A Word for Potluck

We need to come up with an island word for ‘potluck’. It isn’t an island thing, but this was our third or fourth time doing one with our island brothers and sisters. It was actually an islander who first recommended it. She had lived on the big island and the international body there had done potlucks on big holidays and when she suggested doing it here on Clove Island, the foreigners were all very supportive. Islanders weren’t sure about it. 

Christmas at home

Workers on Clove Island come from different countries, but all had potlucks as part of holiday gatherings in their home countries. The actual name ‘potluck’ doesn’t actually translate, but the idea is the same . In French, their word is ‘shared-meal’. Our UK colleagues call it a ‘bring-and-share’ or a ‘Jacob’s join’, but in each case it still means everyone brings something and everyone feasts on the shared contributions. (Really, ‘bring-and-share’ is a pretty good name for it.) 

Having a word shows that it is part of the culture, part of the normal ways to do things. But there is no island word for potluck. 

Still, we have had successful potlucks a few times now, so this weekend’s came about pretty easily. There were lots of main dishes and some desserts. There was an abundance of dishes with poultry-based hot dogs this year (they have been on sale on the islands lately), but not enough to be overwhelming. In the end, everyone seemed full and happy. 

I was chatting with foreign colleagues beforehand and we talked about our experiences with potlucks— how people often always bring the same dishes to every potluck (I am still working on perfecting what my go-to island potluck contribution should be), how there are often dishes you never make yourself that you always look forward to eating at a potluck, how many people want to try as many of the dishes as possible- you might get introduced to a new food at a potluck that becomes a new favorite. 

Part of our contribution

Generally, we aren’t trying to add lots of foreign customs to island culture, but some additions are a blessing and we are happy that potlucks have been introduced and have so far caught on among the Clove Island body with their local foods and flavors. 

We noticed some islanders kept to only the more traditional dishes— like rice, beans, pilau, mataba— things that were familiar. Others were making a point of trying everything— even asking, after they got too full, for samples of the remaining dishes to be wrapped in napkins so they could try them at home.

As part of the service before the meal, Tom talked about how potlucks are a beautiful picture of us being one body. We all bring different things to the table and we all benefit from what everyone brings. A diversity of offerings coming together in unity and mutual service. 

But there’s still no word for it. In the local language, there is a way of making a verb into a noun. So one local word for a meeting is a ‘seeing each other’, so maybe we could call a potluck a ‘sharing’, a ‘bringing for each other’,  or a ‘feeding each other’.  We’ll have to ask our island friends what would sound best.

Towards the end of the potluck

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The potluck went well. We had a good week both as a family and in community. Megan was able to read the Christmas story with Hashiri and Tom was able to study with Muki and Mtsa. Muki came to the service and potluck. Megan attended three wedding events in the community and had the energy for them plus the holiday gatherings. The lychees and mangoes continue to be in abundance (the payoff for enduring the heat). We were able to hike to the river and cool off in the cold refreshing water one afternoon. We had the wonderful gift of waking up on the 25th to the news that we have a new island sister— she has been on the big island but she is from our island and will be returning soon. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We will have our annual holiday party with our English Club this week (we couldn’t fit it in earlier). Pray for a fun evening and that we’d continue to have chances to share the hope and joy of the season. Pray for the incorporation of this new island sister on her return to Clove Island— pray that she’d make a natural connection with the other island sister in her town. There were some faces missing at the potluck— pray that those that have been walking away would rejoin the group and that they would all keep growing together.  There are several health concerns among the brothers and sisters— pray for healing and for the ill to not become discouraged! Pray for our older two kids as they head back to boarding school at the end of the week— pray that they can both get all the vacation work for their AP courses done and that our daughter can finish her college applications without too much stress. Pray for their safe travels (they will be traveling alone this time) and for a smooth transition back to school. Continue to pray for our daughter’s health— that she wouldn’t catch any illnesses and that she would find healing from her rheumatoid arthritis. It has continued to be brutally hot with almost no rain— pray for some rainy days to break up the heat and humidity (but not to disrupt travel plans). 

Christmas Traditions

 What is important to you when you think of Christmas traditions?  Is it decorating the house?  A Christmas tree?  Is it going to church?  Is it a big meal with family?  Maybe its caroling or buying gifts (or unwrapping gifts) that you most enjoy?  Are any of these traditions essential?  In the famous story, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” he steals all the trappings of Christmas away, but the Whos down in Whoville still manage to celebrate.

Our son getting into the Christmas spirit

Sometimes Christmas on the Islands can feel a little bit like Whoville after the Grinch has come through.  Not that someone has come through and taken away all the trappings and trimmings of Christmas, but rather that they’ve never been put up in the first place.  Christmas is just another day on the islands.  Just today Tom received a message asking if he could help administer some exams on Christmas morning!  Imagine doing an exam on Christmas morning! (He politely declined.)  It is a strange feeling to celebrate a holiday that nobody else cares about.

Over the years, we’ve learned to adjust our expectation around Christmas.  One of them is the day itself.  Although we do take the day off from work and do something as a family, it’s also normal to celebrate a second Christmas or a pre-Christmas.  This year we celebrated a pre-Christmas with our family during our time away on vacation with presents, turkey and Christmas carols all on that auspicious day of December 12.  And we look forward to being together with our island brothers and sisters on the weekend after the day itself.  Our island brothers and sisters are creating a tradition of waiting until the weekend to do any celebrating, and it strikes us that this is probably just as well.

Tree at airport on vacation

While we were on vacation, Megan received a message from an island sister asking us to bring back Christmas decorations for her to decorate her house.  Tom was against it.  Why does she need a Christmas tree?  Could anything be more foreign?  Do we really want to encourage that the only way to celebrate Christmas is to bring things from overseas?  But Megan countered that we decorate our house.  We have a Christmas tree.  Do we expect people to do something different from what we are modeling?  Besides, Christmas trees have become a ubiquitous symbol of Christmas.  Write the word Christmas on your phone and the emoji that pops up is a Christmas tree.  Go to Tokyo, Singapore, Nairobi or Rio de Janeiro and you will see Christmas trees.  Can we really expect our island brothers and sisters to not want to connect to this global cultural symbol?  Needless to say, we got her some decorations, including the small plastic tree she requested.  

So often our ideals of wanting to respect and honor local culture are brought down by the realities of a globally connected world.  As if to emphasize this reality, our house-helper shared that her daughter on seeing our decorations asked her mom about it.  She told her it was our tradition to do it in December to celebrate Noeli (i.e. Christmas).  To which her daughter asked, “Mom, can we decorate our house for Christmas, too?”

We could certainly get together with our colleagues and argue over the pros and cons of decorating our houses.  As much as we may try to not impose our traditions on others, sometimes our traditions are attractive—that’s certainly the case with Christmas.  Our decorations lead to curiosity, conversations and sharing.  On our door, we have 8 little posters.  Four of them are in English and each depicts one of the themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.  The other four have those same words in the island language.  Whenever anyone asks, we get the opportunity to share about the One who gives us hope, and how we find peace in Him, and how joy wells up in a life given over to Him, and how we can know a steadfast love that has been tried and tested and found worthy—a love that will never give up and never end.  

Setting up our little island tree

A great conversation awaits, thanks to some simple Christmas decorations.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We made it back safely to our island home with all our luggage! Megan’s back did great through all the travel. Our daughter’s health was also good. We are very thankful for the time away and also for being home again. Though it is very hot and humid, we are thankful for good power and water since being home. There were some difficult situations while we were gone, but we are thankful for our colleagues that temporarily took over our role as crisis advisers and that God has been present in those different situations. Megan was able to sit and talk with Ma Jadza about her mom’s passing and offer some words of comfort. Tom has gotten to reconnect with Mtsa and Muki and they are restarting their studies together today. Elewa is feeling much better.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for the celebrations this week— that we would have more opportunities to share the hope, peace, joy and love of the season with our island friends. Pray for the gathering with island brothers and sisters— some details are still vague, pray that it would all come together and be an encouragement to all to attend. Pray for rain to give some relief from the heat. Pray for an island brother’s wife— she has been a growing presence in the community of island sisters. She is very ill and had to travel off-island— pray for her healing. We’ve heard that there is a lot of sickness on the islands right now— pray for good health (especially for our daughter and others with compromised immune systems) and healing for those who are sick. 

Mango Butter

 A few weeks ago, Tom came into the kitchen and smelled the bubbling mango mixture and said, “Mmmm, it smells like Christmas—Island Christmas.”

Megan with mangoes

It may have smelled like Christmas, but the weather didn’t feel like it (at least from an American perspective). The islands have heated up— the air is sticky with humidity. Everyone is constantly sweating. If you’re not sweating, it means you’re dehydrated. This time of year is a little unpleasant, but there is a trade-off because as the temperature and humidity increases so does the fruit! 

Right now piles of mangoes are for sale all over town. Any major road has people selling mangoes to passersby. If ever we don’t have mangoes in our house at this time of year, it is an error that needs to be corrected the next time one of us leaves the house. 

I am not sure how many years ago it was, but at some point when the mangoes were abundant, cheap and delicious, I looked in the index of our Wycliffe cookbook (written for/by overseas workers) and saw a listing for ‘mango butter.’ Curious, I went to the listed page and found it was a variation listed under the Apple Butter recipe. Actually it is exactly the same recipe, you just replace mangoes for apples and strain the strings out at the end. 

Ready for cooking

I tried it and it was good, and so began a tradition. It is a nice blend of islands and our home culture— the spices smell like mulled cider, hearkening a winter Christmas scene, but the mangoes are tropical and even the spices themselves (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg) are local products. 

So at some point, when the mangoes are plentiful,  we buy 2 or 3 piles at once. We peel and slice the mango away from the pits. We add sugar and spices, let it simmer for a long time. We push the cooled mixture through a sieve and voila, we have enough mango butter to last for the rest of the holiday season. 

Mmm… it smells like Island Christmas.

Pouring into jars

PRAYERS ANSWERED

We are thankful for the time of rest we’ve gotten with family and for the chance to celebrate a late Thanksgiving-early Christmas with them. We are thankful that our first leg of travel on our way back to the islands has gone well and that we get to connect with Tom’s cousin on our layover. We are thankful that after two denied attempts, our island colleague was finally granted a visa to visit his wife’s home country with their baby—we pray for a great visit for them all.  A few new Christmas songs in the island language have recently been recorded and put on youtube.  They sound great.  Hopefully lots of people will listen.


 

PRAYERS REQUESTED

We’ve learned that our close neighbor Ma Jadza lost her mother this past week— pray for her family as they grieve and that she and her husband Makini could be a light to their extended family. Our island sister Elewa has been very sick, pray for her full recovery, especially as she has plans to celebrate the upcoming holidays with some friends and neighbors on the big island- pray that it could be an opportunity to share good news. Pray for the rest of our travels back to the islands that it would all go smoothly and that we’d all stay healthy. 

Change is Precious

 The islands are still very much a cash-based society. When we go to other countries we rarely even bother getting any local cash because most purchases are made with credit cards or phone apps. We’ve been in a new country for over a week and have yet to make a purchase in cash. But on Clove Island, most transactions are still done with physical bills and coins of various denominations.  But probably the most precious are those small bills and coins— in other words, the change. 

Our island change bowl

I remember being in America (back when people still used cash a lot to pay for things). Change was a pain. I remember being annoyed when I got a lot of coins. It weighs down your wallet and is really bulky. Once I got home, I would usually unload the loose change into a bowl which was very rarely touched except when people added more coins to it. 

Not that I don’t realize that enough spare change can amount to lots of money. In elementary school I was in charge of counting and putting into rolls all the coins brought in during a fundraiser. I can’t remember now what the fundraiser was for, but I do remember that all that loose change added up to a significant amount of money raised. But when we say that change is precious on the islands, it is not just the understanding that coins have purchase power. No, change is precious because it feels like a rare commodity. 

Remember that we’re not just thinking of coins— change is both coins and the smallest denominations of bills. On the islands, we don’t assume in a taxi or in a shop that someone will have a lot of change (if any). In the US, I wouldn’t have thought twice of breaking a $20 bill at a store. Here it can be quite rude to make a small purchase with a big bill. If they are feeling agreeable they might go (or send someone) to ask neighboring stores or hail a passing taxi to see if they can find change (or they might just tell you to do it yourself). Sometimes, they will just refuse and say they don’t have change.

When getting in a taxi, the polite thing to do is to tell the driver as you get in that you have a big bill so he has the whole journey to potentially stop and ask people for change. Even if someone already has all the change, they will ask and check if you don’t have the exact change and may proceed to give you a disapproving sigh and a miffed-look at having to part with so much change for you. 

The big problem for us has been that island ATM’s usually only give money in the largest bill denominations. Unfortunately, even the bank tellers are hesitant to give out change. Tom used to go into the bank after getting money out at the ATM to ask to change some of the money into smaller bills. They often gave him a hard time, sometimes even refusing, either lying and saying they didn’t have any or suggesting that he had to prove he had a local bank account to get change. 

Most people seem to value and hoard coins and small bills here, and this mentality means that we are always looking to break bills. I am actually disappointed when the total at a store is a nice, clean number because it means that I might not get any change out of the transaction. If a friend repays us with small bills, we get excited! If we have to repay someone and our small bills are running low, we might decide to be generous and round up to the big bill instead of losing a bunch of small ones. 

Enjoying fair food on vacation (bought with credit card)

So you can imagine our excitement that one of the island ATM’s has started giving out withdrawals with a mix of large and small bills! A game changer. Suddenly we aren’t always at a small-bill deficit.  

Looking ahead, it is possible that our days of cash purchases are numbered, even on the islands. A local cell company has an electronic money app that seems to be gaining in popularity.  Maybe the day will come when we can just use our phones to pay at the little shops in our neighborhood, but until then, we’ll guard our small bills and keep a close eye on our change supply. 

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our teammate made it safely back to Clove Island (despite some travel troubles on the way in) and was warmly welcomed by neighbors. We have had a very nice time with Megan’s parents and brother so far. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our teammate in her first week back home on the islands— that she would reconnect well with friends and neighbors and that how to proceed with hospital work would be straightforward. There have been some difficult situations on the islands, pray for those that are having to respond to these situations that they would have wisdom and discernment to be lights in the dark and for for health and safety for all. Hashiri has asked for prayer that her family would find peace together in their home. Megan’s uncle passed away this past weekend— pray for her aunt and cousins as they grieve this loss. 

Becoming Peers

 It’s a special thing to see students become teachers.  It is something that we’ve been able to experience over and over again as we teach English here on Clove Island.  Our many years of English teaching, English teacher training, and general longevity has meant we’ve been able to watch people grow from a basic ability in English to near fluency and aptitude.  This is certainly the case with Moro and Arongo.

Moro and Arongo monitoring exam

Arongo was one of my first students—12 years ago.  He was the enthusiastic teenager whose English was far ahead of the rest of the class and he was eager to show it off.  He quickly rose through the different levels and was in one of the first classes of English teachers I trained on Clove Island.

Moro I met a few years later—about 8 years ago.  He had less raw talent for language than Arongo, but he had a passion and grit to learn that has brought him far.  He put that same dedication into English teaching and soon became one of the best, most reliable English teachers on the island.  So much so that he became the first to be trained to be a teacher trainer.  He has now led his own English training programs making my job at his program redundant!  

A couple years ago, Arongo and Moro both got jobs in the same company.  This international shipping company only takes people who have strong English, are willing to work hard and long hours, and show a high level of competence and teachability.  I’m not surprised that these two found work there.  About a year ago, thanks to their friendship at work, they started running an English program together—doing both administration and teaching—on top of their busy schedule.  They even decided to buy and teach a new curriculum for higher levels of English students (something our NGO does not provide.)  They reasonably asked if I could help them figure out how to use and teach this new curriculum—something I was only too happy to help them with. 

Waiting at airport on Clove Island

Last Sunday, the three of us sat down to look over the upcoming exam for this new curriculum.  As we’ve never used this curriculum before, there was a lot to discuss, modify and prepare.  I’ve done similar things with other teachers.  Much to my dismay, it usually consists of them deferring to me all the time—my every suggestion they consider wonderful—their own suggestions, nonexistent.  But that was not the case with Arongo and Moro.  This was true collaboration.  They had ideas and were not afraid to share them.  They took my suggestions as suggestions and sometimes offered something better than I had to offer.  They had thoughts and opinions about the process and were asking questions that I hadn’t even thought of.  In short, it was a planning meeting among peers.  

Maybe it’s funny that someone telling me my idea wasn’t so great could make me so happy!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We just arrived safely at our vacation location, reuniting with Megan’s parents and brother. We are very thankful that our travels and the different connections went smoothly and all our luggage arrived with us (things we don’t take for granted). We are also thankful that Megan’s back did well through the travel. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray that we can have a relaxing and fun vacation time as a family. Pray for Hashiri, Muki and Mtsa (whom we regularly study with) that they would continue to study and be encouraged in our absence the next few weeks. Pray for the island sisters as they have their monthly gathering this week and talk more about the details of the holiday celebration. Pray that many women would come and be encouraged (especially our newest sister and her daughter). Our teammate travels from her home country (where she has been for the last few months) and returns to the islands this week— pray that her travels would go smoothly and that she would have a good transition back to island life and work.