Well some friends and relatives have asked us to update this blog not just on our ‘goings on’, but also on how we are faring personally. I actually had thought that this would be a bit self indulgent and I have avoided it till now so I thank the people who have been interested to ask about us and this is our response.........
First and foremost - we are well – our health, both physical and psychological, is fine. There have, however, been some MOMENTS of concern and I am now happy to share these with you. I will work up from the mundane to the significant and I am sure there will be a laugh or two in it for those of you warped enough to find it funny (as we have!)
The first (and most minor) affliction was the ‘Why have we done this’ syndrome. Your see we left Australia thinking we knew the answer to this and many other questions. The truth is there is no answer and we have no real idea of WHY we have done this just that we thought it was a good idea and that we had hoped we could contribute in some way. However we had NO idea of the detail and the requirements and the outcome. It is a bit like being an explorer both in another country and within our own heads!
We have now experienced 2 months of Vanuatu and we know that for all the surprises and fun we have had there are a thousand-fold of them left to come. We have not felt like fish out of water, but we have certainly experienced and felt deeply something different to our previous lives. We live in a culture that pays no homage to fashion and consumerism, one that has an intense focus on tradition and culture and speaks a different language to that we are used to. Life is simplified without accoutrements and pressures, be they other- or self-imposed. We struggle with the poverty and the lack of health and sanitation and at the same time we surrender to the implications of living and working in this wondrously different and challenging place.
Now lets not go overboard here – we actually live in the capital city and there is running water (both hot and cold), electricity, telephone and internet (at exorbitant prices), transport and infrastructure (banks, markets and shops; tourist activities, motels, restaurants and bars and etc.) We are not suffering any great degree of lack at all!!!
So we hear you say – ‘What’s it all about? What has happened and how are you coping”. We must say we are not only ‘coping’ well – we are loving it! The upside of living here far exceeds the down!
Like the time I had to visit the local dentist as I had broken a filling. My dentist in Erina has an immaculate surgery where everything is sterile and pure and so clean you would be forgiven for thinking your very presence is a threat to the sterility of the environment. This is necessary due to the ease with which communicable diseases are transferred through dentistry. The surgery I attended in Port Vila is a far cry from this. The equipment predates the 1970’s and the dental surgeon’s rubber gloves are recycled after each day (I saw them laid out to dry!). I have no idea of how the surgery copes with equipment sterilisation and the instruments look to be lined up for a days work. The chair shows signs of mud from the shoes of the previous client and is covered in torn plastic in an effort to make it look clean. The dentist is a true gentleman of the older ilk, probably in his late seventies or early eighties, pleasant and a little shaky but proudly confident in his ability to address what afflicts me. I leave having had the filling patched and with the ringing of a 10,000 meal guarantee for the patch he has completed. I am warned by a local nurse to ensure I am on antibiotics and to drop in to the hospital at the earliest indication of infection! I have however now survived a week and the filling is still in place and functioning well.
Then there was the day I fell under a bus! I rose from the ground covered in 2 inches of oozing mud, having narrowly missed the wheels of a fast accelerating Tarago by centimeters! I survived the tears and the indignity of it all and forced myself to walk that particular path again in the rain....it is the road to my office so there is no avoiding it!
Ron’s trip to school can take 15 minutes or 50! There are no bus routes so if he is late to school it is because the bus driver was not going directly his way this morning and needed to detour to take a child to another school, a shift worker home, a friend to visit his family – or any number of other important trips!
We both work in intensely resource poor environments. Printer cartridges, pens and pencils, markers and staplers, paper and ink are in very short supply – all metered out to within and inch of a tight budget. The human resources however are another story altogether.
We have developed a very real respect for the Ni-Van people. They have a quiet, knowing calmness and peace that is enviable. We have been accepted into their families and offered friendship without reservation. We have been recipients of such generosity from those who have so much less than us. After a while you don’t see the peeling paint, the sparse furniture, the faded curtains. What you see is the intelligence, simplicity, gentleness and genuineness. And the very real desire to ensure their country is developed in a way that improves everyone’s quality of life, not just that of the (ex-pat or local) entrepreneurs.
And what’s more, it is all so beautiful! We have stunning views all around, gorgeous local produce, lovely beaches, little traditional villages with the occasional fix of western culture whenever we want it at our choice of resorts and restaurants.
