The Long Road Home (2.10.2011)

I went out to the road about 5:30am to catch a transport to town (recall that I had been in the village a week working on the house, and the rest of the family were flying in today).  I was the first passenger, which gave me the distinct honor and pleasure of sitting in the cab of the truck with the driver - such results in a MUCH smoother ride along the bumpy roads.  We went to the east end of the village to pick up a few people, back to the center of the village to pick up a few more, and then to a village just west of ours to pick up a doctor who works at the clinic in Norsup.  We headed back east through Tulwei, and picked a few more stragglers.  The truck has a cage over the back, and I noticed in the side mirror that one man was standing on the edge of the truck bed, hanging on to the outside of the cage, with just the ball of his feet and big toes actually touching the truck - he road like that, over the bumpy road, for the entire hour in to town.  All said, there were about 15 people and loads of produce (to sell at the market).

We made it to Lakatoro by about 8:00, and the plane wasn’t scheduled to arrive until 11:15, so I headed to check out the “internet village” - the local phone company has installed these in several larger villages throughout the country over the past year, and we are VERY blessed to have one close to us (it’s the only one on the island).  The only other alternative for internet access would have been a dial-up account where we would have to beg a local company’s phone line.  One hour of internet access is 500 vatu, about $5.00.  I was able to check email, bank accounts, stocks, and sports in about 30 minutes, but since the allowance expires in a week, I had to go ahead and use the other 30 minutes or they would go to waste (we only go to Lakatoro once a week).  During that second 30 minute time frame, an Australian man (“g-day, mate”) sat down at a computer near me.  We chatted for quite a while.  He is overseeing a cacao plantation in central Vanuatu and has been here since December.  It was pretty obvious that we was starved for some Western communication, and I too enjoyed getting to know him.

Next I headed to the grocery store, to buy our needs for the upcoming week.  I knew Shawnda would have wanted to have the opportunity to scope out the store (she had yet to even step foot in one of the three small grocery stores), but I wanted to go ahead and get everything we needed in case the transport was ready to return to the village before we had another chance.  I bought cooking oil, corned beef, spam, onions, salt, toilet paper, dish soap, sugar, and flour for 3,850 vatu ($38.50).  I loaded it all into my backpack and went back to the open market to wait for the truck to the airport.  I spotted the truck driving by and waved him down.  It was still a couple of hours before the plane arrived, but it was more comfortable to ride around in the truck  than sit on the ground at the market.  We went to the airport about 11:15. 

The plane was 15 minutes late (i.e. on-time), and it was great to see my family again.  The kids literally ran to me from the plane.  Titus has been asking us almost daily since Christmas, “are we going to Malekula today?”  He and Lexi are both very excited about our new work.  We loaded up and headed back to town (there were several people who needed a ride from the airport (Norsup) to town (Lakatoro).  One of the things on Shawnda’s list that I hadn’t bought was eggs because they sell them individually here, and thus I could not really carry them without breaking them.  She had brought an egg carton from Vila, so we stopped briefly at a store and bought a dozen.  When she came out she said that she was pleasantly surprised by the store.  While she did that, I tracked down the Big Sista agent (a ship that services the northern islands), as he was holding a gas bottle for us that Shawnda had sent from Vila on Monday.  As soon as I found him, he said, “you need your gas bottle.”  I have never seen the guy before in my life, but there aren’t to many white people here, so most people already know me.  I got the bottle and carried it to the truck.  An empty bottle costs 9,000 vatu in Malekula, and another 5,750 to fill it, so sending a full one from Vila saved us quite a bit. 

Much to my delight, we were ready to head back to the village by about 1:00.  While each truck normally only makes one round trip to town per day, since our truck had carried so many people in the morning, and had even more to take back, he decided to make two trips.  The truck usually doesn’t head back to the village until 3:30 at the earliest.  As we crossed through the center of the island, the rain started to fall.  Rain is a blessing and a curse in Malekula - a blessing for obvious reasons, but a curse because the roads become impassible (especially the two-wheel drive truck we were in).  As we had completed about half the trip, we came to a slight incline in the road that was already quite muddy.  The driver stopped, got out, and said we would wait here until another truck came to take us the rest of the way (at which time he would return to Lakatoro to get his other passengers - he only wanted to have to maneuver the mud once).  We waited 30 minutes or so with no trucks to be had, so we just all headed back to town. 

With plenty of time on our hands, we went ahead and had lunch at the market, where there are stalls that offer plates of rice, vegetables and meat for 300 vatu.  There was also another positive to coming back to town - the butcher was open (it is closed from 11:30-1:30).  Shawnda had brought our small ice chest on the plane, so we now had the opportunity to buy ice and fresh meat.  We figure the ice will last for two dinners and a lunch.  After that we’ll use tinned meat until the next Friday.  We found a grassy spot in the shade and settled in, assuming we’d head back to the village in an hour or so (it was now about 3:00).  We waited there a good two hours - the kids each found a plastic bag and picked up trash while we waited, totally unprovoked.  Not sure where they got the idea, but we counted it as our community service project for the week, ha!  While we were waiting there, Bernard walked by.  I met him back in October (?) of last year at the airport.  He is the one who started his own church and asked if I would come and help him.  I sent him a full set of our Bible correspondence course, which he completed in about a week.  We had talked on the phone several times since then, but this was my first chance to see him.  We visited for a while, and set up for our family to go and visit him in his village at the end of the month, probably for a couple of nights.  His village in on the northeast side of the island.

By now it was 4:30, and I would have been worried except I saw some of our fellow passengers walking by, so I knew the truck hadn’t left without us.  About 5:00 the truck pulled up, and we got on ready to head back to the village.  We had to first go to the market and the government compound (Lakatoro is the provincial headquarters).  I knew it wasn’t good when no passengers got on the truck - they weren’t ready to go.  So, we went back to the market house to wait.  After about an hour there, we loaded onto the truck again, picked everyone up, and were finally headed home about 6:30.  In the back of the truck there were 16 people, 9 pieces of masonite, 3 bags, 2 ice chests, 5 bags of cement, and 1 gas bottle.  Now I know how cattle feel when they are transported!  The rain from earlier had stopped, but the damage had been done.  We traversed the road  quite slowly, being careful not to stuck (though if we had we would have had plenty of people to push!).  We finally arrived at the top of Snake Hill, the last leg of road before you hit the west side of the island.  The driver got out and walked down to inspect the road.  There was lots of dialogue between the passengers (in local language, so we didn’t understand), and it was decided that we would all walk down the hill, so that only the driver’s life would be in danger should the truck go careening off the side of the hill.  We all mud-skied down the hill, and the driver did a great job of making it down as well, though I must say that I was a bit concerned for him. 

We finally made it to the village about 8:00.  Thankfully, I had already asked Jean Claude and Leisande (two Christians who live near us) if we could eat with them on Thursday night, knowing that our kitchen would not be ready to serve a meal.  We had kumala and Ramen noodles, and headed for the house.  We gave the kids baby-wipe baths, threw our mattresses down on the floor, and got a much-needed good night’s rest.  It was an eventful day, but one in which God met our every need and then some!

PS - I had intended to include several photos with this post, but the internet is too slow today.  Maybe next week!