Family Visit

…was excellent. When they finally got here.

We started with some stupid airline agents in the U.S., forcing Mom, Steph, and Grandma to be stranded in Los Angeles for two days without their bags. I was relaying the whole story to Gaea’s mom in the PC office on Tuesday (9 hours after my family should have arrived) when she said, “Have you checked the Vila airport?” I didn’t even think of that!! After four telephone calls to the airport and one trip out to see for myself, I found the three suitcases in the customs office at the airport and texted Mom to let her know about ten minutes before boarding the plane. So at least their minds were at ease for the thirteen hour flight.

We stayed in this AWESOME hotel that has two-bedroom apartments that are two stories… how cool. Or maybe I’m just man bush for thinking that’s so cool. There was a flat-screen TV and everything. With like ten channels. We did everything there was to do in and around Vila including the food market, the art market, the cultural center/museum, Chinese stores, the Mele Cascades,

the glass-bottomed boat

the helicopter tour

and parasailing!

They tried laplap three different ways, along with pawpaw, manioc, pamplemus, and starfruit. We also ate a lot of ice cream. Duh.

On Tanna we had a relaxing resort-style vacation… snorkeling, laying in the hammock, jigsaw puzzles, books, etc. The weather stunk for the volcano, but what can you do? It still spewed out tons of smoke and ash, and made really big noises.

Also the three of us PCVs in the bed of the truck on the way back saw some flying lava. Unfortunately, when we made the driver stop so the passengers could get out to look, it stopped exploding. Figures. Tanna was SUPER cold… the owner of the bungalow kept laughing and calling me Woman Banks, all wrapped up in my yoga pants, long skirt, socks, long-sleeve t-shirt, and long-sleeve hoodie. And still cold.

I sent them back to the Western Hemisphere then took two days to do all my shopping and re-packing and flew back to the Banks (and relative warmth), where everyone has been saying, “Next time they come to Vanuatu, they have to come here!”