Project MARC
Reaching out to forgotten island communities by sharing our resources, time and love to help create a future for all children
Trip Logbook
January 2007Nelleke's 2001 Trip & Photo Report (part II)
(Report VI)Dear Family, Friends and Supporters,
My apologies for letting you wait so long; unfortunately I have been sick for a while, but today, August 13, I am picking up the thread again and can't wait to describe the last stories of July and the new experiences of the August team!
We decide to spend a few more days than planned on North Ambrym with the July team, since chief Job has invited the entire team for the wedding of a young couple in his village of Faramsu. We are delighted to accept this invitation as the wedding with all its special customs is spectacular!
The most interesting aspect is that the bride and groom's facial expressions are very very sad.... When I ask for the reason, chief Job tells me that we have a happy couple here, but that this is considered to be a sad day as this is the day that both are leaving their families forever!
We are present at the church service where the prayer (in Bislama) starts with: "Dear Papa God" and after the service there is a real wedding cake and lemonade to celebrate. All villages have come to congratulate the newlyweds and honor them with their gifts. Every visitor presents the bride and groom with a homemade flower wreath and a dash of baby powder (Chief Job explains that this is custom with all festivities and meant for everyone to smell good and festive!)
What a sight when the young couple's faces and hair are slowly turning white.... and I am myself touched to tears when all of a sudden mothers, sisters and female friends of the couple start to cry... the long wailing travels through the palm trees and the festively decorated huts in the village....a child is leaving home....
The tears of the bride leave a meandering river on the white powdered face.
But then the tide turns, there is the stringband and food and now it is time to celebrate. Time also for team MARC to leave and go to its next destination.
(l) Bride and bridegroom (already covered with baby powder) emerge from the Presbyterian church in Faramsu
(r) Tears run down powder covered faces as gifts are rapidly being wrapped and unwrapped around their necks
Both Rivendel and Flying Angel leave Ambrym, the island of the black magic, where no Vanuatu people dare to work because of this fact: there are people in Ambrym who have the ability to change themselves into a shark....and who wants to be eaten....
As you can tell, I cannot stop writing about this fascinating island with its many facets, but there is more in this wonderful "Land Eternal"; there is Banam Bay on the island of Malekula.
We go ashore the next day and greet chief Saitol who remembers us from last year and seems very happy to see us. We go on a walk and explore, ask a lot of questions and soon find out that just like on Ambrym two aid posts have been closed and worse: the dispensary (one step up from an aid post) has been deserted. The nurse has left for various obscure reasons and the darling little building close to the seashore is closed.
For now we will do what we can and set up in the meeting place in the center of the village, to treat patients. It doesn't take long for the villagers to find out that we are here, word of mouth travels fast!
(l) The July team wolfs down a hearty lunch on Flying Angel before starting their Banam Bay work
(r) Nurse Jane and technicians Holly, Ray and Rick on their team walk-about in Fartapo
A very different picture here from Ambrym: not the usual Ibuprofen patients, but a lot a skin rashes: ringworm, scabies, filariasis (elephantiasis) and malaria. The people in Banam Bay seem very poor, no woodcarvers here, no other form of productivity other than copra burning. We are dismayed to see some small children who seem very malnourished with big bellies and thin arms and legs. Families are large , eight or ten children is the rule rather than the exception and in the villages I see a mother who is nursing a small baby, a one year old and a two year old.... The school age children who can fend for themselves seem healthier than the little ones and are very outgoing. The same little guy who walked besides me last year greets me with: "Hi, my friend Nelleke, I am glad to see you, My name is Noah, do you remember me...?" Yes I do remember Noah and ask if in the meantime he has learnt how to subtract in school. He is delighted to show me that he now can!
(l) Jane and Holly landing on Banam Bay beach for another village visit are greeted by kids
(r) Posing in front of chief Saitol's guest lodge, destroyed 3 months ago by a cyclone
(l) Kids everywhere bring a big smile to my face (here with namesake "Nellie" after church in Aulua)
(r) Jane making ever more balloons for kids on the Banam Bay beach
While I am assisting the team with their work in the village and making some video records, one of the ladies grabs my hand and pulls me behind her hut, yelling to the quickly following children to go away (which they only do when I tell them!) and lifts up her skirt to show me one of the worst cases of ringworm I have ever seen.... Fortunately we can help with that but there is a lot to do for us here, even more so than on Ambrym.
Before departure the team enjoys a beach barbecue and gets to visit the "Picton Castle" a 180 ft, 3-masted windjammer from Newfoundland that is going around the world as a training ship for young people and is presently anchored in Banam Bay.
And these events are the end of another rewarding month and just like the first team members, Holly, Jane, Rick and Ray are both happy and sad to go home.
The trip against the strong tradewinds to Port Vila is once more a torture with winds frequently over 30 knots and except for Ray (and us) nobody enjoys it and for the first time we have some minor damage to the mainsail. Before the team leaves they take me out for a fantastic dinner to celeberate my 60th birthday in my favorite Rossi restaurant right by the ocean.
The team gets out of Port Vila without complications and, just like last time, part of the new team is already here. Lynn Bibolet, an experienced nurse, has arrived a week ago and Kees Lepair, old friend from the Netherlands and technician (sailor) to the August team, has arrived as well. The rest of the team comes a few days later: Stefan Zwerver, young doctor from the Netherlands and Mojdeh, his wife who is a dentist. Chelsea Strong, just graduated from U of Utah nursing school and husband Gareth who is technician and carpenter, complete the August team. They help with the various repairs and have time to go snorkeling and visit the waterfall in Efate. Henk and I try to find other yachts to help us out with transporting some of the team members, but in vain. However two smaller yachts, offer transport for part of the supplies.
While in Port Vila, Henk take care of the usual amount of paperwork and discussions at the MOH. Lynn is a big help with this time-consuming chore and takes a lot of work off our hands. We want to get permission to operate Project MARC in the small idyllic dispensary in Banam Bay and are overjoyed when we receive the go-ahead to break the old locks and put new ones on! We also get permission to reopen two aid posts in Ambrym (Henk carries a letter of support with an impressive amount of signatures from all chiefs involved). We need a final signature from the Health Coordinator for Northern Vanuatu in Luganville, but other than that we are in business!! Two new aid posts in North Ambrym and a third one to follow perhaps. Project MARC has agreed to support these aid posts and to help train the aid post workers. The government will, upon our request, accept MARC "in service" training as valid! And that makes us proud and happy: the first step towards North Ambrym's infrastructure rebuilding process!
Sailing with eight people on board plus an enormous amount of boxes and luggage is something we haven't challenged Rivendel with before... How is this going to work out... I pray for mellow weather and my prayers are heard.
Alhough the seas are merciful, Mojdeh gets seasick, Gareth and Stefan a bit queasy, but they recover and the next morning all eight of us have arrived safely in our destination: Banam Bay.
It is a beautiful morning in the bay when we arrive; the scene is picture perfect: waving high palm trees, blue water, white sand and idyllic little huts.
This abandoned clinic overlooking the beaches and coral reefs of Banam Bay proved to be an ideal base of operations for the August team. For 2002 similar clinics are planned in North Ambrym and The Maskelynes
The new team is visibly impressed. Since we have lost a day (Gareth and Chelsea had a delay in Fiji and have unfortunately also had to leave to the two Hope Alliance boxes with medication there), we have to go to work immediately. It is Sunday today, but everyone agrees to start working immediately and give up their first day off. However, the dispensary, once the locks are broken, is filthy: there are spiders, cockroaches and even a rat. The whole local population comes to help; they come with mops and brushes and scrub where they can. And when at the e4nd of the day the clinic is as clean as a whistle they are as proud as the team itself! However, Chelsea's plan to camp out on the beach, and Stefan and Mojdeh's idea to live in the dispensary are put on hold and the entire team spends the first night on Flying Angel.
(l) Dentist Mojdeh in the heat of the battle for a clinic without cockroaches and rat droppings
(r) Local villagers immediately join the fray and start cleaning up the clinic building and grounds
During the next day the schedules are organized: Chief August, who turns out to be a nurse himself does a lot of that. He also puts a whole team together that cleans the outside of the clinic and another team that pulls weeds, removes rocks and does some landscaping. They are also the ones that have constructed a beautiful and clean outhouse for the team. A lot of problems solved already; but there is no water in the clinic. A small fresh water stream next to the dispensary is a big advantage but water coming out of the tap would be nice... Jaime and Gareth immediately start to tackle this problem. For the next two days they walk up into the mountains with shovels to dig and reconnect pipes, assisted by the locals who exactly know where the connections are broken. They come back filthy but with the proudest smile on their faces and, oh miracle, out of the tap comes water.....
The rest of the day is spent on furnishing the clinic with instruments, medication and supplies. Here are beds and even an examination table. We equip one room for dentist Mojdeh, one room for the pediatric nurse Chelsea and nurse Lynn and a room for doctor Stefan. The team is complaining how small it is, but in compare to the very limited room on Flying Angel where the first and second team had to work, this is a spacious little clinic with" luxuries" such as a sink, folding waste baskets, examination tables and chairs...
We are not actually open today, just for emergencies.
In the afternoon I am informed about a very sick woman coming from a far away village in a canoe. I see the canoe appraoch slowly over the quiet lagoon. The woman is bent over and looks indeed very ill. Two man carry her out of the canoe and into the clinic, where they put her in one of the examination chairs. When the team proceeds to look at her, she gasps, lets go of all her body fluids and then her eyes break and her head falls forward on her chest.
Stefan and Henk perform CPR but to no avail, and Lena, the frail little lady of whom nobody knows how old she is, has passed away.....
Immediately the women start crying, it echoes through the palm trees with long sad wails... The grey sky illustrates the scene and my mood. The team looks defeated. Several hours later the still body, wrapped in white sheets, is transported with our large red inflatable dinghy, escorted by Jaime and Gareth and several family members the long way back to the Lena's village. We will never be able to erase the picture from our minds of the silent boat slowly moving over the lagoon, without making any wrinkles....
Watching Lena's final voyage home across the reefs What a start; in Ambrym we started our work with the birth of a baby and here we start with a death. But that is simply what we have to accept and understand: the circle of life. We can help, we cannot perform miracles, only God can. But maybe He had a special reason for bringing us here.
Love and Greetings
Nelleke
1 Peter 1:3
(Report VII)
Dear Family, Friends and Supporters,
It is amazing how fast time flies, there never seems to be enough time for all we want to accomplish this summer!
The August team has some adjustment problems. However, after the first rocky start, all team members find their niche and start to enjoy the work. The very first day of operation in our idylically situated "Sason Clinic" doc Stefan removes a centimeter long (little less than half an inch) pebble from the ear of a young child, so the child can hear again and that lifts the spirit. The first days are slow as people are still mourning "Lena from Lanfitfit village", but then we get busy. One day the team sees close to a hundred patients.
(l) Dentist Mojdeh working on one of her patients (Jack Steven; our indispensible local coordinator)
(r) Chronically infected "sores"; one of the most common medical problems in SE Malekula
Mojdeh, our dentist, is first a bit dismayed about the fact that everyone seems to be scared and tends to walk away, but we round up some patients for her and from there on she is pretty busy. The story is the same as in Ambrym: extractions (often very difficult ones) only! Mojdeh also visits the schools and determines that most Dutch and American children can be jaleous of the children of Malekula: most of them have perfect teeth! At one of the schools Mojdeh is so involved in her check-ups that she starts to speak Dutch to the children:" Goedzo.... mooi mondje hoor..." is what she says. The principal looks puzzled and finally asks me: "Do you understand that language she's speaking....." I have to admit that I do, but we quickly corrrect the problem!
(l) The primary school complex nestled in the lovely Aulua River Valley (with a view of the Bay)
(r) Fifth and sixth grade children lining up for their dental check-up
(l) Dentist Mojdeh teaches first and second graders how to brush their teeth
(r) Simple vision tests can be useful to help uncover possible causes of learning problems
Stefan, MD and Mojdeh's husband, first struggles a bit with the translation but when a number of retired dressers (colonial nurses) and newly trained aid post workers are rounded up to help, the situation improves! He quickly learns to write a prescription in Bislama as follows: "Takum pills tri taem long dei, long wan week!" He also finds out that :"shortwind" stands for asthma, that "sitsitwater" means diarrhea, that the standard answer to : "How old are you" is "adult..." and that all patients have had their problems for "Long long taem... twenty yeas". However when a patient comes in with "female problems" and the aid post worker translates her symptoms with "she has white ass" Stefan is quite puzzled..... After roughly fifteen minutes of questioning and translating he finally figures it out: the woman has a yeast infection ..........!
Nurse Lynn sees by far the most females as most women are too shy to talk to a male doctor. She also does an outstanding job training and re-training the aidpost workers and dressers. Chelsea sees a lot of babies and small children, most of them cry, but Chelsea often manages to make them laugh and if I counted well, there are about four of them she is planning to take home with her....
One tiny baby especially concerns me: Lily Rose is nearly two years old and weighs only eight pounds. Her mother is mentally handicapped and no one seems to take care of her or the baby. I try again and again to bottle feed the baby, but with very little success; my heart is heavy when I go back to Rivendel that night!
Gareth, our technician an carpenter, nearly always in the company of Jaime, makes himself invaluable repairing engines, broken water pipes, building furniture and even and examination table for the clinic.
Cees Lepair, last but not least, helps with the organization of the patients, the aidpost workers are not very skilled in that area, and does a fantastic job recording the story of the August team in his always present computer.
(l) Pediatric nurse Celsea counseling a mother during a team visit to Burbar primary school
(r) Carpenter Garret installing a screen window in the new aid post in Burbar
The logistics of the set-up in Banam Bay are a bit complicated. Whereas before we had two "households " going (one on Flying Angel and one on Rivendel) we now have at least three places where we need food. Mojdeh, Stefan and Lynn have decided to make their quarters in the Project MARC tent, set up right next to the clinic near the beach; Chelsea and Gareth live on Flying Angel and Cees (and later also Lynn) live on Rivendel II. Breakfast needs to be provided for all three living quarters and lunch needs to be provided for all people working in the clinic on week days. Transport from Flying Angel and Rivendel to and from the Sason clinic can only be provided once per day by the "Red Baron" (our large red inflatable with 25 hp outboard engine for which we can hardly store enough gasoline for an entire month) and when extra trips are required we have to walk (20 minutes one way along the beach). This provides a challenge but also keeps us in good condition and that we need for r the final "walk about" days, where we visit those people in their huts who are unable to come to the clinic.
For three days we walk, medical packs and school supplies on our backs, often in the rain, often more than ten miles per day, more often than not with blisters everywhere. I am so proud of our team, no one complains, everybody smiles, even when I want to walk on to the one "far away" school I hadn't been able to visit, adding another three miles to an already burdened day.
Stefan cuts open an abcess while sitting under a tree, Mojdeh pulls a tooth on a soccer field, Chelsea comforts and treats more sick babies and Gareth repairs the aidpost that has been destroyed during this year's cyclone. I bring school supplies to the Burbor school and treat all the children to bubblegum. Chelsea and Gareth demonstrate how to master this art and in no time two hundred children are hysterically laughing and blowing the biggest bubbles we have ever seen....
Everywhere we come we receive gifts: cucumbers, coconuts, eggs, shells and wonderful humongous grapefruits (better known as "pomplemousse" here). No bananas and no papaya's this year, both types of fruit crops have been devastated by the cyclone. But things grow rapidly here and within a month from now the next crop is expected!
In the beginning of this month Henk and I have sailed further North to Luganville (Santo) to obtain the signature of approval for the new aid posts in Ambrym from Dr. Vocor, the Rural Health coordinator for North Vanuatu. We are delighted to get his approval immediately and quickly sail back in very rough weather to Banam bay. On board of Rivendel we carry 150 pounds of flour for the one and only baker in Banam Bay: if we want to have bread for the team we have to buy and bring the flour... it's that simple.... Also on board is one of the local people who has ventured to Luganville with the training ship "Picton Castle" and is very homesick and without any finances for transport back....
Next is a trip to Norsup to meet with nurse Grinnethy, the Provincial Rural Health coordinator about the aid post situation in Banam Bay and surroundings where, just like in Ambrym, we have found four aid posts and one dispensary closed for various reasons leaving all of the Banam Bay area (some 12 villages and 3000 people) completely without medical help. I do not accompany Henk on this trip as the team still needs some encouragement and a bit of supervision. I am not too sorry, when Henk comes back late at night, with a very sore behind from sitting in a small pickup truck for hours and hours, together with sometimes as much as eighteen people all laughing and standing up and surrounded by live chickens, a dead cow, copra bags or whatever needs to be transported or traded... I am only sorry about one thing..... how I wish I had a picture of that pickup truck....
(by the way the negotiations in Norsup all went well and baby Lily Rose AND her mother will be picked up with a government truck as soon as possible!)
During the weekends we go seashell hunting on the wide beaches, snorkel on the beautiful reef, take a hike to the nearby waterfalls and see "kastom" dances. Jim and Jaimee spend an entire afternoon roasting a "pieg" on a spit at the beach and I have to admit that this definitely the best "pieg" I ever had. Skipper Jim is a wonderful cook!
(l) Rocky stretch of Banam Bay beach just North of the clinic
(r) Our huge pressure cooker allows rapid sterilization of up to 4 boxes of medical and dental tools
The people of Banam Bay have prepared a great farewell party for us on the beach. There are incredible presents for everybody. For Kees there is an authentic bow and arrow, for Mojdeh and Lynn an island dress, for Chelsea a home made ukelele with LOVE written on it, for Henk there is a "pieg killer" and for me a handmade shopping bag and a "titibasket" (Bislama for bra) made of pandanus leaves, a little special gesture of two of my woman friends both named "Nellie"....
I have a lump in my throat when we say goodbye, especially when I see tears running on Chief August and dresser Massiu Atu's face. Henk and I walk the beach back for the last time and watch the quiet lagoon and the splendid sunset..
Kees with bow-and-arrow gift (and jealous team members)
.Time for Lynn and Kees to go. They have to catch a plane in Luganville. We stop by our friends in Ranon /Ambrym for the weekend to bring them the good news... two new aid posts have been approved there!! We also meet with nurse practitioner Joseph Atel. I can't help myself and almost immediately ask :" How is baby Stebin...?" I have the biggest smile on my face when I hear that the baby is improving and growing again..." Thank you for all your prayers, God has heard and confirmed to us once more why we are here!
In very quiet waters we sail to Luganville and say goodbye to Lynn and Kees. The rest of the team was to stay for the entire month of September, but two team members have decided to leave early.. That requires a restructuring of the September program, as the remaining team is now too small to be able to function. That is a bit of a disappointment, however, we have already accomplished so much more than we ever expected this year, and we are confident that we will find a solution that will be to everyone's satisfaction.
We spend a lovely two days in Aore Resort in Luganville; Henk and I visit Dr. Vocor again to get approval signatures on no fewer than 4 new aid posts in the greater Banam Bay area (again with positive results!) whereas the entire September team gets to dive the "President Coolidge" and Henk and I stock up for the last time on groceries, gasoline, diesel and water. Since there is no yacht harbor available in Luganville, every single gallon of diesel, gasoline and water has to be transported using a small boat and containers for transportation... But this is all part of cruising and the exitement! And... sometimes you
strike it lucky: just when Henk and I are starting the process of filling up 5 gallon water jugs and hauling them from shore to Rivendel... a fellow cruiser knocks on Rivendel's hull. He is sick and needs medical attention. Of course we don't turn him down and in return he offers to fill Rivendel with water: he has a watermaker on board... Bill and Mary, from Australian SV "Reverie" if and when you read this later: thank you again from the bottom of our heart....
And then we are on our way to our last destination: the Maskelyne islands and after that... home to our loved ones!
Nelleke.
P.S. This is a message for Mojdeh's mother Mymanat:
Mama, ik mis de nootjes die je ook meegegeven had naar Nepal!
(Report VIII)
Dear Family, Friends and Supporters,
It is done: a Project Baby has been delivered!
Henk and I are both exhausted, but very thankful for a wonderful and successful first season of PROJECT MARC.
We have safely arrived in Port Vila and will decommission both Rivendel and Flying Angel within the next five days.
On August 29 we leave Luganville in challenging conditions; the sea state is calm but there is pooring rain and some lightning. The next morning at dawn we start negotioting the extensive reefs surrounding the beautiful Maskelyne islands. We arrive at Sakao island around nine and are almost immediately greeted by chief Willie Nombong who has been anxiously waiting for us since last year! He has even put in a real mooring so that we don't have to worry about dragging the anchor and possible damage to the coral reef.
Flying Angel joins us a few hours later and after a good hearty lunch prepared by skipper/chef-cook Jim, Henk and I go to Uliveo island accompanied by Chief Willie to take stock of the situation.
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(l) Anchored off Sakao beach; land tongue to the left shows 2002 clinic site made available to Project MARC
(r) Chief Willy Nombong, major landowner and strong supporter of Project MARC, in front of his home
It is impossible to come close to this island with a big boat like Rivendel because of the extensive shallow reefs around it. Here it is pure necessity to have an inflatable the size of our 15 ft long "Red Baron" and even with this large dinghy it is a risky operation. But Chief Willie knows his way through these waters and shows driver Jaimee the safe way. Since we are crossing open water the ride is quite wet and bumpy, but by now we are used, as are all our team members, to get a "wet behind"!
We have to wade through the shallows the last part as the tide is low and the reef close to the island is exposed. We follow Chief Willie on the long walk to the dispensary in Sangalai. It may come as no surprise to you that here again we find the dispensary closed; the nurse left three months ago for a "vacation", leaving some 1000 people without medical help.
Just yesterday morning a tiny aluminum ferry boat full with sick people went to Lamap, the closest place on the "mainland" that features a small clinic. The boat is always overloaded and the waters are rough, creating a dangerous situation. The cost of this ride is 2500 vatu ($18) per person; a lot of copra needs to be collected and sold to save up an amount like that! Once the people have been dropped of at the shore they are transported further inland in the back of an open pickup truck for another 500 Vatu. These trucks are usually also overloaded, thereby creating more risk and discomfort, particularly for patients whose bodies are racked with "feva" or "pein". This description may help you understand why the people of the Maskelynes are beyond excitement to see us.
Because of the fact that some team members have decided to go back early, as mentioned in the previous report, we decide to cram the two weeks of work planned for the Maskelynes into four days.
We start early next morning with the long but scenic ride in the Red Baron, loaded with seven team members, chief Willie, bags and backpacks with medical supplies and lunch. Here we have no facility to work from: the dispensary is closed and is located in a mosquito infested swamp area. So we decide to set up in the largest village named Pescarus, close to the open ocean where the mosquitos are considerably less pesky. Gareth helps to set up a makeshift clinic, created by attaching tarps and mosquito nets to what the villagers use as a "music platform". We also set up the Project MARC tent. Doc Stefan, doc Henk and nurse Chelsea, assisted by Gareth, work frantically through the crowd of patients lined up in front of the tent.
For two days Mojdeh and guest dentist David Dickinson, assisted by wife Jodi, work through a sizeable number of dental patients. We have met David and Jodi (from sailing Yacht Jaga II) in Banam Bay and are thrilled to have them join our team for a few days. Mojdeh and David work well together and get a lot accomplished though they are holding their breath for a minute when one of the patients passes out after receiving the anaesthetic shots. Fortunately the patient comes to almost immediately!
One of the patients politely asks Mojdeh:" Were you born in world war II?" Mojdeh looks a bit surprised but than bursts out in laughter and says:" No I am not that old..."
In the meantime Henk and I meet with the local village chiefs and the dispensary committee chairman as well as two old, retired "dressers".(these are not pieces of furniture, please read previous report!). Henk decides to follow the same strategy as in Banam Bay and with the committee's slightly hesitant consent, open the lock of the dispensary. He explains that we will take the blame in case the government has any objections and that we will help them operate the dispensary as an aid post, which requires some changing around and the assistance of the two dressers to do the work a couple of days per week until the nurse comes back...???
I do my usual routine at the local school and am finding that the Sangalai school is worse of than any of the other schools I have visited and signed up for sponsor programs. The fact that this island can only be reached by dinghy, canoe or small power boat strongly contributes to the isolation. The school has two hundred students and six teachers, the "headmasta's" name is Sam and all I can do for him is to promise that I will be back next year (the two boxes with school supplies Gareth and Chelsea carried on the plane to Fiji are still "lost").
The translation for the name Sangalai is: "thorn crown", the crown on Jesus' head... This name was given when the first missionaries set foot on this island and had to wrestle through thorny bushes.
The team sees approximately three hundred and fifty patients in those few days, displaying the usual array of South Pacific island problems. On this island, however, we see more scabies than in the other places.
Fortunately there is always time for laughter. Stefan asks a female patient :"How long have you been married?" Patient answers: "Twenty yeas". Stefan:" And how old are you?" Patient: "Ten!"
Anyhow... what does it really matter when one's birthday is (I stopped remembering mine!) what day it is and what time it is. It is time to get up when it is light and time to go to bed when it gets dark, time to eat when you feel hungry and time to pray when the bell for the devotion rings.. As a result "stress" is virtually unknown in the Pacific islands. But malaria, scabies, boils, joint pains, tooth aches and no medical help constitute the other side of the medal...
Around five the team concludes its work with a grand finale: surrounded by the usual crowd of curious onlookers and cheer leaders a large sharp seed is removed from a child's ear (while lying on the ground between the huts) by the combined efforts of Chelsea and Stefan. Bravo!!
Back at Flying Angel Jim has pizza ready for eight hungry people and right after dinner there is sleep, well deserved sleep!
On the last day we work on Avokh island. Avokh, deeply tucked away behind extensive reefs, has a population of two hundred and we see roughly fourty patients that day. I meet with the parent school committee and ask my standard questions: "How many kids in school, how many teachers, how many sixth graders and: " How many sixth graders do you expect to pass the final exam?" The entire school committe starts to laugh hysterically after that question and it takes them a long time to count on one hand that maybe four kids will pass.
(l) The kindergarten hut on Avokh has a covered sandbox play area
(r) A tired but happy September team after finishing their last clinic day in the Nakamal on Avokh;
(left to right: doctor Stephan, dentist Mojdeh, nurse Chelsea and technician Garreth)
I have heard the same story over and over again: 65% of all children attend primary school; 30% of that percentage passes the state exam and is allowed to go to secondary school. Of that 30 % a meager one third can afford to get secondary education.
And here is where my plan comes in to sponsor as many children as possible, starting at primary school level, followed by possible fellowships for secondary school students. With a better base of education these islands can produce more of their own teachers and health workers and some time in the future Project MARC may not be needed anymore...
I know, I am a simple thinker, but the least I can do is try... So, who wants to sponsor a child through six years of primary school for the grand total of US $ 90...... ?
We make a short stop in Banam Bay to tell our friends there about the good news: all four new aid posts approved to be open. Project MARC has provided matching support for the aid post worker honoraria and when we see our Sason clinic back we are touched to see how hard they all have worked and how clean everything is. This gives HOPE!
Then it is back again to Port Vila for the last time with Mojdeh, Stefan, Gareth and Chelsea onboard of Rivendel and Jim and Jaime on Flying Angel. We are lucky this time; good wind from an unusual direction and Henk and I tremendously enjoy Rivendel's last sail of this year. None of the crew members gets terribly seasick but everyone is very happy to be back in the harbor and have some solid ground under their feet. We have decided to leave Rivendel in Port Vila, we don't have the stomach for Vuda Point Marina in Fiji anymore plus it will save a lot of time.
God's grace has been with us. What a summer, so many blessings, so many new friends and so many opportunities. We pray that God will lead us back to this "land eternal" and I want to conclude this last report with a quote from my favorite song of the Bislama hymn book for the Presbyterian church:
"Jisas Yu namba wan"
Nelleke.
Accomplished during this first season::
~ provided medical and dental help to some 35 villages in North Ambrym, Banam Bay and Maskelyne Islands;
together representing nearly 5 % of the total population of Vanuatu;
~ examined and/or treated roughly 2500 patients, including dental patients;
~ provided in-service training to eight aid post workers, 1 nurse practitioner and 6 traditional health workers;
~ reopened seven aid posts;
~ sponsored 20 children in primary school; and
~ dropped off school supplies at five primary schools.
Project MARC Movies
The MARC@WORK movies on this webpage were produced by Peter Brouwer and Sylvia Steinert from video footage shot while traveling with Project MARC volunteer teams in September of 2005.
