In a few hours I leave for Pentecost again. From which point I will no longer have internet access and my blog posts will stop until may. This week in Santo has been really fun I have visited almost all of santo best beaches and saw amazing coral and fishes, I have met millionaires and rode on speed boats and I have also enjoy the last bits of western food I will get for three months. Unfortunately I have not left myself enough time to detail this week in full. I suppose that shows how much I have been doing and also that I spent this morning watching the super bowl. Dave, if you read this, sorry about the colts hope red bull have a better season. I also managed to watch the Australian open final and was odly disappointed to see murray lose in the end despite being a big federer fan. As you can probably tell I have not done much island stuff this week so can't expand on what I have learned about vanuatu and its culture. Although I meet a man who has four wives and 32 children. I am looking forward to getting back to the school and begining the job that I came out here for. I have been endulging with frequent internet use and western meals and going back to Pentecost might be harder than when I went the first time. Hoefully the arrival the students will distract me from any problems I have adjusting or missing home until I no longer have them. Wish me well and I hope everyone in England is well. To those from Agecroft I will be checking the HORR results when I get back to vila, impress me. By the time I go back to vila the premiership season wil be over (almost) and maybe city have made the top four, we will see. Please feel free to update me on sports results and major news it will be much appreciated, text +6785627580 and my skype name is thomasabuckley (although this is for when I am in Vila)
Speak to you all again soon.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Few quick photos
Just a few quick photos of my house at Ranwadi and one from Champagne beach on Santo. Santo post this weekend, probably.
First week at Ranwadi and getting to Santo
Good morning from Espirito Santo.
My last blog post was a good few weeks ago and quite a lot has happened since then so I have lots to fill you in on.
One of many small hurdles to over come recently was the issue of the domestic weight limit. Air Vanuatu only lets you check in 10kg of free luggage. My international flight let me have 30kg and I know some of the other guys had this and still had to pay excess baggage. So we were quite worried about a huge charge. We had been told it would be fine if we just explained what we were doing. Despite this we came up with various plans and methods of deceiving the staff at check-in. This included getting one of our ex-pat friends to write up a script in bislama explaining what we are doing and how ‘poor’ we all are. As is usually the case with these things it was not that bad at all. The guy at the desk gave us an extra 5kg each and gave us a reduced charge per kilo of excess, so we only paid about £15 each. Which considering we were each carrying about three times the allowed limit is not too bad at all. Particularly for James, whose check-in and hand luggage combined were about 60kg in total. It was quite a novel experience to be weighted myself along with my hand luggage. The plane we went on was a little small and a bit noisy but I guess it could have been worse. I was disappointed that they have put tarmac on the runway on Pentecost, I was looking forward to a grass landing but you can’t have it all.
We were met by the principal of Melsisi college, Eric, who seemed like a nice man although he doesn’t speak English so I have no idea really. I am the only one in the group who doesn’t understand French. The two girls at melsisi obviously can speak it very well, James’s grandparents live in France so he is also able to understand a good amount and have conversations in French. I haven’t heard Katie and Rhiannon talk much French but they seem to understand a lot of what is said.
We all loaded on to the back of Eric’s pickup and set off for Ranwadi. The ‘road’ that runs along the west coast of Pentecost is northing more than a dirty track. In some places it is quite good, but these places are few and far between. Speeds never exceed more than 10 or 15 km/h. After a very bumpy thirty-minute drive, having forded a few rivers along the way, we reached Ranwadi. Due to what I except will be come a typical break down in communication no message had been passed on to Silas Tabi, the principal of Ranwadi, regarding our arrival and as such he was a little surprised to see us.
We were shown to our homes for the next 12 months and we all a little taken aback. I had been expecting basic accommodation, which is exactly what it is, but I was still left slightly speechless. That is not to the say that the house is unliveable, far from it, I think the reality of the situation and the year ahead hit home at that point. James and I are living together in a nice little bungalow with two good sized bedrooms, a lounge/living area, good sized kitchen and a bathroom with a shower. We have a concrete floor but the rest of the house is made from mdf boards so it should stay quite cool but because we have mosquito netting on the windows, which we are grateful for, the air doesn’t circulate very well and it can become quite sticky inside. The whole place was a mess when we got there. The animal life in the jungle had started to take over again, which I think will be a constant battle through out the year, and there was also quite a lot of rubbish in the house too. I took us about two days to get the house to a position where we are reasonably happy living in it and I’m sure we will do more as time goes by. We have a camping stove of sorts to cook on, there is an oven but it is broken. Apparently the water out the tap, which comes from a well, is drinkable but it just tastes horrible. For this reason we have a rainwater tank behind the house which we use for drinking water. The school site consists of a number of dorms where the children stay, canteen, church, offices, library, staff houses and classrooms. While the staff houses are wooden then majority of the school building are concrete but just as basic.
I spent the next week just adjusting to life on Pentecost and exploring the school, particularly the computing room. I have seven computer in my room but five of them don’t work so my first job was to get them sent to Vila to be fixed, hopefully for the start of the term but I doubt they will be back by then.
There has been nothing to do at the school really. When the kids are not there everything shuts down, not that there is much going on anyway. Apart from the principal there were only two teachers there and in the few days we were there they both left to go back to their island for a bit until term starts. We spent some time visiting the other girls at Melsisi and going down to Waterfall, the local village. The old principal Silas Buli lives in Waterfall and he showed us round and introduced us to his family and took us the nakamal (where kava is drunk). He also fed us a few times and officially welcomed us to the village. He introduced us to the church and also in the nakamal, in ni-vanuatu culture to offer someone kava is to offer friendship. Although I was not overly thrilled about drinking kava, I usually abstain from alcohol, I realised if I was ever to be accepted by people it would be necessary to drink, at least at first. The best way I can describe the taste of kava is pepper water, sorry that should be described as dirty pepper water. It is served in a coconut shell and although you don’t have to it is usually downed. Thankfully this makes it easier to drink as you don’t have to taste it and ideally you try to not let it touch your lips. The immediate effect is to make your mouth and tongue numb. Drinking kava is usually followed by some food. This is a good idea. The effect on the rest of the body is noticeable after about 20 mins, depending on how many shells you have. Kava is narcotic and acts as a muscle relaxant. You generally feel quite relaxed, your eyes and limbs feel heavy, and your eyes become sensitive to light and your ears to noise. If you don’t over do it it is actually quite a nice feeling, although we have been warned that if we want to come and drink a few shells we should arrange to sleep in the guesthouse at waterfall, as we won’t be able to walk home!
The consensus was that while exploring Pentecost would be very nice it would be very difficult and potentially troublesome until our bislama is a little better. So we decided to head for Santo instead. Luganvile on Santo is the second city of Vanuatu, while Santo is the biggest island. Initially we thought there was going to be a boat going to Santo in a few days but the schedule has changed and we would have to wait a week to 10 days. Life on Pentecost was little dull but we soon got into a routine. James and I would get up go over the girls for breakfast, always breakfast crackers. We would busy our selves for the morning; I would usually play on the computers seeing what Simon had left me interspersed by minesweeper or FreeCell. I did have some vague ideas about making lessons plans and I did start a scheme of work but nothing too serious. Then back to the girls for lunch. In the afternoon I would maybe read a book or carry on with what ever I was doing in the morning. I could go on but it was not very interesting to do so I doubt it will be interesting to read about.
All in all we were all pretty keen to leave Pentecost and get away for a bit until term starts. We all got packed up on Tuesday and waited for the boat which we were told would be coming in the late afternoon to early evening. We went down to the beach to meet it and only then did the principal tell us that we needed to buy tickets in advance! He said he would talk to captain and see if we could get around it. We couldn’t. The mood was somewhat deflated and we didn’t really know what to do next. The next morning at breakfast we were still a little stunned and wondering how we where going to get to Santo if at all. I was just looking out into the distance and happened to see a boat on the horizon, when the principal told us it was going to Santo we quickly grabbed our bags, still packed from the night before, and ran for the boat. We had to take a small speedboat out to get to it and climbed aboard. Tourists or westerners do not normally visit these cargo boats so we got a few funny looks when we hopped aboard. There were a good number of ni-van as passengers and fair few crew too but the majority of the ship was set aside for cargo. Only once we got on board, on Wednesday morning, were we told we weren’t due into Luganville until Friday morning! Conditions on board are what you would expect really, there was a bench running around the bridge where you could sit during the day (and sleep during the night), food was provided three times a day. Breakfast crackers and tea (black of course) in the morning and the same rice, noodles and tuna meal the other two times. The boat took so long because it stopped at every village on route. Apparently all you need to do at night is light a fire on the beach and the boat will stop. After covering the rest of north Pentecost we then went up the west coast of Maewo and then across via Ambae to Santo. During the day I didn’t find it too bad, there were lots of nice things to see and it was always interesting to see what was unloaded and loaded at the stops; be it just cement and barrels or people with their furniture and bedding to livestock and rain water tanks. Sleeping was a different matter though; floor space became a premium as it got dark, the sides of the boat where a little low so there was always a concern that you might roll off in the night, therefore positioning was crucial. I found it difficult to get any proper sleep but got a good number of hours both nights. I even tried sleeping on the roof of the bridge on the second night as it was empty and reasonably safe but the rain put an end to that idea. I saw so many wonderful things on the boat it made it so worthwhile and made up for any bad sleeping conditions. During the crossing from Pentecost to Maewo we had a small pod of dolphins swim along side for a few minutes, this was certainly a high light. Just getting to experience what life for the vast majority of ni-van was a priceless experience. Less than 50% of ni-vans go to high school, a lot because they can’t afford it, even though it only cost £100 a term. The plane from Vila to Pentecost cost £75, the islands most the children come from will not have direct flight to Pentecost and would have to go through Vila, therefore most of the children at Ranwadi will have got there by boat. By chatting to fellow passenger and seeing many villages and many islands I feel I have a better understanding of ni-van culture and the ni-vans themselves than I ever could have got from an hour flight.
Now I am here in Santo and I plan to enjoy it. I wasn’t as bored in Ranwadi as some people and I found the food much more palatable than others. That being said I will be glad to have some western style food and be able to eat something that hasn’t come straight from a can. Will try and give an update of what I got up to in Santo before I go to Pentecost on the 08/02.
My last blog post was a good few weeks ago and quite a lot has happened since then so I have lots to fill you in on.
One of many small hurdles to over come recently was the issue of the domestic weight limit. Air Vanuatu only lets you check in 10kg of free luggage. My international flight let me have 30kg and I know some of the other guys had this and still had to pay excess baggage. So we were quite worried about a huge charge. We had been told it would be fine if we just explained what we were doing. Despite this we came up with various plans and methods of deceiving the staff at check-in. This included getting one of our ex-pat friends to write up a script in bislama explaining what we are doing and how ‘poor’ we all are. As is usually the case with these things it was not that bad at all. The guy at the desk gave us an extra 5kg each and gave us a reduced charge per kilo of excess, so we only paid about £15 each. Which considering we were each carrying about three times the allowed limit is not too bad at all. Particularly for James, whose check-in and hand luggage combined were about 60kg in total. It was quite a novel experience to be weighted myself along with my hand luggage. The plane we went on was a little small and a bit noisy but I guess it could have been worse. I was disappointed that they have put tarmac on the runway on Pentecost, I was looking forward to a grass landing but you can’t have it all.
We were met by the principal of Melsisi college, Eric, who seemed like a nice man although he doesn’t speak English so I have no idea really. I am the only one in the group who doesn’t understand French. The two girls at melsisi obviously can speak it very well, James’s grandparents live in France so he is also able to understand a good amount and have conversations in French. I haven’t heard Katie and Rhiannon talk much French but they seem to understand a lot of what is said.
We all loaded on to the back of Eric’s pickup and set off for Ranwadi. The ‘road’ that runs along the west coast of Pentecost is northing more than a dirty track. In some places it is quite good, but these places are few and far between. Speeds never exceed more than 10 or 15 km/h. After a very bumpy thirty-minute drive, having forded a few rivers along the way, we reached Ranwadi. Due to what I except will be come a typical break down in communication no message had been passed on to Silas Tabi, the principal of Ranwadi, regarding our arrival and as such he was a little surprised to see us.
We were shown to our homes for the next 12 months and we all a little taken aback. I had been expecting basic accommodation, which is exactly what it is, but I was still left slightly speechless. That is not to the say that the house is unliveable, far from it, I think the reality of the situation and the year ahead hit home at that point. James and I are living together in a nice little bungalow with two good sized bedrooms, a lounge/living area, good sized kitchen and a bathroom with a shower. We have a concrete floor but the rest of the house is made from mdf boards so it should stay quite cool but because we have mosquito netting on the windows, which we are grateful for, the air doesn’t circulate very well and it can become quite sticky inside. The whole place was a mess when we got there. The animal life in the jungle had started to take over again, which I think will be a constant battle through out the year, and there was also quite a lot of rubbish in the house too. I took us about two days to get the house to a position where we are reasonably happy living in it and I’m sure we will do more as time goes by. We have a camping stove of sorts to cook on, there is an oven but it is broken. Apparently the water out the tap, which comes from a well, is drinkable but it just tastes horrible. For this reason we have a rainwater tank behind the house which we use for drinking water. The school site consists of a number of dorms where the children stay, canteen, church, offices, library, staff houses and classrooms. While the staff houses are wooden then majority of the school building are concrete but just as basic.
I spent the next week just adjusting to life on Pentecost and exploring the school, particularly the computing room. I have seven computer in my room but five of them don’t work so my first job was to get them sent to Vila to be fixed, hopefully for the start of the term but I doubt they will be back by then.
There has been nothing to do at the school really. When the kids are not there everything shuts down, not that there is much going on anyway. Apart from the principal there were only two teachers there and in the few days we were there they both left to go back to their island for a bit until term starts. We spent some time visiting the other girls at Melsisi and going down to Waterfall, the local village. The old principal Silas Buli lives in Waterfall and he showed us round and introduced us to his family and took us the nakamal (where kava is drunk). He also fed us a few times and officially welcomed us to the village. He introduced us to the church and also in the nakamal, in ni-vanuatu culture to offer someone kava is to offer friendship. Although I was not overly thrilled about drinking kava, I usually abstain from alcohol, I realised if I was ever to be accepted by people it would be necessary to drink, at least at first. The best way I can describe the taste of kava is pepper water, sorry that should be described as dirty pepper water. It is served in a coconut shell and although you don’t have to it is usually downed. Thankfully this makes it easier to drink as you don’t have to taste it and ideally you try to not let it touch your lips. The immediate effect is to make your mouth and tongue numb. Drinking kava is usually followed by some food. This is a good idea. The effect on the rest of the body is noticeable after about 20 mins, depending on how many shells you have. Kava is narcotic and acts as a muscle relaxant. You generally feel quite relaxed, your eyes and limbs feel heavy, and your eyes become sensitive to light and your ears to noise. If you don’t over do it it is actually quite a nice feeling, although we have been warned that if we want to come and drink a few shells we should arrange to sleep in the guesthouse at waterfall, as we won’t be able to walk home!
The consensus was that while exploring Pentecost would be very nice it would be very difficult and potentially troublesome until our bislama is a little better. So we decided to head for Santo instead. Luganvile on Santo is the second city of Vanuatu, while Santo is the biggest island. Initially we thought there was going to be a boat going to Santo in a few days but the schedule has changed and we would have to wait a week to 10 days. Life on Pentecost was little dull but we soon got into a routine. James and I would get up go over the girls for breakfast, always breakfast crackers. We would busy our selves for the morning; I would usually play on the computers seeing what Simon had left me interspersed by minesweeper or FreeCell. I did have some vague ideas about making lessons plans and I did start a scheme of work but nothing too serious. Then back to the girls for lunch. In the afternoon I would maybe read a book or carry on with what ever I was doing in the morning. I could go on but it was not very interesting to do so I doubt it will be interesting to read about.
All in all we were all pretty keen to leave Pentecost and get away for a bit until term starts. We all got packed up on Tuesday and waited for the boat which we were told would be coming in the late afternoon to early evening. We went down to the beach to meet it and only then did the principal tell us that we needed to buy tickets in advance! He said he would talk to captain and see if we could get around it. We couldn’t. The mood was somewhat deflated and we didn’t really know what to do next. The next morning at breakfast we were still a little stunned and wondering how we where going to get to Santo if at all. I was just looking out into the distance and happened to see a boat on the horizon, when the principal told us it was going to Santo we quickly grabbed our bags, still packed from the night before, and ran for the boat. We had to take a small speedboat out to get to it and climbed aboard. Tourists or westerners do not normally visit these cargo boats so we got a few funny looks when we hopped aboard. There were a good number of ni-van as passengers and fair few crew too but the majority of the ship was set aside for cargo. Only once we got on board, on Wednesday morning, were we told we weren’t due into Luganville until Friday morning! Conditions on board are what you would expect really, there was a bench running around the bridge where you could sit during the day (and sleep during the night), food was provided three times a day. Breakfast crackers and tea (black of course) in the morning and the same rice, noodles and tuna meal the other two times. The boat took so long because it stopped at every village on route. Apparently all you need to do at night is light a fire on the beach and the boat will stop. After covering the rest of north Pentecost we then went up the west coast of Maewo and then across via Ambae to Santo. During the day I didn’t find it too bad, there were lots of nice things to see and it was always interesting to see what was unloaded and loaded at the stops; be it just cement and barrels or people with their furniture and bedding to livestock and rain water tanks. Sleeping was a different matter though; floor space became a premium as it got dark, the sides of the boat where a little low so there was always a concern that you might roll off in the night, therefore positioning was crucial. I found it difficult to get any proper sleep but got a good number of hours both nights. I even tried sleeping on the roof of the bridge on the second night as it was empty and reasonably safe but the rain put an end to that idea. I saw so many wonderful things on the boat it made it so worthwhile and made up for any bad sleeping conditions. During the crossing from Pentecost to Maewo we had a small pod of dolphins swim along side for a few minutes, this was certainly a high light. Just getting to experience what life for the vast majority of ni-van was a priceless experience. Less than 50% of ni-vans go to high school, a lot because they can’t afford it, even though it only cost £100 a term. The plane from Vila to Pentecost cost £75, the islands most the children come from will not have direct flight to Pentecost and would have to go through Vila, therefore most of the children at Ranwadi will have got there by boat. By chatting to fellow passenger and seeing many villages and many islands I feel I have a better understanding of ni-van culture and the ni-vans themselves than I ever could have got from an hour flight.
Now I am here in Santo and I plan to enjoy it. I wasn’t as bored in Ranwadi as some people and I found the food much more palatable than others. That being said I will be glad to have some western style food and be able to eat something that hasn’t come straight from a can. Will try and give an update of what I got up to in Santo before I go to Pentecost on the 08/02.
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