Feb 8th, 2020 – Luganville

So having received a couple of comments from the cheap seats about how cushy my travels are sounding (no finger-pointing, hey Aunt Lynn, Mother Dearest, and others…), I figured I’d use this post to describe some of the darker sides of Vanuatu which I’ve witnessed so far. Don’t get me wrong, it is a privilege to be here, and my overall impression so far is that this is a uniquely beautiful country, but my readers need to understand that it isn’t all sunset cocktails at plush resorts.

First off, climate. Thomas, a VSA volunteer at the Santo tourist office, said he found a brochure which describes the climate here as “oppressive”, which was hardly selling it. Maybe not promotional, but the word is very apt. The combination of high temperatures and extreme humidity means every waking moment is a shower of sweat, even in the middle of the night. aircon doesn’t really exist except in a couple of exclusive locations. I’ve been trying to capture the extreme rainfall in a photo, but it is tricky to do so with a phone camera.

Put it this way, though, everything I own is damp. Toilet paper lasts about a day before disintegrating. The Bislama photocopies my teacher Gaelle gave me this week are limp and ripped. I put some biscuits on a saucer to serve to Gael the other day, and within half an hour of opening the packet, you couldn’t pick the biscuits up, as they had soaked up so much moisture they would collapse under their own soggy weight.

The constant humidity results in another problem – the local fauna. Mosquitoes thrive in this environment, and typically for about four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening (so for half the waking day), the mozzies feast on my sweet pakeha flesh. I slather on the DEET, but the sweat soon washes it away. Despite all the jabs prior to arrival, and the daily dose of malaria prophylaxis there are a number of mozzy-borne diseases which could well get me before the end of the assignment (malaria, dengue, zika, to name but a few examples). Despite recent efforts to improve waste management, rats and vermin are ubiquitous. If you hear rustling in a tree, it’s likely rats gnawing the branches to get the fruit to fall to the ground. Ants are simply everywhere. If you leave any food or even other consumables (they were all over my toothpaste) on a countertop overnight, it will be swarming with ants by morning. When I lie in bed writing this blog, they climb into the bedsheets and up my body approximately every half hour.

On the social side, I’d barely been here 24 hours before I was approached by a prostitute offering me her services. And the other day I witnessed a teenage elder sister beating her approximately 1-year old baby brother with a stick because he had toddled off in the wrong direction. VSA policy is to not intervene when faced with such situations, but I nonetheless had an internal struggle with my conscience. The attitude to domestic animal care is similarly violent.

The above are just some of the downsides I’ve experienced so far. There are others which I’m told I’ll no doubt experience before I leave, especially as tomorrow, I’m due to fly to Malekula which is more remote and inaccessible, but I’ll wait until I see them with my own eyes before sharing.

As mentioned, I’m so privileged to be here, and I’m loving my time here. But it’s important to realise that it isn’t all fun and games, and there are some things they don’t mention at the tourist office. To end on a lighter note, here’s a selfie of me still enjoying myself, despite the downsides: