There is something empowering about electricity…the hum of a refrigerator, the whirling of a fan just puts an extra spring in one’s step!  Even little Josiah yells “yay !” when a light is turned on.  Yes!  We have power!

Dale read in the local paper that the government agreed to receive (and hopefully pay for) the fuel ship which was to arrive around 6pm yesterday.  Before that, some leadership had decided to boycott the current tanker because they felt like they were being forced to renegotiate their contract.  Unfortunately, that left the island without fuel for the last 5 days…finally, a reserve supply went out to the power company from the government…and now we have power!

Of course, it will likely go off at it’s normal random times, but we have seen it and done that before.  We are thankful for whatever we have!!

For the last few days, our electricity has been more off than on.  There is a gut wrenching feeling when you hear the fan wind down and the lights click off…Usually, it seems random, but this week, there is a fuel shortage…so, lately we have had electricity for only a couple hours a day or minutes a day…no lights, no fans, no internet, no refrigerator… and today we heard that the ship with all the awaited fuel will not arrive until next Wednesday!  (8 days from today) Is that true?  We also heard another rumor that the ship is close by but the government has not payed for the fuel.  Cars are left empty at closed gas stations and the streets have less and less traffic on them.

I am reminded of Phl 4: 11-13

But first, I think about all the circumstances in the past that I thought was hard…i.e., internship…and even then I had electricity and running water!  Surely, this is different!  No, Paul said “for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.”  Really?  Whatever the circumstances?  And how did he do it?  He continues, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Hmm…Where does my electricity or power come from? Is it contingent on the shipment of fuel?  I realize that Paul didn’t do what he did by himself, using his own strength…he tapped into our Father’s power…and so can I!

Unfortunately not much progress has been made on our island’s garbage situation. In the past, before our arrival, we heard that the city was dumping their garbage on an old airstrip outside of town.  However, the nearby habitants started blocking off the roads that led to the airstrip and the city had to stop dumping… Since then a private company was contracted to collect the garbage from the central markets and hold them in containers until they can be dumped.  Over three months have passed and there is still no solution in sight.  Now there is more than 41 containers filled with garbage!  Each week, we and the rest of the city are faced with the dilemma as to ‘what to do with our garbage.’  Outside of our city, most of the villagers seem to either burn their garbage or dump it in the ocean!  For now, our with our teammates, we try to find a pile of garbage that we can add our bags too, in hopes that it would be collected… and dumped… where?…when?…who knows?

At the market, garbage piles up fast!

Garbage is constantly encountered (and doesn’t stay in the ocean…)

But amongst the rubbish, one can still see the lush plants, the beautiful creation, and the potential…

Both Abigail and Josiah are making good recoveries from their recent illnesses.  We thank our Father above and everyone’s thoughts and petitions!  We still don’t know what Abigail’s illness was…(we have our hypotheses, but we will have to wait on further diagnostic testing-which we may do someday, just out of curiosity…) but her fever and strange rash is fading and we are grateful!  Now that our house is no longer an inpatient ward, we can get back to the daily adjustments and navigations of living here.

So one of the other ongoing challenges of moving to the Islands has been shopping for food and cooking meals.  Which is especially hard because, we have three boys who love to eat!  I would remind myself that I really did cook meals for my family everyday and liked doing it!  But, it feels like a lifetime ago… Imagine no longer having your kitchen panty, your grocery stores or a vehicle…Imagine that almost all of your regular standby recipes are no longer relevant…because the ingredients or appliances are just not here.  And, sometimes when things are available here, it’s just not that easy to get.   Other times, you get lucky and find beef at the store!

Here is the main market that can be very busy and crowded. You can find all your fresh (local) produce here as well as household items.

Meat and fresh fish can also be bought here in the market, but we can’t get passed the flies and lack of refrigeration. There are a few small grocery stores that have a frozen meat section where you can get chicken legs and ground beef patties.

Some of our standbys that we can still make here are: pasta, pizza, chicken, and rice stir fry.  Some of the new things that our house help has helped us with are: chicken with coconut sauce, chicken with tomato based sauce, fried fish, fried green bananas, and fried sweet potatoes.  After that, there is always french bread.  We are blessed to have a bakery not too far from our house…