Ten Days in Vanuatu – Part I

Zachary is home as of Tuesday night. Yesterday, we got to spend 2 hours (yes, that was a 2) 🙂 looking at all 620 pictures while he narrated and read from his journal. This is the same boy who would have definitely been labeled if he had went to a public school and writing by hand was so very tiring for him. But here he kept a journal of his own accord. Never give up hope, mom’s!

I want to share a part of Zachary’s trip with you all so I’ll be doing it in parts. I don’t know how many parts I’ll need, maybe only 3, but we’ll find out as go along.

Vanuatu is in the South Pacific by New Zealand and Australia. At some point you cross the international date line, so he was always a day ahead of us.

They (Zachary, our pastor and another couple) landed in Fiji before going to Vanuatu…

 

 

 

 

…being welcomed by these natives of Fiji. Notice the one has a flower in his ear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then they boarded a plane for Vanuatu and were greeted at that airport by another welcoming committee.  Notice the man sitting on a box. His instrument is nothing more than a box, through which there is a string tied to a piece of wood.  It gives a bass sound as the man moves the wood in and out.  It’s only 10 seconds long, so you’ll probably want to replay it a few times to be able to really hear and observe.

 

 

This was their host family for part of the trip.  They were greeted with leis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 City Lodge where they stayed their first night.

City Lodge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A 24 hour city market. I have some close-up’s of this I’ll show you later. (I believe they are in the main city of Vanuatu, Port Villa.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day they arrived they had a church service. Afterwards, they were served a type of homemade pizza, bread and tea.

Bread and tea seemed to be a common part of their diet, Zachary said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, some of the ladies are preparing the feast they will serve the next day. The fatted pig was killed (yes, Zachary even has pictures of that, but I’ll just let your imagination supply you with that image 🙂 )

This is the root of the plant called taro.

The ladies and younger girls are peeling them with their big knives.  Notice the child in the background with the knife? Zachary said it seemed like most of the little kids all carried a machete around in their “back pocket”.

 

They work in outdoor kitchens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A glimpse of Port Villa.

Some of the shops.

Next post I’ll show you the coconut tree. Mmmm, coconut milk. I think Zachary’s really enjoying it. 🙂