The Long Arm of the Law

On Thursday the police carried out a series of road blocks to check on vehicle registration, insurance and drivers licences.  In Vanuatu the annual registration of vehicles occurs in March.  So the police carry out a series of checks in April and May to ensure vehicles and drivers comply with the law.  Even though there is an advertising campaign to remind people to register and insure their vehicles to make the public aware, some don't take notice. In Vanuatu all vehicles must carry proof of registration papers, proof of insurance and drivers must carry their licence. Instant fines on each item if you don't have them with the vehicle.

 The vehicles that failed to comply with the law were impounded.  The police compound wasn't big enough for all vehicles, so the spare parking land by the Convention Centre was used to impound the vehicles. This photo was taken on Friday, after a good number of the vehicles were reclaimed by the owners after they paid the fines, and registered and/or insured their vehicles.  I would estimate that there were at least 150 vehicles in the pound on Thursday night.

Onesua High School, North Efate

While I (Martyn) was at Onesua I took a few photos of the school and the teachers attending the retreat. 

For those of you geographically challenged , Onesua is on the North East of Efate Island, About 50 to 60 minutes drive from Vila. We go clockwise around to Onesua. The driving time is about the same in either direction.

Black and white paintings around one of the class room, characters in history.  They were well done, a good way maybe to interest students in history

The roof in the school assembly hall, I was fascinated by the trusses, to me looks good and strong to resist the force of cyclones. Notice the wires hanging from the roofing steel.  Looks like lights used to be fitted there, I would like to know what the wiring above the steel looked like.  There didn't appear to be a second layer of roofing steel.

Class of May 2018. All the teachers attending the end of retreat photo. Bon Voyage back to your schools.

Teachers Conference Retreat at Onesua High School

This week the principals and teachers from the PCV run schools attended a conference in Onesua High School.  I was helping on various days to drive the PCV truck to deliver bags and take various people to Onesua from Vila

I was also presenting a finance paper to principals and deputy principals on Tuesday morning

On Sunday we transported the teachers and baggage to Onesua. This is one of the 4 buses used to transport the participants to Onesua from Vila. They are Chinese made buses that the Chinese Government donated to Vanuatu to use during the Pacific Games held here in December last year.

Johnny Albert (PCV) in the cap directing the loading of the passengers

Loading up baggage onto the PCV truck.  The buses did not have any baggage storage area (I drove the truck to Onesua)

Baggage arrived and stacked ready for the teachers to collect

We went back on Tuesday to transport Shirley Anton to Onesua. Shirley presented a series of training workshops on grammar. Shirley and her husband Don were living in Vanuatu in 2016 and lived in our flat. They also spent time in the Talua Theological College on Santo teaching English

The booklet Shirley prepared for here presentation .

On Tuesday morning I presented my paper on Finance in Schools and the Principals Financial responsibilities

The Principals and Deputy Principals from my training class

I took the opportunity to let Jonathan Tarip (PCV EA Secretary) to drive the truck while I enjoyed a ride outside the cab.

On the way back from Onesua there was a spectacular sunset.

Passport Nambawan

Randall Prior and his wife Heather were in Vanuatu last week. They have been working in Vanuatu for many years.  They were visiting from Australia for the release of a book called Passport Nambawan. They have been involved in the writing of the book.  It is a book about a Ni Vanuatu leader and the independence period in 1980's.  He was issued with the first passport after independence and that was passport number one.  So that was used for the title of the book

Here Randall and Heather are presented gifts by Melody Avok (Financial Secretary PWMU) and Cindy Vanuaroro (General Secretary PWMU)

Left to right Cyriline Bani (former General Secretary PWMU), Melody Avok, Randall prior, Heather Prior and Cindy Vanuaroro.

And the after function food...... (though the banana skins are green, they are ripe)

Locally-Made Toothpaste Trial

Another project I have been working for the last 2 weeks is a trial of a toothpaste that could be made in Vanuatu out of coconut oil and finely crushed coral with a few other ingredients. 

The project is an initiative of PCV Health with assistance from a dedicated group of Australian supporters passionate about the poor oral health situation in Vanuatu. Dr Barry Stewart has been leading the charge, coming armed with the first batch to be tried out on 3 classes in 3 age-groups of children at Central School, just 5 minutes walk from PCV Health. 

Here are some samples - mint plus 2 other secret flavours suited to children's taste, along with a booklet for each child to take home. 

The booklets have a calendar inside and a supply of stickers to encourage the children to brush their teeth every day at home, plus they are all brushing once a day at school as a class, with a similar sticker chart for the classroom. The trial will continue for 3 months, to try to get the children in the habit of brushing twice daily, and making sure that the toothpaste is performing well. Extra toothbrushes have been sent home to try to encourage the whole family to brush. Even in a fairly well-to-do school community it is amazing how many families do not have this healthy habit.

In order to check if this is having a good impact, the level of plaque on the children's teeth is being checked at the beginning of the trial, and will be checked again at the end of 3 months to see if there is any improvement. This is where I come in, reprising my role from last year as a survey recorder for Dr Barry.

A disclosing fluid is given to each child to make any plaque on their teeth show up bright pink. This helps the examiners and lets the children see where they are not brushing well. Teaching them how to brush well is a big part of it, as we have seen already that just brushing more often does not always result in less plaque.

Sarafina, Morinda and Bob  from PCV Health have all been conducting a short questionnaire with the children and they will do follow-up visits to the school over the 3 months of the trial.

Dental staff from the Vila Central Hospital have assisted with examinations and recording the data. Dr Jenny (recording) and hygienist Lilyanne (examining) are shown here, also Dr Gaddi and Primilla were helping.

Here is the whole team with class 1B who are very enthusiastic participants.

In late July, we will check the children's teeth again, and if there is a good improvement, it is hoped that production of Vanuatu toothpaste will begin. Of course there will be lots of logistics and issues to be sorted out, but at least this first stage is well underway.