Woke up this fine mornin' and had porridge, papaya, bread w/ jam, and Milo (sort of like hot chocolate but healthier!). Today Nika and I went into town to get a few things and did some exploring and ate chicken and chips (fries) next to the water. There a huge school of fish sitting right there in the water (and even a 4 ft long barracuda!) so we threw a bit of fries to them and watched the swarm fight over it. Kind of like feeding the ducks but tropical island style instead! Then Nika went to visit a good friend from when she lived here and so I went on an exploring run. I was running light and so I only brought a little bit of money (cause there were a bunch of shops but I wasn't really go to do much). I bought a small Good News version Bible first (it's really neat - the English is more simple than versions like the NIV and yet not a paraphrase Bible like some of the newer ones in the US). And then with the remaining 566 Vatu left over (about 5 dollars) I remembered I needed to pick up two laptop adapter plugins. Managed to find 2 and they cut me a small deal (normally was 700 Vatu). And then I started running. Soon I heard a coin bouncing in my pocket and realized I had 20 Vatu left (20 cents). So I ran a little farther to the open air market to see what I could find. It's a really neat place and there's so much fruit! and also some other food. The bananas are really neat over here. Oh and earlier Nika and I bought two coconuts and they lady cut a small hole in the top and we drank the milk. If you find them at the right stage (which these were) the milk sorta tastes like Gatorade - so it was a large energy drink for 40 Vatu - pretty sweet! Anyways, I was walking along and bumped into Latham and Melissa which I'd met the day earlier with the whole group of us (mostly from SIL) who hung out at the beach yesterday. So I asked Latham what he recommended for 20 Vatu and he recommended I try some Tuluk and since it was 100 Vatu he payed for it. It was wrapped in lap-lap (which is basically saran-wrap only it's big sturdy leaves - very useful cause you can cook with food in them and they're biodegradable!) and was some kind of thing not sure how to describe it but it had meat inside and was really good - it was also heated and very greasy. That was pretty neat. Oh and I saw some peanuts! I've never seen them how they look fresh out of the ground - there's all these funny cords hanging onto them, hehe! So they were walking back to the house they were staying at and asked if I wanted to join them. It was really neat to be able to talk to Latham. He grew up in Eugene but moved over here as a volunteer in the Peace Corp (US) for 4 years and married Melissa a year ago. And they just came back from an island (I don't know how to spell it) and are shortly going back to the US. He knows a lot about traveling though and multiple langues (knows 3 of em) and it was just neat to be able to talk a little more about things outside the US. It's really neat how the Lord keeps opening doors for me (definitely an answer to prayer) to learn more about missions and other cultures through the people here at SIL and recently through Latham and also through Nika and her family a lot! So then guess what I did next... Hehe, Latham said there was a resort nearby and I could probably just go there if I wanted to (he knew I was looking for somewhere to sit and read). So I went to it and ran on the golf course (right by the entrance) and then came to this water inlet thing and read there in the shade, then I ran some more on the golf course and came to a rope (scary, hehe but not really) and went into the sort of hangout area of the resort and sat in a hammock and read a tiny bit more. And then I left cause it was time to head back here to where I'm staying with a really neat couple from Australia. On the way back I saw a bunch of stuff and ran by a bunch of people. It's really neat how friendly everyone is over here, wow. It's fun to nod heads or wave as I passed by. It's kind of interesting to see the culture in Port Vila. It's very different from the US and yet very very similar in many ways. People are more friendly, and a lot of them walk places, there's a lot of people and stuff going on, there's a bunch of tourism business (and tourists). There's a lot more English than I imagined though I've been told that Tanna will have much less English and it's only because Port Vila is the capitol and a bunch of tourists are around. So that was some of today! Thank you so much for praying, the Lord definitely listens to us loves to hear the prayers of His children.
~ Jacob
P.S. - I also saw a bunch of young kids playing basketball (on my run) and it made me smile. Just another reminder how you don't need the most expensive stuff (in this case a nice court and a nice ball) to enjoy this life God has given us!
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