31st August 2018

In the last two weeks I found some more old financial files. Not sure why I hadn't looked in a particular cupboard in the meeting room before (or maybe I had and had forgotten what was in the cupboard) . I found around 50 East-light folders going back to 1985.  I arranged with Johnathan Tarip to take the folders out to Etas School to use the new incinerator that the team from St Kentierns had built a few months ago. We donated the empty folders to the school to use or to sell to raise funds for the school.

Thank you to Jonathan, Jenita, Leinangus and Annette for the hard work.  I could only sit and watch.

 The PCV truck being loaded.

 The incinerator

Flames soon starting doing their thing

The tam at work.

24th August 2018 Raining

We have been a bit tardy in updating the blog over the last 2 weeks.  So this is the start to get our blog up to date. Hopefully we can get them into chronological order.

The Friday was busy preparing some reports for Elder Meto for the PCV General Assembly. He was on the afternoon flight. Today was wet.

This is the gear we need to travel on Ethel when it is wet.  That is my leg inside the yellow rubbish bag.

New shops being built down close to the water front by the market. interesting island style shop front

Raining so the some of the items for sale at the market, are protected from the rain

We went to the central post office to collect the PCV mail, it was closed and taped off to stop access. A new building is due to be completed in mid September at the Stade area (about a kilometre from the old site)

The graffiti artists have been let lose

Snippets

This week many of the staff have been setting off for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu on Tanna with boxes and bags of paperwork, and two printers. You may remember we went to Assembly last year on Santo and it was an amazing experience, but this year we can't go due to Martyn's broken leg. It would be just too difficult to get around in a village setting, also getting on and off trucks to get to the village from the airport.

Before: pre-Assembly organised chaos ready to be taken down to the ship sailing to Tanna (These before photos were actually taken last year but it looked just the same this year)

The big Riso (yes Riso, not Ricoh 😂) printer is going too in a box made specially to fit.

After: most people have left and the office is very quiet and empty.

Thank goodness we have Ethel. Without her Martyn would be house-bound unless some kind friend could take us out in their car/truck. This is the state of our road, completely impassable on crutches. Our gate is just to the right about where that lady is passing.

Martyn is able to do a few hours work each day. We found a very convenient office chair missing its back which serves perfectly as a roller stool to support Martyn's leg and fits neatly under his desktop. In many offices around the world, broken furniture would be disposed of, but not here 👍😉. I have to give Martyn an injection each morning of anti-clotting stuff for his blood - because he is not getting sufficient exercise there is a risk of blood clots. Sometimes it results in a nasty bruise, but my technique is getting better.

Pastor Jung of Presbyterian Church of Korea is adding some Chinese and Korean messages to Martyn's cast. The cast also has writing in English, Bislama, and Greek (courtesy of  John Redshaw) plus several pictures. It is looking grubby after just 2 weeks, what will it be like in another 4? 😱

It has been raining here for the last 3 days - makes getting around even harder than it already was, but where there's a will (or a rubbish bag in this case) there's a way. 

We have been watching a block of shops being built down near the central market with some interest as the protruding roof trusses seemed vary random, both in spacing and shape. However all is gradually becoming clear now that they have been framed up as gable ends with natangora roofing being installed. Looking forward to seeing it a bit more complete before we leave.

Down at the market, the firewood needs to be covered from the rain or there won't be any hot meals tonight!

PCV Thank You 17th August.

On Friday afternoon the PCV put on a thank you celebration for Annette and me for our time in Vanuatu.  (or was it a celebration that we have finally said we are returning home).  Pastor Allen thanked us for our service to the PCV and to Vanuatu.  Then each staff member made short speeches thanking us. We then had a very nice kaikai, including Alice's soup (stew) and laplap.  A wonderful thank you and meal, thank you to all staff. Then we were presented with many wonderful gifts.Tank yu tumas long staf blong PCV, yu oli gudfala, wi laekem yu tumas. 

We arrived in style on Ethel

Gloria Jones, Nicola Young and Neville Jones listening to the speeches

Staff waiting for the kaikai (and listening to the speeches)

Sharing kaikai with Elder Meto Nganga (Finance Secretary)

Us thanking our wonderful friends

Hugs all round

Alice and Rosemaree Redshaw

Elder Donald Simon, Elder Cyrilline Bani and Elder Jara Bani

Annette and Gloria enjoying the beautiful flowers

Yvonne and Leinangis

Kaikai

Elder Jara presenting gifts to us.

Elder Iramus (sori need to check I have your name correct), Jessy and Avin

Yvonne and Leinangis presenting gifts.

Some of the gitfs we were given

And more gifts.

Dedication for the New ICC Church Property at Belle View Sunday 12th August 2018

On Sunday the ICC Church had a dedication service of the site for the new church at the church property at Belle View, a suburb of Port Vila.  This site has no buildings, and has a few large trees and a few large rocks.  Guest speakers spoke and prayers were said, we had the sod (turf) turning ceremony.   After the ceremony we had a barbeque and time together, it was a very special occasion.

Pastor Dave in action 

Youth Leader Armin also in action. (its all go really 😀)

Some of our church family

Julie and Dave Wood, and Greg and Beth Ann Carlson preparing to turn the first sod.

We lit this pile of wood to "start the fire" for our new church life on the new site. Gilbert (one of the original members of ICC) started the fire.

Said  fire getting underway

Men on the barbeque, must be the same all round the world.  The men do all the cooking, and the women wait for the hot food to arrive.  😂 (disclaimer by the time you read this Annette would have already growled at me)

Eating time.

The fire looks like it is much smaller, but this picture doesn't really show that it was still very big and hot. In fact a nearby tree (about 15 metres away from the fire)  had caught some of the sparks and a branch was on fire.

When Something Oo Occurred
(a line from A.A. Milne's poem 'Sing Ho! for Piglet', one of my favourite poems)

Martyn met with a mishap on Wednesday morning. He was running (walking) down the side of a volcano (along the footpath) being chased by tribesmen (on his way to a meeting at work), when he slipped over a precipice (on a few small stones on the path) and broke his leg!

He tried to send smoke signals (call me on Messenger) and a group of passing missionaries (Annette on Ethel) picked him up and whisked him off (trundled along slowly) to an idyllic retreat (Vila Private Hospital).

His right fibula is broken just above his ankle - you can see the swelling starting already in this photo.

Fortunately he had a good young French doctor and nurse to look after him. In next to no time he was plastered up.

Still smiling, and just learning how to drive crutches - trickier than they look, and not recommended for rough, stony roads! 

Graffiti artists are everywhere! The top line is by Judy - "I know that you are resilient (or tough)", and Nicola wrote "you are very strong!" Melton and Jonathan also autographed the back of the cast.

He is not in much pain which is good. He thinks more pain will be inflicted on me over the next 6-8 weeks looking after him! He needs a daily injection of blood-thinning stuff to minimise the risk of blood clots in his leg, so I had to learn how to give these to him. He wishes I didn't look so happy about it.

Early days yet, so we haven't set our return date, we'll just see how we can manage here for a while. We went down to the waterfront this morning for a coffee/milkshake and get him out of the flat for a while. We went on Ethel - he's getting quite good at getting on and off, I just have to go slow over the worst bumps. Thank the Lord for providing Ethel, and enabling me to drive her 😄

This is a much nicer view than at our flat.