Toast to Mereva

Right about now, on the other side of the planet from where I’m sitting (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A.), Mereva Timante is getting married in Port Vila, the capital of the Republic of Vanuatu.

Mereva was just a small child of 2 when Erin and I arrived on the island of Paama as U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers in 1997. Her father and mother, Noel and Leah, hosted us during the two-month training period and then, when we returned to Liro Village as our assignment, they became our constant friends and teachers. They were our family, and Mereva was with us every single day. Ennah and Terry, too. They filled our two years in Vanuatu with much joy, and we cried when it was time for us to go home to the States.

Two decades later, though, Erin and I took our own children to Paama In 2018. Leah and Mereva were there to welcome us, and we saw Terry and more of the clan in Vila. Our time in Vanuatu was much too short.

In the years since, we’ve tried to make up for the distance by sending money to support Mereva in her studies. When we learned last month that she was to be married in October, we even talked about me flying back there for the celebration. Alas, that wasn’t possible.

But if I couldn’t get to Vanuatu for the wedding, where I’d surely have been offered a ceremonial shell of kava, I knew that I could get to Da Kine’s Kava in Durham to have a cup of Vanuatu kava in honor of Mereva. “Tahosis vareis,” I said as I raised the cup to my ni-Vanuatu family. Well done, and I will see you soon.