Vanua Levu Weekend

What a great weekend we have just enjoyed! It was our first weekend away and it was very successful. Even before we got this assignment as our mission call, we knew that we would be traveling a great amount of the time. We thought that sounded like just our ticket but despite our adventureous nature, it was a little bit unnerving to take off to an unknown destination. Luckily we did have quite a few connections over there which included the young missionary Elders who live and work in the towns and villages on that island. We were given great direction as to where to stay and how to rent a car and we even knew a family that we had made arrangements to meet up with.

Our trip began on Friday afternoon when we were dropped off at the Nausori airport here in Suva. It was a pleasant afternoon; overcast sky but no rain. The airport is is small but runs and looks professional. They even scanned our luggage. They didn't ask for any identification like our drivers license or our passport (maybe our name badge was enough!)but other than that it was the same kind of traveling procedures. The airplane was a nice turbo jet and it held about 40 passengers and it flew at 16,000 feet so it wasn't one of those small puddle jumpers. The flight took about 40 minutes to get over the ocean and arrive on the upper island of Vanua Levu. Now the Labasa (pronounced Lambasa) airport was a whole new experience. It was very small. Just a one room building about 40' x 100'. Our baggage was unloaded onto a small cart, pulled over to the building by 2 men and everyone just pulled their own luggage off the cart. It was actually lots faster than waiting for it to show up on those rotating luggage conveyers! Our rental car guy picked us up and we were off into town.

There are 2 main towns on this islands and then lots and lots of villages. In the whole country of Fiji there are only 2 cities: Suva and Latoka. Even Nadi, where the international airport is, is not considered a city. Navin, our driver, was a great tour guide as he described every along the road into town. Labasa is on the dry side of the island and therefore it is mostly a sugar cane town. There are lots and lots of sugar cane fields and way too many huge trucks carrying huge loads of sugar cane that drive slowly and are hard to pass on the road.

Our hotel in Labasa was very nice. When I say nice, you need to think 1950s nice. It was a little old school but a kingsize bed...no complaints from us! Oh, except, maybe a little mention of the soccer stadium right around the block with a 10-day Indian soccer competition going on every night from 6 pm to well after we had gone to bed. But we could hear all the cheering and all the "Bollywood" entertainment and singing! Very entertaining!

We met a sweet couple last month here in Suva who had come from Labasa to attend the Temple. They are the Kumar family. She is the District Auditor and he is the District Audit Chairman so they met up with us and directed us to our training session which was held on the opposite side of the island in a town called Savusavu. Now the distance to the other side of the island is only about 90 Ks (about 54 miles) but it took us a good 2 hours because the road is unbelievable -- actually it is normal for Fiji! We had reserved a van but we ended up with a 4-wheel drive 4-passenger truck, thank goodness! Note: another first time: the first time driving a standard transmission shifting with the left hand! There were sections of the road that were very nicely paved and decently wide but then there were sections where I wish we were actually riding our ATVs. At the very summit of the mountains there is a 100 yard section that is continually washed out with landslides and it was only one land wide and rocky, bumpy and looking like it could be going downhill again at any moment. There were a couple of bridges that made me hold my breath until we got to the other side and it didn't help when Sister Kumar told us how her brother-in-law was almost killed when his truck went over the edge! But no worries... we arrived and returned safe and sound! (excuse me for a minute while I capture the gecko on our kitchen wall and escort him outside!)

Our training session was really a great experience. That too was our first training. We were expecting to have the Priesthood leaders from about 6 branches in attendance but only 4 branches showed up. But we had a great attendance of the missionaries assigned to these remote areas so all in all we had about 17 people in attendance plus us and the Kumars. Paul & Sister Kumar trained in financial matters and I trained in membership record keeping. These members had come from long distances to meet with us so we tried very hard to make it worth their efforts. The meeting lasted about 2 hours and then Paul did one on one interviews with each Branch leaders which was hugely successful in finding out how things are going in their specific areas. While Paul was interviewing, I drove into town and picked up 10 pizzas to serve for lunch. That was a huge success and they devoured them in about 15 minutes! I don't think they eat pizza very often. All in all we loved this experience and are so grateful for this calling! It seems to fit us.

On Sunday we went to Church at the Branch in Labasa. It was a really wonderful, well functioning branch. As usual, when we Senior Missionaries show up, we are immediately invited to speak in Sacrament meeting. I pretty much expect this to be the case and I try to come with something to speak about but it is hard to be completely prepared because sometimes they ask us to speak on a specific subject. This was the case this week. They asked us to speak on tithing. It was a good experience and I thought Paul did a very good job with his remarks. My memorable moment this weekend was visiting with a sweet grandma whose 2 year old grandchild had just died and the funeral had been held the day before, on Saturday. We hugged and wept and comforted each other. Very tender experience.

Our plane didn't leave to return to Suva until Monday afternoon. Our Monday afternoon is Sunday evening at home where our children live so we were able to get on Skype and join in on our cute little grandson Cache's 2nd birthday party! Technology sure makes living far away bearable! We had checked out of our hotel room in the morning so we were hanging out in the restaurant but trying not to create too much disturbance with our worldwide visit. I don't think the people at the hotel had ever seen skype before so it was quite entertaining actually. One man told me he had never even touched a computer! Boy, the things we take for granted!
Afterwards we headed for the "airport" to wait for our 3:55 pm flight. It had been raining harder than I have seen it rain over here and the roads were flooding and the sky was black and we could tell this was going to be a problem for air travel. This airport is visual landing only...no mechanical support from the ground and when they clouds are so heavy and raining so hard, all flights just go on hold or get cancelled. Our flight was waiting for the plane to come from Suva and then that would be the plane that would take us back. We sat in the airport for almost 2 hours and finally the plane was able to land! It took about 20 minutes to get the passengers and luggage off and our flights passengers and luggage on and we were off! We flew above the storm where we could see fluffy clouds below and the sun setting in the west but when we landed in Suva it was raining almost as hard as it had been in Labasa. We were very happy to by on the ground again.

It was a very successful first trip but we were really happy to be back "home" again. Actually I need to remove the quotes, this is HOME!