The new unofficial band aid ministry!!

We have a new ministry that just found us,  We are the band aid /sore people (basically I am like the school nurse who does the most basic stuff). 

The flower is from Angelina in the Green dress in the photo above.  One of Pierce and Dahlias best friends that goes to our preschool as well.  She is 8 but has no money for school fees so we are helping her by giving her more challenging work and trying to get her a scholarship after attending for this year.   Her mother left her and her 3 other siblings and just walked away one day and then left them with  the grandparents.

All the kids know that when they come to play I take care of their sores and clean them and put antibiotic cream on them and band aids (Plasters).   

Most of these kids just wander the village by themselves during the day as most of their parents don’t bother with them and lock up the house in the morning and leave for work.  They don’t all get baths or anything!  Kids as young as 4 are wandering around.  So we also just provide a fun safe place for them to hang out.

My kids love it and so do these kids!  Most of the kids are over everyday to play at our house in the yard with the toys (none of the kids have any toys that I have seen except a couple marbles once).

Above is Pierce with Mellissa who is Pierces other best friend.  She is 5 yrs old and her mom leaves her locks the house up.  She goes to school but often comes back to a locked house.  She had dinner with us the other night when her mom was gone at dinner time and she didn’t know where to.

We share treats with them and lend toys and play with them.  It is really great.  Pierce just loves it and so does Dahlia.  When they go she cries "Dahlia go play friends!". 

When I break out the two coloring books and the crayons we brought, all the kids flock and no one wants to do anything else but color (to Dahlias delight and Pierces dismay as he is waiting with a ball!)  So now the kids bring the other kids to me that have sores and wounds and we bandage them up.

This is John from my preschool a total sweetie who is about 3 yrs old (most kids or parents don’t know exactly how old they are as no one keeps track.) 

Every kid seams to have 3-6 sores that are infected whether from scratched mosquito bites (they don’t have bug nets at night or screens on the house or repellent) or just wounds and they get so infected immediately with the flies and the filth everywhere. 

Just today I must have doctored 15-20 sores and yesterday over 40!  It is really important you bandage them or they get infected and the sores grow and grow into "bigfella sores" (Bislama for Big sores!)  The infected sores are really painfull. 

I just sit them up on my bench on the patio and we are off!

We have only had small ones and they really hurt.  We are teaching them about hygiene as well.  Debby Josh's mom and Tracey sent care packages with tons of band aids and antibiotic cream etc  and toothbrushes for kids so we are using all of that for them.  Thanks for the band aids you sent!  I am really going through them but the kids I use them on really need them!  We are praying for the miracle of the never ending band aids!   

This is just the carnage from day one!!  The kids just kept showing up!  I love it!

Our local preschool

This is the local preschool that I have just started to help teach.   One year ago Rachael (the teacher)  started this “kindy” (preschool) because there are so many kids who cannot afford the school fees here, and she wanted even the poorest of the poor to have a chance at a good education.  With no previous experience in teaching she left her sales and marketing position because she said she had a dream that Kindy is what she needed to be doing.  She and her family of 6 kids live off her husbands wage of about $65 USD a week.  Her life is inspiring.  I love how she just follows the Lord with out thinking twice, regardless of personal cost!

We meet under a banyan tree at Rachael's house just down the road from our house.   We currently have no shelter so if it rains we don’t meet, but my husband is putting up a tarp for shade and protection from the rain.  The only supplies we have at the moment are a few pencils, some crayons and colored pencils as well as paper, scissors and glue.  We were able to get those through UNICEF.  Rachael applied last year for some stationary aid from them and was also able to apply through another aid group to have 4 kids (her whole class last year) go to school on scholarships!  The school is also planning on accepting this years graduates on scholarships as well!  This is awesome as most of these kids wouldn’t have any other way to afford school fees.  The parents are so grateful!

Rachael and I just met to work on a new curriculum that we will be implementing soon.  It allows the kids a chance to excel in Memory, Bible, art, science, language, math and interpersonal skills. The other teacher and I meet once a week to plan the weeks curriculumand pray for our students. 

It is such an awesome opportunity to get involved and my children are attending and really enjoy it as well.

Our biggest struggles include not having a bathroom for the kids, personal hygiene, and a proper set up as far as chairs or a table of some sort.  We currently just sit on a piece of plastic on the ground and sit around a board on the ground to write on.  

Our greatest joys are the sweet little kids that show up every day from 7:30 to noon.  We include play time and snack as well.  I am really excited to see how our new curriculum goes.

The local economy…

Employment in Vanuatu is 6%.  Not an unemployment rate of 6% EMPLOYMENT rate.  Wow, that means 94% are unemployed.  This friend of ours is a gardener at a local resort and is considered one of the lucky to have a job.  The going rates in this area are just under $10 a day or $1.25 an hour!  Port Vila the capital here sees quite an influx of islanders hoping for work in the city.  Sadly there are shanty towns that have been built from those that have left their homes and gardens on the outer islands only to find there is very little work here.  YWAM an international aid group that I am here with has a strong presence in these areas, working with the children in preschool programs, unwed mothers and others in need.  It is hard for these islanders to get the boat fare back to their home so often they feel they are stuck.

A lot of the people here live very simply in crudely built tin homes on rented or passed down pieces of land with gardens that provide the food they need to live on and sometimes enough to sell in the market as well.  They do not have a lot of material things but seem to be very happy people.  Everyone is happy to share what they have and you will have a hard time finding a face that isn’t smiling!  We have been enjoying the warm hospitality of all our neighbors and find the people absolutely lovely.  If you ever get the chance to visit this amazing country you will enjoy the cheerful smiles and easy going contented islanders that make this country such a pleasure to visit!  We could all learn a thing or two about contentment from them. 

In these troubled times it is a chance for me to be reminded of all that we have to be grateful for.  A nice home over our heads and food on the table .