Representatives

We had spent a few hours hanging out by the beach, watching the English students play silly games, dance, sing and laugh.  Our kids, two teammates and I were the only foreigners and generally were just observers of the action.

English Barbecue (sans Tom)

 Tom wasn’t there, being busy on the other side of the island doing a teacher training course. Tom was the one that really knew these students and administrators.  Our friend Moro had originally asked Tom to come to this barbecue celebrating his center’s English program, but Tom couldn’t make it. Moro’s disappointment had been obvious when Tom told him the news, but then Tom let Moro know that the five of us would be able to go. Suddenly the disappointment was gone.

As we said goodbye, Moro came to us and said, “It was like Tom was here with us!” with a large and genuine smile on his face. I was surprised. I would have anticipated him expressing sadness at Tom’s absence even as he would have undoubtedly thanked us for coming. Instead he seemed to recognize us as having fully represented Tom at the event— no sadness at all.  

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Preparing for beach races at barbecue

Our friend ‘Sterehi’ always thinks big. One time he sent invitations to all the big government offices asking the biggest officials to come to his professional center’s graduation ceremony. Obviously the governor of the whole island was not going to come to something like this, but Sterehi was super excited that some underling (something like the assistant to the undersecretary of the governor) was sent to represent the governor’s office. The underling dutifully gave a speech and received accolades in the governor’s name. We thought it was a little awkward, but Sterehi was very pleased.

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At women’s events, women often represent their husbands and bring with them the honor and prestige that their husbands have. At the last wedding event I attended, both ‘Madame Directeur’ or ‘Madame Mayor’ were pointed out and recognized in speeches.  In the same way, I am often called Madame Tom, or sometimes even “Madame Mr. Teacher Tom”, by the people who know and respect Tom. Once, Tom’s students invited me to a women’s event (since Tom obviously couldn’t attend). I sat to the side not knowing many people, and was surprised when they called for ‘Madame Tom’ to make a speech about one of his students (as Tom’s representative) even though I didn’t know the student at all.

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Perhaps the most bizarre form of representation that I have heard about on the islands is during wedding ceremonies. The groom doesn’t have to be there! Sometimes he isn’t able to come (usually because he is out of the country) and so he will be represented by a brother or other male relative. Yes, the groom can have a stand-in for the wedding ceremonies! And while it is not seen as the ideal, islanders don’t see a problem with this.

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Maybe this level of using representatives surprises us because we come from more individualistic cultures, where we want to only represent ourselves. While islanders view things more communally and are happy with individuals of the same group, representing each other.  But in other ways we have fully embraced the idea of being ambassadors or representatives here! We hope that we are representatives of more than just our families or our NGO. Islanders often want to paint us as ‘Americans’ but we resist being seen as representatives of our nationality (our group members are from several countries after all). Let the PeaceCorps represent Americans, we want to be representatives of something bigger than that— of a kingdom that includes every language, tongue and people, and of a King that laid down his life for us. We hope that when it is our time to leave the islands that islanders could say of us, “Having you here was like He was here with us!”

Blowing out his 9 candles!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our youngest son is 9 years old today! We thank God for his life, his smiles, his big hugs, his imaginative stories full of sound-effects and for all the ways he is growing and learning. We are thankful for the chance to celebrate with him this past weekend. The island sisters had another gathering this past Wednesday. One of the usual organizers was busy with sick kids and so we were encouraged when other sisters stepped up to make the meeting happen! We haven’t seen that level of ownership from some of them before, so we are encouraged. We were able to video-chat with a short-termer coming out in a couple months— we pray that the logistics of her coming would come together.  We are thankful for the way that it seems like everyone on our team is getting opportunities to share good news and to pray for friends in need lately.  

PRAYERS REQUESTED
One island brother feels that God has told him that something big is going to happen soon. Pray that all of us would be prepared for whatever God has in mind. We are meant to have a conversation with a family that is raising funds to join us on the islands— pray for good communication as expectations are set and for continued provision for them. Our sons are beginning their end-of-the-year exams at local island school. Pray that they would not be stressed about them but that they would be able to do their best and pass on to the next class. Our unit leader’s surgery went well, but the recovery is slower than she hoped. Prayed for good rest and complete recovery. Our medical teammates are beginning their internship today— pray that they would have the energy (both have histories with chronic fatigue), learn a lot and be building good relationships.