March 2nd, 2020 – Lakatoro

Just a quick post today. Shortly after I arrived home following my big trek yesterday, a neighbour came by to say that the plane had brought my Hep-B vaccine earlier that day, and then he had brought it to my house, but I wasn’t in. I gladly took it from him and popped it in the fridge.

This morning, the government driver agreed to take me to the hospital in Norsup to have it injected (it came in a pre-filled syringe, so I had considered self-injecting, but chose not to risk it). The hospital seemed to be quite a good setup, fronting onto the ocean and kept nice and clean. The doctor was friendly, and said for a volunteer with his own syringe, there would be no charge.

Apparently they are well-staffed with qualified personnel, but like all developing countries, they face shortages of medical supplies and technology, and so for serious cases, they arrange evacuation to Port-Vila. I think, and my doctor in France had advised, that I will be exceedingly unlikely to contract Hep-B in Vanuatu unless I get up to any funny business with the local girls, but VSA insisted on the vaccination, I think mainly for insurance purposes. I can now funny business away with my new-found immunity (only joking, Jen!).

That’s really all I have by way of news today, but I figured I’d try to see if I could manage to post a video from my walk yesterday, and if successful, I might take a few more videos in future: