God, bless this truck

The Province has bought a new car. The old one has just about died. Every time some-one needs it, it is anyones guess whether it will start or not. Usually it does though, after a lot of persuasion and most of the time everybody has to help push it in order to kick-start. In case you did not already know; all cars in Malekula are pick-up trucks.Most of them have front and back seats that will seat about 5 - 6 people, and then there is the 'pick-up part' that will seat 10 - 15 or so more with their luggage. Buses and taxis also look like this. In fact, the Bislama word for any vehicle is 'trak'. The Province truck is an important piece of equipment: it takes all province personell to where-ever they need to go in the course of duty - and sometimes outside of this as well. This includes the elected President of the Province, the law officers, the REDI project officers, the governmnet appointed Secretary General, the men from the workshop, the Tourism officer, etc, etc. It is on full-time duty and is driven by Saiken, the driver.


Vanuatu is quite a religious country, so when the long anticipated new truck arrived it came as no surprise that a small dedication ceremony was organised. During the dedication I noticed that the truck already had a dent in one of its side fenders, so I guess the dedication came none too soon, and might even have been the inspiration behind the initiative. Anyway, a preacher was found and all personell present stood in a circle around the new truck that had been quickly decorated with some yellow flowers while the preacher read the appropriate passage from his handy little red pocket-size Holy Bible. After this everybody was invited to put their hand on the truck for the final blessing. The preacher asked God to bless the truck in all its endeavours and all the people that were to ride in it, and to let Jesus' blood flood over all parts of the truck, even the seats. This particular part conjured up some scary, even gory pictures in my mind, but it did not seem to bother anyone else, so with a well-meant 'Amen' the dedication was done.

No celebration in Vanuatu is comlete without what is called a 'kakae'. Kakae is the Bislama word for 'food' and 'to eat', and a kakae is a when you stand around eating some party food and drinking fruit cordial. This can be a couple of cakes and pieces of fruit and some small beef skewers, when it is a modest occasion like this one, or it can be a huge buffet with 40 different dishes when it is a very big celebration for intance a kastom ceremonie or the opening of a new village hall. As Vanuatu society is organised along rather strickt gender-lines, food is prepared by women. When a kakae is required at the Provinve - for instance when important guests are visiting - the women who work at the Province are sent home to prepare. It does not matter what your job is - cleaner, HR officer, Head of the Registry - when you are a female, off you go. Unless you are a foreigner. I do not mind.



From left to right in this picture Jessica, the Head of the Registry and Madeline the cordial pouring HR officer, Ale an American volunteer working in the Youth and Sports department, the President of the Province who goes by the rather beautiful name Pierre Chanel Worwor, but who is addressed by most people simply as 'Prez', the some guy in a green shirt hanging in the doorway who I don't know, and last but not least my colleague Jimmy, the REDI project-officer with whom I share an office. As you can see the dress code (if you can call it that) at the Provincial HQ is very informal indeed!