We're off to Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific to do the measles/rubella immunization campaign. A very long flight is ahead of us, but we are ready for it. Kyle dropped us off at the airport.
We left Utah on Tuesday and arrived in Vanuatu on Thursday morning. It was a good flight, with stops in Los Angeles and Fiji. It's verrrry hot and humid in Vanuatu. Elder Tolley is happy to know that sandals are allowed for the missionary dress (no socks, too)! Now if he could lose the tie, he would be completely happy, but that isn't going to happen. We have a studio apartment with a small kitchen--everything in one room.
This is our back yard. We love it--no weeding, no fertilizing, no mowing!
This is the view from our front door. We have a gorgeous view from the front and the back of our bungalo. The compound has 10 units and missionaries couples stay in three of the units.
Our landlady is from Ireland and her husband is an Australian. They have a dog named Cleo. We really like them. Last night they invited all the missionary couples to a barbeque dinner at the pool.
We're working with Elder and Sister Hinton, the Humanitarian missionary couple for Vanuatu. Check out the view from their apartment! They have been a big help to us in the measles campaign.
Elder and Sister Hinton took us up north to the village of Paunganisu, where there's a small branch of the church. This is where they meet. There are some benches set up under the nearby trees for Relief Society and Primary meetings. We hope the missionaries in this area are Eagle Scouts, because the living conditions are quite primitive, and they probably use all their merit badge skills! The people here are just wonderful. For district conference about 50 miles away, they hired three pickups and everybody rode in the back of the trucks to Port Vila.
These three little pikininis helped us with the measles jingle which will be played on the national radio starting next week. We rewarded them with an ice cream cone at the local market.
We donated 40 megaphones to the Ministry of Health for use in the Vanuatu measles immunization campaign. The Indonesian man on the left is called Jack. I call him Jack Sparrow. Next to Jack is Katimal Kaun, the member Church Coordinator and also an official in the Ministry of Health. Others are officials in the MOH.
20 little Pinkinins were selected to be the first to be immunized at the national launch ceremony last week. The Church provided t-shirts for the chidren.
Everybody cried when they got the shot. Elder Tolley was there to hand out suckers and give comfort to the little ones.
Here's Elder Tolley with the National Minister of Health.
Some of the volunteers received training at the church. Now we're ready to roll!
