Survey Trip Itinerary

Our survey trip to Vanuatu is a mere week away! I cannot believe how fast our time for which we were supposed :) to be preparing has passed and that our trip is now upon us! We are anxious and nervous for numerous reasons. Excited to meet the Ni-Vans and be face-to-face with the people we feel God has lead us to, and nervous because of the 13 hour plane ride with our two kids. ;)

I would like to ask you to pray for us. For safety, for us to remember all that we are hoping to record from this trip, for well behaved children, for the number of back and forth traveling that will be done while in country between islands etc...

I have included an itinerary that is as accurate as we could make it at this point. This way you will be able to pray for us by location and what we will be doing various days...etc.

March 16 (Fri) - drive from Miles City to Boise, ID to meet up with Laura (my sister)

March 18 (Sun) - fly from Boise to LA and hang out with friends

March 20 (Tues) - fly from LAX to Port Vila (13 hour flight)

March 22(Thurs) - overnight in Port Vila on Efate island with accommodations very cheaply rented from SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics http://www.sil.org/, similar to Wycliffe Bible translators http://www.wycliffe.org/)

March 23 (Fri) - fly to Santo to Luganville (meet missionary Phil who may be helping us apply for visas at the end of the trip, check out cost of living, possibly visit a church, record some Bislama to practice language while back in the States) with accommodations provided by Phil

Sometime here possibly... Sometime during this time the guys are thinking of flying to the island of Malakula and doing some backpacking into tribes to get a feel for the people out there. We don't have concrete lodging on this island and therefore, at this point me and the kids will be staying in Santo with Laura (my sis) and Dave (my dad) unless we find some accommodations there that would house a family. Pray that this would be possible! This might be the island we end up on when we move here and I would LOVE to spend some time there because of that possibility.

April 2 (Mon) - fly back to Port Vila early AM (apply for visas, meet government officials, check in with SIL about literacy, language), stay again with SIL

April 3 (Tues) - finish visa paperwork, fly out to Fiji at 4:05PM to arrive 8:30PM, depart Fiji 10PM and arrive in LA at 1:20PM the same day. We then fly United back home to arrive at 6:55PM that evening. Is that all crazy that it's all the same day or what? We will drive back to Montana probably the next morning or so, whenever our brains are with it again to drive the 12 non-stop hours back.