The Island of Santo :)

Crystal clear waters, beautiful sunsets

It has been a very productive few weeks as we have continued with our work here in Vanuatu! Some have asked us what we do for fun. For workouts, there is a group of us who go walking in the morning and then play pickle ball. We do this 4-5 times a week and it's like playing pickle ball in a sauna. I'm thinking that all of the sweating has to be good, ha ha. We do have a great time. On Saturday's when we don't have other assignments we explore the island, go for hikes to waterfalls, find fun restaurants hidden away, and enjoy the ocean.


There are many islands in the country of Vanuatu. We live on the island of Efate. We also have missionaries on the islands of Tanna, Malekula, and Santo. You have to fly on a (very small) plane to each of these islands. As we are in charge of the missionary housing and supporting the new construction, it can be quite complicated!

Demolition of condemned buildings in Port Vila, Efate

On Efate where we experienced the intensity of the earthquake last December, things are moving forward. Demolition of condemned buildings is in full swing and they have opened up many roads and stores are returning to original locations. A lot of damage was in the water-front area and many parts have been reopened there as well. Tourism is returning and hopefully the cruise ships will be able to stop here again soon.


A make-shift chapel on the island of Santo way up in the mountains.
Took us an hour and a half to get up to this village area.
75 members of the church meet here.

The bulk of the meetinghouse and missionary quarter construction will be on Tanna and Malakula, as they are the most primitive islands, but we do travel to Santo to check on missionary housing and usually there is ministering to the missionaries where ever we go. Santo is a bit more developed but there is still A LOT of bush areas. Meaning, no indoor plumbing, toilets, sink, etc. AND roads that have huge craters and rivers to drive through. It's definitely not boring and we never know what we are going to find along the way.

A very rough "bucket shower"
Laundry room

Once you get past the bugs, it is quite beautiful. The waters are stunning, and vacationing at a resort would be amazing. The complicated challenge is trying to get things done with the “island time” and “island way” of the culture here. There is a fine line between loving and accepting the people and not expecting them to be like “us”, but also helping to elevate the standard of work that is performed here, as well as the standard of living.

Amazing missionaries up in the mountains of Santo
One is from Kiribati, and one from Samoa

It is common for missionaries to live in a village and have members of that village walk in their house to plug in their phones, which uses up the missionaries solar power, or use their toilet/shower (used loosely) that is outside. This is a challenge in a society where “everything” is “everyones”. At the same time, they are generous, kind, accepting of all cultures, and feed the missionaries a lot which they appreciate.


Herds in Santo. Note the muddy water.
There was massive rain while we were there.
It definitely added to the adventure

We have been in Santo this week visiting 9 properties with 26 missionaries, and it has been very educational! We have learned that in Santo a lot of the men do not like to wear clothing with the exception of a loin cloth, AND there is such a thing as a Ni-Van cowboy! Who knew? We saw many different herds of cattle. When we were driving, there were at least 100 cows being herded in the middle of the road, so we just slowly followed behind them as the cowboys waved us on... not in a hurry. Neither were we. Santo beef is a big deal here, and very delicious. The good news is that the cowboys herding their cattle DO wear clothing. We will leave those pictures out of this post. :)

Missionaries at the door of a family's home
in the mountains of Santo.

We have gone about building relationships, cleaning out the extra stuff in the apartments, making a list of things that need to be repaired, and whatever else we feel spiritually led to do. Often we find surprises and all manner of issues, giving us an opportunity to encourage a refocus and a recommitment to the missionary purpose. Our goal is to leave them feeling loved and supported with an increased desire to share Gods love and message of hope to all they meet.


None of us are perfect and how great is it that we have a way to choose different, become different, work toward something better, and be able to feel peace in the process as we turn our hearts to our Savior. Simply put, that is called repentance. How cool is that? The second we turn toward the Savior, the peace returns. 


"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27


And that is the good news of the gospel….


We love and miss you all!

The Kwans



Love these hard working missionaries!
Two are from Papua New Guinea,
Thailand, and Utah. :) 


A little hike up to the village to see the
missionaries and check out their housing.
An example of how much stuff we get out of these
apartments. Love these sisters!
They are from Africa, Papua New Guinea,
and Colorado. Very tough sisters!

A village home and oven outside. The village toilet
is about 15 feet away from the home.
Our view from the outdoor restaurant at the
resort in Santo. Not bad, right?!
Beautiful tree on the sand by the water in Santo.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Well, Here we go on another adventure! We are at the San Francisco Airport awaiting our direct flight to Auckland. We are excited and there is also a healthy amount of anxious unknowns. There is always the "idea" of what our assignments will be, and then there is the reality. From our experience, the space between those two things, the "gap", is often very huge! We will see what awaits us on the other side of the world. Six years ago when we served a mission in Hong Kong that also took us to Mongolia on a huge humanitarian project, we were able to create some amazing connections and friendships. This was the bridge of how this new mission came to be. We were requested by the church leader that we had worked with in that area to go to the South Pacific, Vanuatu specifically and manage a building project as well as offer other leadership support in different areas of the islands. What all of this will look like we are not sure. Thus, that is where the gap lies. Genera...
Read more

Earthquake - Part 1

Image
A beautiful evening before the earthquake A Christmas season like no other. It was a week before Christmas and in my mind, we live in a perpetual state of “August”… Until we would go into a restaurant at a resort decked out with Christmas decorations and music playing “I’ll be home for Christmas” in the background. Although, hearing “Riding in a winter wonderland” and “Sleigh Bells”, was a little weird with beaches, blue aqua water, palm trees, and warm island air.   December 17th, at 12:45 we were in our apartment. I was in the kitchen and Joe in the second bedroom where an office has been set up. We both heard this sound that kept getting louder so I walked over to the door jam where Joe was and the earth started rumbling, then it started shaking and becoming more and more violent by the second. Joe was thrown, as well as his desk and computer. I braced myself in the doorway and really thought our second floor apartment was going down. It was a 7.3 earthquake. Soon after it stopp...
Read more

A whole new world….

Image
View from Elder and Sister Meurs balcony in New Zealand What a whirlwind week and a half! It feels like its been two months! We flew out of San Fran on Sunday Nov 3rd and arrived in Auckland New Zealand Tuesday the 5th. We had an amazing 4 days there having meetings, enjoyed some time with Elder and Sister Meurs, as well as going to the Hamilton temple and visiting the Hobbiton movie set. Elder and Sister Meurs  Hobbiton Hobbiton In New Zealand they drive on the opposite side of the road and that increased the adventure level by about ten. It literally takes two people to navigate and we almost went off the road or hit something only twice so that’s good, right? I may or may not have said many times, “to the left, to the left, to the left” with some intensity in my voice, ha ha…   The Hamilton temple is an hour and a half from Auckland, and then Hobbiton is 40 minutes farther so we were able to visit both on one of the days. It was a really fun experience. Friday, November 8th...
Read more