Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Artwork of Mine

Oil Pastel Drawings


These pictures are pieces of artwork I have done. Some pieces are missing because I gave them away to family. I truly think and believe that they look better in real life, but, I'm showing them anyway. These are results in asking God to be the center of the drawing and asking Him to help, and giving the drawing to Him from the start. All of them are done using oil pastels.

This is my first oil pastel drawing that I did. As you can see it is of a flower.
(Looks better in real life)



These are trees on a night. (Looks about the same in real life)



This is a cassowary. These are found in Australia. (Looks better in real life)



The ocean splashing onto rocks. (Looks a little better in real life)



A barn . (Looks about the same in real life)



My favourite! If it's not yours, then this is a bad picture. But it does looks way better in real life.

Some pictures are missing from here, like my giraffe one and my Volkswagen one. They both look really cool too. The giraffe one I gave away and the Volkswagen one I'm keeping as a surprise gift for somebody. Sorry that the pictures aren't that good. I just can't really capture what they really look like, but I hope they are good enough. :)


Wednesday, May 20, 2015

My trip to Vanuatu in 2013

To Vanuatu!


On the 8th of September, 2013, my family and I boarded a plane to Vanuatu. 

Question? How long does it take to get to Vanuatu from the east coast of Australia? Only about 2 hours and 15 minutes. That was us. We had a good flight. No delays and no harsh weather thrown at us.

Anyway, when we got to Port Vila (capital of Vanuatu) we had to wait at the airport for an hour. Why? Because the man that was picking us up was running pretty late. We had other men with taxis ask us whether we wanted them to take us to where we wanted to go. But, NO. The Ni-Van (person who is a citizen of Vanuatu) pastor that was with us said we had to wait for his guy to pick us up. When that guy came, us and another family that was with us squished into the old Toyota taxi van. 
That van looked kinda like this...

Image result for toyota van old green

There were 13 people crammed into an 8 seater (then there was the last time when we were leaving to Tanna that we had 17 people in that van).... PLUS all our luggage to last a month. Despite being squished together, it was so cool. I mean, how can you stuff 13 people in an 8 seater van in Australia without getting a big fine?!

We arrived at the COC church we were going to stay at and looked around the place. To be honest, I soooo did NOT want to be in Port Vila. I wanted to be on Tanna. We didn't do much in Port Vila so I'll skip to Tanna.

To Tanna!

On the 11th of September, 2013, we landed on Tanna.

Image result for air vanuatu
We came over on a plane like this. Air Vanuatu.

 Our plane ride from Port Vila to Tanna only took 35 minutes. Unlike in Port Vila, we had two trucks (the Ni-Van's definition of a truck is a ute) almost straight away. After packing one truck's tray with luggage, we all got onto the other one's tray. Yes! Riding on the back of a ute (not something you can do legally in Australia!). We made an hour and half trip north to Antioch/Lavis. When we got there, one Aunty (Aunty Mary) cried alot. Many of them do that when they haven't seen you for ages. We had a church service, ate some dinner, and then went to bed to something that our uncle made (which turned out to be not a good place to stay. it was so hot since he had covered it in black tar (the sheet one). he had also said for all the trees to be cut down, resulting in no grass just dirt.) We lived in that for two weeks, then for the other two weeks stayed up in the village in Pipi Amos and Pipi Ruth's hut. That was sooo much better.... except, we could hear the pigs snoring and weeing while they were sleeping under the hut.

Our days were mostly spent walking around and socializing with the local people, swimming in the ocean, helping build our aunty and uncle's resort (http://www.tannabluereef.com/default.html), going to Lenakel (biggest town on Tanna) to shop, and just, well, hanging around. It's what they do. I admit that some days I felt sooooo bored and because there is no technology (we're nowhere near a civilized" place) to not be bored, no bored games, and not everyone there does anything, it felt like I couldn't find anything to do. When the Ni-Vans wanna sit, they sit and when they want to work, they work. We just lived like them. If they did nothing, we did nothing. Other than sometimes being boring, it's mostly pretty cool and fun.


Towards the end of our trip our uncle and aunty had the opening for their resort and then that night we left to go to Green Hill for a couple of days. Now THAT was boring. No one we knew was there, and all the kids went to school during the day, so no hanging out with them until after 3pm. We did nothing there. Mum and Dad liked it though because it gave them "a couple days rest". After our "rest" at Green Hill, we made our way to Tanna's volcano, Mount Yasur. We went all the way to the top, so that we could see in it. Yes, it was dangerous. The rock that gets spewed out are soft as bread when thrown up and then when it lands, it's brutal. It becomes hard rock. When it spews it gives off a huge BOOM. That boom just vibrates through your body. Makes you think of what it's like when God speaks! He created that volcano, that vibration and sound of the boom can't even top what God sounds like! It also makes me think of what God is when He's angry..... now that's scary. I don't ever want to be on the receiving side of that!

When we finished at the volcano we went to Lenakal and then to Ever Green Resort to book in our last days on Tanna. We were suppose to be picked up and driven back to Antioch, but we weren't. So, we had to walk back! That took 3 and a half hours of non-stop walking up and down steep dirt, rocky hills. Man! That was hard. It was very tiring walking but what I found unusual was I wasn't tired when we got back. Nor was I sore after that day.

Image result for evergreen resort tanna
Ever Green Resort. The hut room we stayed in.
Our last days on Tanna were horrible for me. I had really bad stomach cramps and vomiting and diarrhea. Bad combo. With no antibiotics or anything I had a hard time. I was bed ridden (apart from hurrying to the toilet) for three days  and then I had to move to walk down to the boat so we could go to the resort we had booked. I had it there too, and unfortunately I gave it to my family. Oops. We stayed at the resort for two days, then we had to take the half hour flight to Port Vila, and then the two and a half hour flight to Brisbane, and than another hour and a half back home. It was hard on us all. When we got to doctors at home, our doctor said that what we had was.... I dunno, some really long-named virus. I had it the worse in Vanuatu. Our doctor told Mum that if we had spent the last couple of days in the middle of nowhere instead of at the resort, I would have probably died. The food we had at the resort helped to restore us a bit, food we were used to at home, the sugar helped. So, my testimony of living! :)

All in all, that trip was really wonderful. It taught us all to rely on God. I think we might go back there this year (mostly because of the cyclone and all that)! I looked forward to that. Although, I know it will be different because of the cyclone that wiped out everything. Still, all the more to rely and trust God. I could have gone on forever to explain everything, but then you'd probably get bored. Or, this post could have gone a little longer, but my fingers and wrists are getting tired. :)
Thanks for reading.
:D