March 10th, 2020 – Lakatoro

So today I was having my morning shower when Kevin decided to come into my house half an hour earlier than scheduled to tell me the truck was waiting for me, and we were going to the airport. Showered and dressed in a hurry for seemingly the umpteenth time this week, but before I got in to the truck, I was given a shiny fluorescent gilet to wear. President and Kevin were wearing theirs, and so when I donned mine, we looked like three Stooges:

The reason we needed the gilets was because we were supposed to be going out to the airfield, walking back and forth across the runway to inspect the topographic problems raised during yesterday’s civil aviation authority meeting, and rules dictate that anyone on the runway must wear hi-vis at all times. Due to obscure reasons, we actually ended up going back to the runway three times over the course of the day, each time tut-tutting a little louder than the last. Given the gilets were made of thick polyester, and it was about 35 degrees in the shade today, I would take my gilet off the moment after the above photo was taken, but President and Kevin kept theirs on throughout the entire day – I suspect because orange is the colour of the President’s political party who are in full campaign mode. Although rules prevent the president from campaigning while on duty as provincial president, if his hi-vis gilet happened to be the right colour, what a coincidence that would be!

After faffing about on the airstrip, we met with the manager of Vanuatu’s largest plantation, PRV. For me, the meeting served as information gathering so as to be able to better draft the investment policy, but Kevin and President used it to try to strike a deal between PRV and some potential Chinese investors. Both objectives accomplished, we posed for a photo:

Then we had a meeting with Bruce (after yet another trip to the airport), an Englishman who owns and runs the only value-adding factory in Malampa, called Nuts ‘n’ Oils. He specialises in making Nangai, Tamaru and Coconut oils, and has just started using the husks of the nuts processed to fill bags of animal feed. I had met Bruce briefly a few weeks back, and respect the fact that he is giving it a go under pretty extreme circumstances, although unfortunately health concerns mean he will likely have to leave the island in the coming weeks, and I suspect his business will falter without him present.

Then followed a meeting with a provincial micro-loans company, offering small loans to the ladies at the market at 20% flat interest to be repaid in five months. Then a meeting with Vanuatu’s national pension fund and lastly a meeting with the national Bank. Temperatures carried on rising throughout, and the bank one in particular was notable for being held in a small cubicle with no windows, A/C or fan, meaning I can honestly say I’ve been in cooler saunas.

The problem with the airport is that they need to extend the current airstrip by 150 metres of level ground. Given the current airstrip ends with a 5-metre drop down to the field behind, this means they need to fill an area with earth which I estimate is roughly 150x5x300 (width), or 225,000 cubic metres of soil. I think this is an absolutely enormous task, but they seemed fairly confident the Chinese contractor who builds all the roads on the island would be able to manage it cheaply and quickly.

After all these hot meetings and airfield inspections, it was time for some kava, so we found a kava bar and had a few shells. Conversation was all about the coronavirus, and it just so happened that at that very moment my brother sent me a photo of him wearing his mask for the first time, which was met with great intrigue by the gents at the kava bar.

We toasted the next shell to those who were affected by the virus “including Cameron’s brother who must now wear a mask”.

I finished off the day by cooking some sweet potato, cabbage and chilli hash browns.