Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Welcome Home

We had a minor hiccup this trip - both ships were unable to make the trip to Malekula the week of our departure.  Thankfully, one of the local brethren in Vila graciously agreed to get all of things on the ship.  Claude called yesterday to let me know that everything was loaded on the ship, and I am in Lakatoro today to retrieve it.  Unfortunately, there has been a dispute about wharf payments, so the ship is no longer able to dock at the main wharf in Malekula to unload cargo.  Instead, they pull just offshore and “tender” all the passengers and cargo to and from land in two small boats.  Word is that it take 3-4 hours to completely unload (used to take less than 1 hour at the wharf), and you have to be there from the beginning because you never know if your cargo will be on the first boat or the last.  Should be an adventure, or as we like to say, “Oh, my Vanuatu!”

I had so much to do on our last day in Vila that I ended up renting a truck for the day.  I needed to make some last-minute purchases just outside of town, get our 21 pieces of cargo to Claude’s house, take the last of our “Vila stuff” to John and Cathy’s (who graciously let us use their laundry room as our storage facility), and have one last lunch date with Shawnda.  A bonus was the fact that the rental car company has a key-drop at the airport, so we could drive ourselves instead of having to rely on a taxi or bus to get us to the airport on time.  Thus, it was definitely worth the added expense, and we just might end up planning to do that before every trip to the island (though I have vowed to never again wait until the last week to send our shipment!).

Our travel to Malekula was uneventful.  We got to the airport and checked in with no problem and had a smooth flight (though my air conditioning vent wasn’t working and thus my air-sickness acted up a bit because of the heat).  We found a truck right away that took us into Lakatoro.  We ate lunch, bought meat, sugar and flour, and found a truck to take us back to the village.

We received a warm welcome in the village.  With all the confusion regarding the ship, some assumed we had delayed our trip, and were thus surprised to see us.  It was wonderful to see everyone again after being away for almost 5 months.  Perhaps the most encouraging thing was being together with the church on Sunday morning.  The children’s and youth Bible classes seem to be going very well, and I was very impressed with the memorization work all the kids have accomplished in our absence.  The locals are really stepping up and taking on responsibility, which is refreshing!

We have some exciting things upcoming, and request your prayers as we continue to work here in Malekula.  
Storage in Vila

Malekula coastline

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