Combined Effort Dinner

We have John and Rosemaree staying with us again, and seeing as Gloria and Neville are fans of Thai food we invited them over for dinner incorporating Rose's som dum (green pawpaw salad) and baked chicken.

 Gloria made sticky rice in her special steam pot, and also a cabbage soup for dipping the rice into.

 Annette made chocolate brownie and fruit salad for dessert. Good food, good company 😋

Mr Freddy from West Papua

There is a man who comes into the PCV office frequently to work in a tiny corner of an already crowded office. We finally got talking to him the other day and found out he is a political refugee from West Papua.

West Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya, has been seeking independence from Indonesian governance for many years. Freddy was once an independence fighter and would be arrested for treason if he returned home. His citizenship has been revoked and he is currently stateless. Vanuatu is one of many nations who support the cause of West Papua to be independent, and has given him temporary shelter here. He is recognised as a refugee by UNHCR, and he has applied for a humanitarian visa from both Australia and New Zealand. While he is here he no means of support other than donations.

It is hard to imagine him as a jungle fighter, he is smaller than me (Annette), but maybe that is an advantage.

Improvements at the Flat
Our old basin tap got the wobbles, so that it became a 2 hand job to turn it on and off - a bit tricky when you are also trying to hold your toothbrush!

 A new tap that was surplus to requirements came our way - a small blessing. With Tony's approval we got Yowelle to install the new one for us. It operates at the touch of a finger now 😀.

We also built a pantry for our kitchen.  We didn't have a pantry, all our pantry items such as spices, herbs, flour etc for cooking plus the breakfast items including, sugars etc were stored on our kitchen bench.  This didn't give us much room for anything else on the bench.  We looked around for something to purchase to use.  We couldn't find anything to use as a pantry storage , or if we did find something it was expensive and didn't really suit what we wanted.  So being of a "How difficult can it be ?" approach we started planning.  We wanted something that would sit on the bench and be easily accessible.  So two weeks after finishing our plans and sketches here we are with a workable pantry. It cost us around 7,200 Vatu about NZ$80.00


The preparation painting the timber.  The timber is dry at this stage.  we spent a week drying it and turning it regularly during the drying process.

Paint drying, see the high tech drying racks (toilet paper rolls)

Our kitchen bench is multi purpose. It served as a work bench as well

First assembly before applying the final coat of paint

Unit assembled and checking the location for the wall brackets

Drilling the walls for the plugs.  The building is made of concrete, including internal walls.  John D you may recognise the drill.  This is one of the two drills that John Dennis has given to be used in Vanuatu. We have yet to find someone to give them to, we are also waiting for their cases to arrive with our next two visitors in June.

Wall brackets mounted, this unit will not fall down.  Well engineered to the extreme, typical  Vincent style.

Brackets and pantry come together nicely, thank you God you answered our prayers.

Pantry stacked and ready to use , phew.

Good News Story

Today Pastor Allen called Martyn and me outside to be part of an impromptu dedication of a new truck. The owner is one of two young men who have been working in Cromwell on the Recognised Seasonal Employment (RSE) scheme. Every Wednesday John, the one in the middle, would put his prayer for a truck for his village on a piece of paper and drop it into a prayer box somewhere in Cromwell, and pray for it himself too of course. When he received his full payment at the end of the time he had worked, it was way more than what the workers can usually earn over the same period. He used the money to buy the truck in Vila and now has to get it by boat up to his village, Likon, on the north side of Ambrym Island. He is pictured here with Peter on the left and Moses on the right. All of them have been RSE workers at some time.

They wanted Pastor Allen to bless and dedicate the truck to be used for the good of the village.

L-R: Peter, Moses, Pastor Allen, John, me, Elder Kalopa, and Elder Job who comes from Ambrym but works here in Vila. Martyn was on the other side of the camera. We only got in on the act because we are Kiwis, and this amazing blessing came through working in NZ. It will be the first truck ever to be owned by this village, so it will make a big difference in their lives, carrying people and all kinds of goods.

Graduation Ceremony for Teachers and Principals
On Friday afternoon we were expected to attend a graduation ceremony for teachers and principals who had completed a Certificate in Leadership and Management. As many PCV staff as possible were there to show support and encouragement.

 Our boss Pastor Allen Nafuki was one of the speakers, and also presented the certificates.

Their robes are much prettier and lighter weight than our black ones.

The course was run by the PCV Education Authority - one of Martyn's 2 room mates at the office is Jonathan who leads the PCVEA. We've never seen him dressed up so smartly - he quipped that he was getting married.

Family members of the graduates festoon them with leis and stoles.

The ceremony was held at

which is in an interesting building complex. Members of the public can make meal reservations and be served by students in hospitality training, just like at Wintec in Hamilton.

 The roof trusses on this part extend out over the verandah onto tapered concrete columns.

I saw on a previous visit that the roof had been badly damaged by Pam - it's good to see it is being repaired now.

This little guy is so cute, suddenly realising he was caught in the photo!

We didn't get served a meal there, but Martyn got a tomato sandwich, which is something we haven't had in long time. I missed out - too busy taking photos.

Construction next door

Building work continues at Tony's house - some new internal walls,



and a new concrete beam above the blockwork wall.

Productive Weekend at the Flat

Saturday was a good day for getting cleaning and odd jobs done at the flat. Martyn bravely tackled the nasty cobweb and dust unpleasance above the kitchen cupboards - it looks so good now 😀.

 We did lots of washing, swept and mopped the floor. I also swept up termite dust from the bottom of our wardrobe - an almost daily task. Don't know if you can see it on the shelf but it looks like sand scattered everywhere. We get to know where they are dropping, and we have to put things where are they are out of the direct line of fire - hence these toiletries clustered in the one spot that doesn't get showered with dust on this shelf.

 This is how much I swept off that one shelf.

 On Sunday after church the rain set in again, but in the afternoon it had eased off enough to carry on with some jobs. We are going to build some shelves above the bench in the kitchen (not the sink bench but the one that sticks out into the room), to be our pantry. At the moment all our groceries are stacked on the bench which is not ideal. Note the toilet rolls pressed into service to sit the boards on, and also the lack of primer - it was proving too expensive to get just a small quantity, so we decided we don't actually need it. My workbench on the front terrace is a set of metal shelves that Neville found for us to clean up and use as a bookcase. Turned on its side it makes a good temporary bench!

The bookcase will be the next project after the pantry shelves.

Martyn also installed several hooks on our bedroom wall so we can hang our bags and hats. These items were previously in the spare bedroom, but with John and Rose due back soon and Nicola and Jai at the end of June, we want to keep the bedroom ready at short notice. It will soon be time for teams from NZ and Australia to start arriving, and emergency accommodation with us may be needed on occasion if their other plans fall through.

Rainy Season Not over Yet

After a few lovely days we are a bit disappointed to be still in the rainy season - we thought maybe the dry season had started, but no. It can be nice in between showers, but some of the showers are downpours.
This morning there was one, just as the previous Commissioner of Police was being formally farewelled and the new one welcomed at Independence Park just across the road from the PCV office.

The parade had to go on though. Martyn says he knows now why brass instruments are made of brass - it's so they don't rust when you have to play them out in the rain.

The Police, Navy and Vanuatu Military Force are all there.

Wednesday at Onesua 

The workshop is continuing throughout the week for the teachers and trainers at Onesua and it's sister campus Epule, but I am only there for some of the days. The staff are all working on setting up course information in line with the Vanuatu Qualifications Authority, with lots of help from Jerrol and occasional help from me. I travelled up and back with Elder Jara in his car today - it doesn't handle the holes as well as the Ranger so it was a slow journey - 1 1/2 hrs.

 The workmen have finished off some of the science lab ceilings with battens over the joints, still some more to go.

 Malcolm and Margaret Campbell visited the college today. Malcolm was the education officer for PCV for most of the 1960s, and one of his roles was to appoint teachers for the schools run by PCV including Onesua. They came to visit PCV in Port Vila this week to bring archive material that they thought should live here in Vanuatu, and today they were doing a drive around the island. What an amazing couple.

Back to Work on Monday!

After a lovely restful Mothers' Day it was back into it for both Gloria and me.
Gloria was up at 4am for a flight up to Malekula Island for dental outreach. I was off to Onesua at the opposite side of our island Efate for a workshop on curriculum writing with some of the teaching staff.

The presenter Jerrol was from the Ministry of Education and Training. I had already met him and he is a good presenter. He spoke mostly in Bislama, but because he was speaking fairly slowly and using lots of English terms, I understood most of it. All the power point slides were in English too, and a lot of the content was much the same as I was dealing with at Wintec.

I travelled up and back with Neville who was taking a work gang up to replace ruined ceiling panels in the science labs. They worked all day and finally stopped once it got dark. The road had lots of potholes and rough patches, so although it roughly 70km from Vila, it takes about an hour whichever way around the island you go. I found out it takes even longer in the dark by the time you slow down for people walking along the roadside (almost no reflective gear here), and there's often a dog to dodge and occasionally a pig. It was a long day. Martyn had a tasty but rather frizzled dinner waiting when I got home. He had had a long day at the office too.

See jonesmissionvanuatu.blogspot.com for more detail of Neville and Gloria's happenings.

Mothers' Day Treat

I had a lovely surprise on Mothers' Day - Martyn and Neville had a treat in store for Gloria and me.
We went to church as usual, then had a good coffee at the Grand Hotel, looking out over a swimming pool and the harbour, then we got the ferry over to Iririki Island, only 5 minutes boat ride from downtown.

There we had a lovely lunch and a swim in a beautiful pool. Thanks boys!
Later when we got back to the flat, we phoned our Mums, and Skyped with our girls. All that was missing was the hugs - they'll get sick of me making up for all those when we finally get home 😏

At the jetty waiting for the ferry back, we saw this beautiful tiger fish, just hangin. It was about 30cm long including all the frills.

Big Crab and Fire Show

Neville and Gloria's daughter Anna was visiting last week so we all went out for dinner on Thursday night, John and Rosemaree came too. We saw this very big coconut crab at the restaurant, still very much alive and rearing up whenever anyone got close. Those pincers would easily take your finger off!

 John and Rose flew up to Malekula on Friday afternoon for about 2 weeks, but N, G, Anna and we went to the fire dance at Mele Beach on Friday night for Anna's last night here. We had all seen these performers before at various locations around Port Vila, but the show they do on the beach is the best. Very athletic, fun and spectacular.

The group is called Vanua Fire which started as an amateur group. After getting help from Wan Smol Bag Theatre to get them started they are now self-supporting. They perform almost every night of the week at different resorts, varying the show dependent on the location. The beach location allows them to use a tall steel frame so they can show off their considerable acrobatic skill.

On Friday we got mail! Very exciting, thank you family and friends 😀. It's always lovely to hear news from home.