Arrival in Vanuatu

James and Gill took us down from Tavistock to Plymouth on a typical rainy misty day. Thence to London and we were seen off at Heathrow by Alice, Nicola and Tom with Becki. It was good to have their encouragement and blessing. A pity we could not see Alice off to Ethiopia/Somalia border the following week on her first placement with MSF.

In Brisbane we spent 4 days with Chris and Jane Harpham and Ena and were joined by Philip and Julia. Great celebrations followed and we slowly recovered from our jet lag/overindulgence.

We went up to the beach and met up with Sarah Jane (a cousin) who was in fine form.

Then a flight to Sydney then Port Vila. The Ocean was flecked with white and Cyclone Atu was still active around Vanuatu. One approach was aborted as we were already half way down the runway before nearly touching down so we approched the other way and danced our way down to land with a thud and then all anchors out to prevent falling off the end of the runway.

We arrived with three other volunteers; Lucy a nurse in HIV (who had been on the diploma in tropical nursing course at the same time as Annie), Jackie is well travelled and is in governance for local Government and Emma who was bought up here and is going to work in nutrition. We were taken round the Cultural Centre which showed the huge diversity amongst the islands.

 
 Our induction course has gone well, we met up with the organisers of Wan Smolbag who Annie will be working for and with other VSO volunteers. There are 3 Kenyan, 2 Ugandan, 3 Phillipinos, a Canadian and about 20 odd British. We had an outing to a Kava bar to sup the local poison. It tastes a bit like washing up water, down in one go, and produces a calmness and relaxation that really is not necessary in this heat!

 
 

The vegetation is lush and green, it is hot and humid and there are minor traffic jams from an excess of small buses. Port Vila is an expatriate town with expensive hotels, restaurants and shops. However it does mean one can get most things at a price.

Annie continues to celebrate her Birthday and was given a birthday cake and song during a meal for the the 3 rd secretary who had just arrived from the British High Commission in Fiji.