Nius blong Mitufala

Resident Frogs

This past weekend, we celebrated the marriage of our friends, Georges and Christelle.  The ceremony itself was a quick affair at the French Embassy with a prolonged kava and dinner for close friends afterward.  We felt privileged to receive an invitation to dinner which was a very nice meal celebrated at a local French restaurant, l'Houstalet.  The crowning moment was a beautiful piece-montee (the traditional French wedding cake made from cream-filled puff pastry balls stacked on top of each other with hard caramel) that everyone at WAY too much of. 

It should be said that during the whole time, it was POURING outside.  Christelle was quite worried - and justifiably so - about the big reception that was going to take place the next day for about 200 people in their garden... OUTSIDE. 

But Saturday dawned bright, cool and sunny.  The good weather had returned and with it, everyone's traditional cheer.  I spent the morning making sugar cookies to supplement their fabulous wedding cake (a cake rather than a piece montee this time) and then Fred and I got dressed in our orange duds (the wedding colour was orange) and made our way to the party.  It was a fantastic day with a great mix of local custom and French traditions.  There was a buffet of local food, the crowning masterpiece of which was a whole roasted veal. I ate much less than I had planned because I felt so sorry for the cow.... maybe I  need to have a think about going veg again.

Kendra and the Bride (who is 5 months pregnant)



A nice shot of my wedding cookies (and the Bride & Groom)



The Fab Wedding Cake - served 100!

In my opinion, there were two major highlights to the day.  The first was the wedding dance.  It was performed to Tokosawia, a local string band.  Christelle and Georges danced in the middle of a huge, gyrating group that was smiling, whooping and clapping to the music.  I think it was the best wedding dance I have ever attended.  The second highlight was Fred.  He was happy-drunk ALL DAY.  The man that I occasionally (and only half jokingly refer to as a misanthrope) was chatty, happy and walking around with a smile on his face all day.  I have the excellent rum punch to thank for this!  Fred thought it was hilarious that both of my bosses were there (Christelle is my colleague) and spend at least 30 minutes offering them cake, cookies, chairs and various other services in return for the promise of a raise for his wife. Luckily, both Gordon and Nick are great and thought this was really funny rather than over the top - Fred thought it so funny that he started crying from laughing so hard.  I was a bit less impressed but amused nonetheless.

My bosses and their forebearing spouses after being served by Fred

The title of this post, by the way, comes from the wedding reception when a fellow Anglo married to a Frenchman said to me in Fred's presence, " I see you brought your resident Frog."  Fred, not missing a beat, responded," Yes, and I brought my resident Hamburger."  Ha!

The day, which had begun at 12, ended around 9 with kava.  All in all, one of the best weddings I've ever been to.

Rain is the Name of the Game

For once, the Vanuatu rain gods were benevolent.  Evan was in town all last week and the weather couldn't have been bette - big blue skies, cool temperatures and bright sun.  Despite my rather intense work schedule, we found the time to go to many (perhaps too many?) kava bars, to hit some beautiful local cascades and to take walks through town.

Our good friends, Georges and Christelle, are getting married this Friday.  This last Saturday, Evan and Fred hosted Georges bachelor party at out house while I went out to the beach with Christelle and friends for a very calm bachelorette evening.  I then came back to the house to pick up a very sleepy Evan and drag him to a Fourth of July party hosted by a fellow American.  His house hosts one of the most spectacular views of Port Vila and so, despite not knowing any one else at the party, Evan and I both enjoyed ourselves.  And Fred indubidably enjoyed himself by going to bed directly after we left.

And now... now, it's raining cats and dogs.  The accumulated dust from last week's sun has been tamped down and the air is heavy with humidity.  Magnum is constantly tracking mud into the house and poor Christelle, not only a friend but now also a colleage, is panicked that the weather will continue throughout the week.  But for now, Fred and I will enjoy going to sleep tonight with the sound of rain on our tin roof (cue Norah Jones).

The Buzz

Ha!  I fooled you all into believing that I would actually be posting on a regular basis now, didn't I?  Seriously, this week I have felt like my head is finally beginning to break the surface and that I have some time to breath. 

But this week, Evan has been here!  For those of you not in the know, Evan is a childhood friend (and my first "real" boyfriend - but shhhhhh!  don't tell Fred) with whom I have kept in intermittent contact for the past 30 years.  We seem to cross paths at various high and low points in our lives but never have we had more than a couple of hours to really hash it out in the past ... um, 15?... years.  It's been great to spent long hours talking and drinking kava - not necessarily in that order.  Fred and I also had the priviledge to FORCE a nice birthday dinner and gift on Evan as he celebrated his 31st on Monday.  There's nothing like pushing someone to be happy with all of your might.

Evan, who had spent some time in Palau with yet another Peace Corps friend serving in the Pacific (do I sense a trend here?), was keen to go spear fishing with Fred.  As you well know, Fred's self-avowed record for catching fish is dubious at best.  But gosh darn if Fred didn't prove that he's alpha-dog by catching his biggest fish yet not ten minutes into the dive.  The fish was amazingly tasty served up Thai-style... and it was so big that four of us couldn't finish it all!

In other news, my OCD tendencies have finally come back to bite me in the arse... or the toe, I should say.  While going through my normal ritual of making sure that everything is perfectly clean and in order before picking a guest up at the airport, I slammed my fourth toe - the one next to the pinky toe - (how the heck does that happen?!) into the corner of our couch and definitively broke it.  I knew it was broken on impact because I heard a pretty impressive crunch.  The toe subsequently doubled in size and became black with bruising.  I'm limping around these days with my toes taped together and formal approval to wear thongs to work.  So, it's not all bad.  (For injury buffs - Note that in the bandage photo the bruising has extended down between my toes.  Bad sign?!) 

I am, slowly but surely, getting my act together and I do promise that - while it won't be as regular as before - I will try to update AT LEAST twice a week.  After all, I am famous among dozens.   

Classics

Yesterday, I was driving to work... well, inching to work... and the car in front of me was sporting this personalised license plate:

Yes, what you see there is a fabulous example of customary culture and 21st century colliding.  Someone went to a lot of trouble to personalise and be-bling their license plate to read:  Le Manioc or tapioca, one of the main root crops here.  Classic.

Yesterday evening, I was working on a translation when I hear Magnum barking his head off outside.  This type of barking generally means one of two things:  either Woody is taunting him or there is someone walking by our gate.  I went outside to see which of the two it was and I found this:

I don't think there's much I can add to improve on this photo of Magnum fighting with a crab on our front porch, except CLASSIC!

Things to be Excited About

For lack of a better term, one could say that I have been "drowning" in my new job.  I should have guessed that such a big raise would come with big responsibilities and a significant increase in work... but I don't think I REALLY knew what I was letting myself in for.  Don't get me wrong - I am starting to wrap my head around things and I feel like, despite the mass amounts of paperwork that it entails, I will like this job.  I mean, I really like my colleagues and that's half the battle, right?   But it means no 2 hour lunches and sometimes no lunch at all.  (For all of you who are mocking me right now, I refer you to my previous post where I tell you to suck it.)  It means not being able to finish something before having to start another. I know, I know.  Welcome to the real world, Kendra.  But I can pine for the olden day, can't I?

In order to get my mind off the crushing amount of work that I have to do tomorrow, I thought I'd focus on things that are exciting to me right now:

• Writing my first blog post FROM HOME!
• Eating Jell-O pistachio pudding that I brought back from the States and saved for just such a celebratory occasion
• Having the first kava alone with my husband in over a week
• Magnum staying when told to stay - even when I turn my back and walk out of sight!
• Watching the 3rd season of 30 Rock and realising that it's only getting better
• Waiting for Evan to arrive on Saturday!
• Sleeping with my quilt for the first time this year last night and realising in the middle of the night that Woody was curled up under it with me

So, you see, there are many, many things to be grateful for and excited about.  You just need to tell that to my blood pressure.