I write this in anticipation of sending it within the next 24 hours. I say with anticipation because, I don't have a working modem at the moment.
We are finally back in Vanuatu after over 50 hours of flight time. This does not count the many delays, stopovers and the coup diversion. But I digress, so let me take you to the beginning.
We finally wrapped up our duties at Harding University, May 10th and loaded up the car with all things remaining and returned to Joplin Mo where we spent the final 14 days at Bonnie's (Kathy's mom) house getting things packed and ready so we could leave. Chris, Terasa and the grandkids joined us in Searcy and travelled up with us as well. They stayed a few days and Jason and Melinda came down from Superior for a few days. We were all together over Mother's Day. Chris helped me paint the outside of Granny's shed and house (he also painted part of the shingle roof). The kids were very helpful as well. I had hoped to take the kids fishing but the weather turned rainy and cold and though we did go to a river Harrison was the only one who say action as he freed a worm from the container every once in a while. They had just seen the video "Free Willie" and being a softhearted soul would reach in the container and pull out a worm and then fling it into the river. Chris, Jason and I would say, "Be Free." I didn't have the heart to tell Harrison that the worms were drowning. We took the remaining worms home and the next day let them loose by Granny's birdbath.
On May 19th a military coup overthrew the Fiji government and took hostages. (Keep this event in mind as it will play an important part later in our travels.)
After everyone left, the last few days I spent packing up the last few boxes and getting the bags we were taking as full as allowed. We were allowed 4 bags, maximum 70 pounds each. I packed the max. We went to Tulsa May 23rd and spent the night close to the airport as we were leaving early the next morning. Bonnie came with us and took a flight to Dallas to go to Tim's house for a week or so.
Here the fun begins. We checking in and our bags were tagged to London our first stop. We have to fly thru Denver and were delayed at Denver for 5 hours because of thunderstorms on the east coast. We finally made it to Newark where we took on passengers and headed on to London.
We arrived in London at 7:00 am and took a bus to a hotel just around the corner from Piccadilly Square. We took a rest as we were behind on our sleep. When we awoke we walked around the neighborhood, the day had been partly sunny. The next day (the only full day we were to have in London) we woke up to rain. We walked up to a bus stop and took the "Around London" bus tour for half a day. That was enough for us as we were sitting on the upper deck of the double decker bus. We were fortunate that we had a roof over the first four rows of seats. Kathy snapped a couple of rolls of film of the historical (hysterical) sights. There were a good selection of interesting buildings but the Queen did not come out and wave to us where we drove by. We ate that night at an Italian Restaurant just down from the hotel. The next morning we were picked up at the hotel and transported back to Heathrow for our flight to Bangkok. The morning dawned sunny and warm.
After a short layover and plane change in Bangkok we arrived in Singapore May 28th 12 noon (Sunday). We were staying with Dave & Debbie Hogan. After waiting a while I called them and found out they had lost the e.mail as to our exact arrival time. We got directions and took a taxi to their house. They arrived after we did. Their had been a fellowship meal at the building that day. That night we met with one of the life groups in a Christian family's home. On Monday we took a taxi to downtown. We had to get an Australian visa and then walked around the skyscrapers for a while. A very pretty and clean city. However this was not the end of the line for us and on Thursday we loaded bags back into a taxi and headed back to the airport. We had to take a flight back to Bangkok and catch a plane to Perth, Australia.
We landed in Perth at 12:30 am and the temperature was in the 50's. After clearing customs we waited around for a while thinking that Sam Kirkpatrick would be there to pick us up. Just as I was thinking of getting a hotel for the rest of the dark hours Kathy saw someone who resembled Sam standing by the outdoors looking for someone. We re-introduced ourselves and laughed. It had been 15 years since we had seen each other! We spent the first sleep with them and the other three days with a Christian widow, Norma. Sam and Margaret took us sightseeing the three days we were there and we got in our last shopping at Target and the bookstores. I taught class at --------- Sunday AM and on the PM gave a report to the brethren at City Beach. We have known both groups over the years but this was the first time to meet them. After PM services we ate at McDonalds for the last time. While visiting at SAm's the last night Sombo called to say the money we had wired (Telegraphic Transferred) from Joplin for Yusi before we left had been AGAIN put in the wrong account. As there was nothing I could do, except think bad things of United Missouri bank, I told them they would have to wait until we got there the next week.
On June 6th we flew from Perth to Sydney. The meal which they served had names that I didn't recognise, other than "pumpkin" so I opted out for just crackers and cheese. The stewardess must have felt sorry for me because she showed me the business class menu which had edible food when she offered me that meal, I ate. In Sydney we transferred to an International flight and after another layover we flew off for Fiji in a VERY empty plane. In the mean time another event in the South Pacific happened which would alter our future travel plans. The Solomon Islands government was overthrown by a military coup.
We arrived in Nadi Fiji at 3 am. Since the island was under a 8 pm-6 am curfew and we didn't have n Army pass to operate a vehicle during curfew we had a taxi take us to our hotel in Lautoka, about 25 miles from Nadi. We had to pass through two armed road blocks.
The same taxi driver brought a young Harding student who arrived the next morning, Justin McCleary. Justin will be with us for several weeks to see if what I taught in "Mission Principles and Practices" has any relevance. We spend two days with Josua and his family talking about the work, the coup and future plans for a Bible School. We found that even though there was unrest in Suva and the coup leader was still ruling most of the island was taking it in stride. It seemed like it was coup season in Oceania. Many people are losing their jobs as Australia and New Zealand had imposed shipping bans and tourists are not arriving. Our plane to Port Vila Vanuatu was due to leave Saturday night at 10:30 pm which was past curfew time. So we loaded up the rental car and drove to Nadi city to McDonalds and into the Airport compound before the bewitching hour of 8 pm. After returning the car and getting our three bags out of storage we moved into the checkout area only to see that our plane had been cancelled.
The Solomon Airlines plane which was to transport us to Port Vila was not flying. Only after much running around and discussing till we were blue in the face to airline agents did we get seats on a flight BACK to Sydney and then on to Port Vila, Vanuatu. Kathy and I did not have to pay extra but Justin had to pay over $500 more. (We have since found out this to be illegal and will be pursuing compensation from Air Vanuatu when the Manager gets back next week. More to follow.) As we were checking the luggage in they tried to charge us excess for items we had purchased in Fiji. I pointed out that we had only one bag too many and that we had not planned on flying back to Australia. Well dah! The plane left at 3 am and was full. Keep in mind we had arrived around 7:30 pm!
When we arrived in Sydney we had a layover and when we finally were able to try and get seat allocations we found out that we were "phantom" travellers. We were not on any manifest (as we had been promised in Fiji). After a bit of searching we found that we had been allocated the only seats available on the flight to Port Vila, BUSINESS CLASS!
So 15 hours later than we were to have arrived in Port Vila Vanuatu we landed at 3 pm. The plane was full as tourists who could not go to the Solomons and those who were afraid to go to Fiji were now coming to Vanuatu. We passed thru immigration with no problems, this time! No problems with customs except I had to pay $20 duty on a monitor Justin was carrying into the country for me. Outside the terminal we were met by our Papua New Guinea brethren, There was one Vanuatu girl there as well. We loaded the bags into our little truck and took us all to the motel we were booked into until we can find housing.
Jab Mesa showed up that night from Brisbane as well.
We have since checked with the bank, registered the car, talked with the real estate agent and looked at some apartments and some cars. Though this is the dry season they have been receiving rain in significant amounts (which the beach-loving tourists are not too happy about).
Found out the modem was crook, so I bought what a limited offering they had here. Sit down- it cost $275! I know but what could I do, what could I do!! (I think it has a 24 hours warranty! It is a 56K but the lines only support 3K.)
I received the 9 boxes that we sent airmail to ourselves. Both the computer CPU's got here. One of them has a broken case and when I took it out of the box screws and chips and plastic pieces fell out. I put it together but it would not startup. SO it took it ALL apart and rebuilt and after a short prayer, turned it on and it worked (have a couple of extra pieces but it is working OK). The monitor Justin brought over has a cracked case and is not degaussing like it should. Welcome to the real world.
Thought I would get this short essay to you to let you know how things are. I will keep you posted.
In the Mster's Service
Tobey & Kathy