March 6th, 2020 – Lakatoro

Apologies about the lack of posting over the past few days. I had a busy day meeting more bureaucrats on Wednesday, followed by a public holiday (Chief’s day) on Thursday, and yet more meetings today. On the public holidays, given everything shuts and all road traffic stops, it is quite difficult to get around, as hitching a ride becomes impossible, and walking in the heat is ill-advised, so really my only option was to stay home and read a book.

I was really looking forward to meeting the Tourism Department, as I was hoping they could assist me by providing a map of the island, informing me of the boat schedules, and telling me what were the must-see sights. Turns out Rollyne was a new tourist officer who had been parachuted in from Port Vila, as the previous tourism department had closed down after 6 months of non-activity due to financial mismanagement (apparently they had been taking funds from tourists, booking them on tours, and then never passing the funds onto the tour operators). So she hasn’t been on Malekula much longer than I have, and has about as much idea of what there is to explore and see as I do. She also didn’t have any maps, which was disappointing.

But the event that is gripping the island’s interest is the forthcoming general election. The full candidate list was announced today, comprising 39 candidates for Malekula, all contesting 7 seats in parliament. Everyday, at least one candidate can be found at the market leading a rally with a loudspeaker.

The various candidates and their supporters drive up and down the main road waving flags and banners – the better funded parties even have matching t-shirts. Whenever they cross a rival party’s pickup truck, or go past a rally, they yell their party slogan and honk their horn. It is all quite jolly, and reminds me a bit of the vibe in Marylebone station on a Wembley match day.

One of my colleagues, the provincial president, is particularly excited, as his party has three candidates presenting. I asked him what the party’s main policies were, and he said creating more government departments to enable proper administration (sigh). Tomorrow he will be speaking at a rally, and invited me to come along and listen, so I said I would.

In other news, VSA has taken the decision faced with the coronavirus to evacuate all of its volunteers over the age of 60 back to New Zealand, as it didn’t want to risk any of them being quarantined overseas without access to adequate medical care. For some, this means abandoning their assignments half way through (or not even), so is not a small decision. So far, the hasn’t been a confirmed case in any of the Pacific islands, but there is a possible case in Tonga, and anti-chinese racism is rife here. I remain very protected on my exceedingly remote island, so please don’t worry about me. Jen, H, and Mother, on the other hand, are in France where the infection rate is skyrocketing. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you guys.