September Expedition

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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 list of international volunteers is as follows:

James Lesure, USA
Jeroen Terry, Belgium
Franziska Rudolphi, Germany
Margaret Krzyzelewski, Canada
Carrie Chosnowski, USA
Kelly Whittle, New Zealand
Danielle Coleman, Australia
Talia Coleman, Australia
Kudra Ricketts, Australia
Aiden Ricketts, Australia
Kat Wiggins, Germany
Seamus O’Bryan, USA
Evan Logan, USA
Michele Buice, USA
Mattia Viero, Italy

The projects that were originally slated for the month included:

Remev Village, Water Catchment System
Repatsivir Aid Post, Cement Floor
Burbar Aid Post, Water Catchment System
Nambagura Vilage, Water Catchement System
Dengan Co-operative, Tin Roof
Maternal Health Workshops

The following projects were added as bonuses, due entirely to the miraculous generosity of the chiefs in the Banam Bay area:

Renovir Village, Water Catchment System
Duen Village, Cistern Repair
Sanusup Elementary School, Building Extension

When the month started there was a great unloading of goods from the ship, and then a welcome ceremony for the volunteers. Our first project site was Remev Village, where all volunteers worked together and saw how work is done in rural Vanuatu. After that, the volunteers were broken into teams and sent to different project sites. I asked the volunteers to provide a brief recollection of their work at each site so that our donors might get to share in the experience of the volunteers.

Those stories will be included with photos to help illustrate our time in the area. I firmly believe that the other volunteers tell far better stories than me, so please enjoy them as they are posted.

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Photos

The new crew
Here's a sampling of Alvei's Sailors this year.

Loading Cement
Always fun.

Signing off
for one delivery. These guys from Wilco were a great help.

The Vila gang
Kevin on the left was a super agent for MARC during our time in Vila.

Future Volunteers
These are a team of midwives that will head up our maternal health expedition nest year.

Loading more cement
Always fun.