Feb 2007

We’ve been in Vila to catch up with Deb’s sister, Melinda and her partner, Peter who are the first visitors we’ve been able to catch up with. (We missed a friend of Nic’s who came to Vanuatu last year, sorry Kev!)

So we’ve had an opportunity to be tourists on Efate (which we haven’t done before).

We checked out Mele Cascades....

...and the “Secret Garden”. (Don’t worry, Mum, it’s not a poisonous snake, only a boa – I did suggested Min try wearing it around her neck like a feather boa but she wouldn’t be in it! ~ Deb)

and Nic made a new reptilian friend too.

After the laziness of the Christams/New Year season, things have started happening again. We had applied for a grant to fund a rebuild of a classroom roof that was damaged in Cyclone Ivy 2004, the money came through just before Christmas and we went and spent it early this year. Then the materials arrived on a cargo ship and there was a nervous tension as we watched the packs of roofing iron swinging around on the crane as the ship bobbed in the swell and the crew tried to lower the goods into the punt to bring them ashore. It all made it to dry land safely and everyone went to work unloading...

Then the clean up began...

And then the coral was carried up from the beach...

And some cement mixed to seal the walls and repair some damage to the slab floor.

Timber was “bush-milled” and the trusses have been put together, so the roof is on it’s way!