Saturday, August 30, 2008
the votes are in... lizard tail video wins!
This video was taken in Collin and Elder Tekurio's apartment in Paita. I guess if you grab a lizard by the tail its tail comes off, and keeps on moving. Yikes! If you listen closely, you can hear Collin say "more of it came off" when he tried to grab the lizard again. These lizards live in everyone's houses and eat all the mosquitos. I have to admit, they are pretty cute :)
first pictures from New Caledonia!!
We just got over 300 pictures and video in a package from Collin yesterday! This one is Collin "preaching" in Paita. The other pictures are a family he and Elder Tekurio are teaching, and the chief's hut at that tribe they visited. Fun stuff! I will be putting up some new albums on Picassa as I have time for it. Wow, I'm like a kid in a candy store with all this new stuff!! Elder Winget is doing very well, and has been having many fun and interesting adventures. So we chose a good title for this blog after all :)
I'll put a couple more pictures in this post, and I'll have the family vote on which video they want me to put up first, and that will be in the next post. Then the Picassa albums will take a while, but I promise to do it ASAP.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
a little Q and A with Elder Winget
Here's some questions we've asked Collin in emails over the last couple of weeks, and his answers. I decided to just copy and paste this into a post, because it tells some interesting info. about what life is like in Nouvelle Caledonie. i hope this will tide you over until we get some fresh pictures. Here you go:
What is the cost of living like there? Pretty expensive.. From what I hear the Dollar is pretty close to 100 francs, and most stuff is really expensive.. We eat a lot of rice and chicken. My companion is a good cook. We actually have had steak quite a few times, because it's really cheap here compared to a lot of stuff. Fish, interstingly enough, is expensive. No one wants to fish here, it makes them feel poor.
how are you and your comp getting along? Great! We're good friends and we can talk for a long time and make each other laugh. Sometimes just talking about whatever gets in the way of the work, but we work hard too.
how is the language? Kind of hard.. The accent is weird. First few days I didn't understand ANYTHING. but I'm starting to get it. All the little quirks of New Caledonian french are interesting.
Are you teaching anyone? Yes, quite a few people actually! We have 2 really progressing investigators and a few others that aren't really progressing. On the 18th we engaged a guy named Soane to be baptized and he said yes! August 18th.( Yes, he did get baptized - I will post more about that in another blog)
what is the food like? Great. We get fed a lot by members. They're all really poor so we get like rice and whatever meat and vegetables usually, but it's very normal food. Tahitian food is really weird, but pretty good. I hav en't run into anything too gross to eat yet.
do you have or need a bike? nope. We are in a car. There is only one area in NC that have bikes. Mostly cars, a few walking.
do you ever wear your lava lava? Nope, people don't really wear them here. I'm using it to decorate my desk.
Are you healthy? Yeah, I feel really good actually. No specific complaints.
Are you getting sunburned? No, interestingly enough. i haven't even been wearing sunscreen.. :P
how is the weather? Kind of cold actually.. It gets really cold at night. During the day it's pretty hot though.. But I hear int he actual summer time it can get up to 100 degrees though.. :(
do you see any cool animals? Nah, lots of stray dogs. WELL, actually there are tonnnnz of lizards everywhere. They're really nice, they run around people's houses like mice, except for they dont' do anything bad. They eat all the bugs too. TYhey're really fast. I'll have to get some pictures of them.
is the culture real different? YEah, nothing too weird. They keep their doors open all the time. They are mostly really nice. The french is weird and hard to understand. Very Frenchlike in the city, but very 3rdworldish outside the city in some places. But weirdly enough, everyone has a TV. There are 2 channels over the air, but a lot of people have satellites.
If you wanted to do so, would you be allowed to fish? Not sure. A member gave us a bunch of fish and we fried it up yesterday though. Another member gave us a bunch of other food at the same time.. Great way to break our fast.. I was stuffed!
What are your church meetings like? Wierd. The members here are.. interesting. And it's all in french. :P
How big is the branch you are in? Pretty small. I'm not sure how many members. But the chapel meeting room is the size of our elder's quorum room back home. Well.. Maybe two of them.
Are there any wards on New Caledonia? Nope.
How many missionaries are in New Caledonia?. bout 30
What is the average number of Baptisms in New Caledonia per month or year? 30ish. last year 36. to date this year, 18.
Has there been any weird food you had to eat?. Nope, everything is normal so far!
Have you seen any weird bugs or animals? Just the centipede i just told you about!! (a picture will be coming soon)
Do you do much tracting? We tract for about an hour or so on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Wednesday is half day at the kids schools, so the parents have to be home. Other than that, nobody will listen, or it's just moms alone at home, or they're taking a nap, or watching mexican soap operas (serious) and won't do anything else. :) During wednesday and saturday it's fairly effective though.
Do the members help much? ... No. We're really trying to change that though.
How big is your area? Not huge, but big enough that we need a car. Just the city of Paita.
How much time does your comp have left on his mission? 3 months
Are the members as good singers as indicated in the book "other side of heaven?" Nope. French singers suck. Try watching a church movie in french. it's painful.
What kind of building do you meet in for church? it's... like a normal church, except for no halls.. it's not enclosed. all the rooms have outside doors. Kind of hard to explain.. I'll try and get a picture.
Are you still experiencing "america loving" from everyone? yeah, for the most part. :) it's not from everyone, just from a few people. most people just like us though.
BTW with mail, it's not as scary as it sounds.. Usually everything goes through fine, but just sometimes they get stupid and feel like sending stuff back that wasn't perfect. You most likely won't have a problem, but still try to do everyhting right if possible. :)
What is the cost of living like there? Pretty expensive.. From what I hear the Dollar is pretty close to 100 francs, and most stuff is really expensive.. We eat a lot of rice and chicken. My companion is a good cook. We actually have had steak quite a few times, because it's really cheap here compared to a lot of stuff. Fish, interstingly enough, is expensive. No one wants to fish here, it makes them feel poor.
how are you and your comp getting along? Great! We're good friends and we can talk for a long time and make each other laugh. Sometimes just talking about whatever gets in the way of the work, but we work hard too.
how is the language? Kind of hard.. The accent is weird. First few days I didn't understand ANYTHING. but I'm starting to get it. All the little quirks of New Caledonian french are interesting.
Are you teaching anyone? Yes, quite a few people actually! We have 2 really progressing investigators and a few others that aren't really progressing. On the 18th we engaged a guy named Soane to be baptized and he said yes! August 18th.( Yes, he did get baptized - I will post more about that in another blog)
what is the food like? Great. We get fed a lot by members. They're all really poor so we get like rice and whatever meat and vegetables usually, but it's very normal food. Tahitian food is really weird, but pretty good. I hav en't run into anything too gross to eat yet.
do you have or need a bike? nope. We are in a car. There is only one area in NC that have bikes. Mostly cars, a few walking.
do you ever wear your lava lava? Nope, people don't really wear them here. I'm using it to decorate my desk.
Are you healthy? Yeah, I feel really good actually. No specific complaints.
Are you getting sunburned? No, interestingly enough. i haven't even been wearing sunscreen.. :P
how is the weather? Kind of cold actually.. It gets really cold at night. During the day it's pretty hot though.. But I hear int he actual summer time it can get up to 100 degrees though.. :(
do you see any cool animals? Nah, lots of stray dogs. WELL, actually there are tonnnnz of lizards everywhere. They're really nice, they run around people's houses like mice, except for they dont' do anything bad. They eat all the bugs too. TYhey're really fast. I'll have to get some pictures of them.
is the culture real different? YEah, nothing too weird. They keep their doors open all the time. They are mostly really nice. The french is weird and hard to understand. Very Frenchlike in the city, but very 3rdworldish outside the city in some places. But weirdly enough, everyone has a TV. There are 2 channels over the air, but a lot of people have satellites.
If you wanted to do so, would you be allowed to fish? Not sure. A member gave us a bunch of fish and we fried it up yesterday though. Another member gave us a bunch of other food at the same time.. Great way to break our fast.. I was stuffed!
What are your church meetings like? Wierd. The members here are.. interesting. And it's all in french. :P
How big is the branch you are in? Pretty small. I'm not sure how many members. But the chapel meeting room is the size of our elder's quorum room back home. Well.. Maybe two of them.
Are there any wards on New Caledonia? Nope.
How many missionaries are in New Caledonia?. bout 30
What is the average number of Baptisms in New Caledonia per month or year? 30ish. last year 36. to date this year, 18.
Has there been any weird food you had to eat?. Nope, everything is normal so far!
Have you seen any weird bugs or animals? Just the centipede i just told you about!! (a picture will be coming soon)
Do you do much tracting? We tract for about an hour or so on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Wednesday is half day at the kids schools, so the parents have to be home. Other than that, nobody will listen, or it's just moms alone at home, or they're taking a nap, or watching mexican soap operas (serious) and won't do anything else. :) During wednesday and saturday it's fairly effective though.
Do the members help much? ... No. We're really trying to change that though.
How big is your area? Not huge, but big enough that we need a car. Just the city of Paita.
How much time does your comp have left on his mission? 3 months
Are the members as good singers as indicated in the book "other side of heaven?" Nope. French singers suck. Try watching a church movie in french. it's painful.
What kind of building do you meet in for church? it's... like a normal church, except for no halls.. it's not enclosed. all the rooms have outside doors. Kind of hard to explain.. I'll try and get a picture.
Are you still experiencing "america loving" from everyone? yeah, for the most part. :) it's not from everyone, just from a few people. most people just like us though.
BTW with mail, it's not as scary as it sounds.. Usually everything goes through fine, but just sometimes they get stupid and feel like sending stuff back that wasn't perfect. You most likely won't have a problem, but still try to do everyhting right if possible. :)
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Spinning - BAD part 2
We love this video! Collin has sent us quite a few funny little video clips, so I decided I'm going to make a DVD for him for when he gets back. If you want to see it, come to his welcome home party and we'll play it then :) Actually, I have been working on his DVD a lot lately, so that's another reason I've been behind on the blog. Well, I hope you like this sample!
Spinning - BAD part 1
Collin made a little video on his last day in Georgia that we thought was pretty funny. Here is part 1 of "Spinning- Bad" Part 2 is in the next post.
finally, a new post!
Hello all you loyal and patient blog readers! I really underestimated how busy I would be doing all the back-to school stuff! Now I have a few minutes to sit down and let you know Elder Winget is indeed alive and well in New Caledonia. The above picture is from when he was in Georgia. We still haven't received any New Caledonia pictures yet, but Collin let us know that his memory card is on its way here, and hopefully we will get it sometime this week. Also, I will put in the very next blog all the interesting FAQ about Collin's life in the islands that our family asked in emails and his answers. He has had a baptism already, and another scheduled for September. He has seen giant bugs, tiny house-lizards, and is slowly adjusting to the unusual Polynesian version of French that is spoken there. I actually need to go now, but will post more later today :D Thanks everyone who reads this and for the gentle reminders that you want more Elder Winget info. That makes us and Elder Winget happy :)
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