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| Noumea |
Travel: the waiting game. Noumea. Hotel Nouvata. Lobby. 40 minutes till shuttle bus for airport arrives. Heading to Vanuatu. Should already be there. Chanced to look at my email before boarding shuttle for early morning flight. Got up at 5:00 AM for this purpose! Only to read the flight had been cancelled. Only the second time this has happened to me over the years so I consider myself lucky.
Wasn't so bad really. I went back to bed for a couple of
hours and subsequently had a nice walk around Noumea. That was my plan for Port
Vila today but it will be dark when I get there now. Quite a fascinating blast
to be here in Noumea. One can live a life so ignorant of things that are just
so close. Just three hours flying time from Sydney and you’re in the French
Pacific. English very much a second language here but everyone speaks it well
enough. Just 44% of the population of New Caledonia are descended from the Kanakas
- all of whom came here from Vanuatu. The remainder are French, or the progeny
of French plus locals: ‘burgers’ as they are called it Sri Lanka. People of mixed blood. Noticeably missing are the
big-framed, overweight people found on other Pacific nations. I assume the
French influence has been significant here and that equals education which
equals better diet/exercise which equals a beautiful streamline version of
Pacific people. Curious to see where Vanuatu fits in the fat/ weight scale.
So out here, just a short hop away from Australia is this pretty, French speaking version of the Gold Coast. Actually it's nicer than the Gold Coast, and though the local culture has been well and truly relegated to second place under the French elite, there is at least a local culture and things seem harmonious. (Note: I learned later this was often far from the truth.)
I wonder if the men beat their wives and partners here? And
what of Islamism? Honestly out here it's like jihads, terrorism, the Taliban etc don't exist. Travelling tends to
remove you from the news cycle, and I’d need to turn on a TV or read a
newspaper or monitor news feed to hear about the Islamists and I'm tired of
them ….
…… wait there's more. New flight to Vanuatu went ahead as
scheduled, but no driver at the airport to get me. Air Vanuatu have lost one of
its ATR aircraft to a broken engine. So all their scheduling has been thrown
into chaos - all of their flights have been rescheduled, handed over to Aircailin,
or cancelled. My flight today to Luganville has been rescheduled to two hours
earlier. I rang Emmanuel in Luganville this morning and he said he would pass on
the new details to his son. Alas he didn't show up at pick-up time at the hotel
so I think I'll ditch his services from now on. I thought the family connection
was a nice touch but it's already an unreliable connection or maybe I just
didn't give him enough Vanuatu time?
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| Port Vila |
I had a lovely morning wandering around Port Vila. And it was with great relief that I woke up this morning able to do
such things. There was an episode in the middle of the night that sent me
scurrying to the toilet a few times. No pain - just dread that it might be the
start of several days of inconvenience but when I woke all was back to normal.
Alleluia! Think it may have been the fish or mashed potato (made with milk) but
who knows? The fish was wahu and I loved it - juicy and tasty.
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| Port Vila Airport |
So here I wait (and write) once more at the Port Vila
domestic airport. Very casual. Laid back. Airport officials in thongs and high
viz jackets. No fans turning but I've found a spot at the end of the building
with an open view of the terminal, and the hint of a breeze every now and then.
Quite pleasant and entertaining really. Just 45 or so minutes to kill then to Luganville
on Espiritu Santo where the whole reason for my being here will suddenly be
real. Conversations tonight I assume with Emmanuel about how we run the
workshop. I'm looking forward to his input to help and finalise the fine detail
for the week. There's still a few blanks.
And ….. I have seen enough of ni-Vanuatu to know the
workshop will be slower than I thought. (I'm an expert after 24 hours!) There
is a cultural difference - that's no surprise - but the surprise is often in the nature of the
cultural difference. I'm still working on it but they don't appear to process information
the same way I might. And it is slower, but that's just because they're
thinking something other than about the words I'm speaking! It's fascinating.
It’ll take me all week to figure it out I'm sure. As well as everything else
we're supposed to achieve.
