The Perils of Renting

Boys & friend at house under construction

As foreigners on the islands, we rent our homes.  It might be possible to buy but islanders don’t really buy and sell their homes so the only things available are far-flung empty plots of land. On the other hand, island culture is particularly suited to foreign renters.  This might seem surprising since very few foreigners move to the islands, but it works out quite nicely for us.

It all begins with a wedding.  If there is one thing that is central to island culture, it is the big wedding.  This is not a wedding in the sense that Westerners think of wedding—island weddings take a week and include multiple ceremonies, gifts paraded to the bride’s family, gifts paraded to the groom’s family, meals, massages and more!  And one of the key parts of the marriage ceremony the bride’s house. Putting on a wedding means fixing up a house.  So each year houses all over the island are built, rebuilt, painted, and refurbished all for the sake of weddings.

But the funny thing is, many islanders do not choose to live in the “wedding” house.  They may have a beautiful house built and fully furnished in their village, but their job requires them to live in town.  So the house remains empty.  These empty wedding houses are very common because of the propensity of islanders living abroad to come back to the islands to have a wedding, only to return to France, mainland Africa, China or wherever it is they may live.

Now with such a small number of foreigners living here, we often have our pick of a number of well furnished houses to choose from, many that have never been lived in.  Our first house was owned by a woman who had not been there in 20 years.  She lived in far off New Calcedonia!  Yet her house was fully furnished with everything from dishes and appliances to beds and sofas, all waiting for a renter or her eventual return.  The house we now rent is similarly owned by a woman who lives on the French island nearby.  The house came fully furnished, and even installed with solar power, yet had no one living in it—waiting for renters.

Megan at event outside our house

Now, it might sound like this is the perfect set up, but there are some drawbacks.  There are plenty of nice houses available, but sometimes they are so nice they are both out of our price range and/or a stumbling block to relationships.  If you lived in a simple home made of tin, would you feel comfortable entering a fully furnished, large 6-bedroom house? Probably not. It would seem like a palace.  We want accessible, welcoming homes and in our quest to live an appropriate and simple lifestyle, it can hard to find a less ostentatious, say 3 bedroom house.  We’re looking for nice, but not too nice.  But the other problem, and the greatest peril for a renter, is the very thing that gives us the opportunity to live in these houses in the first place—weddings.

Now only days ago we paid 4 months of rent in advance for our teammates’ home. At the same time we confirmed with the landlord that our teammates hoped to continue living in their apartment for the coming year. This was all readily agreed to, so we were surprised to receive a phone call last night asking for an immediate visit.  Within minutes the landlord with spouse and kids in tow were in our living room explaining a new problem. Sure enough, the problem was a wedding.  The previous day, the landlord’s mother had come and said her youngest daughter would be married and they wanted our teammates’ house for the ceremony.

What does this mean for our teammates?  Time to go house hunting!  Just like that, we need a new housing plan.

First lost tooth!

(Now, before you feel too bad for our teammates…we’re actually quite appreciative of this landlord giving months of warning.  We well remember when our teammates on Volcano island were kicked out of their house with less than a month to find a new place—all for the sake of a wedding.)

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our teammate left this morning, her final week went well and she finished her first term on the island strong! Elewa had a birthday party last week where her husband gave a speech giving a very countercultural  message on marriage that we found encouraging. The evaluation with the speech therapist went well and she has already equipped us with a bunch of activities to use with our boys moving forward. Our youngest lost his first tooth! We thank God for our growing kids!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We’ve heard rumors that there might be more unrest sometime next week. We’re not sure if these rumors will amount to anything, but please pray for this nation, that there would be peaceful avenues toward change and healthy governance. Pray for our teammates as many future plans are up in the air right now, pray for direction and a clear way forward. There have been a couple of disrupted weeks where Tom hasn’t met with his normal weekly group of guys, pray that they could come together this week without any scheduling obstacles. We’ve heard some reports of conflict and potentially unhealthy meeting practices— pray for these situations and for us as we consider whether to get directly involved.