Arrival in Port Vila

Hello from Port Vila. I arrived yesterday after a short flight from Brisbane. Despite Brisbane's subtropical climate the heat but mostly the humidity are quite different here. It is difficult to do anything without ending up a sweaty mess. Everyone is the same and we have decided just not to worry about it as we are all in the same boat and there is no way to avoid it. I flew out with a girl called Susie who was also staying in Brisbane where we were met by an ex-pat lady called Pat and a guy called Barry (who has invited us round for tea on Saturday) Magali, who will teaching English at Melsisi, arrived the day before and was also there to meet us. We waited around the airport waiting for the James, Rhianon and Katie who were all arriving on a later flight from Sydney. We all get on really well so far with a good mix of personalities and I am confident that we will continue to get on through out the year.

Our motel is basic but has everything that we need. It has 6 beds in 3 rooms, kitchen, shower, toilet and large communal room with large dinning table. We have a balcony that looks out onto a football pitch. Today we saw a man mow it using the kind of mower you use for a family home; it took a while! Aside from a smattering of homes and some bad roads the rest of the view is made up of trees and grass including a coconut tree just outside the window.

The roads here are interesting to say the least. The quality of the roads is bad by western standards. At the most they two lanes wide and occasionally there is a pavement on one side of the road; only in the town centre is their one on each side. I have yet to see a traffic light and there is an attempt at a one-way system in the centre of town. To call it the centre of town is a misnomer; it really consists of two parallel streets near the coast with shops. I think they drive on the right given the position of the steering wheel but I have seen people drive all over the place so I think anything goes.

We waited until the evening, when the heat had died down and we had put up our mosquito nets, to venture out into town and have a little look around. We had dinner at a nice air-conditioned place with a Canadian girl that the other guys met on their flight from Sydney. Her luggage was lost by the airline and I think she was glad for the company.

This morning we were taken by Fredric, the technical adviser for the education secretary, to the education department to meet the guy in charge of secondary education and we also met the minister of education for Vanuatu and were given a tour of the buildings. The government has changed the head teachers at the two schools so we needed to get new employment forms to get our visas. Fredric took us to the education services ministry to sort out our visas and it sound like this will be fine we just need to go back on Friday to get our passports stamped. So this sounds like it will all be fine. Also the school term is not going to start until the 15th Feb which is good and bad I am quite sure how I feel about that.

After leaving the ministry we went into town to explore in the daylight for the first time. We went to the big market in town where they sell the most and weird and wonderful fruit and veg. All local produce and cheap when in season. The highlight was the live craps in packs of 10. We picked up some pineapple and melons that we have just had and were fantastic. Also in the market there are little ‘restaurants.’ Women cook food on what is best described as camping/barbeque equipment. The food is fantastic and really cheap. For about £2 I got a plateful of rice and veg and half a fish; it was fantastic. We have decided to return most days and try a different woman’s cooking.

We took a trip to local phone shop to get phones. We bought 3 new phones and two sim cards, I am sure they were pleased to get so much business. Then, like children, we sat around swapping numbers and comparing phones. Also we got messages off our network, Digicell, which are in bislama; so we spent time trying to translate the messages.

When we got back to the motel we all hooked up to the wireless from the nearby owner. Amazingly despite the quality of the rest of the infrastructure there were four wireless networks to choose from. So for an hour or so we have all been antisocial but given the fact it is very easy to feel very far away from home here it is completely understandable. Everyone has been able to make contact back home and feels much better for it.

We have plans to much more tourists stuff for the next few days and try and see the most of vila and maybe go to the north of the island for a look at what proper Vanuatu life is like.

Hope everyone is well and not too cold at home. I hope those of you still off work remain so for a few more days.

Tom