Holidays at Home

I am sitting in the Portland airport, finally headed back to Vanuatu after a wonderful month home for the holidays. I saw so much in my short time back. I felt like I was on vacation from my life of what at times feels like tropical paradise and at other times feels like the smallest, most isolated speck in the universe. And being home in the USA has been the biggest breath of fresh air and chance to reflect on my experience that I've had since setting foot in Vanuatu over a year ago. It is crazy how accustomed I have become to the life of living off the earth, pumping and carrying every drop of my water, squatting over a hole in a slab of cement, living and breathing the every day life of a small village where everyone's business is your own, especially if you're the white woman carrying a basket on your back or a mango in your hand. It has actually become my life so quickly and there was nothing like that first 24 hours in New York City to make me realize that. Or to realize how under-appreciated running water is, especially in the form of a nice, long, hot shower. I have really enjoyed just being my white-woman self without the spectacle aspect that necessarily comes with it in a place like small-village Vanuatu. That being said, I am really looking forward to being that very spectacle self once again back on Tanna Island. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be there with so many wonderful Ni-Vanuatu family who look out for me and welcome me into their lives with the utmost enthusiasm. And it turns out they have as much to benefit from another perspective as I do. So I will go back with a rejuvenated enthusiasm and readiness to tackle projects at my small school on Tanna. Perhaps one of the best things I did back home was to spend a number of days in some fabulous classrooms (thanks to the "other" Ms. Dodd), where teachers think it's unacceptable for low-achieving kids to be low-achieving; that a good education can actually change a person's life. I wish I could just bring that mentality to Tanna! And hey, it wouldn't be too bad if ALL classrooms in America had that mentality too!

There are so many friends and family I didn't see while I was home that I wish I could have. I will have considerable catching up to do with a lot of folks when I come home for good later this year. And for anyone wondering, there is zero chance of me running off (or staying put, rather) with Man Tanna. No chance in hell, to be more precise. Did I mention how much I love the women and children :)

In Times Square, on our way to see The Lion King on Broadway, after having directed a version of the very same show on an outdoor coconut-leaf stage at a primary school on Tanna. This Broadway show was incredible!

And this is what I'm going back to: my tiny volcanic, beautiful island...except Emily won't be there...Well I guess we can't have everything in the South Seas. Dammit.