November 2010

All is well here on Efate.

Work is good but somewhat frustrating. The villagers all seem to like me but the project I am working on is complicated. An aid agency that funded our project initially told my village there would be $150,000 worth of funding. Then the funding mysteriously cut in half- I think around $70,000 actually came to Vanuatu. This money was to fund seven months worth of work for the village, clearing some bush to plant mahogany, white wood and sandalwood trees. A community tree nursery was to be funded and an environmental buffer zone was to be set up, planting indigenous trees along a river to prevent erosion and improve the quality of drinking water. About $30,000 worth of funding is unaccounted for now and two provincial government employees have been fired for "mismanagement."

So with a budget of $30,000 the village attempted to finish all of the required work in three months instead of seven. About 50 % of the work remains to be completed yet government employees showed up last week to announce that the project is officially closed and the funding is now finished.

So anyhow, it is interesting but frustrating to see how local government and even aid agencies mismanage and even steal from poor villages. Not a new story for Vanuatu though. I try to stay positive and organize villagers to march 45 minutes up the steep hillsides to work at the project site, joining them with my machete until my hand is blistered and raw from clearing brush.

Aside from that head ache, I have other work to keep me busy. I will helping my counterpart, the Area Secretary, to travel to different villages in his district and survey the needs of the people, then make a strategic plan of how to use government funds to assist their communities.

I have joined my village soccer team and will be playing in the town league. The local string band wants to make a music DVD and I have agreed to record their next album and assist with filming. Much of my time is devoted to killing rats and roaches that lurk around my new house. I should have solar power in the near future- spent a good chunk of my living allowance on a battery and regulator recently. The villagers have made a list of the entire community- and each day I have breakfast, lunch and dinner with a new family. It was their idea and it is a good way for me to get to know everyone (even if I do miss having more control over my own diet).

That's all for now....