Friday, October 30, 2015
Last night’s chuckle: We had run out of toilet paper and the girls
hadn’t come in to clean, so he went to the office and told the young gal that
we had run out. She said, “Well, we
don’t have any, so if you need some you’ll need to go to the store and buy your
own!” Incredulous, Jim said that hotels
always provide it! Luckily the security
guard heard this conversation, reached into a cupboard and gave Jim the TP. When Jim told the morning gal what she had
said, she also was rather astounded—we wonder what her boss will say. We were told that all the businesses in the
area are run by Americans except this hotel, which is owned by a Tongan and we
(church) gets a 25% discount. Ana said
that she would report to him about our room.
We did not tell her everything: there was no hand soap, a cockroach
corpse was being eaten by other little bugs in the bathroom, our TV didn’t
work, the pool was empty of water and was full of debris, the shower head was a
crazy spurting thing with little needles going everywhere except where they
ought to go, and of course they had no Internet. Who isn’t in the mood for a good giggle…we
don’t take these things too seriously because they are so entertaining.
We bid a fond farewell
to Vava’u; this morning the seas are shiny smooth; a National Geographic Cruise
ship landed at the dock and the people live off of the tourists who embark here. Whale watching is another popular activity
along with snorkeling and diving.
Last night we ate at a casual
restaurant down from our hotel with the other couples. It is owned by a young American of Polynesian
descent whose wife is from Vava’u; they landed here, creating a wonderful
American menu—everything any of us ate was top notch. If we ever go back, we will eat there again.
In the morning they picked us up
at 7 AM (no time to find breakfast as no one was open yet) to look at yet
another project on our way to the airport.
It is the Tongan telegraph—they hear that we are there and everyone
needs to take their best shot at getting something done. If we were able to fulfill every request in
Tonga and the islands in their chain, we’d spend a few million…
We luckily found some snacks for
sale at the small airport so we had water and coconut cookies for
breakfast. We boarded our plane, which
is the one that the Murdock’s were telling us about: in between the rows there is just enough aisle
to get your legs down it if you go sideways.
If a man stretches out his fingers, the thumb and pinky fingers would
touch the sides of the seats across the aisle from each other. As we boarded the plane there were a group of
Aussie’s ahead of us who were big guys.
As soon as they saw the squeezed seating they began to laugh. They made so many jokes about it that it kept
us laughing for 10 minutes while the pilots prepared for take-off. Ana said that people are concerned that this
littler version of island transport has unreliable engines or at least they say
that the engines are ‘smoking’. In the previous
flight they had taken our carry-on luggage, putting it in the back because they
said there was no room for it at our seats.
On this incredibly smaller plane they didn’t take it from us. Luckily the seat across the aisle from Jim was
empty--we’d have had to stack our backpacks and laptop on our laps. I stuck my backpack in between my legs
sideways on the floor so that my feet had a spot to go under the next
seat. This plane was slower so it took a
little longer to get there—about 1 hr. 20 minutes.
Right: This is our wee little plane so full of seats that you can barely
get down the aisle.
Below: I didn’t have my
own window but some good shots from above looking over the shoulder of the man
in front of me. Note the bit of
propeller that made the picture. I will
send more from Auckland when I have time.
I have so many beautiful pictures to share.
Once back on the main
island we took our belongings to our various abodes and then went to lunch at
the pizza place. Afterwards we went to
see three more project requests. Ah, I
can’t say how nice it was to be finally done!!
(That is of course unless someone else discovers that we are here!) One of the most interesting requests is way
out of our league but thought it a worthy project to pass along to those in the
Auckland office where we are headed tomorrow night. Since we are partnering
with many large NGO’s on Vanuatu’s impending dearth of rain (and this after the
cyclone devastated them previously), we thought perhaps LDSC could present this
proposal to this same group—worth a shot.
The project is interesting because flooding has been devastating huge
communities near the sea ever since they built the sea road and more people
moved there. When it rains heavily this
area gets flooded. It has happened
steadily the last few years except for the last one because of the
drought. We saw the pictures. They came up with a grand plan that costs a
king’s fortune, but it is a good plan and geologists and engineers have been working on
a solution. So perhaps a group of NGO’s
could help them.
There are 5 large zones
that have the flooding problem. This has
been a dry year, but this area is still flooded in places. You can see watermarks on all the houses
around here. When they get heavy rains they
have a foot of water inside, bringing sewage and all kinds of disease-ridden
problems.
We returned to our home with
Internet (yes!) in time to get ready to go out for a nice evening. On the
way to a dinner show we stopped by to see a beach full of blowholes. As far as we could see down the beach we
watched this fabulous display of nature.
There was also a beautiful sunset.
We continued on to our dinner
show and ate at the buffet--it was pretty good, after which they performed
their Tongan-style of dancing. I thought
it interesting that the ladies were dancing so sweetly and lady-like, using
their hands to tell a story while the men behind them danced like roosters,
shaking their heads and jumping around—it was great! The men were way more interesting to
watch. Towards the end of the show they
did a lot of fire dancing. There was one
young woman doing an amazing fire dance and a gal in the audience, no doubt a
little drunk, started dancing to the rhythmic music by her seat, but then went
right up on the stage, sometimes going in front of the performer! It was a bit obnoxious. Her little boy on the other hand, was dancing
where he had been sitting and that was really cute.
We stopped by a special dance
that is held here for the students in the complex where we are staying (church
offices and housing for staff and couples).
It was sort of like what would be a prom at home. They do not have fancy dress shops here so
they make their own in these bright colors and they are very beautiful. The boys also get decked out. It was a colorful site.
Can you believe that
these fancy dresses are all homemade…
Tomorrow night we depart for
Auckland. We are looking forward to
finally being able to sleep in!
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