Where do I even begin? So much has happened since my last post and things just don't seem to slow down long enough for me to catch up!
We left Suva on Mon, Sept 21st for a 2 week assignment to Vanuatu which was a wonderful, productive and exciting new experience! I keep hoping to get some time to share some of our pictures and stories here but between Tsunami warnings and internet interruptions I just haven't been able to get it all together... hopefully this weekend!
I just wanted to make a quick connection with you blog readers to let you know we are safe over here. You can imagine how surprised we were to hear that there had been a huge earthquake near Vanuatu yesterday and that they and Fiji were all under a Tsunami warning. I'm sure everyone is taking these Tsunami warnings alot more seriously since the terrible Tsunami that hit Samoa. Even though Suva is on the totally opposite side of the island from where the predicted Tsunami would have come from, all precaustions were activated. I had been in downtown Suva yesterday morning at 9:30 am for a haircut and color which should have kept me there until about 11:30 but my hairdressed and I decided that I could wait another few weeks for the color so I was done with the haircut by about 10:15. I got back to the Service Center by about 11:15 and that is when I found out about the Tsunami warning. Within about another hour we heard that all of downtown had been closed down and there were cars and people all headed to higher ground. Our landlord is a professor at the University of the South Pacific and that campus is right at the sea wall. He said it took him an hour and a half to drive home -- a drive that usually takes about 20 minutes. His (and our) home is up high on a hill just like the Church Service Center and the Temple so we felt very safe and secure.
Our greatest concerns through this whole scare was for our new friends we had just met during the previous 2 weeks in Vanuatu. The people in that country are so wonderful! We truly fell in love with them. They are humble and kind and gracious and friendly. They definately don't deserve such a potentially disasterous event.
We spent 9 days with another Senior Couple, the Scherns, who live in Luganville, on Santo Island, Vanuatu which is very near where the earthquake hit. While we were there they told us that they feel earthquakes quite often but it doesn't concern them. When we got the news about the earthquake we immediately called to check on them. They told us they were out in "the bush" and had just gotten out of their truck and everything started to shake like crazy. They just considered it another day in Vanuatu and went on with their business. Luckily, where they were was far away from the sea and uphill on higher ground.
So this is all I have time for right now. I need to get over to the mission president's home and help cook lunch for today's Zone Conference. I just wanted to reassure everyone that we are safe and sound and even though you haven't heard from us for quite some time, we are still here and anxious to keep in touch!
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2 comments:
That is all good news. Great hearing from your side of the world. It's good you waited on your color, you could have been caught in the middle of the process and a new hair color.
I have been wondering all week how Fiji has been affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis. I'm so glad you weren't hit!
Last week I sent off your email, saying our life was very routine. Well, within a few hours I broke a tooth and it caused excruciating pain. It was after 9pm so I knew I'd have to wait through the night. I was up pacing with an ice pack, and Dee was wandering around with "a bubble." He didn't seem sympathetic to my agony at all, and I was a little miffed.
At 7:am I was sitting by the phone waiting to call when Dee said, "I need to go to the hospital. I think I'm having a heart attack." Toothache forgotten, we headed up to LDS where they had him in an ambulance for the new hospital within 10 minutes. The doctor said this was a life-threatening heart attack and time was of great importance.
By the time I got out there, they already had Dee in the cath-lab where they did an angiogram, and inserted 3 stents. Of his 4 arteries, 1 was clear, and 2 were block 99%, and the other was 80% blocked.
By that afternoon he was sitting up, eating lunch and walked around the hospital hall. He was in ICU for 2 days and a regular room for 1, and was released on Friday night.
He's done very well, and has been to work every day this week! We're driving to Sun Valley tomorrow and he's excited and not a bit worried. So I'm trying not to be, too.
I'm reminding myself of your mom. This crisis hit and I came home and threw away all my cookbooks and foods. My methods had let me down. However, now I'm learning your mom's and your healthy habits since mine were very unwise. My killer chocolate cake can actually kill, I've found out.
So our big adventure is in the new land of low-fat, low-sodium, with this new language of carbs and calories that I'd vowed not to learn. It's going to be a crash course.
I hope the tsunami has not given either of you heart attacks and that all is well.
Love, Marty
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