Back from Santo

On Friday, August 17, we flew to the island of Santo.  It was once again, our last time there.  Every audit now, is the last one in that particular place.   President and Sister Duquette were also going to Santo for a zone conference with the missionaries.  There was also suppose to be a District conference that weekend, which is why we were going at that time to do the audits.  As I've mentioned before, we do audits during a district conference because the branch president from the other islands come in for conference and we do the audits at that time.    President Duquette informed us that he had cancelled district conference because of the volcano in Ambae.  He felt bad for not telling us, he didn't think to ask.   It wasn't a problem though because the members that were on Ambae, about 300 of them, have all moved to Santo.  When we got there, we were met by brother Toa, a member of the district presidency.  He took us to our hotel, and then to the audits that he had set up for that afternoon.  He is such a good man, he made appointments and had everything set up for the audits with the different branches for the four days we were there.   Greg was always hopeful that they would have an audit committee selected so that he could train them, but it never happened on his watch, so he ended up doing most of the audits.   The district presidents make the committment to do it, but they have a hard time following through, and when you are working with different islands and countries, you can't just drop in and see how it's going because there isn't the budget to make extra trips.  Technology is a very hard concept for these third world countries.  The younger generation is starting to get it, but it's harder trying to teach the 50 or 60 year old branch presidents how to use the computer, and how to even operate a mouse.  Imagine someone living in the bush, using a computer!  Progress is slow, but it's coming along.

The government planned for the people of Ambae to move to the island of Maewo, at the expense of the government.  Most all of our church members moved to Santo because many have family there, plus there are better resources there.  The government told them if they moved to Santo, it would be at their own expense.   I talked to a man from Ambae, and he told me the island of Maewo was getting ash from the volcano too, and that it wasn't that much better.  Santo is farther away, and just a better place to be.  You might remember me telling about the volcano in a previous post.  They evacuated  people in September of last year, when they had a big eruption.  Some of the families went  back after a while, but now it looks like it will be a final move.   By the time they do this final evacuation, they will have evacuated 10,000 people.  I've asked some of the people, if they had the chance, would they like to go back, and they all would if they could.  Most of the island is covered in smoke and ash, which makes it so they can't grow their food, and they're water supply is contaminated.  I can't tell you what an amazing experience this has been for us.  It's like being in the middle of a National Geographic documentary.

Vanuatu sits on the Pacific's "ring of fire," the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes, cyclones and volcanoes are common.  The other day, I felt a slight jolt, and found out later in the day that it was from a 6.5 earthquake in Fiji.  Yikes!

I've mentioned the senior couple in Santo, elder and sister Ipson.  It was good to see them again.  She told me that they were going to a baptism on Saturday, and wondered if I would like to go with them.  Greg was auditing all day, so I was happy to go.  They picked me up on Saturday morning, and we headed to a baptism that would be done in the ocean.  We traveled for about an hour on really icky roads, way out in the bush before we finally got there.  We first stopped at a small water hole that they were planning to use, but there wasn't quite enough water.  It is spot of water that they normally use as a font if there's enough water, but since that wasn't going to work, we headed for the ocean.  When we  got there, we pulled off to the side of the road and walked about 1/2 mile through jungle terrain before we  got to the ocean.  It was so pretty to step out of the amazing jungle on to a beautiful beach!!  WOW!   We walked with the missionaries about a half mile down the beach to where a few members of the Jarailan branch were waiting, along with two adults that were to be baptized.  We had a quiet little service, with the ocean waves lapping at the shore in the background.  The baptism was sweet to witness as you watched the missionaries walk out into the beautiful ocean with each member.  There was a group of younger women there that were so fun to visit with too.  We took a bunch of pictures of all of us together.  They wanted us to some how get copies of the pictures to them.   I wish we could, they always want to see the picture after you took it.  Sooo sweet!

After the baptisms, we went to a village where some members of the Lolotinge branch were building a new bush chapel.  We watched women making sections of the the roof.  I'll attach a picture.  I sat down and attempted to help with the "pinning" of the leaves to the section that was being worked on.  It was facinating to watch the process, and see how it would be attached to the roof.  The people are always happy to see you when you come into their villages, as long as you have a purpose. It's funny, you will drive or walk by a pretty tough looking man with a serious face, but all you have to do is smile and say, "gud moning, or halo," and you get this big smile and a sweet response right back.  We will miss these sweet people "tumas".

When we got back from the baptism, alot of the young missionaries were there, so I got to see them and visit for a while.  Many of us have been here long enough that we're happy to see each other from time to time. I left Greg at the church and walked back to the hotel.  On my way back, I stopped by a handicraft shop to see what they had.  I had been there four months prior, and the same ladies were there.   They remembered me from the time before, so it was fun to visit with them again.  It was sad though to tell them good bye for the last time.

I'm tearful as I sit here writing about our experiences in Santo, it was such a sweet time to be there.  After sacrament meeting on Sunday, these two little boys came over to us and sat down between us, so Greg started talking to them, they were so curious.  Pretty soon, four, darling little girls that were about eight or nine years old, came right over to me.  I shook there little hands and said to each of them, "nem blo yu"  (what is your name?)  They told me their names, and huddled close to me.  I put my arms around them and told them how beautiful they were.  At that moment, I thought, these are my little sisters here in the pacific islands.  I asked them if they enjoyed primary, they said they did, so off they went to primary.   After sunday school, I was kicking myself for not going into primary to see how they were doing in the reverence department, hopefully better than in our ward!  ha ha!

Monday was zone conference.  Greg had audits for part of the day, so I went to zone conference without him, he came when he could.  Each mission president has their own style of teaching the missionaries.  President Granger had a little different style than President Duquette, but both are great mission presidents.  Greg got finished with the audits that day so we were able to catch a late flight that night and get home a day early.  While we were waiting for our 10:00pm flight, this group of native musicians came to the airport and set up these bamboo instruments and started to play.  They were amazing!  I think they were there to play for a plane load of people coming in from New Caledonia.  We all enjoyed listening to them.  I hope a little video I took can be attached.  Anyway, all in all, it was a great last trip to Santo. 

 The other day, Greg trained a new stake auditor  here in Port Vila by the name of  Nu Nu Mahit, a brother of our bishop.  He said he showed a real desire to fulfill his new calling as a stake auditor.  He was excited to see the progress.   Tuesday, we are off to Malekula for the last time there.  I hope it's somewhat uneventful compared to six months ago.  We don't want to experience anymore cyclones!  Our time is getting short in the mission field. We will never forget the experiences we've had with the wonderful people here in Vanuatu!  I'll get back to you when we get back from Malekula!  Ale Lukim yu (Good bye, see you later).  Love Greg and Ann

Saturday Senior Activity

Last Saturday, we all went on a tour of the Aelan Chocolate Factory, located here in Port Vila.  The tour only took about 10 minutes, and then we got to taste all the different types of chocolate they make.  YUM! They make their chocolate from the cocoa beans from three islands here in Vanuatu; Santo, Malekula, and Epi.  We've been to Santa and Malekula, but not Epi.  It's all dark chocolate, 70 percent cocoa.  They add crystalized ginger, tumeric, chili pepper and kava into chocolate.  Sooo good!  (we did not taste the kava chocolate). They won international recognition at the International Chocolate Salon Competition - Artisan Chocolate Awards 2018.   They were up against chocolate makers from around the world.   GO VANUATU!!!!  They were so excited to tell us all about it.  We'll bring plenty home for tasting. 

After our chocolate adventure, we drove just down the road to a custom village, what a riot, we had so much fun!  There are a few villages on the islands that will put on a custom production so that you can see what it was like back in the day, it also provides a little money for the village.  This particular village we went to, was evacuated from the island of Ambae.  The volcano on their island keeps erupting and causing the people to have to leave.  Since leaving the island, they are just trying to make a little money to live on.  When we walked in, we were greated by a serious warrior.  He was all "undressed up."  We all gathered around him as he welcomed us to his village, when all of the sudden, we were charged by warriors with spears!  It was very real, and scared us purple for a second, then we all started laughing.  They were so fun and funny.  They put a flower in our hair, and handed Elder Collette a big palm leaf.  You would present the palm, if you wanted to go into a village, in peace.  He talked to us about their ancestors who were cannibals.  He took us to a hut that had custom artifacts used during the day.  We saw woven mats used in custom marriages, clubs for killing pigs for ceremony, a conch shell for calling village members together, and more, and explained what everything was used for.  They dressed us up in the fun ceremonial attire so that we could take pictures.  They did several ceremonial dances for us, it was sooo interesting and fun!  It really has been fun to learn about the customs and culture in the islands. 

Last Wednesday, we all got tickets to a Chinese dance program.  It was held in a big conference center that the Chinese built.  Not much ever goes on there, but it has a stage for productions, and they put on a fun program.  They did balancing acts, dancing, kung fu fighting moves... We all thought it was going to be more elaborate than it was, but it was okay for the 800 vatu we paid ($8.00).  There is a chinese man, Robert, that plays pickle ball with us now, and is really good.  We found out that he is a pro ping pong player, that explains why he can give us a run for our money in pickleball, it's played much the same way.   There is a real language barrier, but we understand enough to help him with the rules of play.  He picked it up quick!  He's ordering all kinds of paddles and balls from China, so that they can keep the fun going even after we've all gone home.  We're giving all of our stuff to the Nivan's, hoping someone will take care of it.  Those that have played with us, love it! 

Next Thursday, we are headed for the island of Santo for our last audit there.  The volcano on the island of Ambae has caused many people to evacuate to Santo.  It will be interesting to see how things will be as far as the audits go.  Lots of members are there, but are the records there with anyone??? We're not sure what we'll find.  You can be sure I'll write and tell you all about it!  I'll close for now, we hope all is well with you and your families.   Take care and we'll write again soon.   Love, Greg and Ann

This chicken was in someone's baggage in Tanna!

South Pacific Pizza Party

Last Friday night, we had a pizza party at the Collette's apartment.  We were all to make a home made pizza.  I made a vegetarian pizza that had pizza sauce, cheese, tomatoes and basil.  Greg is a meat eater, so he protested a bit, but thought it was pretty good after all.  When I made the pizza crust, I added about a tablespoon of crushed rosemary to the dough. After rolling it out, I brushed the dough with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 mashed, roasted, garlic cloves mixed together.   I then baked the crust for about 8 minutes, before adding the toppings to finish baking for 20 minute or so.   Adding the rosemary to the dough was a winner, it was really good.   While we ate our pizza, we watched the musical, South Pacific.  I remember watching it many years ago, though I didn't remember anything about it.  It was so fun for us to watch becauses the story takes place during WWII, here in the islands.  It was filmed on the Hawiian island of Kawaii, but that part of the war took place on the island of Espiritu Santo.  We will be leaving Friday to go do audits there one last time.   We were looking at a map, and there were huge bases located here on Efate, where we live, and on Santo during the war.  Of course, the war was fought all over the Pacific.  So amazing!  We've been to many of the war sights as we've traveled the islands.  In the movie, there is a character by the name of bloody Mary.  They nick named her that because she would chew "betlenut", that gross nut I told you about that people chew in the Solomon islands that makes their mouths look bloody.  It is a nasty habit for sure.  We had a great time that night.

Monday evening was family home evening.  Greg and I were in charge of the lesson, so we decided to celebrate Pioneer Day, which of course they don't celebrate here.  We downloaded the Pioneer Day concert that the Tabernacle Choir performed this year.  We showed the two pioneer songs that were sang, along with the video of Come, Come ye Saints.  Then we all shared stories about our pioneer ancestors, it was really a nice evening.  Since there are several of us leaving the mission soon, we also talked about some of the things we want to do before we leave.  It's so weird to be so close to going home, we're the next ones to go.  The Lindeman's will have been here two years by the time they leave in October, the rest of us 18 months. 

We just got a phone call from Air Vanuatu, changing our flight time tomorrow to Santo.  Oh boy, here we go again with the flights!  This will be our final trip to Santo for audits there.  We are doing them in conjunction with district conference,  because that's when all the branch presidents should be in from the other islands.   We've been told that most of the church members have been evaculated from the island of Ambae to Santo because of the Volcano.  We're anxious to see if the records to be audited made it over with them.  President and sister Duquette will be there also.  They will also have a zone conference while they are there.  I will have the chance to go to it, it will be interesting to see the differences between the Grangers and the Duquettes training styles.  I'll close for now, but will be back with more when we return from Santo.  Take care everyone.  Love, Greg and Ann

Children’s day

A few weeks ago, Sister Roundy invited us to go to sister Veronica's school for  Children's Day.  Children's day  is celebrated once a year, and the whole community participates.  You see parades, games being played in the parks, programs with speakers, and cake.   Many of the shops even close, except for the Chinese shops.  The Roundy's have really helped with Veronica's little school.  Being on the humanitarian side of things for the church, they have been able to help with school supplies; fabric for uniforms, sewing machines (hand crank), and various repairs.  I've mentioned before that Greg helped with roof repairs and electrical work, and I helped make uniforms for the pikininis.  As part of their celebration they wanted to thank us all for helping them.  The celebration was held at a little park by the school.   When we arrived, they had been waiting for us.  They ushered us to a row of chairs that were set up especially for us, and put a lei around our necks.  I'm so glad I was wearing sunglasses because my eyes were gushing with tears (I know you're surprised about that).   The children sang fun songs to us, they had speakers (wish we could have understood what they were saying).   We could only understand "smoll tok tok." They asked if any of us would like to say anything, so I nudged Greg, and he got up and gave a real sweet speech.  My phone died, or I would have recorded it.  I wanted to say something, but I couldn't keep it together.  After the program they brought fun cakes out that the village people had made.  We helped cut the cakes and served them.  I'll attach a cute little video of their "sing sing." 

Once a year in Port Vila they have an international food day.  There are  people from all over the world that live here, I was surprised.  They have a small building downtown that they hold it in.  They had you buy tickets in various denominations (.50, 1.00...), you then went to the individual food booths and used the tickets to pay for your food.  They had Greek, Philippino, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Polynesian, American and several others.  The people serving were dressed in their country attire, it was so colorful and fun.  At the Philippine booth, they had a whole roasted pig, they sliced off however much you wanted and then weighed it.   The American booth had chili dogs, and that's what Greg got!! (come on a chili dog?!)  He said, he wanted to support the Americans, they are here with the Peace Corp.  We all bought what we wanted to eat and went across the street to the park and ate it.  It was a beautiful day.  (I'll attach a pic)  It was fun to see many of the people that live around us, that we normally don't see.  You're probably wondering what they are doing here.  There are business owners, doctors, and those that just want to live on the beach and enjoy that life style.  However, Port Vila is Vanuatu's capital, and there are people here from other countries for political reasons such as staffing their embassy's...   America doesn't have an embassy here, but China has a huge, new, embassy, right across the street from where we live.  I was reading that they want to build a military base here. 

Last weekend was Vanuatu's Independance Day celebration.  This celebration marks the end of colonial rule by the French and British, 30 July 1980. I wrote about it last year.  If you look it up on the internet, you can read all about it.  We went to the central park, with the Collettes, to the main celebration, on July 30th.  They had a few food booths and other concessions.  They don't have a military, but they have a type of militia or border patrol??  They have a uniform that they wear that is very military.  The only time you see them all dressed up is for celebrations.  It was like being at Camp Williams for Governor's Day, on a much smaller scale.  They were marching, saluting,  and being reviewed by the Prime Minister.  There were A LOT of people there that day.  Like I've said before, they don't have alot going on around here, so it's fun for them to have something to look forward to.  Many of the families wear matching outfits, girls have flags stuck in their hair, all were having a good time.  Later on in the evening though, they get drinking their kava and party til the wee hours of the morning in the villages.  

As always, we hope all is well at home.   Our time here is getting short.  We love the people here and wish we could bring them home with us, it's a hard life here.  Be thankful for all that you have, because you have plenty. 

 Love, Elda Greg and Sista Ann

Isn't this sunset beautiful?! Taken in Tanna.