Last night, just before 2am I was woken up by the sound of dozens of cars driving past, honking their horns, full of people shouting. We live by the main road into town which can be quite busy but tends to be pretty quiet after about 7 or 8pm. I woke John up in a panic and went to look out at the road which was almost a traffic jam of cars going down the road towards town. A couple of police cars with their sirens blaring and lights flashing drove through the traffic. It went quiet after about ten minutes leaving me awake for an hour or so imagining scenes of fighting and civil unrest and a repeat of the state of emergency that took place in March. Anyway this morning I asked Juanita, a ni-vanuatan woman who works for VSO, what had happened. Last night at about midnight the Vanuatan under-12's football team arrived back from France where they had been taking part in the U12 'Danone' football world cup. The team are being treated like conquering heroes after beating england, brazil and germany, finishing 19th out of 40 teams. They were greeted at the airport by the President and the foreign minister who made speeches. Then the crowd who had been at the airport took off around the town in a victory parade. Hard to imagine a less sinister reason for celebration...
7 comments:
Sorry to hear about your disrupted sleep - but as you say what a pleasant reason.
Last night - Wednesday 4th July, on the BBC1 TV news at 9.00 pm there was quite a long item about the pig's Tusk currency on Pentecost which has been developed into a full banking system complete with interest on deposits and borrowings (15%)and an external rate of exchange. The generasl view was that the people there have a simple but very happy life.
On the other hand there were concerns that the rate of development on Paradise is beginning ot spoil the island
i just read the story on the bbc website http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6266274.stm
We met a guy who is working on the year of the "Kaston ekonomi" project last week. Its v interesting, god knows how successfully you can run two different economies alongside each other. I realised i needed to do an economics degree when i spoke to him. You can understand the rationale in supporting tradition and local systems of stability in the face of so much change (global forces etc) but at the same time access to cash is pretty crucial (for paying for school fees/ medical bills etc).
NB apparently colombia came second in that happiness poll...
James' dad had heard something on radio 4 about Vanuatu this week too. He thought that you were doing a good job of publiscising Vanuatu already Hannah!
Can you send/post your address so we can see how long it takes for a post card to get from France!! Lots of love
Hazelxx
well im very happy to take the credit...I've put the address on here - if you click on our profile its there. we're using the VSO office as our contact address.
I have just discovered that you can post comments on a blog - really up with technology or what! It did take me 2 weeks to find the blog - desperate I know! Anyway, I would really love it if you could post some more photos of you guys and your new home on the blog. Vanuatu is never out of the news here, now that you have both moved there! Your community certainly sounds like it knows how to party. Miss you both. I will e-mail soon.Love Bunner.xxxx
Curse those pesky Ni-vanuatan under twleves. Having blagged my way into the England under 12s side on account on my boyish good looks and upside down legs I found my solid defensive virtues undone by these naturally athletic two footed minnows (obviously when I say two footed; we all had two feet but some used them better than others). Any way we came a sold 23rd after losing on a penalty shoot out to Zanzibar. My career is in ruins...
PS pleased to report I am still in the team but an FA inquiry has been launcehed into the fact I have a beard
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