Survivor: Vanuatu

Did you see the Survivor: Vanuatu tv show a few years ago? I did but I had no idea where Vanuatu was... now I do!

Paul & I just got to spend 2 weeks in that absolutely wonderful country! We not only survived; we thrived! We were encouraged as soon as we got to Fiji to schedule a long visit to Vanuatu. We were told that the leaders there needed some serious training. No one would give us much detail as to what to expect or how to prepare, just that we needed to get there.
Thankfully, someone did mention that we should start taking Malaria pills several days before we headed over and every day while in the country and continue for a week after we left the country. Now, that was helpful information!
We contacted the only senior missionary couple in the whole country, Elder and Sister Schern, and asked them if they would help us out. Thanks to them, our trip was a major success! We owe them big time!!!! Thanks to Elder Schern I now know how to put more than 3 pictures on my blog! I am so appreciative for his tutoring he gave me as well!


There are lots of islands that make up the country. We got visit 4 on this trip! We first went to Espirito Santo Island where the Scherns live in the 2nd largest city in the country called Luganville.

Vanuatu was originally governed by a joint partnership between France and Great Britain and called another name (I can't remember, New something). In 1980 the country became independent and changed their name to Vanuatu. The locals are referred to as Nivans and they speak Bislama. That is Elder Schern's missionary badge with the name of the Church in Bislama. Let me translate in case you aren't familiar with the name of our Church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Luckily, Elder Schern has aquired an excellent amount of the language which was hugely beneficial for us. He and Paul spent 3 whole days preparing and creating all the training materials into Bislama and then he came along to all the meetings and helped out tremendously!

Luganville is a very working-class city (really more like a very small town). The main street is about 3/4 of a mile long and that is where all the main stores and businesses are. The US military had a huge presence there during WW2 and the main street in town is very wide and nicely paved. I guess the military needed to be able to drive tanks along this road so it was well built and is still in good repair. There is quite a bit of left behind effects of the military's presence including their only hospital which was also built by the military and it still looks like it is 1940 up there! Seriously, never get sick or injured enough for a hospital experience in this town...that was very scary!
Luganville had a wonderfully interesting and active fresh produce market that we enjoyed wandering through. People from far out in the "bush" and even from neighboring islands come into town each week and bring their fruits and vegetables and plants and fire wood and coconuts and tabacco and set up stands to sell their produce. A lot of them stay right there at the market, 24 hours a day until all their goods are sold. They eat, sleep and just stay there under their stands until all their food is sold. And the fresh foods are unbelievable inexpensive! I don't know how these people even make enough money to pay for their transportation to and from their villages.

This is the produce market in the capital city of Port Vila which is the largest city in the country. After spending 9 days in Luganville, we flew to Efate Island and spent 6 days here. But I'll talk about Port Vila later.

We knew when we came on this adventure that we would be taking a lot of airplane flights between several different islands. Turns out we ended up visiting 4 different islands (I actually only went to 3; there was 1 island that was a little too rustic for Sister Schern and I so we stayed back and let the Elders go -- I'll do a post on that trip later). All told, we took 10 airplane flights in our 2 weeks. We had quite a few new flight experiences: everything from small 17 to 22 seat planes to tin shack airport terminals to getting weighed in on the scales along with our baggage! I did quite a bit of praying while in air! Here was our first small plane. Thankfully this was a paved tarmack!

First time I have ever been able to watch the pilots during the flight. No door between them and the passengers on this flight! No snacks or drinks but we did have seatbelts!

There were 2 rows of seats on one side of the plane and a single row on the other side. I think we weren't the only "first timers" on this flight because when we touched down, everyone on board clapped to thank the pilots!

I have referred to "the bush" a few times and here is a picture of what I call "the bush". One Sunday afternoon, Elder Schern drove us our to visit 2 remote branches of the Church that were about an hour's drive away from Luganville. This was in a village called Fanafo. This is one of the most simple "chapels" that I have ever seen. But the people are happy and dedicated and there were about 50 people that had come to Church that morning. The Branch President's family lives right next door on this same property so that is one of their 6 children and their dog. The young missionaries that work in this area live just across the dirt road there. It is quite eye-opening!

Here is the road that we drove on to get out to visit this Branch. This is the main road. People drive, and mostly walk, this road everyday of their lives. It is just their way of life.

We passed this group of people just hanging out along the side of the road so we stopped and asked if we could take their picture. They were soooooooo excited and all began to laugh and gather in together. After we snapped the picture, they flocked over to the truck to see what the photo looked like. Every one was laughing and squelling and poking fun with each other. I remembered that I had a bag of candy in by backpack so I handed it out to them and you'd have thought that they had just struck it rich. It had just made their day... and ours!!!!

If you EVER get the chance to go to Vanuatu, don't pass it by! It is so worth it!

to be continued......