Home Again

So here we are back in Hamilton nearly 2 weeks later, and the time has flown. Everything seems to happen so fast here in comparison to the measured rhythyms of Port Vila, where at the moment it is just too hot to think of hurrying! So it's good to take a moment and reflect on our time there before it gets swallowed up in busy-ness.

Some things we love about Port Vila:

Shopping at the market and fully ripened taste of the fruit and vegetables

The wonderful friendly people, riding in clunky old buses never knowing where you might detour to on your way,

The harbour, hardly ever feeling cold,

The many local and expat friends we have made and a wonderful sense of anything being possible.

Some of the things we love about coming home:

Being with our family again, home comforts, not having to put insect repellent on after every shower or swim (Annette only, Martyn hardly got bitten at all), not feeling sweaty even through the night!

Until the Lord sends us back again, Lukem Yu Vanuatu.


PS this is the view from the back of our home looking at the park.  This is after 8 weeks of no rain to speak of, and not much before that.

Our Farewell 21 February 2020

3:45am the alarm went off to start our day to catch the 6:30am flight from Bauerfield International Airport to return to New Zealand after three wonderful weeks in Vanuatu.  Our bags were packed before we went to bed.  So a quick wakeup and last tidy up and last minute packing. We quietly left the house to meet our ride to the airport.  Jonathan Tarip kindly offerred to take us to the airport.  (did he want to make sure we caught the flight I wondered 😁)

Jonathan at the airport saying goodbye.

Hustle and bustle at checkin, a number of RSE workers on their way to NZ or Aussie

Toilet stop on the way, this is a sliding door into the toilet with a snib lock 🤥. Needless to say I kept a close eye on the door.

Boarded and ready to depart, farewell Vanuatu, bae mitufala lukem yu  

Last Day for This Trip

We made our way by bus to our separate offices for our last day working in Port Vila. I got all the documents that go in the students' gift bags (immunisation chart, blood pressure chart etc) confirmed and got Jonathan to print them ready for Cyrilline to laminate later. The students will each be given a bag of things to help them in their role on completion of the course. A set of 6 health posters will be included, donated by PCANZ and printed in NZ on very tough synthetic paper to hopefully resist the ravages of the humid climate. 

I'm very glad that Cyrilline is feeling much more confident about her role as administrator now. I've just been searching for a photo of Cyrilline, Judy and me - we had such fun together - but I can't find it anywhere 😞.

I planned to just say goodbye and leave quietly but I wasn't allowed to do that. Elder Jara gave a speech, then one of the students spoke on behalf of them all, 

  

and another one presented me with a local dress.

Then it was my turn to speak, so I encouraged these young people to really speak out the good health message they are learning and not be shy. I shared with them what one of my trainers taught me on becoming a tutor at Wintec - say in a loud voice "I claim this space!" and I got them to say it with me, except in Bislama it goes something like "Hemi spes blong mi!" (This space is mine). I hope that's the message they got our of what I said 😂.

What a privilege to once again be involved in helping the wonderful people of Vanuatu in even a small way. We have to return home but a our prayers stay with them. Thanks be to Papa God, all the glory is His.

Mega Gymnasium

I met with Julie and her daughter Jennifer for a treat down by the harbour today. Jennifer was in Miss Gloria's reading class where I got to know her in 2017 and 2018.

But before we went down harbourside, Julie took me on a detour to see her brother to unlock her phone 😂. Her brother supervises a huge new gymnasium still under construction on the hill just next door to Epauto High School. It is massive! It is being built by local people but Julie's brother wasn't too sure who funded it - possibly the Trans Pacific Union Mission.

 The school has an agreement to use it on Wednedsays, and I saw some children playing volleyball, and some playing soccer.

 Curioulsy there was a whole lot of hospital type beds there as well so I asked Julie's brother how come? He said they were due to go out clinics and health centres but there was some problem (surprise, surprise) so they were being stored there temporarily.

 Offices etc are still being constructed along one end.

Not sure what happened to the middle of this banyan tree close to the gymnasium. 

We only have one more day of working here - time has gone so fast, as we knew it would. We have had some successes and several frustrations. We pray for our last day to be fruitful.

VIP Toilet - Take Two

The VHW participants have been making a VIP toilet this week - VIP stands for Ventilated Improved Pit. I put full details of this in the blog in 2018, so I'll just put a few photos in this time. 

But before you can mix any concrete, you have to sieve your coarse coral sand!

 If ou don't have any tie wire, you have to make it by carefully trimming some out of the mesh!

 Not a bad result, just needs the rough edges chipped off and it's ready for the plastic seat to be attached.

Enforced Rest

Thursday on the VHW course saw the students working on posters or pamphlets to convey information on some common ailments: worms, scabies and impetigo. There are some talented artists among the group.

Friday was not a great day - Martyn came down with diarrhoea during the night so we didn't get much sleep. Also we got a message from our daughters in NZ that our ancient cat Truffle had taken a bad turn during the night and had to be put down. Neither of us went to work that day, we just hung out at the house, low in energy and in spirit. We were very sad for our daughters having to deal with burying Truffle and not being able to be there with them.

Saturday brought some inprovement but we still didn't go out anywhere, just played games and rested. There was a bit more breeze, but we still enjoyed a swim to reduce body temperature for a while.

Sometime during the night, Martyn felt he was really well again - praise God. Earlier in the week, Pastor Dave had commented that they had no worship leader for the Sunday service this week, so I (Annette) foolishly volunteered to stand in. I was praying hard that I would not catch the bug from Martyn and be unable to do this. I am very grateful I haven't caught it so far. 

The back (or front?) of the tent church is formed by a shipping container with a large flap cut in the side, which has to be lowered down to form part of the chancel or stage platform each time there is a service. There is a lot of work to do to set up the the speakers and all their cables, music stands, instruments

and two large projector screens.

From L - R: Julie Wood on keyboard, Anna Harris, Annette, Andy Chapman on drums. I've only just met Andy, but it was a delight to play and sing again with Julie and Anna who I had joined with on our previous times in Port Vila.

Because the tent has no sides, there is usually quite a strong breeze to contend with, hence the clothespegs to prevent the music from flapping about or flying away. 😅

During the service, Martyn gave a short talk on the community aspect of ICC and what it means to him.

Afterwards, all the gear has to be packed back into the container, and the side/stage platform manually pulled back up and locked. Thank the Lord for faithful workers to do these tasks every week so that many people can worship in the tent.

Around the Office and Central Vila School

Now I ( Martyn) am back from Santo I am getting into the accounts for the PCV. Melten has done a good job on the ledger entries and ensuring everything has been filed correctly.  I needed a computer to work on the accounts.  Sharing Melten's computer wasnt an option, I only have another 5 days in the office.

Morris the PCV IT guru set me up with a spare computer, Its running Windows 7, it works, so no complaints from me,

Morris setting the computer up.

Melten working at the accounts.

Yesterday we met Aida Avok our dear friend. Since we last saw her in 2018 she has been to NZ to work as a RSE in Blenheim.  Since her return she has started a new job at the Central Vila School managing the cafeteria.  She manages 4 staff, in a kitchen that  measures about 4m by 8m.  They serve lunches to around 1,000 students.  Aida is on the right of the photo with her staff

Inside the kitchen

New gas oven, boy does it pack out some heat, the ventilation in the kitchen isnt that great on days that are still and 30 degrees or more, then add the humidity which adds around 5 degrees to make it feel like 35 plus.

Hot Tumas

So far the weather has been hot and sticky and raining sometimes, also windy and everything in the Korvan office has to be nailed down or it goes flying. Dave and Julie's pool has been a Godsend each day, but none more so than today. Today there was no wind at all and it was HOT! All the local people we work with were saying how hot it was so it must have been pretty bad. 

I (Annette) have been using insect repellent but they still seem to get me! Martyn hasn't had any bites yet that I know of - he must either taste bad or have thick skin 😆 

Not sure who enjoys the game of 'throw the rubber toy over the fence then fetch' more, Martyn or Raptor.

The pool is full to overflowing due to all the rain we had over the weekend - heavy rain all day Saturday and half of Sunday too, still heavy showers on Monday when Martyn flew up to Santo. Made me wonder how the sky could possibly have so much water in it!

The Korvan watertank sprouted a waterfall off the top as it was also ful to the brim.

 And the grounds became a pond. Amazing how quickly it soaked away through the coral ground afterwards though.

On Monday morning the students were learning about BMI (Body Mass Index) so Cyrilline and I hastily mocked up a height chart so they could actually work out their BMI,

 only to find that the two presenters from the Ministry of Health who arrived an hour later than scheduled had a much more professional one with them 😂

Today the students seemed to enjoy making ORS (Oral Rehydration Solution) for treating dehydration due to diarrhoea among other causes - frequently needed in the villages here.