wonderful!
Ok, a few fun facts and then I'm done;
-apparently I speak French well? That's what people keep telling me,
but I don't know if it's compared to a newbie, or just the truth? But
my mind translates when I write already, so that's exciting!
-comp is Soeur Beagles, LOVE her, she's from Utah and she's great!
-Haven't eaten anything too too crazy, just some coconut, and a banana
(?) pudding/jelly thing?
Love you alll!!!!!
Too much to write!!!
Soeur Evans
Paita Region of New Caledonia
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