From luxury to basic needs

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From luxury to basic needs

May 13, 2015 - 19:20
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Today was a day of two halves. This morning we watched the cruise ship come in and boat loads of cruise passengers were ferried out to Mystery Island. Loads of tourists having fun. Snorkeling, paddle boarding, kayaking, boat rides, swimming with turtles, buying souvenirs at the market, having their photo taken in the "Cannibal Soup" pot, having their hair braided, getting a massage. All the things that tourists love to do. This afternoon we moved to the northern tip of Aneityum, to the small village of Port Patrick. Here, the people live a simple life. Their crops were destroyed by the cyclone. Waves tore through the village, taking quite a large amount of land with it. Water swamped houses. Massive trees lie on their side, root systems now towering high into the air. But life goes on. Gardens are being replanted, much of the mess has been cleaned up and lawns have been reestablished and are mowed, now neat and tidy again. School children listen and learn. We met Stuart, Headmaster of the 55 children in the primary school. Like many small villages, the school is the hub of the community. We delivered seeds for the village to grow crops, along with school supplies and fishing gear. Stuart and the two other teachers in the school, Vanessa and Rose, were delighted. The school will call a community meeting and share out the seeds and fishing supplies to the people in the village, who are scattered a long way around the coastline. We asked if there was anything specific they needed. Yes! The cyclone wiped out their inverter. They have good solar panels and a bank of batteries, but no inverter. So if anyone is coming to Vanuatu and can bring an inverter, please bring it to Port Patrick. They need it to run the photocopier, printer and scanner for the school and other electrical equipment for the village. We gave a couple of frisbees to the school, and watched the amazed looks on the kids (and adults) faces as Heather threw them to the kids. They had never seen such a thing that hovered and spun! At first the kids all screeched and ran away, but one by one, curiosity took hold and they started to join in the game. The kids and then the adults got the hang of how to throw a frisbee pretty fast and had a great game. As confidence grew, some kids started to play chicken, being brave to stand in the path of the oncoming frisbee, leaving it until the last second before diving for cover! Stuart then took us for a walk along the beach to see a dead whale that had beached about three weeks ago. It was decidedly smelly and half decomposed. Stuart pointed out the oil slick extending from the whale, right along the coastline and right around to near our boat. He advised that the whale "slick" had been attracting sharks, so it might not be the best idea to swim in the bay. Great advice! Tomorrow we will head 43 miles out to the island of Futuna, a very remote island that was badly damaged by cyclone Pam. Hardly anyone ever goes there but there is a school and a few hundred people that live there.

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