Seamus - Seamus O

Hey everybody! I'm Seamus O'Bryan from Arizona, USA. There have been some crazy adventures in my life and hopefully will be a few more. This little site here is to document one such adventure for my friends and family back home. I'll be a lucky man if this adventure turns out to be as good as the rest. San Diego, Tucson, Korea, Salt Lake, China, Phoenix, San Diego the first time, National Tours...all these have been more than a man could ask for, I can only hope that the next will be better than the last.

The next great adventure has me working as one of three new directors for a small humanitarian aid organization. Project MARC is a non-governmental organization that provides medical assistance to remote communities in the South Pacific islands. The projects we do range from delivering babies to installing water systems. The country of Vanuatu is a small island nation in the South Pacific. If you've never heard of it, you should look it up.

This website will serve as a log of my activities and will hopefully allow people to observe the projects while they happen. If you scroll down to some of last year's journal entries, you can see some of the places I hope to re-visit this year and some of the people I hope to help.

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Joined on: March 17th 2007
Last Login: July 1st 2009

Blog Entries: 15
Photos: 516

TB Code: [blogger=34427]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Seamus, order by Date newest first.

By Seamus
June 23rd 2009

It's business time Oceania » Vanuatu » Santo » Luganville

The New Deal
Here we are with the completed MOU. Acting Director General Len Tarivonda is a really great guy.

Travel Blog 6-24, Luganville. It’s business…It’s business time… “That’s why they call them business socks…” I arrived in Luganville yesterday morning after two weeks in Port Vila, taking care of business. I don’t actually own business socks, but I did bring along a single shirt that would be appropriate to wear in an office. Let me tell you, in the past few weeks that shirt has gotten a work out. For those of you that don’t know me in my natural habitat, Vanuatu, it should be noted that shirts, shoes, and shaving are unco [View Full Entry]

By Seamus
June 12th 2009

And so it begins again '09 Oceania » Vanuatu » Efate » Port Vila

Proof for mom
See Mom, I'm alive. Here's photographic proof.

Well everyone, it’s time to start up the ‘ol blog once again. I made it to Vanuatu after a couple hours in transit (37) and luckily all my luggage made it through too. There was a bit of hassle at the Brisbane airport that forced me to shill out a heap of cash that I didn’t want to spend but all-in-all things worked out in the end. I guess the airlines don’t like it when you travel with as many bags as I do, especially when they weigh as much as mine. Oddly, less than 25% of the gear was actually [View Full Entry]

By Seamus
December 1st 2008

Heading Home Oceania » Vanuatu » Efate » Port Vila

Sydney Harbor Bridge
This town is photogenic like San Francisco but has beaches like San Diego.

Today begins the last month of the year and many things are coming to an end. Among the list of wrap-ups is my time here in the South Pacific. Tomorrow I head back to the states with a short stop in Fiji for a couple of hours. I love flying East over the dateline because gaining a day always makes me feel so time efficient. I'll spend 22 hours in transit and still land 3-4 hours before I left. Back to the Future indeed. Last month in Australia was not as productive as I would have preferred. My dream was to [View Full Entry]

By Seamus
November 6th 2008

The final sail with a good friend, Rivendel 2 Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane

The standard view
This is Rivendel. South Pacific Ocean.

Rivendel II is a 43 foot yacht and has been in the Project MARC family since the beginning. In the early days of the organization, Rivendel II served as the main office, main transport, main storage facility, and main clinic. Together with the Henk and Nelleke Meuzellar this boat was a founder of Project MARC, and like the retiring human founders it is time for her to get a break. While Rivendale will not be decommissioned as a sailing vessel it will be taken off the front lines of Project MARC's expeditions and sold to a good owner in Australia. To [View Full Entry]

By Seamus
October 23rd 2008

Espiritu Santo Expeditions Part 3 Oceania » Vanuatu » Santo

Nonepak Landing
The reef here is only navigable at high tide. I lucked out with my arrival time.

The first full day in Vunap had two projects running. First off, the doctors held a clinic day in the village which served more than a score of patients. Several surrounding villages sent people to see the doctors as well, which was nice. We didn’t think that the word of our presence would travel so fast, but apparently it spread like wildfire. Like in Jereviu, there was a scabies problem in this village that affected several small children. Also, much to our surprise, there was a problem with STDs. There were a couple cases of syphilis and gonorrhea which Chris (the [View Full Entry]

By Seamus
October 23rd 2008

Espiritu Santo Expeditions Part 2 Oceania » Vanuatu » Santo

Maternity check up
Midwife Sara played the baby's heartbeat in stereo.

Once back on Alvei we found out that the ship had been stuck out at sea for two days due to heavy weather. Unfortunately the Clinic team never made it to the Tasiriki dispensary while the Mobile team was trekking through the mountains. Strong headwinds from the South pushed against the ship, forcing them to sail out to sea. As they tacked back and forth through the gale, they made little headway but did manage to damage the ship’s steering a bit. Alvei eventually managed to make it to the Tasiriki anchorage, but only after beating into the wind for 48 [View Full Entry]

By Seamus
October 19th 2008

Espiritu Santo Expeditions Part 1 Oceania » Vanuatu » Santo

A restful evening in Lisburn Anchorage
The local fishermen go out at sundown when the fishing is best.

Well everyone, the expeditions in Espirito Santo were quite a lot of fun as well as being great successes. We started out from Luganville with a few setbacks, a full hold of medicine and three teams of doctors. The Clinic Team was comprised of: Sara, a midwife from the states; Anish, a med student from Oxford; Nina, a British doctor based in New Zealand; Rosie, the Kiwi 2nd mate of SV Alvei; and Harley, a local kid from Luganville that served as translator. The Mobile Medical Team was led by SueLin, an MD from the states; Sarah and Chris, med students [View Full Entry]

By Seamus
October 7th 2008

Banem Bay Part 5 Oceania » Vanuatu » Malekula

A fully operational weir
Here's Sharky-Marky atop the finished product.

Our second workweek in Banem Bay was less labor intensive than the first week. After we got the water up and running, we found out that the increased water pressure was more than the water pipe could handle in places. Most of this second week was spent patching the water line where leaks had sprung due to the new high pressure. The old pipe is well past its prime and is brittle in many places because it was never properly buried. We found all the weak spots during the week because they kept springing leaks to let us know where they [View Full Entry]

By Seamus
October 7th 2008

Banem Bay Part 4 Oceania » Vanuatu » Malekula

Operation Lambul
Here's Tom and the Boys from Lambul that volunteered to help out. The shirts are all gifts from La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.

Friday morning before the standard morning meeting, Tom Dalton took me aside for a small chat and I knew something was up because he didn’t look like his usual freewheeling self. “I want to get the water to Lambul,” he told me, “The people there haven’t had water for years and their village is just around the corner from Sason.” Now before you can really understand the weight of Tom’s simple statement, you need to understand the situation. Lambul village is not exactly “around the corner” from Sason, it’s quite a ways away actually. Y [View Full Entry]

By Seamus
October 7th 2008

Banem Bay Part 3 Oceania » Vanuatu » Malekula

Square box, round hole.
Here's the make-shift solution to the 50/50/90mill pipe dilemma.

Wednesday came with a light drizzle, a few aches and pains, and more work on the agenda. Two obstacles needed to be overcome on this day: 1) we needed join two 50 mill feeder pipes into a 90 mill receiver pipe, 2) we had to unclog a blockage that had formed in the pipe. The first problem was a foreseeable obstacle that we knew we’d have to overcome. The clog, on the other hand, was our own fault due to a mix-up in communication. During the re-routing of the creek and the construction of the dam wall we churned up a [View Full Entry]

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