Wednesday, December 2, 2015
The Leben’s picked us up at 8:30
so that we could visit with a young man from Oxfam to coordinate what work that
they are doing here so we don’t duplicate our efforts. It turns out that even though they will also
be doing rain catchments, they will also be hand digging shallow wells all
along the beach. This always seems
impossible to us, to find clean water that isn’t full of the sea, but there are
actually springs near, under the water.
When the tide goes out (or is it in) the springs show up and the people
can get water to drink. Oxfam is now in
the process of finding out which hand pump to use. They were also interested in the ones that we
saw that were lasting for so very many years.
View from Oxfam offices
on the bluff, overlooking the sea.
Oxfam offices are located on a
bluff overlooking the sea way down below.
We actually met with this young man (Jake Ward the surfer from
Australia, obviously!) inside one of those amazing trees with all the roots
adding to it, creating a canopy. There
was a table and chairs set up inside this tree on a wood deck. Gee, I’d love to have an office right there
too! It was cooler this morning from
last night’s rain, and the wind was whipping up there on the bluff. It was a very pleasant morning.
This tree has a root system that
makes it rather huge.
From the picture
of our group on the left, the ‘room’ we sat in was just to the right of the
picture. These trees are everywhere and
are so magnificent. What a great place
to have offices (Oxfam)! The young man
on the left is obviously a surfer, so Jim asked where it was best to go and
rent a long board, not that he’ll have time to do this! Our 'office' was on the other side of this tree on a wood deck, with a sort of ‘roof’
system, but all open air.
Sister Leben teaches English once
a week to local women, so she dropped us off at our place along with Elder
Leben so that he and Jim could decide upon the materials needed for the first
rain catchment structure to be built here (also one on Tanna), so that others
could see this model and duplicate it for more structures as people are taught
and then build more. This will also help
them to get a building or framing certificate so that they might have a chance
to get a job with a contractor later. So
E/Leben and Jim are designing the roof structure that will cover the tank,
protecting it from the sun, and also the base, which will be quite simple if
they use local coral instead of concrete. They will order materials and build one here
and on Tanna. In the meantime we will
also be checking out longer-term solutions as we look for possible well sites,
coordinating with the government and other NGO’s.
This morning they finally sent a
man to fix our on-again, off-again hot water problem. They were very concerned about us dealing
with the shower, but we’ve had it a lot worse so have not been too concerned—tonight’s
shower WAS nice though.
When we began shopping for
materials for the rain catchment structures, I began again to feel a bit
odd. Sister Leben noticed right away and
took me home while the men shopped. I
think I just wasn’t drinking enough water and therefore I couldn’t sweat—not a
good situation. I recovered here and
later when they came back Elder Leben didn’t look very good either. I thought it was the heat, but apparently he
might just be getting sick and it has been coming on for a few days now. They went home to recover and we ate here at
the hotel. The cruise ships are in port now so there have been groups coming in
during the day to our resort to get fed; I heard them ‘oohing’ as they went
near the water to have their lunch. It
really is a beautiful setting and the room price is reasonable even though the
food is expensive.
Fact: it can actually get quite
cool here during their winter, which is opposite of ours. That is why we are heating up now as we head
into summertime.
Fact: people are insulted if you
offer them a tip when doing anything for you such as cleaning your room or
waiting tables. This is my kind of
place!
Fact: Begging is so looked down
upon that if anyone finds this happening, they will let them know in no
uncertain terms that they are to desist immediately! Yep, this is my kind of place!
Just sweating, but in Paradise…
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