Bonjour de la Nouvelle Caledonie

We have had an incredible (incroyable) past week in New Caledonia. During the work week we were kept busy by preparing for a wedding that was to be held at the Magenta church. We scrubbed, swept, and decorated the sanctuary until it was spotless and beautiful for a traditional Tahitian wedding. The ceremony was beautiful. The bride and groom were completely in love and everyone in the room could tell. Brittany sang a song in French and one in Tahitian for the service. Afterwords, we attended the largest wedding reception either one of us have ever been to. Around 400 people piled into the polenysian cultural center of Noumea in their finest island garments to eat, dance, and be merry. We feasted, laughed, danced with some very nice New Caledonian men and energetic children, and ate a slice of cake from a wedding cake that was about as tall as both our heights combined.


Our fifth of July (which was the fourth of July in America) was possibly one of the most wonderful days from our trip so far. We started out by going to a more rural Caledonian congregation that met in a house, called Immanuel. We were slightly terrified as we were going without a translator and had heard some slightly sketchy stuff about the area. However, we were pleasantly surprised when an array of all different people from different walks of life arrived and welcomed us with accepting and loving arms. The entire congregation was wearing blue tradition garments as a symbol of peace and welcoming for us. The service was lovely. We both shared short testimonies, Angela said a beautiful prayer, and Brittany served her first communion which was made up of grape punch and chocolate chip cookies, which seemed perfectly fitting.


After the service, we were blessed to see some local Melenysian dances, as well as some Tahitian dances and we listened to some of there songs in their local dialects. At the end of the service a group of young people with blue robes and face paint performed a traditional welcoming dance from the local culture. During the middle of the dance, two boys surprised us by pulling us out of our chairs, wrapped colorful sarongs around our waists and handed us palm leaf pom poms and sent us to the front to perform that very dance for the congregation. We went crazy and danced our hearts out, laughing the whole time. They prepared a marvellous feast for of us of roasted deer, noodles, rice, chicken, and baguettes. We ate and talked with them for hours, soaking up every moment. We both felt so blissfully happy that we could hardly keep from moving, and so we danced with some of the older women right until we had to leave. It was the most amazing experience and we were both completely overwhelmed with the spirit of joy, love, and acceptance.

Earlier in the week we were feeling slightly homesick and decided to celebrate our Fourth of July American style at McDonalds. Our boss, Kareva asked to join us, which we were grateful for. To our surprise, when we arrived at McDonalds, over 30 of our New Caledonian church members and friends were there to help us celebrate our Independence day. Some of them were even sporting Barack Obama t-shirts! Angela gave a small speech in french thanking everyone who came and how we felt like we had family with us on this important day. We chowed down on cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, fries, and cokes and talked and talked and talked. Finally, we took a group photo with Ronald McDonald, and said our Au Revoirs to everyone before going home for some rest. What a wonderful holiday.

We are both becoming very attached to this beautiful place, its people, culture, and love. It will be very difficult for us to have to say goodbye in a few days but the experiences that are we having here are unforgettable and we are constantly thanking our lucky stars for this summer.


Bonne Journee!

Brittany and Angela