If it doesn't rain it pours!

Sori Tumas! Its been a while since the last blog entry, a reflection of both access to the internet and time to sit down and write.

The last few months have been a combination of plenty of visitors, new volunteers, work and the Vanuatu Independence Celebrations.

VISITORS AND NEW ARRIVALS

Following the departure of Dave and Rene, my parents and sister Brenda arrived for a week in Santo. In comparison with more touristique visits, having told friends in Luganville that my family was coming, everyone insisted that my family come have laplap mo storian… resulting in an itinerary full of island style soso laplap (Malekula custom style), beach roasts (bbq) as well as a trip to Port Orly, Matavulu Blue Hole and a sunset cruise to Aore Island, and visits to church, Kamewa School and Sanma Provincial Council.

Then was the arrival of two new volunteers at the “fresh win” apartments. We now have a full contingent of kiwis (currently the kiwis seem to outnumber everyone else excluding babydocs in the younger expat scene). First is Robyn, from Melbourne although originally from Wellington, and working with Vanwoods. Vanwoods is a microfinance organization which has been running in Vila for a few years. Robyn is helping to set up and run the branch in Santo for 18 months as an Australian volunteer. Her arrival heralded the opening of Vanwoods complete with pre-requisite street parade and toktok long La Place (Unity Park). A friends mum asked me to take photos so I have a great day of taking pics and storianing with friends along the way.

The other new volunteer is Bridget, a mainlander who is working as a preschool teacher trainer. Both came at a good time, with heaps of stuff going on with independence celebrations, as well as meeting people and settling into island time.

The next visitors to arrive were Rach and Marvis, the niece and nephew of VSA volunteers in Vila. As it’s a bit hard to describe to people how to get to my house (you need to use a combo of descriptions “fresh win””house blong Peter James””House blong ol peacecorp””Closeup Santo East”, and you still aren’t guaranteed to get a taxi that knows where it is) I tried to make my way to the airport.

It had been raining “pig mo bullock” for four hours straight, a lot even by Vanuatu Standards. Attempts to get taxi’s were unsuccessful and finally I saw Dave Cross, a local resort manager, cruising round with a bunch of people trying to get to the airport. All roads to the airport were blocked due to flooding and the emergence of a waterfall at Rotary Park (where previously there was no stream at all, let along a torrent of water!). After trying a few other options (ie cruising around in the pouring rain on the back of a ute), to no avail, we joined the other rubber-neckers checking out the chaos at Rotary Park. Andrew was also around, attempting to pick up his granddad and sister…. Jack was also at the airport after a trip to Ambrym, so we managed to get him to round up the group of people at the airport, in anticipation of eventually being able to get through.

Eventually, a few people braved the torrent and removed some of the large coral boulders to provide a route for trucks to pass, and after 2 hours, with the rain starting to fall again, we managed to reach the airport, pick up everyone and get back into Luganville. Having sat on the back of trucks for a considerable time, and therefore soaking wet and cold, we headed home to change and then out for a classic peacecorp party at Kim’s house, with the overload of Baby Docs (about 40) and a chance for the visitors to see the full contingent of young people in Luganville… ah woo.