In Bali

Hi everyone
We (Jon and Viv) are in Bali at the moment for a CWM Global Missionary Gathering. It is great except Jon has a major health problem, a "tropical ulcer" on his ankle and he might have to go back to NZ for it to come right. Please pray for Jon.

We get back to Vanuatu on 23rd April.

God Bless
Jon and Viv

Tsunami Warning 2nd April

Tsunami Warning
I do not want to take away from the sadness of what happened in the Solomon’s last Monday as a result of the earthquake and following tsunami………that was tragic.

 

The following is our experience of the tsunami warning for Vanuatu on Monday 2^nd April 2007.

Last Monday I was in the middle of teaching a class when mama Cindy came to the room looking all worried and asked me to take the old Talua truck to the local school (Tata) and collect all the kids blong Talua students......as there was a tsunami warning.

This warning message arrived around 10:40AM from a nephew of the principal – not an official warning. He said he had heard on the radio a tsunami was expected around 11AM. So it was off to the school in the old blue Talua truck driving it as fast as possible with one eye on the ocean in between the coconut palms. Got to the school to find they had just heard as well……not from the Government Disaster Centre but the boyfriend of the school secretary had rang from Luganville.

Luganville was totally shut down, all shops, banks and whatnot closed for the whole day. On Tuesday when chatting with a few Luganville shop owners, one had known about the tsunami warning from around 9:30AM while another was working in her shop at 10:45 when a friend walking past asked her “why are you still open……..” Rather sad really……..what if there had been a big one.

At the school I asked the teachers what their tsunami warning procedure was...they didn't know, so I suggested they get all the kids up to the medical centre quickly, there was about 5 minutes before the 11AM deadline, the medical centre is on a rise about 10 - 15 meters higher than the school and only a 3 minute walk away. Well in the process of the teachers telling the kids, about a third of them (and some teachers) tore off into the bush helter-skelter back to their homes - potentially serious if there was a big one coming. It was emotionally upsetting seeing the kids run off towards their villages as if it was a big one…….……..their houses are along the beach (up a few meters but still at risk).

I drove the Talua kids back to Talua and we waited. Viv listened to NZ radio and it sounded like the wave would have hit by the time we had had the warning - the earthquake was 7:30AM Vanuatu time…..we later found out the tsunami tidal surges actually arrived around midday.

When talking to folk in Luganville on Tuesday, some people went down to the wharf to see what would happen (not clever)…….about midday there was a strong unusual tidal movements, with the tide going out and then coming in, all much further than normal etc. It sounds like this happened about three or four times.
Back at Talua around midday, some staff and students took to the hills. Monday night some staff and students were still frightened and stayed ether in the hills or they went to Luganville to sleep in the hospital or houses on the hill. Later during the day we heard NZ radio say the wave would hit NZ in the late afternoon, we figured it was well past. Pastor Fiama (Talua Principal) was frustrated with the National Disaster Centre (he said it was the disaster), as he tried to ring them all day and never got a definite answer - either way, so he was quite worried all day not knowing what was happening.

The last time a big tsunami hit the Talua / Tangoa region in South Santo (sometime in the 60’s), it was during the night and no one was hurt. Back then it sounds like most people around here lived on Tangoa Island - which is reasonably high. People got up and went to the main land to work in their gardens and instead found fish and whatnot lying inland about 500 meters on the road. Today many of these people live in villages along the stretch of land where the water washed through………..where the school kids went running off to.

God Bless

Jon

couple more photos

Getting ready for the movie Storm Breaker (part of Williams Birthday party). A good name after having Becky visit last Tuesday. The actual film was great, plenty of action and heaps of gadgets……the only problem was the DVD we had was a dud with the last 5 minutes of the movie missing.




So now it is quieter and things are kind of back to normal. In theory the bursar work should become more straight forward with less students around…….but I am discovering that things are not as simple as that and in the process of trying to help fix past financial errors I am finding it more and more weird. If you are the praying kind of person -wisdom would be a good thing to pray for me. Also health as I have an infection on my ankle (slipping over when checking the water supply a few weeks ago). The rest of the family are well. Yesterday Simon and William went catching fresh water prawns – they came in at tea time saying there was no need for tea as they had already had it, then they shot out the door again to watch Flubber at Mama Linda’s house. Connie was out most of the day, swimming and playing. Viv, Connie 

Becky visited

We had a visitor this past week. She arrived without warning around midday on Tuesday and left just after midnight. Becky was her name. She wasn't too bad. She caused a rough night with plenty of wind and rain but all in all she was a mild cyclone that ended up passing us on the west of Santo. A few trees fell over, knocking out the power at 8pm. But by midnight the wind was calming down. After dark the male students were split into 6 groups patrolling Talua until the storm settled. When they knocked on our door to check we were prepared.....it all seemed a bit of a joke to them. At least it was a mild one and we all slept fairly well.
In these two photos we are checking things for Becky. One photo we are about to go onto the roof to ensure the solar panels are fastened securely. The other Andy and I are sliding a sheet of timber along a window to protect it. Our own windows were not protected and if there is a next time I would find something to protect them from flying debris of branches, iron and whatnot. With only louver windows and fly screens for protection - they didn’t seem very secure against a cyclone. We even had water coming in through a porous section of the concrete block wall.


William turned 10 on Friday so we had pizza for tea on Thursday and lunch Friday (bought them from the Beach Front Resort this side of Luganville). American Hot Dogs for Friday dinner and Bacon and Eggs for Saturday breakie. Added to that William had friends around for a movie Friday night.
Its been a quieter week at Talua as Friday 23rd March the 67 Short Course Lay Ministry Students graduated and have left campus. Our water supply is now working properly again with about 70 less people consuming water. There is now room to sit in the dinning hall /church for services and devotions.

Graduation Day was a special day, starting at 4:45AM, taking photos of food (pig and bullock) preparation, teaching my normal English Classes and then after lunch the Graduation Ceremony. I took nearly 100 photos that day (and another 100 of students during the 6 week course) and spent until very late on Graduation day printing photos for students. The next morning I was woken by a student at 4AM and thought it was a tad early for more photos to be printed. But instead I was asked to drive the bus into town to drop students off……the bus driver was sick. So by 9:30AM I had completed two trips into town, and also spent an hour at the airport waiting for an arriving Certificate Two student – a tiring few days.