Preparations continue for the eight months worth of workshops and other activities we shall be holding related to HIV and STI awareness and testing. It’s exciting yet exhausting and frustrating at times. If it is not one thing it’s another. The quest to print out leaflets and handouts for workshops is endless, one day you might find paper for the printer, next you find the printer doesn’t work, you fix the printer and then you don’t have electricity.

Two weeks of preparations and we find out the day before a workshop held for forty kids that the funding hasn’t come through (we are attempting to assist a Ni-Vanuatu with the preparations of this workshop, although the lack of communication and the lackadaisical “wae blong laef” isn’t helping anyone, our attempt at capacity building!). On the other hand I do have full respect and admiration for the efforts that have been put in so far by the people I have been working with.

Traditional String Band

So we still came to Mota Lava (neighbouring island) as we were to teach a nurse the skill of managing STI’s without laboratory diagnostics prior to the youth workshop. On arrival I find out that there is the launching of digicel (a local phone company), so it is in everybody’s best interest to find a way of getting here (including my counterparts) so feel slightly duped , that the workshop was suspiciously arranged around  the launching, or am I just being cynical.

Chief Jean-Laurence

Therefore halfway through the first days STI training it was a must to go and see the launching. The next thing I knew I was invited to shuffle around a traditional string band in the rain (pictured), flip flopping mud up my skirt with the Irish digicel manager and the village chief (pictured) in the middle of the village with the whole community as on lookers, you have to laugh…

Eventually we continued with the training and the next three days went very well (pictured).

STI Workshop Mota Lava

Anyway sorry to bore you with work, although it is a big part of my life. I have tomorrow off,  I shall go to church then shall be going by boat back to Sola. I am a little terrified as the water looks very rough and winds are high, apparently the boat captain gave his most recent boat journey a 10 out of 10 for roughness and considering he gave the tsunami only a 7.5 out of 10 worried me (Giaman/liar). Back to work Monday and to organising a women’s HIV/STI and reproductive health workshop hope this one happens!

Other than that the meower is well (thank you for your help with names, he’s called noomboos, cat in vapdelelam - mota lava language), eating shit loads of tuna, bel blo hemi I go fat fat noa. He is still indoors and shall be using the rat whole I hope as a cat flap when he figures it out!

Garden is coming along very well although I had bad diarrhoea at the weekend so my one pleasure was to go dig the garden. I pulled all the weeds, moved the coral and dug the thick sticky earth into a pulp, put some logs down added more earth and I now have a lovely bed of newly sown Pak Choy, okra, pumpkins and aubergines. As for local kakai, I have Island cabbages, about 12 of them, beans galore, chili, spring onions and ginger growing. Things grow so fast here I hope it’ll only take another month before harvesting some of it!

Another few points for your information:

·         I have not gone mad yet

·         I don’t drink too much kava (narcotic) max three times a week

·         I am enjoying and appreciating

  ·         I do have stress but am trying to not letting it get to me

·         I do get a little lonely sometimes but that is just ok

Good night wan taem.