off to pentecost tomorrow

Welcome to another beautiful morning in Vanuatu, this is my seventh day in port vila and we are set to leave tomorrow morning for Penetcost when the adventure really being I suppose. After a relatively smooth start to the week there have been some ups and downs in the last few days that have caused a few differences of opinions in the group. On Thursday we got our letters from the ministry to take to the visa office. This all went really well and before we knew it we have residency permits stamped in our passports; apparently we are government officers.

On Thursday afternoon Katie and I went to the airport to pick up a box she had had delivered from the UK containing teaching supplies and stationary for the school. This venture turned into a bit of a calamity, we ended up running from one government building to another in an attempt to get tax exemption on the box on the basis that it was for educational purposes. This caused no end of problem and worries as it looked as if we would not be able to retrieve the box before we departed for Pentecost. Fortunately we were able to use one of our contacts in Vila to help us out on Friday. In the end we decided just to pay the tax on the box and try and claim it back later. When asked what the cost of the items in the 26kg box was apparently AUS$3 was an acceptable answer so tax plus handling charges came to about AUS$2 which was a good results.

I have been a little under the weather the last day or so. It is a reaction to the anti-malaria pills I am taking. It happened in the first week when I took them as a trial in the September and then wore off in the next few weeks even though I continued to take them. It is just my body getting used to the drugs and I anticipated it and am not worried by it. I feel fine now just wasn’t nice for a day or so. For this reason Friday was spend in front of the TV and playing poker on James blackberry.

On Saturday morning we ran around town trying to pick up the last few bit we needed in town before our flight. Shops close here at twelve midday on Saturday and all of Sunday. In the afternoon we went Barry’s for lunch. Barry is an old retired ex-pat (with an MBE) who lives here in the most amazing location. His house is quite basic but his balcony over looks the whole of Vila and the bay it is possibly the best view in the whole of Vila. We had a nice lunch and he had many guests who were good to talk to as most had spend a good amount of time in vila and had good stories about what Vila used to be like. We also met a lady called Sarah who is deputy head of the peace corps in Vanuatu and used to be based in Melsisi on Pentecost. She was able to give us lots of advice and some first hand accounts of melsisi who those teaching there. In the evening we went to the Nakamal with the deputy head of melsisi and the minister of education for Vanuatu. After having been ill I decided to opt out of kava on this occasion while the other with some hesitance dived in. The girls had a shell each while James had three! He had two of these with the Minister of education who decided not to sit with the group, I assume because we are mostly girls and I was not drinking. The VP of melsisi only speaks French so as does three of group and two other understand a fair amount. I was the only one there who understood absolutely nothing!

The differences of opinion we have been having surround the decision of the government to delay the start of the school year until the 15th Feb because of exam problems. Discussion has been about delaying our arrival on Pentecost and the option going somewhere else before term starts ranging from another island to another country. As it stands we are going to Pentecost on Monday for a few days and then possibly off to Santo in the west of maybe even the Banks Islands further north. Another option, which I am more for, is to spend the time exploring Pentecost. We will at some point get island fever and want to get off Pentecost at these time a trip to Santo, the Banks Island or Tanna would be a great holiday. However exploring Pentecost will probably be the last think we want to do and so now I feel is the best time to do it. We are all packing at the moment and will discuss it later I assume.