1. What makes the light-colored trails, areas, and dark lines in the water of the bay below our house?  They last a long time.  I’ve observed the same phenomenon as I’ve driven along the Columbia River.  The dark line appears about 7:30 in the morning, and moves very slowly to the east.  Are these caused by differences in temperature, aeration, by the tide, or by some other thing?
2. Why do the crickets here all tune up at 6:10 sharp in the evening, and chirp in unison?  Hundreds of crickets are all perfectly in sync with each other, chirping once per second.  Every so often a few get out of sync, realize their mistake, correct their timing, and rejoin the perfectly-choreographed symphony.  The symphony continues until a certain level of darkness is reached, and then an unseen director gives them the cut-off.  They fall silent in unison, and may not be heard from again until the next evening.
3. Why don’t Ni-Van couples sit together at church?  Why have I never seen couples holding hands?  Is it a cultural thing, or something caused by the environment?  I hope people aren’t traumatized seeing Marjorie and I holding hands on our walks, but I’ve noticed that even we don’t hug any more.  It’s so humid here that if we hugged, we’d stick together.  Perhaps the humidity partially explains why husbands and wives don’t appear to know one another.
4. Do white people smell different than black people?  The dogs at the house of my young friend, Tom, definitely have prejudices.  They don’t stir if a black person walks by, but they’re angry and growling at my heels when I come.  Marjorie watched a documentary about cannibalism when she was a girl wherein it was stated that the cannibals here didn’t like white people because they smelled bad.  Tom’s dogs seem to confirm that.
5. And speaking of anger, why is it my impression that the blacks in America are angry and coarse, while the blacks here in Vanuatu are uniformly happy and gentle?  These people are a delight to be around, while I will be happy if I never have to spend time in black neighborhoods of America.  (Big city white neighborhoods for that matter, too).
6. Have I already felt three earthquakes in Vanuatu, or is it my imagination?  Earthquakes are supposed to be very common here.  Marjorie swears that my earthquakes are just our landlady slamming doors above us, and stomping across our ceiling; but I’ve heard these episodes approaching before the slamming doors and stomping happen.  Besides that, our landlady is normally very quiet and unnoticeable.
7. People in Vanuatu are in no hurry.  Institute meetings that are to start at 5:00 may not get underway until 5:30 or even 6:15.  Thirty to forty-five minutes late seems to be about average.  No one gets upset or annoyed.  It’s no big deal if you have to wait.  Everyone expects things to be this way.  They jokingly refer to it as “Black man’s time.”  Back home I might have referred to this as “Bingham time.”  I was always annoyed when the Binghams would arrive late to seminary, and I’d have to start the lesson all over again.  Do the Ni-Vans have a better attitude about time and life?
8. And just what is the difference between Blacks and Whites anyway?  While Marjorie visited with a black man in his yard, his little girl rubbed her hand up and down Marjorie’s arm.  She got down on the ground, and examined her legs in a similar fashion.  When she peered up under Marjorie’s skirt, Marjorie and the girl’s father both burst out laughing.  The little girl was just trying to see how far the white skin went.
9. Are white people scary?  Marjorie was talking to a lady who was holding a baby.  Marjorie started making a fuss over the cute baby, who immediately turned her head and started crying.  The mother apologetically explained, “White face give her fright.”

Maybe we’re just like the light and dark areas that I observe in the water.  We’re all part of the same bay.  Maybe we’d do well to imitate the crickets, and all start chirping in unison.

Just some things I’ve been wondering about.