Sam

Sunday the 29th of April 2012 will stand out as one of those typical days in Vanuatu and yet very special and unique.  Now that statement is an oxymoron – typically unique – but life for me here is a lot like a captivating thriller that never ends. Let me explain by going back years before that date…


Now for a long time now, Vanuatu has had alcohol.  The most well-known form of alcohol is a brand of locally made beer called, “Tusker.” It’s the beer of choice, although due to the expat community there are an increasing number of NZ and Australian beers too.  Before 6 years ago, the abuse rates were fairly small in line with disposable income. However, in the last 4 years, alcohol abuse has skyrocketed.  There is now more disposable income assisted in no small part in my opinion to the Seasonal Worker Scheme with NZ.  This is exacerbated by the large increase of vehicles and the severe lack of any control by the Police in regards to drink driving and you have a recipe for disaster.  Plenty expats who know better, drink and drive. 
However for me working at the grassroots level I have witnessed an increase in Marijuana abuse too that is causing havoc in the community that I work in. Marijuana here is of low quality compared with the NZ varieties.  I have heard that it is allegedly 20 times less potent but cannot confirm that – despite enough exposure to the drug, I have never tried, nor do i intend to try, marijuana.  But thanks to a NZ idiot, who smuggled in his luggage some flower heads, and due to the incompetence of Customs, who let him go through with his bunch of flowers as he said it was already a common, “weed” in Vanuatu anyway, has resulted in NZ Marijuana seed being knowingly imported and probably grown now.  Incredible that it could happen, but true.  Still, with the slackness of border security it was inevitable anyway.  A New Zealand man can get away with smuggling in marijuana seed heads but I, also a Kiwi, get held back at customs for declaring 5 pieces of KFC in my carry-on bag. Which incidentally I sat in the customs area and ate rather than having it confiscated, before going through the gate!

The ‘yachties’ that come through have encouraged the increase in demand for the drug with the plant now quite common on most islands where yachts visit.  Meanwhile amongst the expat community here, marijuana is more obvious than in NZ, but that may be due to two reasons – a smaller community makes concealment difficult (we all mostly know what we all mostly do), and lack of policing makes it more public.  Whether or not is smoked by more has not been statistically ascertained. 

If you ever visit Vanuatu and you get to experience local culture by attending a kava bar or Kastom Nakamal (meeting area or house for men only) you will are guaranteed to smell what you think is marijuana.  It may be but most of the time it is the dried leaf of a plant they smoke called, ‘lif-tabac.’  It is basically a tobacco looking plant (Nicotiana sp) but not as strong.  Nevertheless it smells similar to Marijuana, but not as pungent, being more earthy and less sickly-sweet.  (Oh boy!  It’s like I’m describing a wine here!)   Lif-tabac is nearly always smoked when drinking kava, and especially by the older men.  It also has the “advantage” of providing a bit of a temporary buzz thereby heightening the effect of the kava and it is almost free. 

One slightly funny story occurred at a time I was teaching here.  During one lesson I could distinctly smell Marijuana smoke, or so i thought. Of course being a teacher, this called for IMMEDIATE ACTION.  So on initiating battle stations (OK, I’m exaggerating somewhat), the students laughed at me (also exaggeration). The smell was coming from a fire across the road where they were clearing some bush.  The smell as it turns out is a tree related to the hibiscus family called Burao.  It is very common and a nuisance.  The locals call it, ‘Rabbistri,’ as well (Rubbish Tree – with local vernacular, just say any word fast and as it looks and it usually makes sense: Rabbistri – Rubbish Tree; Sanbij - Sand Beach; Tankiu – Thank you.  See!)  Anyway the leaves also smell like Marijuana when burnt. 

The debate for or against Marijuana is not worth repeating here as any reader of this story will know that already, but when you have Doctors arrive for their 2 year stint here and proudly announce that the drug is safe and causes no harm, the battle against it gets harder.  We can reason that in small doses occasionally it cannot hurt, like alcohol, coka cola, ibuprofen, asprin, even high cholesterol foods, but in excess they all can kill.  Taken at face value, that argument doesn’t hold much water (in which you can drown by the way.)  But to these people with no formal education, safe means safe.  When one adds up all the above, it is my opinion that Marijuana abuse is heading towards eclipsing alcohol as of major social concern for this country.
So that paints the background for you.  Now let me indulge you with the story of Sam.

I want to go back to an average day not remembered but about 2 or 3 weeks ago where I was down privately adopted Village at Prima.  There I saw Sam.  Sam is ManTanna, about 20 years old and a third part of a triplet of brothers.  Multiple births in this village are common so I do find it hard sometimes when chatting with them.  This particular set of three have caught me out before.  One day one got chicken pox.  I examined him as good pseudo-doctors do, and educated him and those close by the epidemiology of the disease and how to control its spread. Then about three days later, I saw that his pox had completely vanished.  I told him how happy I was they had disappeared so well, and so on.  He just gave me a quizzical look – thinking I was going mad, I’m sure, but too polite to tell me that.  Then the next day, was surprised to see that he had a second attack!  It was then that I discovered there was more than one of them! Different twins on different days!  For about a year I thought there was only one!  So imagine my surprise when I discovered three! 

Sam is the biggest and fortunately for me is the most different looking of the three, but he, and his brothers are all abusers of Marijuana – Sam well known to be a user.  Unlike the other two twins (in Bislama, triplets are called twins, like twins are twins, just for confusion).  I only get to see Sam about one or two times a Month.  But normally when I do, he is under the influence of the drug.   That day was no exception. 
I decided that it was time to start acting against this drug in general.  I felt lead to confront him about this, so despite the logic against this, (it probably doesn’t as much go in one ear and out the other, but more in one ear and where it gets smothered and suffocated by a big cushion of fatty deposits steeped in tetrahydrocannabinol, never having fired one neuron in the hypothalamus in the process) I sat down with him and first got him to confess that he was under the influence.  Confession after all is apparently the first road to recovery, right?  Having established that fact and gained the confession, I gave him a challenge to round up all the Marijuana users, growers and pushers in the local area. Then I would come and have a non-judgemental but factual education about the drug.  At least he and the rest of them could then make an informed decision as to whether they kept up the use, or decided to quit.  If they took the latter path, I could assist them with the help of community leaders.  That was my master plan.

At the time I told Sam that it upset me to see so many young people smoking dope after being told by everyone [pointing the finger here at expats and those in the medical profession] that it is safer than tobacco.  I explained to him that I did not want to see his life ruined by the drug or anyone else in the village for that matter.  I gave him two weeks to gather up his bunch of ‘merry’ men and we would talk.  I then went to the village chief to share my master plan and to consult them as to whether or not they saw it as a problem.  In regard to which they either don’t see or deny there is a problem.  So for the last two weeks I have been working towards this and being more open with them, without tut-tutting or being judgmental.

We now come to Sunday the 28th.  I had an appointment to give the sermon to a small church down at Blacksands where the family there had recently had a young girl die in Tanna.  I picked up Pastor Gideon who said that Saturday night a group in the Prima village got drunk and decided to start a party.  The party got out of hand and in the early hours of the morning, a fight erupted.  Sam was involved with a punch-up against his elder brother after which he sulked off out of the village and sat on the road, as they so often do here.  A car drove past and hit him.
At about 5:30am on route to the hospital, Sam died.
….
What a tragic waste.  All I can ascertain at this stage is that Sam tried to get up and off the road, but not quickly enough, due to the combined effects of alcohol and marijuana, and the front corner of the car punched into his right side.  This spun him around where the wing mirror allegedly collided with his head.  I will say that this is my own conclusion of the evidence that I have gathered and from hospital staff information.   The cause of death was massive internal trauma caused by a smashed rib cage and cranial haemorrhage. Sam was struck a mere 10 meters from where I spoke to him about how he had no idea of what damage marijuana can cause.

Now some readers while saddened may in some way think that he deserved the result.  Sam was not an angel by any stretch of the imagination.  If you knew of him you would think that he deserved it.  When I shared what happened to some friends of expat friends of mine, they dismissed it as another idiot doing the, ‘sitting on the road drunk,’ thing.  They were more interested in the tourist earlier in the week that collapsed at a “doctors and nurses” fancy dress promotion, received 5 defibrillations and survived.   (I have to admit that seeing a real paramedic doing first response on a dying man surrounded by onlooking “doctors and nurses” on the main street would be a bizarre look)  However for me, tragic events like that of Sam are sobering.  I reflected on the fact that when I spoke to him, I gave him a two weeks to rally his friends and then this happened.   I a way I am glad that I don’t remember exactly if it was two weeks after his two week challenge, or if it was three.  But one thing I do remember was that I was prompted to confront him at the time and I was prompted to give him two weeks.  Perhaps the Holy Spirit had given him 2 weeks and we both failed to fully appreciate why.   That I cannot answer.   Nevertheless and tragically he chose not to and sadly he is now in a place where he is incapable of obliging. 

Another thing i recall is that during the night I woke up early – around 3:30 and did not get to sleep until 5:30.  That in itself is not unusual for me.  These nightly attacks of insomnia are frequent.  But chillingly it was around 3:30 that Sam arrived at the party alone, having come from town with the cocktail of substances already coursing through his system,  party got out of control and around 5:30 when Sam died.  I am so used to receiving prompts, wakeups, dreams and the like from the Holy Spirit that I do not an refuse to dismiss that it may again have been Him who caused this.  Interestingly when I did wake up, I felt lead to pray, I did this off and on during those two hours, fervent intercessory prayer is definitely not my strong point, but have learnt an important lesson – to ask the Holy Spirit what to pray for.  Perhaps if I had, Sam would be alive.

Now at this point I will refute what anyone tells me about marijuana.  Marijuana was a factor here.  Combined with alcohol it is a dangerous mix.  Now add those to on top of Kava and you have an even worse concoction.  People will say that marijuana is a safe drug.  Do you think for one second that if it were possible to tell that to Sam today that they could?  It is impossible, or at least against the laws of God to attempt it anyway, if Sam was asked today, be would disagree with these people.  I don’t care what people say - Marijuana kills.  It kills people, it kills marriages, families, friendships.  It kills.  And in Sam’s case it leaves behind his partner with two small children under 4.  You will NEVER convince me otherwise.
A few months back I gave a talk in the bible study – which takes place about 50 metres from where Sam died, where I was teaching about salvation, as a part of my back-to-basics (for me) or understanding true doctrine an the Gospel (for them), when I did the usual preacher thing of telling them that they must go out and preach the Gospel so as to bring as many people as possible into God’s family, since we never know how long they have left.  I clearly remember gesturing to the set of houses a mere 10-30 metres away where Sam’s family reside and challenged them as to whether or not anyone had gone to them.   Sam may or may not have been home that night.  Most likely not, but none of us knew or had any clue as to the fact that Sam only had about two months left, when he should have expected another 50 years.

Charlie, a chief, who is not saved and who calls Sam his son (he is actually in our understanding his uncle) only a week ago liked where I was coming from.  He has begun opening up to Christianity.  He wanted me to continue what I was doing, and also with helping with the community but yet gave me some advice that while he really loved me and what I was doing for them, perhaps I should slow down a just a little. I take that advice on board because things do move slower in their lives that us Western folk.  This Sunday afternoon I sat with him when he had just came back from seeing his Son at the hospital morgue.  He was understandably grieving and looked blank as you would expect.  I reminded him of what he told me and told him that in light of Sam’s death, together we cannot afford to go slow any more.  He nodded and agreed.
Death is one of those things that we understand little and fail to accept in the West.  Personally, i have had little exposure to family death so I am by no means an experienced observer I can call it that.   To them, they too don’t understand but at least they accept death and get over such things pretty quickly.  However all humans fail to understand why things like this happen.  Even those who believe in God and know things like Eternal life, God’s will or even Satanic oppression, more often than not have no idea why things turn out the way they do.  One thing I do know is that no matter what the reasons, we know that God sometimes uses tragedy to punish for whatever reason, to remove someone from something that He alone can see but we can’t before that thing happens, but most important to bring people to a place where they get to come closer to Him.  Another thing I know is that anyone who does die and doesn’t submit to Christ as his Lord and saviour will not enjoy life eternal had they done otherwise.

I do not know the reason why Sam died Sunday.  I do not know the final destiny of Sam’s spirit.  That is decision is for God and God alone.  It is simply because I do not know what happened in those last hours, minutes or seconds prior to his last breath, but I can only hope that his last breath was accepting Jesus as his Master.  I do know that Sam did not die instantly, I know he had heard me talk informally about God in the Kava bar and maybe heard my teaching from his house at night. I trust that God who is a merciful judge gave him one last chance to repent.   One day I will find out if he did or did not repent in those last minutes. 

Now despite Sam’s death, and for the next three days of mourning that takes place, this is not a time for depression.  One thing I do know is that Sam’s death is the start of a new life.  That life is a life that will never end, as now, his death has opened up a way for God to move into that community and amongst his family.    That has already started and it is in this that I praise God.  It is definitely something worth celebrating.  Perhaps Sam had to lay down his life for the sake of others so that God can use that his to bring Sam’s friends and family into His family? That, I cannot answer, since only God can.  One thing I do know is that Sam’s death and spilt blood is not to save them, but that a bigger man than all of us, Jesus Christ, first laid down his life for them as well as me and whose blood was shed as the perfect sacrifice that made final atonement for their sins. Sam’s death may have been necessary to lead them closer to an acceptance of the perfect sacrifice of God’s son. Then they will enter into God’s Eternal Kingdom once they believe.  Through the grace and mercy of God, one day they too will meet in the clouds and there, I pray they are greeted by Sam and together they will bring Glory to God.  I think we will all are all in for some surprises as to who we will meet and who we won’t!

Out of respect I wait for the three days of mourning to pass then together with the chiefs and the village church we begin the war against this evil.  As always I need your constant prayers.

Mi prea long Papa God, olsem Hem bambae Hem i kamtru gladhat mo sori long olgeta man long family mo fren blong Sam.  Olsem we ded blong Sam i pulpulum olgeta oli kam klosap long God mo i mekem olgeta oli anastan we ded blong Jisas Kraes, Masta blong yumi, i mekem rod i go long God finis. Mo olgeta oli tenem tingting, mo God bambae i givim laef we i no save finis long olgeta. Long  leftemap nem blong God i stap.  Amen

[I pray to God the Father, that He, through his grace and mercy towards Sam’s family and friends that his death draws them all closer to God and makes them understand that the death of Jesus Christ our Lord provided the way to God. And that they repent, and that God will grant them all Eternal life.  To God be the Gory. Amen]
To Sam.  Rest in Peace