In one coastal village, one man gave us a place to stay as well as food to eat for four nights. When we tried to offer the man money for all he had done for us, he would not take it. Another family treated us like their own by offering us gifts and the father of the house even calling us his sons when we left their area. We stayed for two nights with a family in a village with no electricity. Although it was much like camping, having a roof over our heads was nice in the sporadic night rainfalls.
Like my visits to the other islands, we also participated in scuba diving, snorkeling, and mountain hiking. One amusing characteristic of the nationals that we have learned about is their inability to estimate distance. Often we would ask the distance of a hike in order to judge whether or not we were up to it, but more often than not the people would under estimate the distance. Although frustrating at times (when we are thirsty from no water on a “short” hike), later we found the situations amusing.
Another time we had a few villagers tell us about a fortress on a mountain, so we asked them to show us. It was supposed to be a “short” hike, but after 2 hours later, slipping and sliding up a muddy mountain, we learned that the fortress was in fact a mythical fortress. As we descended the mountain, our guide informed us that after four tries he has yet to find this mythical fortress; we couldn’t help but laugh.
Everyone is healthy and all team members will be returning to home base shortly in order to spend the remaining 2 weeks there. Please ask Father to bless their travels and continue to ask Him to use us in our remaining time here.