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Published: November 12th 2009
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Departures
Will and Iza left for Port Vila to see the urban side of the Vanuatu economic structure. Travelblog July Part 5
The weekend in Luganville was extremely restful and allowed me to reorganize plans for the rest of the month. Alanna left us on Monday, and I sent Will and Iza to Vila where they had planned to spend the rest of the month. By Tuesday all the original expedition members had flown off to their destinations, so that same day I caught a truck up to the Big Bay Bush, and by Thursday I had a new set of volunteers.
The first trip to the Big Bay Bush was to survey the roads for safety, before taking volunteers into the area. It was only a day trip and was facilitated by Brian Renshaw. He and his Landcruiser were originally scheduled to do our delivery to Tasiriki and the Big Bay Bush, but those plans fell through. This one-day’s ride to the center of the zone was a taxi run for several aid post workers that live in the high mountains of the area. I got to tag along for the ride to prep my next excursion into the area.
It should also be mentioned that at this time there was a bit of civil
Brian and company
Here's our taxi run. unrest in Luganville. A local man was killed in town by a gang of men from Paama island. This same group of men had apparently been causing problems already and this murder was simply the last straw.
Hundreds of people from Santo (and other islands) surrounded the police station where the men were being held after the arrest. Several houses of the perpetrators (and their extended families) had been set to flaming and the pillars of smoke were seen rising from the town for most of the day. It was the nearest thing to a riot that Vanuatu had ever seen and could have turned extremely violent at any moment. There were far from enough police to quell a riot and the military had not yet been called in to assist.
The mob apparently wanted the men released from the jail so that they could be killed publicly in the street. The local government probably wanted the same thing, but thought that a public street killing might not look so good to the international community and may affect tourism.
In the end, the political government turned the decision over to a council of chiefs so that the
The new team
It was Scottish Amy's birthday before our departure, so the team made a cake. issue could be handled in the Kastom Way. The solution that the chiefs came up with was to deport all families from Paama back to that island. The round up that ensued reminded many ex-pat locals of holocaust-style round-ups that happened in Europe during the1930’s and 40’s. I thought of the Japanese internment camps in California and Arizona that took place during the same time. Families of women and children (some of whom had lived in Luganville for generations) were loaded into caged vehicles and carted off to the docks. The majority of the men in the gang that had started all the trouble ran into the hills around Luganville, and they were not found for the mass deportation.
It was a terrible tragedy, and there is still much criticism over how the issue was handled. Vanuatu is a very young country though, the government’s resources are extremely limited and I’m sure they were under a lot of pressure to make a decision quickly. Hopefully mankind of every culture will learn someday that prejudiced ethnic cleansing of any kind will never solve problems…and neither will large cement walls.
Although this all had little effect on the workings of
Breaking into the truck
As a teacher, I felt obligated to show these guys a thing or two. Project MARC, it would be unseemly not to mention it.
When the time came to once again head back into the bush, our team numbered 5 volunteers. We had two Scottish med students (Amy and Caroline), an Aussie pharmacist (also an Amy), myself, and good ‘ole Captain Steve of the SV Ironie (who stood in as camp manager for the final leg of July’s expedition). We were granted use of the North District Pharmacy truck for our excursion, and we loaded it up pretty well. Our trusty steed was a relatively new Landcruiser flatbed, in my opinion the best vehicle suited to our purposes.
One issue arose on the day of our departure when the hospital manager locked the only set of keys inside the truck. After watching the maintenance crew try unsuccessfully to break into the car for half an hour, I asked if I could give it a shot. A minute or so later I sat in the driver’s seat and fired up the engine. A few comments were made, but I let them all slide.
Once we were loaded and on the road we rumbled along the bumpy track with glee. It felt good
Another Break in
Often the metal locks we use get so rusty in the tropical climate, that the only keys are bolt-cutters. to be back out on the path again. It also felt nice to not have to carry all the gear on our backs. Our truck was real hero too, I couldn’t imagine driving those roads in a lesser vehicle.
There were several goals for this leg of our expedition. One, was to do location scouting for a new dispensary in Butmas as per request of the Ministry of Health. Two, was to transport the District Pharmacist to several dispensaries for stores check-ups and training. The third goal involved surveys and supply delivery to several villages in the area.
Our little posse laughed all along the bumpy way and we made it to Butmas before nightfall of the first night. Our local host was spectacular and the village itself was a true joy to visit. It should also be noted that the best shell of kava I’ve ever tasted came from this village on this night. Both Cpt. Steve and Amy Legg the pharmacist (experienced kava drinkers, both) agreed that this place had the best kava they’d ever tasted.
The next few days saw us visiting a few different villages, aid posts, and dispensaries. Our efforts were a
Independence Volleyball
In the village of Corner we stopped for a break and caught some of the the inter-village volleyball tournament. little hindered by our timing. The weeklong festivities for Independence had already begun and many of the villages were vacant. All the inhabitants had left their home villages for the host village of the festivities.
At one dispensary stop, I had to take the truck to the location of the festivities to pick-up the local nurse. During the taxi run, I was led through a particularly muddy patch of plantation and the truck got mired in the muck. After running back to the festival I recruited a dozen men and boys to help me push the truck out of the mud. Having made the offer to buy some kava for each man that helped push, I had more volunteers than I needed. There were so many locals to help push the truck that I’m guessing they all could have simply lifted the truck on their shoulders and carried it out of the mud.
After the truck and I were practically thrown out of the mud, I returned to the festival with the men to make good on my offer of Kava. To my surprise, many of the men turned down the kava saying that they merely wanted to
come along for the fun of pushing a truck. I couldn’t complain.
It also turned out that the information gathered by the local RN’s was quite complete, making the Project MARC survey rather moot for the area. Our supplies were greatly appreciated in all the places we made deliveries though.
As the month came to a close and our trusty steed carried us along the bumpy road back to Luganville we all felt pretty good about the trip. All the appropriate information had been gathered and dispensed, the truck bed was empty of goods, and we all had stories to write home about.
I said goodbye to the ladies on the team and loaded my gear onto Ironie, the dependable red yacht owned by captain Steve. Ironie was to be the transport for most of the next month’s expedition. After handling some business in town and saying goodbye to Luganville friends, we were ready to go. We loaded supplies, gained another crew member (Claudia), set sail for Maewo, and headed off into the sunrise.
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