To work 1

The next day at half past 7 Jimmy knocked on my door to take me down to the office of the Provincial Government Head Quarters, where he introduced me to a lot of my new colleagues. Some of them were on holiday or elsewhere. The day before I left for Lakatoro I met with the Secretary General and the Planner of the Province, apart from Jimmy these are the people I will be working closest to. They seem very competent, likable men but they are still in Vila at the moment. Apparently they are due back tomorrow, although you never know. So I am left more or less to my own devices, which is fine for the moment. I am reading a lot of files and a lot of people drop by the office to see the new VSO-kid on the block. A few of the Area Council Secretaries - one of the main groups I will be working for, either giving or organising trainings for them - came in to say hi and they too seem very competent, likable and involved chaps. I look forward to working with them.

Luckily I have not had to stay in the office all the time, but had a few chances to explore the surroundings. Kate, because she works for an EU-funded project for the Provoncial Department of Public Works, has her own EU-funded company car and invited me to go along a couple of times when she needed to inspect water sources and roads. So on Tuesday she had organised a small expedition to inspect the water source of Mai village. This involved tracking through the jungle for 5 hours with some 10 people or so. Two Kiwi's who work on upgrading the water supplies on Malekula through a private foundation, a guide from Mai village and his sister, a couple of sons from the owner of the land, Kate, myself and ofcourse a number of youths from the village + 1 small dog who all decided to join us for the day just for the fun of it.

And fun it was. During the track the guide not only showed us the course of the water supply from the village up to the source, but all kinds of other stuff us well. Now casually chopping down a young palm tree to let us taste the heart, then cutting young vines to let us drink the water inside it, and giving us sugar cane to nibble and suck on. You get the picture: Ray Mears would have approved.