No Island is an Island

Our kids with their vacation countdown

I think our family might have island-fever. We came back to the islands at the end of February and haven’t been off since. We mentioned going on vacation to the kids and they immediately created a large countdown on the chalkboard. Our youngest takes almost everyone that comes to our house over to the map of Africa and shows them where we are going for vacation (just 14 more days!). The islands can feel pretty isolated sometimes. But there are different kinds of isolation.

When we first came to live in Africa (over 10 years ago), we went to Chad. Chad is sometimes nicknamed the “dead heart of Africa” because it is a landlocked country right in the middle of the continent. Our village in Chad was isolated geographically, surrounded by the desert-like sahel landscape on all sides. But we were less isolated logistically— it is not hard to coordinate the logistics to overcome the geographic isolation.  In Chad you could always get in a car and drive away. If there was an emergency, you could always just drive and drive—right out of the country even—until you found the help or civilization you needed. On the other hand our village in Chad was isolated socially.  Most people in the village were uneducated and had little contact with the outside world.  In many ways their world was quite small.  In Chad we remember having to explain that the world was round and covered in oceans.  We had to explain that you couldn’t simple drive to America.  One Chadian friend scoffed in disbelief—as if so much water was beyond comprehension.

Our town and then the endless ocean

On the islands, the surroundings are completely different. Endless desert is replaced with endless ocean.  Islanders scoff in disbelief when they hear that there are people in the world that have never seen the ocean! Everywhere you look here you find ocean. Socially, the islands are not nearly so isolated.  While many islanders have never been to other countries, many know of opportunities abroad and want to go.  It may not be exaggerating to say that the vast majority of islanders have family members living abroad. But we are certainly geographically isolated—in some ways more so than in Chad. We’re surrounded by ocean.  Hundreds of miles of water and land separate us from any major metropolis. Sometimes we can see one of the other islands far out on the horizon, but most of the time it is just endless blue.

So we have to deal with that geographic isolation but also logistical isolation. We can’t just get in a car and leave, the logistics of getting off the island are often complicated, unreliable and/or expensive—and this more than anything can lead to feeling island fever. 

Some co-workers at our office opening

Last week our co-workers on the other islands came to Clove Island for a meeting.  We work with some amazing people and it was so good to see them.  Yet the reality is, we are lucky to see them more than twice a year.  Geographically many of our colleagues are within 40-80 miles of us.  On a good highway, that’s less than an hour drive.  Why, many people commute that far just to go to work.  But the water which separates us and the lack of reliable transportation makes these distances vast.  Some of our colleagues were delayed by more than a day because of the lack of logistical possibilities—one airline, no boats, full flights.  Imagine if your only option to get from the north of Boston to the south of Boston was to fly in a 12 seater airplane that serviced the entire North Shore—or imagine if the only way to get from San Francisco to San Jose was on a slow ferry across the bay that would take most the day.  Despite this geographical and logistical isolation, being together with our co-workers and friends from the other islands, we were comforted with the reminder that we are not alone.  And thanks to technology and networks of connection, we are not socially isolated.  We have network of people who understand, who are there to pray for us, challenge us and encourage us.  So send us a text, drop us an email, give us a call—we’re not so far away…well, yeah, we are. 

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Two islanders went for a special swim this past week. We were happy to celebrate with them. We had a good time with our four visitors and were excited for them to understand more about our life and work here on Clove Island. An old friend from the big island that we haven’t seen in 5 years (he’s been studying abroad) is on Clove Island right now! We’re excited to see him and hope that we can encourage him while he is here.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Pray for the island group to continue to grow in maturity and purpose and for us to know our role in that process. There have been a number of tummy bugs going around. One of our teammates fainted at the market yesterday and is still sick. Pray for her quick recovery and that no one else would get sick. Continue to pray for our kids and the anticipation of island school starting soon. Pray for calm hearts and a good experience (we still don’t know what day school is starting!). We need some dental and medical check-ups while we are off island— pray that we would be able to make the appointments that we need to before we leave. We’re hoping to get the medical/dental stuff done in the first few days so that we can then just relax