What our kids are up to while we go to school...

While we are in school the kids go to "play school". They love going. They do all kinds of crafts, songs, stories, play in the playground outside...you name it. They are wiped when they come home. Which is pretty good cause so are Houghton and I from school.

These are some pics taken while they were at play school.

Gracie helped out quite a bit at the begining to help the kids get used to things here. Gwen and Sorian

Ruth and her husband Don are from CO and came here to volenteer for the 6 weeks.

John and his wife Ros, live close by and volunteer every year for the child care program.

Rachel's parents are with SIL and are translators in the Solomon Islands. Her dad Taylor is one of our instructors for the year.

A glimse into our schooling

I wanted to give you a glimpse of what our days look like and what it is exactly that we are spending all this time and energy doing.

One of our courses is Phonetics. In this course we study the International Phonetic Alphabet so we can translate sounds we hear in any given language into a combination of written "letters" that is understood around the world and can be pronounced around the world...the point of this is so we can translate the language for the people group that we end up in in Vanuatu.

For an example this is John 3:16 written with this Phonetic Alphabet. (said by someone with an Australian accent I must add as this changes the "letters" or more appropriately the phonemes.)

[ fɔ ɡɒd səʉ lʌvd ðə wɵld
ðæt hi ɡɛiv hɪz ˈəʉnli sʌn
ðæt hʉˈwɛvə bəˈlivz ɪn hɪm
ʃæl nɒt ˈpɛɹɪʃ
bʌt hæv iˈtɵnəl lʌif ]
[ dʒɒn θɹi sɪksˈtin ]

We are also taking a grammer class. Which will help us identify the sentence structure of a particular language group. For example, English always has Subject Verb Object (with lots of other stuff thrown in there but I don't want to bore you too much) and this is not true of all languages of the world...so this course will also help us as we learn and write (or create) the language God leads us to.

Anthropology is another once of our courses. This is fairly self explanitory, but through this course we will be practicing how to really look and observe another culture. As well as relate to this culture and live in it.

And finally we are taking a Language Awareness/Language Learning course. In this class we are actually learning another language in the style that we would (or very similar to anyway) on the field in Vanuatu. And lucky for us, there is actually a Ni-Vanuatu man here these 6 weeks who is teaching us his native language of White Sands (from the island of Tanna). There are 4 of us (Houghton and I along with Laura, and Brad Jones) in this White Sands group. Jim and Tania Kenner are also learning this language in another White Sands group, otherwise all the other students are either learning Urdu (spoken in Pakistan and parts of Fiji and India), Indonesian, or Karen (spoken in China, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand).

We are so pumped about the training we are getting here and so thankful that the Lord has saw fit to lead us down this path. We are excited to use what we are learning in Vanuatu and to use it to better be equip for His plan for our team, whatever lies ahead.

Since Christmas

As it has been a so long since our last post... this post is FULL of pictures of our last month. Christmas, Jesiah turning 4, our move to Australia, and what our new lives look like here in Kangaroo Ground, Victoria, Australia. So enjoy the pictures of our last month.... it starts with where we left off on our last normal blog entry. So if you remember Addy having Impetigo...this is that same time... :) Hope that is clear as mud! :) ENJOY!

Guys chartered a fishing boat with some other friends here in Vila and caught Christmas dinner. This Yellow Tailed Tuna. We had Tuna steaks for Christmas! It was AWESOME. ;)

Our Tuna is in the middle and on the L is two Barracuda and on R.... cannot remember HAH (its late) :) I want you to know that the fish on the far R is about as long as half my body...just to give you an idea of how HUGE these fish are!!!!!

Jesiah turned 4 on Dec 22! He had chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup for his birthday breakfast.

Blowing out his candle.

Gwen, Piper (Jones), and Addy watching as we open presents during out team Christmas party.

Gwen got a baby and a new Vanuatu style dress.

Si got a flashlight that has different lenses to shine various creatures on the wall with. Zoe is explaining it to him in this pic. ;)

Checking out the flashlight.

Gwen getting her baby...gotta love that "ooo" face.

HAHA houghton was cutting up some amazingly potent onions so Laura and I told him to wear goggles so they wouldn't sting his eyes so much. I guess it worked but the suggestion was more for fun than really for practical reasons. :)

Flying into Sydney

Gracie and Si sat together.

On our way to our new home. By the way this was our first air-conditioned experience in 6 months. It was FREEZING! :)

While in Sydney we tried to take in all the "aussie" things we could. This included going to a meat pie vendor that was world famous here in Sydney. Meat pies were good...I guess I got a little carried away on that bite though :)

I thought this pic was funny as Houghton and I have great expressions on our faces while we try and figure Gwen out. Haha story of my life. :). Love that crazy girl.

Sitting in the harbor

Sydney has a beautiful botanical garden that we only briefly got to see. It was a beautiful day for sight seeing and we were SO glad that we didn't get rained on as it rained the day before.

Gwen all pooped out.

Our group mixed up in it all.

Chilling at Manly Beach.

On the way to Manly via Ferry. This ferry ride rocked because we saw a Ton of the popular sights of Sydney. Plus we had front row seats! Rock on.

The Sydney Opera House (back L). I hope to be able to catch an Opera with Houghton sometime this year.

Addy sitting with Pete. (You might remember Pete and his wife Liz from our early Vanuatu posts. He and his wife are from the Sydney area and were working short term with SIL when we first arrived to Vila. They went back to Australia in September and we were able to spend our time in Sydney with them...what a blast to see them again!)

Sitting in the Melbourne airport waiting for our SIL contacts to pick us up. This is just our lugguge behind us.

Gwen and I in our new house.

A long day aparently. This is the first time she has fallen asleep in her high chair.

Houghtons first driving on the other side of the card, on the other side of the road! AHHHHHHH.

Some Kangaroo pics for you to enjoy. We are literally surrounded by kangaroos. It is so wild!

Houghton took Si on a fishing trip to SugarLoaf lake.

While the girls played at home.

Gracie and Addy have become great pals. This is a trip to the mall close to our school ( when I say close I mean it took a bus and a train to get there )

I got by hair done!!!!! YAY.... It had been a while since I could actually do something with my hair beside a pony tail. In Vanuatu that is all I wanted because of the heat, but here...I can play! ;)

This is our most recient family picture. The school took it for thier records and we took it from them. We hope to get another "less posed infront of a background" shot soon.