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).