Still safe from the sharks and cannibals.

Hello all, and sorry for not having posted earlier! Let me give you a brief run down of what's been going on since I left the States:


Tuesday, June 21, we arrived in Vanuatu after a day-long stopover in Fiji. We then had one day to get acclimated to Vanuatu in it's capital city of Port Vila before we rushed off for the field--that is, the outer islands. We stopped in the northern island of Ambae for four nights, where it was extremely rainy, despite being the dry season. Ambae in all of our memories will be permanently associated with rain, mud, long and uncomfortable boat rides, and more rain.

On June 26, we returned to Vila, all very excited for showers and internet. We got our showers, but we discovered that internet was down on the entire island (Efate). It was partly up the next day, but only at a few places, mostly where we had to pay, and I wasn't desperate enough for the web to pay. Ergo, you all had no update last stop in Vila--sorry about that!


After one short day in Vila, we returned again to the field, this time headed for a longer trip in the southern islands. We first stopped at Aneityum, an island on which Akira, our Japanese counterpart, eradicated malaria a number of years ago (evidently, some of the islanders are so grateful for what Akira did for Aneityum that they named their child after him!). The weather was good for most of this trip, but we were a little disappointed in the number of people who showed up for the survey, since we generally get the entire population and we were a bit short this time. (We should still have plenty of data to get good analysis, however.)


Our last full day on the island of Aneityum was July 4. After working every day through the rain of Ambae and generally nice weather of Aneityum, we decided we really needed a day off. Besides, it was a holiday. So all the Americans spend the lovely sunny day on the coast of Mystery Island, a small island off the coast of Aneityum which usually serves as a stop for cruise ships. On this day, however, it was just us and a few Ni-Vanuatu from Aneityum preparing for the arrival of a cruise ship the following day. If you have never spent a day on an island by yourself, it is an experience I would fully recommend.


We were back on Mystery Island the following day to catch our flight to Futuna, the next island on our itinerary. While waiting for the plane to arrive, we chilled with the tourists arriving on Mystery Island for the day, managing to snag 10 free beers from a very generous Australian who felt we deserved them because our cause for being in Vanuatu was worthy. (We couldn't actually buy the drinks ourselves because the cruise company was the one selling them, and they would only take credits from people on the cruise, no cash.) It was quite neat wandering around the island, chatting with our hosts from Aneityum selling their wares, and watching the tourists look overweight and pale. It was also a bit stunning to see so many white people in one place--we generally stick out quite a lot!


The trip to Futuna lasted five days and came with remarkably good weather (since we were in the southern islands, farther from the equator, it was also relatively cool, which made it nice to have the sun all day). Futuna has no roads and no cars, so we spent a fair amount of time hiking from village to village and shipping our heavy equipment via boat. Nonwithstanding a small boating accident and some slips on the hikes, it was a relatively straightforward survey--probably the most pleasant so far! (Excepting the rats in our guest house.) Interestingly, this was the first time we had done a survey for this project on Futuna; thus it was very good to have had such a nice experience on the island.


Yesterday evening (July 9), we returned to Vila. One of our group, Kelsey, left early this morning to catch her flight back. Akria and one of his students also return to Japan sometime today. The rest of us are enjoying a few days of rest before we either head out for some more surveying later in the week.


(Well, I guess that wasn't so brief an update after all...)


Catch y'all soon with some more updates!


P.S. Happy Fourth of July, everyone, and Bumpa, I hope you had a wonderful birthday!