Blogs from Malekula, Vanuatu, Oceania - page 2

“Two days-volunteer-diary” 9-10th of September 2009, by Franzi Rudolphi, Germany As a volunteer of Project MARC, I would like to describe my experiences I’ve had here in Malekula, this small and beautiful island belongs to Vanuatu. Originally I came to the South Pacific for sailing on Alvei and finally living my dream which appeared to me 12 years ago. After nearly two month of fulfilling it and getting much more than I ever expected, the work for Project MARC completed this awesome and incredible experience and I have to say it was an honor and a great luck for me that I could give a helping hand, even if it was only for two weeks. I try to explain why by writing down my memories of two days building a water tank and water pipes for ... read more

Project MARC’s September expedition could easily be called the most successful expedition of the season. There are thousands of photos taken by over a dozen volunteers that tell some of the innumerable stories from the month. As for the telling of the stories, I’d prefer to leave some of that to the volunteers themselves. They were the ones who truly got to experience the magic of working for Project MARC in Vanuatu. The villages we visited and people we worked with were amazing and so very grateful for our assistance. In most places our volunteers were only assisting the local villagers with the projects while the locals did the lion’s share of the work. The list of Ni-Vanuatu that worked on Project MARC ventures this September is far too long to be compiled here, but the ... read more

Hey everyone! I finally have more than a few minutes and internet that actually works so I can update everyone a little more on what's been going on with me here in the pacific. I'm in Port Vila for about 3 more days, got here last Sunday for early service training. Coming in to Port Vila felt like driving in to New York City, which is really odd because my first impression of Vila was completely different. When we first arrived it seemed like a deserted town, but now it seems like a playground. I am actually ready to go back to my quiet little village on the ocean and get away from the traffic and shopping and noise haha. Wowo really has been starting to feel like home. I had been at my site for ... read more

Hey friends, It's my last night in Port Vila so my last chance to update my blog in a while. I'm heading out to my village tomorrow at 6 am. I've been here since last Friday and it's been a very busy week filled wth shopping for supplies for my house, drinking beers in the pool, and packing. I bought kitchen supplies, a stove, mattress, food, buckets, a bunch of calico, sewing kit, ping pong paddles, and a bunch of other random supplies that will come in handy. I have plenty of projects to keep me busy once I'm at my site. One of my goals while I'm at site is to build/help build a ping pong table with the RTC students so I looked up the dimensions and directions on how to do that. I ... read more

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. Yes, they didn’t have running water at the moment, but I hadn’t budgeted for or purchased enough pipe to make the long run to Lambul. Heck, I hadn’t even purchased enough supplies to repair the Sason line! But here was Tom, telling ... read more