Chris's 10th Birthday Party

 Tony and Mary emptied out the shop for Chris's party.

 Mahana wasn't well, but you can't keep a 2yr old down. She was keen to be in the thick of it, compete with handbag.

 Food for the children,

 and food for the adults - taro, manioc, chicken, beef, fish, salad.

 Topped off by a big chocolate cake and ice cream.

Martyn wasn't well enough to go next door, but he did enjoy a bit of rice with the sauce from the beef dish. Tony and Mary have been amazing -  they are so concerned about Martyn not being well, asking after him every day and bringing us food for him to try to get his strength back, and it was Tony who took us in his truck to the hospital.

 I have made a small start on doing some actual QS work over the lasts 2 weeks. The project above is a small hostel and training centre which the Presbyterian Women's Mission Union have been fundraising for for 8 years! So far I have only been able to identify essential info missing from the plans drawn by a local man with unknown level of training, but this week I must make a start on doing at least approx quantities for them so they can get an idea of the material costs.

The second project is a new office building for the Presbyterian Church. It is an ambitious project, 4 storeys on a cliff-side site overlooking the harbour. Once again, they want me to measure quantities so they can get a materials quotation. This one will probably be built in stages, as money becomes available.

 It's not all doom and gloom though. This spider has made its web on our clothes line, and formed a perfect X out of white zigzag machine stitching!

 I saw these lovely flowers on the side of the road on the way to the shops,

and this creeper similar to Monstera deliciosa climbing up a tree. I don't think Grandma's one at Bell Rd got quite that big.

 We had some good heavy rain and a thunder storm yesterday late afternoon. Lightning and thunder very close together! Unfortunately it didn't cool things off as we had hoped.

 Young Chris decided to have an outdoor shower, till the storm got too close and I told him to get in under cover.

This morning our road looked like this again. It had dried out quite a bit over the last week.

After the dream start, we've had a small setback. Martyn has been ill for several days with some kind of flu with gastro elements to it. Had to take him to hospital to get an injection to stop him dry retching. He is recovering very slowly in this heat.

I have put a mattress on the floor so he can catch the breeze - it is very hot in the bedroom even with the fan on full.

Neville and Gloria have been brilliant, so supportive, bringing medicine, special food and drink, and loving encouragement. When I hear their noisy quad bike approaching, I think, "Thank you Lord, here come the cavalry!" Thanks to everyone else for their prayers too :)

Touch Rugby at 3.00 pm, 30 degrees. Those Ni Vans are committed to their game. They are playing on Independence Park, beside where we work at the PCV Office

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This is the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu song, and programme, in Bislama.  Some words you should be able to work out yourself, it is a phonetic language

The village had a blue building. It is a chiller for the local fishermen to store their catch.  It had solar panels for electricity.  There is also diesel powered electricity for the village.  In Vanuatu a lot of electricity is generated by diesel. There is an increasing number of wind generated sites and solar generation as well.

And of course we are in Vanuatu and that involves stunning scenery.  This is the bay that the village is situated on,  the island in the distance is Hat Island. It has a interesting history involving Chief Roi Mata, to find out more Google Hat island Vanuatu.

And the lunch supplied. Good fellowship and friendship is always helped with food. My plate has manioc, rice, smoked fish, chicken wings and bok choy. Very yummy it was too, thank you to the ladies of Mangaliliu village.

We marched into the village to be given an official welcome.  I had a video of the dancers, but I haven't been able to load it.

Martyn attended the Assembly Executive Meeting today.  the meeting is held every three months and one coincides with the annual assemble (usually held around August).  He was welcomed by the Executive to the PCV.

 Tried watching Netflix last night in our own mini cinema. Got 15 min into Captain Phillips before it just wouldn't go no more.

Had a visitor in the office this morning. It's completely harmless, but as it would easily cover the palm of my hand, I'm keeping my feet up on the chair feet! (That is Annette had her feet up - Martyn) Glad we haven't seen any anywhere near as big at the flat yet.

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 Our landlords are Tony, Mary, Mahana (2) and Chris (9). They have been so good to us, getting things fixed in the flat that don't work, giving us fruit and veg, and on Sunday afternoon they took us to Eton Beach for a swim and BBQ. They have been very reticent in the past about interacting too closely with their Western tenants as they feel they can't match our expectations, but we have vigorously reassured them and they have bravely opened up to us. We hope to learn a lot from them and be able to share a few of our ways with them.

We had to pinch ourselves to make sure it was real, not just a dream! The water was a mixture of cool river and warm sea. The BBQ was chicken wings cooked over an open fire, with bread rolls. My camera battery ran out before I got a photo of it :(

We have started attending the International Church and we are getting good meaty, Bible-based teaching there, a lot like at home. They have a mixture of many nationalities in the congregation, a big Sunday School and a good music group. And plenty of ceiling fans - most necessary!

 We have been trying out some local food - here are pumpkin tops which make a good green leafy vegetable. You have to peel each stem so it takes a while to prepare.

 These are oranges, not as strong in flavour as ours but very nice. When we described our oranges to Tony and family, we all agreed that these ones should be called 'yellow-greens'.

 Tony gave us a poulet fish for our dinner one night. It was whole and had been gutted, but not scaled. Martyn didn't want to scale it inside and there is nowhere outside that won't attract lots of flies and cats, so we baked it whole in foil and just peeled back skin and all. It was very good. We froze the head and bones till rubbish day which is today - hope it got taken!

We work partly under torchlight in the evening until our ceiling fan/light gets fixed. Story about that to follow.

 Our landlord Tony has several trees around the edge of the property and we are allowed to help ourselves to the fruit. See bananas ripening at top of photo.

 There are several pawpaws too. They grow like weeds everywhere.

Graeme, see how big the pawpaw you planted 2 years ago has grown!

 Sorry this is out of order, but here we are arriving at Bauerfield Airport, Port Vila on 11th March.

And about to step into our flat and make it home away from home.