Vanuatu

NAKAIMAS

- friday, jan 19th -- Shefa Province has been working on a coroporate plan, something like a strategy or action plan for the next couple of years. So today was supposed to be the launch day for that. Needless to say, all the staff were busy wrapping up last minute details such as distributing invitations and making food preperations. I could really go into detail about how the event was somewhat not-too-well-planned, but having that really minor experience of event planning back home, I think I can confidently say that if you're behind-the-scenes, not too many events are ever "well-planned" even if the guests or audience are fooled into thinking otherwise. Either way, Shefa offered dinner to all participants so sat around, ate and chatted away. After, I was supposed to go to Pangue, a village close to Vila, since they were holding a fundraising dinner so that the soccer team can gather funds to go play soccer in some next country. But, being the brillilant person that I am, I sort of locked myself out of the hosue and spent the 3 hours after the event just struggling to figure out a way to get in. The good thing is, now I'm confident about the security of this place and can make the claim that it is VERY hard to break into my house. The bad thing is that the entire landlord's family has come to realize what a klutz I am. I found my key the next morning, but was surprised to find it sitting on the kitchen sink when I could've sworn that I had looked around the entire place as soon as I got in. There is a very strong belief in "nakaimas" (black magic) in Vanuatu and as soon as I found the keys in the super-obvious place, the first thought that crossed my mind was, "Did somebody take it away and put it back through nakaimas" What's worse is that everytime I seem to get sick, which is often keeping in mind the weather and my horrible immune syste, I always end up praying to Allah swt that let it not be somebody attempting black magic on me. LOL. yes, talk about being gullible.

posted by faa-T @ 6:18 PM