VANUATU

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!

Welcome Home

The flight home from the Solomon Islands was a killer.  We flew from Honiara to Brisbane and Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles and then to SLC.  At each stop we had to collect all our baggage and then re-check in and go through security.  Not fun!  We enjoyed our assignment in the Solomon Islands, but were very happy to be back in the United States.  It looks like we were missed.

Ready Assessment

This morning six Church volunteers went out into the neighborhoods of Honiara to take a survey of children vaccinated in the measles campaign.  They looked sharp!  Check out those vests!

We're so proud of them.  They will be going out all week.

No laws here against riding in the back of a truck.

The national minister of health stopped by for an update.



Winding up the Campaign

The measles campaign is in the final wrapping up stages here in the Honiara area.  The megaphones we donated were a big hit.  The Ministry of Health wants five more and we agreed to get them ready to go out to the Western Province.  We will also supply volunteers for the rapid assessment next week.

Our friend Jay at the KKmart store really likes us.  We keep going back to buy more megaphones.  He sold us a total of 35 megaphones and a gazillion batteries.    

 

The training of our church volunteers took place at the Honiara chapel on Saturday.

They're all trained and ready to go!

War Relics of Guatalcanal

Red Beach on Guadalcanal

On August 7, 1942, the United States Marines arrived at Red Beach

The remains of wrecked planes

The planes here were found in the surrounding area and dragged here for display.  It's amazing how much is left after so many years.  We saw an ad in one of the hotel windows asking people to return any human remains found in the area to the Japanese government.  We were told that occasionally a farmer digging in his garden will uncover bones there.

A memorial to the Solomon scouts in Honiara





Sights of Honiara

The Solomon Islands are a protectorate of the British Empire.  The people here love the queen and last week they celebrated her birthday in the national soccer stadium.  There were a lot of distinguished guests in attendance.  The governor general gave a grand speech.

 Several groups marched in review.

The governor general inspected everyone while they stood at attention in the hot sun.

The police band played and had some really cool moves.   We cheered and whistled but everyone else just clapped their hands and laughed. 

This is the City Market where we buy fresh vegetables. There isn't much variety, not like what we would get at home. The woman in the picture is looking at bottles of coconut oil, produced here on the island. They have sweet potatoes, huge cucumbers, pineapple, watermelon, onions, itty bitty green peppers and green stuff (we don't know what it is).

Beautiful fat fresh fish

These are little piles of peanuts for sale

This is not an exotic bug.  It's one of the very beautiful flowers that  grow here.

The United States War Memorial is on a hill high above the city.  This is Elder and Sister Mitchell, the couple we are staying with.

We met Sir Thomas Chan, the owner of the Hotel Honiara and spent about an hour chatting with him.  Yes, he is a real knight.  We saw the picture of him with the Queen.  She had a sword on his shoulder.

 

The whole city of Honiara is preparing for the upcoming Pacific Arts Festival in July.  This is the entrance (under construction) to the grounds where the festival will be held.  It's really a big deal here.  The whole town is getting spruced up for all the visitors who will be coming in.  Workers are everywhere--laying sidewalks, painting, pruning and cleaning up.  It really looks good.

The Church in Honiara

There are three branches of the Church in Honiara, 1 district, 5 full-time missionaries and one missionary couple. They are part of the Papua New Guinnea Mission, but will be shifted over to the new Vanuatu Mission on July 1. 

 

 The White River branch rents a couple of rooms in this school.   The neighborhood dogs always hang around and bark and whine and try to get in to the meetings.  You have to open the door a crack, slip in and then shut it quick.  We thought it was hilarious.

  Relief Society--1 president, 2 members

Honiara Branch Primary

We love these people.  The woman on the right was baptized yesterday.  The man by Lynn was just called to be Elders Quorum President.

Primary in the Honiara Branch

Baptismal font

We went to this couple's wedding last Saturday.  They have a "traditional" marriage, and now they are making it official.  It was a lovely ceremony performed by the branch president.