Two New Projects for Annette

After settling back into Port Vila life again, I was wondering what would fill my days now that the high seas adventure was over. It didn't take too long to find out.

Project 1: Assist a team of elders to prepare a tender.

A Tender I thought. No problem, that's what this Tigger does best! Pooh agreed and suggested that they find Piglet and Eeyore and have some hunny.  However, it's not for a construction project, it's to run a medical training course for the Ministry of Health (MOH). That's a bit removed from the tenders I am used to, but how hard can it be? It's surprising how similar the Conditions of Contract are to construction projects.  

I know almost nothing about the contents of the course, which is to train Village Health Care Workers to work in their isolated villages to help promote good health and provide basic first aid. There is a considerable amount of logistics involved though in getting people from all over the country to Port Vila, accommodation, catering etc for 8 weeks, plus a 2 week placement in various rural clinics around Vanuatu, so I have been tackling it much the same as I would a construction tender. 

Fortunately I had a great team to work with (Elder Jara - Korvan Training School Manager, Elder Jonathan - PCV Education, and Elder Richard - PCV Health), and they have run training courses for MOH before, so they know all the stuff I don't, I'm just helping put it all together. It was due to be submitted on 30th Oct - Martyn's birthday - and unfortunately I was working right up to the wire 😵. This was not helped by the print shop closing for lunch when the deadline was 2.00pm!

Here I am working on it with Jonathan, Jara, Donald (a retired nurse) and Tracey (the nurse who is going to be delivering the course should our tender be successful). Jara and I got it submitted in the nick of time 😅.

Project 2: Assist a team to determine what alterations are possible to the exiting PCV Office Building.
In light of there being a lack of motivation (and finances) to commit to the big flash 4 storey design,  we are looking at alternatives. Apparently the existing structure is strong enough to take another storey on top, however to be on the safe side we are proposing the addition of new columns on new footings around the exterior to support the upper floor load. There is also space to extend outwards along one side and one end, so it looks quite promising, and at significantly less cost than the new building. Still lots of questions and things to consider.