Tales of the South Pacific (my version)

Welcome to Vanuatu 2010!
Paul & I just spent the past 2 weeks over in wonderful Vanuatu. We had some very fun, interesting and unique experiences. We were walking down the main street in Luganville one morning and we came upon this bushman who had come to town to sell some of his products to this grocery shop. So amazing to realize that people still live like this. I'm sure he has dressed like this his whole life. I'm sure he looks at us and wonders why we wear so much clothing in this heat and thinks we are the strange ones!

I had brought along a copy of James A. Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" and it was such a great book to read as I was visiting the very place it was written about. I could relate to what he was describing as far as the locals and the islands and the climate (hot & sweaty!) and a lot of the customs. Other than every person on the street has a cell phone, I don't think things have changed much since he was there!

As usual the main purpose for our visit was to do training with the Priesthood leaders over there. We knew there was going to be a very unique satellite broadcast leadership meeting and all the outer island leaders would be coming to Luganville to attend it so we planned our training to coincide. We enjoyed hours of individual meetings with 13 Branch Presidencies over about 6 days. Here is a group photo of all these dear men and Elder Schern (the white-faced man). Elder Schern and his wife are the only Senior Missionaries in the whole country! They live a pretty isolated existance. We really enjoyed getting to visit and spend a lot of quality time with them. In truth, they just really take great care of us with food, company and some evening entertainment of DVDs and Skipbo competition!

Here are most of the same men as in the photo above. This picture was taken after our audit training meeting and individual Branch audits. That's what we do: train, train, train!

After our week in Luganville, we moved on over to Port Vila which is the capital city of Vanuatu. All the leaders from the island of Tanna had come there for the same satellite training and they were available for us to meet with them before they went back. Here are the Branch Presidents from 3 Branches and one Unit. It is always quite entertaining to be involved with these discussions since these men mostly speak Bislama or French and we only speak English but somehow we seem to make it work. They were very receptive and had lots of questions and concerns for us to discuss. They really want us to come to their island next time. It has an active volcano and they are very proud of this and want to show it off. I'm hoping it can be one of those over and back in the same day flights!

Here is a really great guy! This is Saksak (sock sock). He is a member of the Branch Presidency in Luganville. This is his mode of transportation. Most people just walk or take a taxi or a transport (definition: sit in the back of a pick up truck) so he is pretty high class with his bike! It may be minus a few parts but that didn't seem to be of any concern. Saksak is a jack of all trades! He plays the piano "by ear" for the prelude music in Sacrament Meeting. And at the Branch Christmas party at the beach, he went into the ocean with his fishing spear and ended up spearing a 5 foot shark!!! I heard all of the members got to take some shark home with them for dinner!

Here is Saksak's family: his wife (right side), 2 daughters and 2 grandchildren. This is their home. We stopped by one afternoon for a quick visit. Saksak was off fishing but we visited with these dear folks for a little bit. Mind you, it is hotter than blazes right now since it is the middle of summer. They were all just sitting outside in the shade just hanging out. We could only stay a short time before we needed to get back to our a/c in the car! We are such wimps!

We noticed this rusting vessel along the highway and Paul wanted to stop and take a picture. This looks like it has been rotting out there in the waves since WWII but it actually just ran aground and was abandoned there and not a casualty of a battle. Just as Paul got down close enough for a shoot, these kids came walking by as they were heading out to go play in the water. They were very willing to get in the picture also. The cute baby had no clothes on. The perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Here is a local seamstress. In fact, this is her handicraft shop at the airport. She just sits here all day long, on the floor, and sews clothes to sell to the tourists. Notice her sewing machine is hand powered! I had no idea people still used hand-powered sewing machines! For some reason all the island people prefer to sit on the floor. I would not last very long in that situation!

Now, this is how I prefer to do my sewing. Sister Schern and I have alot in common. First and foremost, we are avid quilters. We got to spend some time together working on our projects and discussing everything we could think of about quilting!

We just passed our 6 month mark! We are amazed how quickly time passes. We are still having new experiences each and every day. We came across this flower which we had never seen before. I thought it was amazingly beautiful. We love where we are and we love what we are doing! We are trying to make the most of each day and each new opportunity and just trying to take time to smell the "roses".