A Vanuatu Elective

(whilst sneaking into Holiday Inn, Port Vila)

We’ve reached the beautiful Vanuatu and have been busy settling in at the capital, Port Vila on Efate.
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And here’s where we’re casually staying. A house up at Malapoa Estate overlooking the harbour.

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Our pool. (That's right)

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So far we haven’t ventured very far past our pool swimming wise, but here’s an idea of our local beaches down along the road ☺

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Don't worry though, Mel and I bought snorkel gear to prep for this.

We’re also slowly getting used to cooking and eating for 6 and now 8 people (Alexa and Ryan arrived on Saturday). Supermarkets are rather expensive here with imported food (mostly from Australia) and generally filled with tourists and expats (also mostly from Australia).

We found an absolute gem though in local fruit and vegetable market (I'll take some photos for you later, it's amazing). Hence, we’ve been living on BANANAS

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We’ve also been learning a bit of the local lingo. Vanuatu seems to run in a weird mix of English, French and Bislama (with shops and signs in any combination of the 3).

Bislama, is proof that pidgin English is a real language. Well, in 3 countries of the pacific. Bislama actually began as a form of spoken pidgin English before being combined with more English vocab, Melesian grammar and French.
It’s a pretty fun language though. Just think English on kava with not many consonants and you get Bislama. I.e. :
English Bislama
Thank you Tankyu tumas
Hello Halo
Excuse me skiusmi
I don’t understand Mi no save
Do you speak English? Yu save toktok long Inglis?
I’m from… Mi blong…

You get the idea :P

There’s quite a few students here working in the Central Hospital with us. We technically 'started' today and actually met the mysterious Willie Tokon (our preceptor and email contact in the hospital). Unfortunately, he sort of forgot about us so we're coming back to start the wards tomorrow. I've got ophthalmology first up, so pretty excited for that tomorrow.

Anywho, I'm using up the internet of our local hang out - an expat bar Anchor Inn run by our rental manager and shall sign off for now.

Tata (yes that's Bislama too)
Sarah

One more sleep to this...