Hello Vanuatu!

We had never heard of the country of Vanuatu before we came on our mission.  It was formerly called "New Hebrides" and that sounded more familiar to us . . .

 

Hans sent us there the week after Easter to assess damage and to see if LDS Charities might help after Cyclone Hola hit the island of Malekula and the Ambae volcano began spewing ash for the second time since November . . . 

 

   We flew into Port Vila on the island of Efate.

We found a hill with a great view of Port Vila and a section of the harbor!

Our motel was small and delightful with fresh flowers on our beds to welcome us - Ral especially liked all the wooden pigs which were everywhere!

 

 

Our motel was close to the main LDS Church building in town and Honare's office.  Honare is the facilities manager here and he helps us out all the time with local matters and translation.  Don and Honare quickly tried to book a flight to the outer islands, but because of the on-going "disasters", they were unable to find room on a plane at any time during the whole week!

 

Debrah and Carlos Roundy are the Humanitarian missionaries here and only arrived in country a few months ago.  We were able to give them some "on the job" training and counseling.  The Roundy's have been teaching English in China for the past 5 years . . . We know that the Lord sent them here because they are the perfect people to help improve the poor education program in Vanuatu!

 

The Roundys live in a nice gated apartment complex with 

a swimming pool, crazy looking trees, and beautiful flowers.

 

We have to say that the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila, surprised us with its many hotels, shops and one of the nicest grocery stores we have seen on the islands. We felt that it had many amenities and resources that perhaps even Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga, was lacking.  We hadn't realized that the French influence here really adds a lot to the economy.  The people are very friendly and most are tri-lingual, speaking English, French, and Bislama, which is called "an English based creole language."  

Below is a tsunami sign showing English, French, and Bislama - followed by pictures of downtown Port Vila and the best grocery store we've seen on any of the islands.

Below are pictures of the local "Mothers' Market" which is open every day and sells fresh produce, clothing, and handicrafts.  Prince Charles came for a brief visit to Port Vila and was scheduled to walk through the market on the day we took these pictures, so we expect that it would have looked much the same for the Prince!  We flew out that day, otherwise, we would have tried to hang around and snatch a peek!

Notice all the produce on the floor - Pretty crazy because you really have to "watch your step"!

 

This sweet lady made Ral a Vanuatu dress on the spot with her hand-crank sewing machine!

We had many meetings with government officials and NGO's (non-governmental officials) while we were in Port Vila, as we tried to assess how LDS Charities could help in the disaster areas - AusAide, Red Cross, NDMO (National Disaster Management Organization - their building is shown below), Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, etc.

 

 

 

We visited many schools to assess needs. 
We loved these little boys sitting on poles, wishing they could play netball with the big boys!

 

 
 

One of the schools was Sister Veronica's school located in a little village.  The school is the building behind the tree.  Sister Roundy is making cute little uniforms as a treat for the children.  All the school children in Vanuatu wear uniforms to school, but Sister Veronica's students are not able to afford them. We included a couple pictures of the homes in the village.  These beautiful little children were very sweet, well-behaved, and eager to learn!  

 

 

 

Please ignore Ral's hair - it drives her crazy when we are on the islands where the weather makes us feel like we are in an oven and it is super humid!

When we travel to any of the islands, we are very busy and usually don't have time for "sight-seeing" but we are able to see things most tourists don't and we feel extremely blessed.  In Vanuatu however, we did take a few hours to travel in a little boat to an island where the first missionaries lived and were buried.  As you can see by the inscriptions on the graves, their life was difficult.  The spot with the foundation of their little home and the graves was a special place.

We wondered what their lives on the island must have been like . . . 

 

While walking on the small island, we had to watch out for the coconuts!

The Lord is in the Details

One of the main reasons that we traveled to Vanuatu was to assess the disaster situation on an island called Malekula.  Don and a local man named Honare were supposed to travel to Malekula once we arrived, but were unable to book a flight out. So instead, we concentrated on what we could do from Port Vila.  

We discovered, while attending a meeting with the NDMO (National Disaster Management Office), that no disaster had been declared even though there has been massive damage done from cyclone Hola.  All of the Non-Government Organizations (NGOs like UNICEF, Save the Children, and The Red Cross) were just as frustrated as we were, because we all wanted to help, but we have to be “asked” by the government of before we can act.  There were between 35 and 40 people at the meeting. 

At the end of the meeting, for some reason, Ral felt impressed to walk to the end of the table and talk to a man on the other side of the room, sitting with a small group of people.  She had no idea who he was; he didn't stand out in any way; he was a Vanuatu native and a pretty unlikely person for her to just introduce herself to!

She just felt impressed to introduce herself and ask his name.  His name was Sam and he told her that he was from the Vanuatu Ministry of Health.  Ral mentioned that we had heard that there was a Catholic Church complex that had sustained a lot of damage and could we stop by maybe some time that day and talk with him.  He said that would be fine and asked if we could come to the Ministry around 2:00.

When we arrived, he was waiting for us with two other men.  One was a man in charge of Communicable Diseases and the other man was Scott from Australian Aid, who just happened to be the man in charge of our huge half a million dollar "Village Health Worker" project there in Vanuatu – what are the odds!  As we began speaking to them, we were told that when working with the Ministry of Health, organizations don’t have to wait for a disaster to be declared before they do something . . .  We started to mention the church complex and that it had a clinic and all three men were amazed because we were talking about their NUMBER ONE priority – the Walla Rano Health Center on Malekula!

 

Long story short:  We had another meeting the next day on Friday with Scott, Honare, and a facilities man and received cost estimates and plans of the site.  

On the following Tuesday we presented a $142,000 emergency proposal to Elder Cardon which included complete restoration of the health center and re-building three village health worker facilities in the affected area that were totally destroyed in the cyclone.   The proposal was approved and will be sent up to Church Headquarters.  

When we called Honare, he started to cry – he was so happy.  Earlier that day, before he knew of the approval, he had sent Ral the following email:

Hi Sister Bills,

Let me thank Elder Bills and you for visiting with us and for letting me being part of the meeting we had with the Ministry of Health. It was a very informative and productive meeting.

I hope it will progress from there until we see some light at the end of the tunnel which will not only give smile to the people of this village but build a good relationship between the Catholic Community and our Church.

When the Gospel was first introduced to the people of Malekula, it was this village that received the Missionaries first, beginning with 3 baptisms in 1998. The Church was expanding rapidly in the island until a District was organized.  

It will be a generous gesture from the Church if this project is approved. I don’t know why but I have a good feeling knowing that you can make it happen as you will be presenting on our behalf in such a way that the Committee will be convinced due to the urgency and importance of the project – as the Health Ministry puts it - their top priority.

In Bislama we say ‘Tank yu tumas’ which means Thank You so much.

Honore

It really makes you feel good when things all come together and you are a very small part of doing good for people who are suffering.  Ral was led to Sam.  Little did we know this small gesture would turn into a “big thing”.  The Lord is surely in the details!