A Round-up of Vanuatu – Part VII

This is it – the final post of Zachary’s 10-day trip to Vanuatu.

There was a church dedication while they were there

I thought it was really nice and quite interesting that the Presbyterian church came and sang at the ribbon cutting ceremony.  Actually, the whole village showed up for the dedication.

The oldest lady of the village did the actual cutting of the ribbon and some official in Vanuatu came and spoke as well.

Leaving one of the villages they headed to this airport to catch their plane. Interestingly enough, the girl on the left in the blue shirt was a peace worker from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

View from the plane

On one of their final days in Vanuatu, the Vanuatuan’s honored Zachary and those he was with, with a little ceremony.

At the ceremony they were presented with coconut mats the people had woven, purses for their wives (in Zachary’s case, for his mom) and then each of them were give a little tree to plant as a memorial.  In the Bislama language, Zachary’s name is Sagari!

Here is Sagari’s memorial tree!

Time to say good-bye to this lovely and gentle people…

and take a 2 hour boat ride through the Pacific Ocean, while riding in a small boat with little wooden benches. They headed to the main island where they would catch a plane back to the States.

And this was their last view of what Sagari called “paradise.”

This was Zachary’s first time to go to Vanuatu, our pastor’s 2nd time and the other couple that was with them – this was their 10th time.  They just love the people there and like to go back to visit and encourage them in the Lord as often as they can.

This was the Vanuatuan’s winter, so the weather was a little cool sometimes but not overly. The average temperatures year-round are between 68° and 90°.

Welcome home, Zachary.