Butmas

Botmas is a small remote village in the back of beyond, up in the highlands of central Santo. The village has a church and a school and acts as a centre for the many isolated farms and families scattered in the thick tropical rainforest that covers the area. There has been no village aid post there for several years as the village health worker was never paid by the community for his services. The nearest clinic is about ten km away through difficult terrain; and by road transport at least 1000 vatu return (about £8), way outside the pocket of most people living here.

For these reasons, we at VFHA decided to pay them a visit, to give awareness on all health issues (especially reproductive health and STIs) and offer clinical advice and simple treatment as necessary.

Letters were written to the chief (nothing happens without his say-so) and copied to the pastor and sent by hand (most reliable method in the bush). Budgets were agreed, workshop details were planned, information leaflets photocopied, medicines prepared.

Transport proved to be a problem; few drivers were prepared to tackle the road unless they were paid huge sums to hire the truck as they felt they would be making an empty return journey (unlikely) and may miss out on a more lucrative “copra run”.

So we valiantly offered our little “truk” (Rav4) to do the journey, thus giving us flexibility in our planned trip and reducing the overall cost. Probably not our best decision....

We were at least an hour late in leaving, the road was rocky and potholed, then we turned off it to a “rod i no gud tumas” – small grassy/very stony track. At the top of a ridge, with beautiful views overlooking dense tropical rainforest in the lowering sunshine the fuse to the fan blew. As a result our radiator blew up.

Luckily as we were on a hill, we had mobile phone access (!) and contacted Raoul our mechanic who told us how to fix it and we limped on through the last 5k.

When we (eventually) arrived in Butmas village we were greeted with surprise and some embarrassment. We were not expected. The letters had arrived, but.....the Chief had gone to market in Luganville 2 days previously and he had not informed anyone of our intended visit.

However, Pastor Jacob and his wife Jeni made us welcome, as did the teacher and his wife, Suzanne. They offered us the (draughty) church as our sleeping quarters and the news that we would be holding a workshop the following day was relayed to the community via the football players who were just finishing their game.

Then we noticed we had a flat tyre........Christion (Community Educator) nobly helped change it for us.

That night it was colder than we had anticipated, especially as the walls of the church had great holes in them! We were glad of the extra blankets Jeni provided for us, and Christion slept inside a tent erected for him, inside the church. Worikar bedded down on a mat in one corner and we stuck six benches together as a bed and used our inflatable camping matresses. Washing in cold water was a challenge, Woreka insisted on hot water from the kitchen! Wise move. Rupert wore 3 shirts in bed that night and two pairs of socks. Our silk sheet bags from Vietnam helped keep us cosy. (Thanks MC and Mike!)

The following day we were asked if we would give a talk to the school children on healthy living. Woreka spoke to them about cleanliness and hand washing (worms!) and I gave a short talk on healthy diet.

The workshop was divided into 2 groups, men and women, about 30 participants in all. There was a lot of interest, many questions and we finished late. Next day as Woreka and Rupert held an informal clinic, Christion and I were able to talk to groups of people who wandered into the village as they had heard there might be a workshop going on.

 

This group photo has a delightful Victorian resonance about it. Here are the ample ladies clutching their certificates grouped in front of the Presbyterian church and Annie stands out as their mentor. One wonders what effect it will have.

 

We were anxious to leave before lunch as we were worried about getting home in one piece.

Luckily the truk held out. We arrived back without mishap and were relieved to hand it over to Raoule to fix it up whilst we went to Torba (Torres and Banks islands) for a couple of weeks..........