Beautiful Erromango - Day 2

I realised I should tell you a bit about Erromango. It is the fourth largest island in Vanuatu but only has a population of about 2,000. It's near neighbour Tanna is slightly smaller but has about 30,000 people!

  

It is only a 40 minute flight from Port Vila, or several hours by boat. It has 2 small airports, one on each side of the island, but no road connecting them, and only a few dirt roads. It has a very interesting history which may be partly responsible for its slow rate of development so far, but I won't go into that here. The government have pledged to build a road across the island and upgrade the existing roads in the near future - I hope they do it soon as it will make a big difference for them. 

Bron and I had a very productive meeting with the school council, shown here. They are all passionate about Williams Bay School, and several have served for 10 years or more. They have big  plans to build a library/computer room, a kindy, and a girls' dormitory so they can start taking boarders. A boys' dorm will follow later. They are working hard, but everything has to come in by boat and building materials are expensive. The whole village helps out with labour. 

Their kindergarten building was destroyed by TC Pam so the preschool children currently meet elsewhere in the village, under a tarpaulin on a pebble floor with mats over it.

Here is their sand-pit.

And here are some of the children having a snack break in a UINCEF tent which they also use.

The primary part of the school is in much better condition, but they are very short of books and all sorts of other resources.

The primary school teachers were really lovely. Bron and I had a lovely walk through the village with the 2 ladies on the right, Sabrina standing, and Anita sitting. It was a great opportunity to learn a bit about what life is like for them.

The senior school classrooms are also in reasonable condition but their furniture is very worn and resources are very sparse. 

They have been given some new computers which are currently set up in one of the senior classrooms. Their solar power system is only strong enough to run 1 or 2 at a time, and I'm not sure what they do when other classes want access to them.

 They have a generator, but this is situated on the opposite side of the field from the senior classrooms and office.

Here is the power cord that stretches right across the field from the senior side to the where the generator is. For safety, the principal only turns on the generator outside of school hours, to run the printers in the office. The solar system is not grunty enough for these.

Agriculture is one of the subjects for the senior school, and each afternoon they spend a half hour tending a large plot which they have erected a fence around by themselves to keep out the resident cattle.

Acting Principal Billy Singo with one of his daughters. He is a very dedicated and lovely man, doing a great job in very trying circumstances. He has been waiting a long time to partner with someone to speed up progress for the school, so he was really delighted to host Bron and me.