Vanuatu 16

Really, I should be going to bed. I've just finished some admin at the end of a 14 hour work day that included some serious jungle trekking and I'm rather tired.

But I'm struck by some things worth sharing.

I sat with a school principal, his lead secondary teacher and one of my IES colleagues in an outdoor meeting today because the school (at Erakor, Efate Island) has so staff room remaining. We were able to clearly see where the school oval was, where children - a large group - were playing football.

With a paper ball.

They have no football.

It's the simplest thing, but it stood out to me. I had already seen the school kitchen - a log for a bench and a fire on the ground for cooking outdoors - I had already seen the destroyed classrooms on a few occasions but it was the lack of a ball that seemed so significant and memorable.

Needless to say that as well as fixing the school toilets, rebuilding their kindergarten and replacing some school books, I'm throwing sports gear into our school project! It's actually, from a theoretical standpoint, brilliant for school retention and morale; obviously, though, it just seems  (to my Western mind) an easy and cheap thing to fix.

The other thing I thought worth sharing today is the sense of opportunity that I think God is bringing together for those that would see it. We are aware of a lady that is becoming a Salvation Army soldier on a remote island here. Her island doesn't have the microcredit schemes that other islands have, but has been dramatically affected by the cyclone in that cruise ships no longer visit her island. The 'mamas' there are dependant on handicraft skills and sales to tourists for survival. Having known this, I today met the CEO of Vanwoods (Vanuatu Women's Development Scheme) who is looking for expansion partners (she gave us a lift home!).

So we have a presence on this island, an issue to look into, a potential partner, a potential leader and it's all been brought before us within a few days.

I've sent my thoughts on this to our international development team at IHQ, as this is a long term concept, not an emergency project. I hope they take it up.