Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Up the mountain

The youth at our church live on a mountain. It is their backyard. So naturally I want to climb it. Their house is is high enough anyway that from Linda's house you can see the ocean very well. Her house is the highest in their village. Apparantly the kids had the whole day planned out for me. Which was so cool. I asked if I needed to bring sandwiches or lunch or anything and they gave me a look like I was crazy. They said, "That's not how we do it. We eat on the mountain. If we get hungry or thirsty we get coconuts." Of course, I thought. We start the climband it is so much fun. They say usually when they do it they run up the whole mountain, which I could have done. But I didn't. We get to this one spot where the trees all intertwined. It was amazing to look at. The branches went all the way up to about 50 ft in the air and they were playing tag on them! Just climbing from one branch to the next, amazingly not falling. So I went up also. I found this nice spot where there was a branch coming out of a big branch, which was the perect place to sit for me. So I sat and watched them. It was so cool! Then we all drank coconuts and ate them too! Oh! and another thing. The Machette here is a commonly used tool here. Kids use it all the time. Even to cut the grass. The nine year old was using it to cut a path in the trail for us to walk through. I told them in the states people would not allow that. That people would see it as being too dangerous for kids, and they gave me that look again. The look that says us americans are too crazy. My favorite look. We went further up the mountain and walked the ridgeline and it was so neat. I could see the Ocean on both sides. I loved it. So did they. They brought up some binoculars for all of us to look at the villages below. On the way down the boys were cutting down tall trees to use as posts for volleyball so me and Moga went ahead. It's easier for boys when they are lost because they can just climb a tree and figure out where they are, but I guess the grils don't do that. Playing tag is one thing, but they aren't even allowed to climb coconut trees because it is thought that if a girl climbs a coconut tree the coconut will not taste good. Stupid traditions. Anyway, so noone knows this because Moga doesn't want her Father to know, and I know whoever reads this will not go and tease her or tlak to her about it, but we apparantly went too far right and ended up in the crater near Ganko. Which I thought was funny. I just thought of it as an adventure but Moga was embarrassed and thought I wasn't having fun, since they put a lot into this day and we got lost. I told her it was ok. In all fairness, though, it was my fault, sort of, she wanted me to lead to see if I could find my way back. I thought I could but it's all overgrown and looks the same to me. Its ok though, neither of us expected that. I still had lots of fun. A lady gave us a ride back to their road and we walked home. The kids didn't come back from the mountain until about an hour later. Probably playing tag and swinging on vines while the others cut down the volleyball posts.
Great day I must say. And it was Shaun Snyder's Birthday that day as well.

Well, I'm not jsut going around frolicking. I had my first girl's bible study yesterday and it was such a great turn out. I was so pleased and they were giving me feed back and it gave me encouragement for next week. So please keep praying for me. I miss you all and love you tons,

Whit

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whitney the pictures are awesome. Your trip to the mountain sounded wonderful. I am so glad you are doing well and having great experiences. I am proud of you. Love you too. Mom

Mr. Snyder said...

I think you meant to write this:

"And it was Shaun Snyder's birthday that day as well, AND IT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY YEAR!"

Right? Yeah, right :)

Anonymous said...

Whitney,

Hugs, Love and Kisses for you!!!

We wish you well as you teach the bible study and explore the island

Love to you
Grandad, Mary Anne and Mary

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