Archive for March, 2007

couple more photos

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

Getting ready for the movie Storm Breaker (part of Williams Birthday party). A good name after having Becky visit last Tuesday. The actual film was great, plenty of action and heaps of gadgets……the only problem was the DVD we had was a dud with the last 5 minutes of the movie missing.

So now it is quieter and things are kind of back to normal. In theory the bursar work should become more straight forward with less students around…….but I am discovering that things are not as simple as that and in the process of trying to help fix past financial errors I am finding it more and more weird. If you are the praying kind of person -wisdom would be a good thing to pray for me. Also health as I have an infection on my ankle (slipping over when checking the water supply a few weeks ago). The rest of the family are well. Yesterday Simon and William went catching fresh water prawns – they came in at tea time saying there was no need for tea as they had already had it, then they shot out the door again to watch Flubber at Mama Linda’s house. Connie was out most of the day, swimming and playing. Viv, Connie 

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Becky visited

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

We had a visitor this past week. She arrived without warning around midday on Tuesday and left just after midnight. Becky was her name. She wasn’t too bad. She caused a rough night with plenty of wind and rain but all in all she was a mild cyclone that ended up passing us on the west of Santo. A few trees fell over, knocking out the power at 8pm. But by midnight the wind was calming down. After dark the male students were split into 6 groups patrolling Talua until the storm settled. When they knocked on our door to check we were prepared…..it all seemed a bit of a joke to them. At least it was a mild one and we all slept fairly well.
In these two photos we are checking things for Becky. One photo we are about to go onto the roof to ensure the solar panels are fastened securely. The other Andy and I are sliding a sheet of timber along a window to protect it. Our own windows were not protected and if there is a next time I would find something to protect them from flying debris of branches, iron and whatnot. With only louver windows and fly screens for protection – they didn’t seem very secure against a cyclone. We even had water coming in through a porous section of the concrete block wall.

William turned 10 on Friday so we had pizza for tea on Thursday and lunch Friday (bought them from the Beach Front Resort this side of Luganville). American Hot Dogs for Friday dinner and Bacon and Eggs for Saturday breakie. Added to that William had friends around for a movie Friday night.
Its been a quieter week at Talua as Friday 23rd March the 67 Short Course Lay Ministry Students graduated and have left campus. Our water supply is now working properly again with about 70 less people consuming water. There is now room to sit in the dinning hall /church for services and devotions.

Graduation Day was a special day, starting at 4:45AM, taking photos of food (pig and bullock) preparation, teaching my normal English Classes and then after lunch the Graduation Ceremony. I took nearly 100 photos that day (and another 100 of students during the 6 week course) and spent until very late on Graduation day printing photos for students. The next morning I was woken by a student at 4AM and thought it was a tad early for more photos to be printed. But instead I was asked to drive the bus into town to drop students off……the bus driver was sick. So by 9:30AM I had completed two trips into town, and also spent an hour at the airport waiting for an arriving Certificate Two student – a tiring few days.  

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Life in the fast lane…

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

Man, it’s hot. The cyclone passed near us but didn’t land, though I was well-prepared, having dashed to the supermarket at 6.30 in the morning and came back laden with the type of food that doesn’t need refrigirating… which is quite expensive here!

Liz had a good laugh at my expense when the cyclone failed to land but hell, at least I was prepared! (and secretly disappointed. I was kinda looking forward to the whole Enid Blyton Famous Five stuck in a lighthouse thing, you know?)

The sky was a dome of clouds, you couldn’t see the sun or stars, and there were strong winds and some serious rain. We went down to the waterfront after the cyclone passed safely away, and the waves were pretty massive. Oh well, cyclone season will be over soon, or so they tell me.

It’s hot. Chilled out yesterday, celebrating the non-cyclone, by going to the beach. Life is so hard sometimes. Did manage to do about 1200 words yesterday on the new story (3000 words so far – this one’s going to be at 15,000 or so easily. Sigh) and got the chance to use the Internet again today thanks to

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CEDAW mock session

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

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Coming to grips with the LRB @ Tamanu Beach Club

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

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Alanis is holding on line one

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

This came up over lunch today:

Pity poor djt01, who survived rioting, a 7.2 earthquake and now a cyclone, but broke his leg falling out of bed.

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Yep

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Just a windy day here in Port Vila.

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Becky

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Looks like a near miss.

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Leaving Port Vila for the airport

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

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Weather update

Monday, March 26th, 2007

Quick update before I sign off for today:

Looks like Becky is definitely going to make landfall in Northeast Santo, which is probably good for the rest of us. It means that it will have ground underneath it for at least a little while, and that should slow down the winds a bit. This could mitigate the effect on Luganville town.

Reports from Santo are that the winds are rising, and there’s already heavy rain.

If this graphic is any indicator (and IME these guys are pretty good), Vila should get a hit or at best a near miss. The best case scenario for us right now is that Becky loses steam over the central islands and we get nothing but a rainy, blustery day. The worst case scenario is that sometime within the next 24 hours or so, we take cover and hope that the roof is still there in the morning.

I’ll be bringing the family down to stay with me if that’s the case. Things will be cosy, but that’s okay.

I’m going to try to keep our Internet services running throughout. We’ve got a pretty big UPS, and if I turn off everything but essentials, I figure I can run several hours without power. If that happens I’ll try to find a way to keep you all updated.

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