Christmas in Tanna

Christmas was good. I started into town on the 23rd. Got in at night and stayed at a PC's house. The next morning I watched Elf on her little portable DVD player, reminding me it was indeed Christmas. Until that nothing seemed Christmasy. That afternoon I headed to another volunteer's house where we were having the Christmas party. Someone brought me my mail, there was a package from my mom and dad and aunt Becki. Pretty good timing. The food we had was good. Roasted chicken over the fire, and I ate lots of sweet potatoes and other veggies. Also speared a rat, a Christmas first. (I didn't eat it) I was up early the next morning to start my jounrey back. I walked for 3 hrs. until I took my first break to rest in the shade and storian with random people. After another half hour of walking I reached Whitegrass Resort. I figured I would stop and check the place out and get out of the sun. At Whitegrass I asked about lunch. It wasn't being served for another 2 hrs. but it was a special buffet so I stuck around for it, it was Christmas afterall. I ate sweet potatoes, ham, meatballs, sausages, potaote salad, fish, and whole fresh lobster. I felt pretty out of place at first, since everyone was with family, but once they figured out who the dirty kid eating like a pig by himself was we got to talking. One family was from America and the other from Australia.
It's amazing how fast my world changes leaving a nice resort and then comong back to real life in Tanna. One minute I'm speaking English in a normal conversation, next I'm swatting flies down a dirt road as everyone stares at the white man. The next day I started to feel sick, headache and dizziness. It got worse the next day and I was stuck in bed. I knew it was getting bad when I was sleeping in pants and longsleaves under a wool blanket in 80 degree weather. After a few days of this I decided to test myself for malaria. I was actually hoping to test positve, that way I know what I had and I could treat it with malaria medicine. The results was negitive. Not long after I started feeling better and feel pretty much back to full strength.
Sunday at church men stood up and gave "toktoks" about me. They say their ancestors said a white man would come to them in the future and that I'm here fulfilling a prophecy now, they're dead serious too. All in a days work.
Just a note...I was asked by my brother's wife to name her new baby. There is now a Leslie living in Tanna!