The weapon of choice for psychologists is ‘the couch’ with probing questions. Here a shot of gin and some manioc crisps loosens the body and mind – should

a smidgen of tension have snuck in – a falling coconut close by perhaps. Suitably slung after work one day I witnessed the daughter of a neighbour entertaining her little brothers – what fun not to have a telly to dull the senses! A rustic sight that seemed worthy of a click – photo on left.

Goat Under Frangipani Tree

This same family are the proud owners of Whisky, the goat. The effects of the drought meant that his normal set of circular domains, roped to various trees around their house, were getting bare so they popped him under our Frangipani tree. Although dry, there is a bit of vegetation to keep Whisky fed for a week or so – and he doesn’t take water with it. If you zoom in you’ll see him more clearly and beyond, the pale yellow fields that were lush and green only a month ago. More on this troubling drought on the next brief piece.

On the map above, you will see the main town of Santo, Luganville, in the south east corner. This has a population of 13,000, the second largest conurbation in Vanuatu. On 7 September we moved 11 kms up the east coast road to the VARTC (Vanuatu Agricultural Research & Technical Centre) farm.

Living out here is great and we brought a couple of dirt bikes out from NZ to get in and out of town and to explore Santo on. They’re not exactly tigers but they buzz us along the roads, the warm wind of motion whistling through light clothes. The sights, the smells, the motion, the warmth – it’s hard not to grin like a man deranged – such is the sense of freedom and feeling alive.

The home page shot is of Port Olry, a beautifully unspoilt little paradise we discovered back in January – developers, please stay away. On a Sunday in August, soon after extracting our wheels from

customs, we headed 60 kms up the east coast road to this jewel. Louise had to drop something off on the way and upon my arrival at Chez Louis, the beach volleyball court was being graced by the contestants in the Miss Sanma beauty contest. The icing on the cake you might say. This is an idyllic place for friends and family that come out to see us to do some serious chilling out. Hopefully, our first friends to come and stay, Dagy and Carol, will be persuaded to go up there with us for a night – coming soon in late October.

Flying into Port Vila

As stated previously, The Good Oil is Jeremy’s account of life in Vanuatu with the most recent postings to the site being uppermost.

On Sunday 12 July we arrived in Port Vila, capital of Vanuatu and home to 50,000 people. Cyclone damage was visible from the plane as we approached the airport.

There were excited exchanges with other volunteers as luggage was collected,  customs cleared, new Sim Cards bought and off to our 2-night digs. Our orientation began with a welcome dinner with all the other VSA volunteers based in Vila. Breakfast was by the pool on Monday morning before David Nalo, VSA Program Officer for Vanuatu, ushered us into the capital’s main (and only) ANZ branch to open banks accounts. These same accounts are still not operative as we move into August due it seems to the delightful ANZ employee taking a holiday after placing our elongated forms into a splendid manila folder. Things take a little longer here.

Tuesday morning saw us fly up to our final destination of Luganville, the main town of the island of Espiritu Santo. The big blue VSA ute sped us to our accommodation.

VSA have contracted TEKS (Traditional Education & Kalja Support) to produce and deliver our Orientation program – we are the guinea pigs. Accordingly our Bislama lessons started on 15 July. Essentially, the program spans 3 weeks and comprises mornings of lessons and afternoons at our respective workplaces. The lessons alternate between Bislama and Ni-Van culture (“Kalja”). Initially we were taught Bislama by Lionel, whose main occupation is as a PADI Dive Instructor with Allan Power Dive Tours. We had plenty of interests in common, including hand bags – we’re in deep discussion on the subject in the photo to the left. In the first week Amy, a newbie VSA Volunteer based in Port Vila was with us for the program. Louise has a photo on her site (www.travelswithpinkel.wordpress.com) showing the earnest students at work. Below is the second week class, (minus Amy).

This web site titled The Good Oil will be my means of keeping friends up to date with our goings on in Vanuatu that is, from the perspective of Jeremy Thompson. There will be the challenges, joys, triumphs and set backs of helping to build an efficient supply chain for Coconut Oil and other products. Then there will be the building of relationships and recreational life on Santo. Throughout, life will be enriched by the interplay with Louise as the “Bucket and MrT” team progresses along our two year adventure in Vanuatu, based on Santo. Louise’s perspective will be posted on her own site which I will be able to note on here in the near future.

Extricating ourselves from our entrenched lives in Canterbury proved to be a lengthy process, culminating in the final week “at home” which was intense. On the Tuesday we moved ourselves to the cottage of our friends and neighbours, Ken and Averil. On the Wednesday the removals firm took our retained house possessions off to a 40 foot shipping container. On Thursday and Friday we got the house set up for the Big Farewell Fundraising “Off to Vanuatu Party”. Thank you to all those members of family and friends that helped make this 90 people bash such a success. The photo above shows me with an introductory “thank you” (“Tanku Tomas” in Bislama) speech to sponsors and gathered guests.

  The photo alongside shows the Auction in full progress with Jono engaging with the warmed up guests, exhalting them to ever higher bids, sometimes for items they did not want, while Louise and I parade items for sale.

After a massive clearing and cleaning exercise over the weekend, it was finally time to exit our home of fifteen years, say goodbye to Rocklands (photo below) and head into Christchurch to hand the keys to the real estate firm. Between then and our departure for Vanuatu on Sunday 12 July, we have been homeless nomads, hosted by friends and happily looking ahead to life on the island of Santo, one of eighty-something islands making up Vanuatu.

You are very welcome to learn more about New Zealand’s Voluntary Service Abroad (VSA) by clicking here on the website.

The views expressed on this site are Jeremy’s own and do not necesarily reflect those of VSA.

On Monday afternoon 18 May 2015, it was finally time to leave Rocklands and our beautiful home there.