Mom and Dad,
I'm in Vanuatu now! It took a long time to get here, but I made it safely. After I called you guys in L.A., we took our flight to Malaysia a while later. First, we flew to Taiwan, and we made a stop there (I guess to refuel the plane and all that.) Then we flew to Malaysia. We stayed in a hotel there for a few hours. It was nice, but I didn't know that the drinks in the fridge in our rooms weren't free. So, I had to pay $2.00 for a little can of Sprite. Wow! Never again.
From there we flew to Brisbane, Australia. It was so nice there. There were showers in the bathrooms at the airport. So, I took 2 long showers since we had a long layover. It (the airport) had a lot of shops and stores, but our leaders said things will most likely be cheaper at debrief (although I was still tempted to get a really cool looking boomerang).
From Brisbane we flew to Port Villa (an Island in Vanuatu), and from there things kinda got tricky. The flight from Port Vila to Espiritu (translated: Holy Spirit) Santo (another island) was scheduled at a certain time and we got to the airport early (after staying in a local church for a ... good ??? night's sleep). However, they said that we would have to wait for another flight because we missed ours by a few hours, which, according to our ticket we were right, but ... what can you do? So, we waited, and then realized we couldn't fit all our luggage and all of our people on the tiny little propeller plane that we were going in. So, 10 people (9 girls and 1 guy - guess who the guy was) including me ventured to the next island.
Boy the little plane was scary (all 20 seats). The pilot just turned around to tell everyone the safety instructions.
It was cool when we actually got to the island, though. They served us lunch (sandwiches, bananas (really good), and coffee - or maybe tea? ) Then, some kids (about 5) were walking by on a nearby street. So, we invited them to play ring-around-the-rosy. Next thing we knew ... we had about 80 kids, and we were singing, playing games, and just having a great time. It was awesome!
After spending the day there, our team arrived minus 15 (10 personal) duffels. Then, the next morning, we took a 4 or 5 hour boat ride to Ambae. When we got to the island, we anchored down, and a little boat came back and forth from the big boat to the island taking duffels and people and dropping them off. Then, we've been unpacking, setting up tents, receiving duffels that didn't make the first group (including mine - finally!), swimming in the ocean, and lots more. I'm having a GREAT TIME.
Talk to you later,
Joey
