Hinton Around

Airport in Lakatoro, Malekula

Flour was loaded – 25 – 50# sacks

Vegetables were loaded in a truck

We crossed over 6 rivers and the last one we had to walk across. Adrian and !st Counselor in Branch checking the depth.

Truck broke rear axle. Driver was a mechanic and just happened to have a bearing and fixed it on the spot. Miracle !

Children in the corner of the classroom – quiet as a mouse!

Handing over ceremony where we were presented the hand woven mat and the live chicken.

The chicken was handed over to Anderson Vano, the amazing coordinator that helped make the disaster management a success!

We did have a date at a nice resort where we saw a fire show, about a week ago. We do not do many touristy things though. Yesterday I was sitting on a beach chair by the pool and realized that is the first time I ever did that to relax for a few. I asked Adrian what he thinks it would be like to be here as a tourist. He said “YOu don’t even want to think about it.”

This was our next location. It is an old chapel, but by using the gutters on this iron roof it can be piped out the the villagers. Notticed the spelling on the sign on the old church.

Ambae is so beutiful. This is where in WW11 they ent all their beautiful young women to keep them from the soldiers

Where ever there is water there are children having fun!

Here they are taking home water for their families, Want a drink anyone?

This is the Headmaster and she teaches grade on. Such a good spirit here , makes you really want to help!

This is the third site… This is Elder Thurber from Idaho. Sorry the 2nd one got out of sink. It was the second photo.

Great Elders and our driver Dennis. It rained hard and he was a masterdriver to get us where we needed to go safely!

We sau gppdbye wot a sweet rainbow in the west which Dad says is a rare thing! It is comforting to know with all this reain….almost every day and many times a day that the earth will not be flooded again. Love you all. Hope the video comes through of the place we stayed. It is called the Toa Bungalows! We both took an Ambien to make it through the night!

This is the Church. They will have a new beautiful chapel this year. It started raining as we pulled up in the truck. It poured rain and we were here for 4 1/2 hours waiting for meetings to be done and the missionaries to return to pick us up. I have never seen so much rain. A video will be on our Facebook page as this blog will not support it.

Notice the dog under the chair of the 1st Counselor.

Relief Society Sisters. There were only 34 people that came that morning when they usually have 250 to 300 members attending.

So wet and then it got cold. the children were shivering

Sister missionaries are amazing. They walk many miles every day. the last time we were here they had taught 57 lessons in one week, and had 11 baptisms. This week 5 baptisms. They are angels!

If you look closely you will see the children in the back blowing bubbles. I had brought two large bottles of bubbles and it helped pass the time. Church was over and we were just waiting in the pouring rain.

Soaked to the skin.

As you could imagine. Cold rain I had to go pee. I took my leaf unbrella and went over behind a tree. The people were laughing at me but I have learned if you’ve got to go …..you’ve got to go! No that is not peep on my dress. There was a slit in the tarp and I didn’t see them lifting the tarp to get rid of the puddled water.

Leaving finally ! Children are so cheerful and always smile when you look at them!

Dad soaked to the skin. He helped bless the sacrament. He helped pass and he also gave a talk. It was about the fishes and the loaves. Also a story about how he knew Heavenly Father knew him. His experience when he lost his favorite knife when he was a little boy. I had grapes and cookies in our lunch bag and I kept thinking I didn’t have enough to share. Finally I kept getting prompted to give away the food. I gave all the children two each and then again 2 each then everyone else 2 each and then the kids again. I know there was not enough in that bag. Also the same thing happened with the cookies. A real faith promoting experience.

A scruffy Dad after 3 days in the BUSH!

Do you see what is on the cart to fly to Port Vila?

Well we needed to stop for gas ! Yes this is our new Maverik !

They do not take checks or credit cards. Cash only. Inside the station are 3 -55 gallon drums full of diesel only. It took about 30 minutes to fill with the funnel and we put in 5 gallons at $13.00/ gallon. Count your blessings!

This is our 7-11. Today only a cucumber, island spinach and do you see the bananas?

Here is the Evergreen bungalow. The walls are made of bamboo and the roof is made of coconut leaves. We had no fan and the air was still. You open the windows on both sides, and then lay there and sweat!

This was also in the bathroom. Came through a hole in the screen, so we had to keep the bathroom door shut.

They serve a wonderful breakfast with tropical smoothie, fresh fruit plate and homemade bread with passionfruit jam. Yum!

This was dinner, Fish on long shell coconut and it was so delicious, I can hardly explain how good.

This is the primary school – grades 1-6, after 6th grade the parents have to pay, so many only get a 6th grade education.

These are the other grade and the other half of the school. There is no air-conditioning.

This is 1st grade and there are 53 students in this class – no windows. He said the teacher was complaining that it was just too much – can you even imagine. The next photo is a look inside.

Look at all the visual aides and the av-equipment. Also notice the dirt floor.

This is the headmaster and this is the teachers lounge. They do have a copy machine that is under a red blanket by his shoulder. He had no paper. We brought that soccer ball as they have no sports equipment.

This is a classroom.

I asked about this room and he said it was the kitchen. But then he said it is only used for fund raisers ! We told the headmaster to write a letter to the Mormon Church to list what he needed. We were sending a truck to the elders on the islands so on the front seat were 2 boxes of copy paper , pens , pencils, chalk, colored chalk, and dictionaries. He got these in about three days from the day he wrote the letter, which I am sure shocked him.

When we arrived there were 4 missionaries and 4 senior missionaries and one truck!  Then we realized the tire had a leak and there was no spare !  All fixed and we were on our way, yes with a spare also!

This is the site of the second tank. This is the Elders Quorum President. They are all pointing to the lucky man.

This is the third site. All these tanks are to be shared by the community.

The sites had to have a large metal roof to collect the rainwater, so everyone with a thatched roof which most are were not considered.

A tank done right ! We hope all the ones we are doing will come out as good !