Tsunami

At about 8 pm we had a call from Jenita at VSO in Vila telling us of the Tsunami in Japan and that it was expected in Vanuatu about 1am. We were advised to spend the night on higher ground. We also had a call from William, Annie's brother and a text from Nicola. Annie went off to stay with a New Zealand volunteer who lives slightly up the hill and Rupert went up to the hospital which is on top of the hill overlooking Luganville. Many people made their way up the hill with sleeping mats and their children. Many camped out on the old higher airfield under the stars (and the occasional shower). About 200 came to spend the night in the Out Patient department or along the covered walkways round the hospital. Everyone was resigned and stoical. They are used to these warnings (three in the last 2 years) and they take them seriously. They know generally they will be alright but they had genuine anxiety for their relatives on other islands especially on lower lying islands. There was also concern about the people of the atoll nations like Kiribasi and Tuvalu.

We had hourly bulletins and about 1.30am heard that PNG and the Solomons had had about 0.5 metre wave. It must have passed us about this time and after 2am many (including Rupert) drifted home though some spent the night high up.
Next morning Annie and I went for a dip in Segond channel and were surprised that the tide seemed to flowing slightly stronger than normal (I stress we were in our depths and it was not flowing fast, just enough for us to drift towards town). However we were doubly surprised when about 10 minutes later we found we were drifting back down the coast in the opposite direction. So obviously the ocean is still upset.
So exciting times, first cyclones then a tsunami. Oh, for a quiet life., so back home now for a beer, avocado pear and a kip.

PS Lucy, one of the VSO vols had been up on an isolated island in the Banks Islands giving an HIV seminar. She celebrated Friday night at the end of the seminar with a few shells of Kava with the chief and slept soundly. Next morning the village were somewhat surprised to see the lagoon emptying and filling, as in high and low tide, about every 20 minutes. The Pacific Ocean was obviously still swilling around and upset.

Luganville, Espiritu Santo

We have at last arrived. We were warmly welcomed at the airport and after a night in a motel, settled into a lovely house that has spectacular views over Second Channel. The town has a long main street with scores of Chinese shops, several hotels and hostels and a very lovely French Restaurant. The place is swarming with little Daewoo taxis.

The market has plenty of green vegetables of various sorts, island cabbage (like spinach), long beans, marrow and other unidentified objects. Pawpaw, limes, grapefruit and bananas are plentiful. Sadly no tomatoes!

Island stay

So that we should get an experience of the life of the islanders we were sent off to Pele island for the weekend. We were looked after by a family; in our case Charlie and Sephora with their children Timoti and Retson and Charlie's mother Adeline.

We slept on a thin mattress on the floor, had no power and washed from a bucket from collected rainwater. Sephora cooked us lovely meals with rice, taro, cabbage in coconut cream and a bit of chicken or fish. We practiced our Bislama (Vanuatu style pidgin English) and learnt about local customs.

On Saturday we were ferried round to a neighbouring village for the funeral of one of Adeline's cousins. The women were gathered round the open coffin and wailed and sighed. The men came and wiped an eye or two then went and sat under the trees. People poured in from the neighbouring islands and the mainland. A cow was killed and butchered and mountains of rice cooked. The feast goes on for 5 days.

On Sunday we were taken snorkelling by Charlie accompanied by the youngsters. There was a marine reserve with giant clams, beautiful coral and some lovely reef fish. It felt so good to be in warm sea again. We were warmly welcomed and we were so pleased to hear about peoples lives.        

Lucy like a sweetpea fairy

Aelan woman nao!

After a ceremonial lunch and gifts of mats and dresses and shirts we left in the afternoon.

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.

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