Travelblog July Part 4 “If you come across an 30 inch tall, naked infant that is holding a 36 inch blade vertically over his head as he stares you in the face and cries his little eyes out in fear…you may be in Sulemari Village.” On our first night in Sulemari, the boys in our team went to the river to have a swim and wash the road dirt from our backs. On our return to the village we were shirtless, dripping wet, and showing a great deal of exposed WHITE skin. When we stumbled out of the jungle and into [View Full Entry]

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Travelblog July 2009 Part 3 On our first day in the Pareo Valley our team split forces. One group headed up the steep North side of the valley to survey the villages there while another group stayed on the valley floor for the villages there. Another group yet stayed with our newly laid camp. The hike up the North side of the valley is a very steep climb. The distance as the crow flies is less than 6 miles, but you’re also moving from sea level to well over 2000 ft in elevation. We knew better than to carry full packs [View Full Entry]

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So one little thing that happened during this first bit of the month involved a wayward canoe. I'd almost forgotten about it until the photo popped up in one of the other volunteer's picture caches. On our second day out of Luganville we were motoring up the coast to Wusi in a water taxi. Near the end of our trip I spied a dugout canoe floating idly off the shore. There was nobody in the canoe and it didn't look like anyone was swimming around it. I would have been more surprised to see a local Ni-Vanuatu swimming in the ocean [View Full Entry]

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All volunteers assembled, we were ready to head off. Some had come before others, but time was of the essence and much training was to be done on the fly. We had a fire-building seminar on the beach the day before leaving and the camp pots had been broken in. The volunteers were fit, the hikes ahead were rough, and thankfully the maps were still dry. Before we drove off into the sunset and away from Luganville, however, there was one little hiccup. Our transport for the run had fallen through and a new ride had to be arranged. The company [View Full Entry]

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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]

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i came home from a looong day at work and find this waiting on the island in the larson kitchen to my pleasant surprise! enjoy -b 27 December 2008 While you at home are enjoying what we might deem as a "traditional" holiday season, Justin and I are celebrating the season island style. This year our Christmas tree was a coconut palm decorated with paper ornaments and snowflakes. We had quite a time explaining snowflakes and how they felt to my host brother and papa. Snow really is a magnificent entity: how it melts on your bare hands yet can stick [View Full Entry]

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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]

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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]

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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]

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How many countries can you name beginning with V? A very geographically-minded person could possibly come up with four or five but it is unlikely that any more than a handful of people would name Vemarana, because as a country it only existed for three months from June until August in 1980. In the years leading up to Vanuatu’s independence, two distinct political parties became the major candidates for the post-independence government. One of them, the Nanggriamel party, under the leadership of Jimmy Stevens, identified more with Custom; the other, the Vanu’aka party, under the [View Full Entry]

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