A story by Jeroen Terry

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The village of Asirohk (MALEKULA)

Asirohk is about 1.5 hours walking from our anchorage with Alvei in Banam Bay. It’s a nice walk through lush forest, some other villages and the biggest part is along the beautiful coast. The walk is a bit up and down and the final part (about 15 minutes) is quite steep. But it’s all the sweat from walking under the tropical sun more than worth. When you arrive in Asirohk you are rewarded with the best view over-looking the bay and a warm welcome from the people of the village. The project here is to build a new aid post. The first time we went there with 5 people to get things started. The first job to be done was making bricks. Yes, you read it well, making bricks (you can’t buy bricks here). So the project delivered cement, and the sand is from the beach down the hill (brought uphill in bags with Manpower!). They had two brick forms, but one was broken and it was welded the day after on Alvei. About twenty locals jumped on the job and cement and sand were mixed which they did very well. Everything was turned 7 times until they had a good mix. After they mix they add water, but not too much so that it doesn’t act like a pudding after they remove the form. So they put the mix in the form, stomp it, then turn it upside down, take off the brick form, and brick nambawan in made. This procedure was repeated for two-hundred times. Not all of them were done the first day, it takes a lot of work and there has to be time to eat and for spel-smol (which is Bislama for taking a small break). We didn’t have to bring our own food, all of us were invited to eat the local lap-lap, kumala, and taro…
The second day, the rest of the group went to other villages for other projects. So on the second it was only me who went back to look how things were going and to help a hand (after a spel-smol of course, from the hike). In the morning we finished the bricks and after lunch we played a bit of futbol before we started with the foundations. I, as a construction worker, was happily supervised by their knowledge. Everything was well leveled and measured out, even the depth of the foundations. Before they put the concrete in the foundations they put small stones on top of the soil, then the steel on spacers, and everything watered a bit so the concrete didn’t dry too fast. The concrete here is sound, cement and pieces of dead coral (we are in the South Pacific remember). After the foundation and the floor, they will make the walls in their home-made bricks. The walls will be about one meter high and the rest is in timber. After the work I’ve seen I’m confident they are going to make an aid post Project MARC can be proud of, and the Ni-Vanuatu a pig step closer to solving some health problems.

Jeroen Therry, Belgium, September 2009.

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Photos

The Jayman
Here's Jay on Tsunami lookout. One tough Belgian.

The Walk to Asirohk
Here's the beach walk to Asirohk. The road walk is less scenic and more strenuous.

The view from Asirohk
Not too Shabby of a work site eh?

Making bricks
Here's the form in action.

The real Jeroen
This is how most of us saw Jay on a daily basis.

Packing up the cliff
The sand and coral had to come a long way up that trail.

Everybody works, everybody plays
All hands were on deck for cement and coral transport.

Spel Smol
A small break

Jay and Company
Here's team Asirohk with the newly laid foundations.

Repatsivir Salu-salu
Here's Jay and Mich clowning around. Jay was gifted a really awesome hat.

Alvei Crewman
Jay came to Project MARC as an Alvei crewman and was worth his weight in gold.

Nambagura
Here's Jay putting up the gutter pipe for Nambagura's water tank.

Great food
This was a two ceremony day for Jay