Tanna audit

Wednesday, 25 July, we left for the airport, headed  for the island of Tanna to finish our last audit there.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:30 a.m., but when we got there and looked at the board to see if it was going to be on time, we found it was canceled instead.  Normally, we would have been surprised,  but we've been on island time long enough not to be!   Apparently, one of the few planes that Air Vanuatu has was out of commission, so flights were hit or miss.  We got a text informing us about an hour after our flight was suppose to leave.  There is major road construction on the road to the airport, so we decided to stay and wait for the next flight which was at 3:30.  We figured by the time we finally got through the road construction, it would be time to  come back out.  We just make sure we have things to read, cause ya never know.  President Morgan, district president for Tanna, was suppose to meet us at the airport and take us directly to an audit.   We were planning on two audits being done that afternoon.  We decided that we would be getting in too late, so we called and made arrangements to start the audits the next morning.  We ended up adding a day to be able to finish them all.  

The next morning we were picked up and taken to the white sands branch, which is located at the base of the Yaser volcano.  Since this was our last time to visit Tanna, we were going to the volcano.  I'll tell about that later.   On our way there, we picked up Adam Rosflinder.   Adam was living on the island of Santo a year ago when we first met him, he was helping to do audits then.   He was also the second counselor in the district presidency.  We heard through the grapevine that he was being given all kinds of extra duties that was stressing him out, so he and his wife moved to Tanna where she is from.  People pick up and move to different islands all the time.  He is a dear man that we just love.  When we were in Tanna 6 months ago, we told president Morgan that he had moved to Tanna and that we was a good auditor.  Well, the next morning we picked Adam up on the way to the audit at White Sands,  he is now an auditor there in Tanna.  It was so good to see him again.  I got to know his wife, Mary, while in Santo, and had a chance to see her and their new little baby, Emmy. It takes about 2 hours to get to the White Sands branch.  Three audits were suppose to have been done that day, but the auntie of the branch president from Port Resolution died that morning.  When someone dies in a village, everything stops until after the funeral, so the proper respect can be paid.  White Sands and Saet Siwi branches were audited that day.  Greg sat with Adam while Adam performed the audits.  He did a little bit of training with him, but for the most part he does just fine.   While there, I got a chance to see more of the young elders.  They were in their P day clothes planning to do a service project for someone, but with the auntie passing away, they weren't able to do it.  It was so fun to visit with them, they are hearty young men to live in the places they do out there in the bush.  I pretty much end up being a little dehydrated at the end of a long day, just sipping water if I'm thirsty.  I DO NOT want to use someone's bush toilet.  It's basically a hole in the ground, with leaves to use as toilet paper!  Just in case though, I carry my OWN toilet paper. While we were at the church, president Kalanu's wife and daughter brought lunch to us.  She brought two huge dutch ovens, one with white rice and one with boiled veggies and pieces of chicken.   I'm sure I've mentioned that when they serve it up, each plate has at least 2 cups of rice and a little side of veggies and meat.  It's almost like a stir fry, the sauce was made with coconut milk, and fresh lemon, it was really good.  That is what most of their meals are, a little bit of beef or chicken, veggies and lots of white rice.  

Friday morning, we were again picked up by president Morgan, and taken to a  town called Lenekel with means "black man's town."  They don't call it that any more. There is a story behind it though, I'll tell about it later.  We dropped Greg and Adam off at the building where the branch meets and where the audits were going to be performed. President Morgan took me over to the market so that I could look for souveniers.  His wife was there too, so I got to visit with her one last time, and meet their two little boys, Raymond and Jason, they are adorable.  They wanted to buy me a gift, and bought me a woven bag that had TANNA woven into it.  They are so sweet, and will miss them so much.  The market was packed with people that day, and I stuck out like a sore thumb, with my lily white skin!  

The Lenekel branch meets in a digicel building, which is rented by the church.  Digicel is one of the phone services on the islands.  It is a dark, old, tiny, rickety two story building which the church subleases the second floor.  You have to climb really steep steps to get up there.   I think they said there is about 30 people in their branch.  I can't imagine how they all fit in there, and how they could hold classes.  I forgot to ask them about that.    Six audits were done that day.  I met Adams wife while I was there, and we just sat outside and visited and played with Emmy.  We were there about 5 hours.  

On Saturday morning, president Morgan, Adam, and the district clerk, Sano, came to our hotel to do the last audit which was the district audit.  Later that day, we got to go to the Yaser Volcano!  People come from all over the Pacific and around the world to see this volcano.  We don't know of any other place in the world that you could stand and look into a volcano do you?   President Morgan has a tourist business which includes taking people to the volcano and a black magic show. He arranged to have us picked up and taken to the volcano that night.  IT WAS AWESOME! His nephew, and his friend, picked us up, along with one other person, and away we went.   The branch president of the White Sands branch is the manager at the volcano, so he let us go for free.  We just paid for the fuel to get up there (4,000 vatu/$40.00), the tickets for the volcano are $90.00 each, what a deal.  The two young men that drove us down, also took us up to the volcano.  Everyone else has to pile in the back of pickup trucks.  We really got the royal treatment.  

The area at the base of the volcano, and for miles around, is gray ash.  It looks like what you would expect the surface of the moon to look like.  When we finally got to the top, you still have to hike up to the mouth of the volcano which is maybe a 1/4 of a mile.  You can hear it churning, booming, and carrying on the whole time you're there.  You arrive at the base about 45 minutes before dark, so that you can see to finish hiking up.  What an amazing thing to behold.    When you get to the mouth where you stand to look in, there is a gradual slope of about 1/4 of a mile before it drops off into the actual cauldron of lava.  It's safe to do, however last month they said that there was an explosion that threw lava up and hit a woman's arm.  That was unfortunate, but it doesn't happen all the time.  Sometimes things just happen.   It put on a great show for us too though.  It churned and blew up several times.  What a sight to behold in the dark.  You just have to be there for the full effect.  

We left Tanna, Sunday morning, for the last time. We will miss the amazing adventures and experiences we've had in this part of the world.  The people are amazing as they deal with their difficult circumstances.  We will never ever forget them.

The plane ride home was starting to look ify once again, but we finally got back to Port Vila.  We wish be could have put you all in our back pocket to experience the things we have.  I guess you'll just have to read about them!