Dear Richard (Canadian co-worker),

. . . Any fears I had about my usefulness here have been put to rest. I've spent most of my two weeks reading background material and starting to feel out the situation. The Local Government Council here (like all of them) is short of cash and has been told by the central government to go into business to earn money.

The LGC wants me to: 1.Help plan and implement such businesses, and 2.Help plan small development projects for the general populace. I've had a look at a couple of their business plans, and it appears that no financial planning is taking place - only social factors are considered.

For example, I was asked to do an analysis on a mini-bus service the LGC has been running for 3 months. There doesn't seem to be any doubt that one was needed - the economic centre of the island (Norsup) is about 8 km North of the administrative centre here, and there is lots of traveling between and to and from both centres. To date, the only public means of transport is a fleet of pickups run as taxis by young men who charge exorbitant fares. They have to, because there are so many taxis that each one doesn't get many customers. I suspect the main reason for owning the trucks is for general "cruising", and the population has been forced into supporting them. Anyway, the LGC got a 15-seat van and set the Norsup-Lakatoro fare at 40 vatu vs 300-500 return by taxi. I am finding cross-cultural communication a bit difficult, but I gather the price was set fairly arbitrarily. On Friday, I calculated their operating and fixed costs before return on investment or profit to be 89 vt per passenger. Diesel alone is 41 vt. Usage is increasing, so I'm going to recommend they double the fare for a few months to see how it goes. I recently found out that a private operator is running the same service at 100 vt. The LGC told me they wanted to keep it affordable.

I also took a look at an foreign aid-funding application to reopen a club-restaurant. Good social analysis - not one number considered.

Every CUSO who had been to Vanuatu told me that T-shirt, shorts, and thongs were standard dress at all levels here, so that's all I brought. Hogwash! Every LGC office employee (except me) wears a shirt and trousers, and almost all wear shoes. I did bring a few Aloha shirts, so I've been wearing them with my shorts and thongs. Actually, I do have some pants, socks, and leather sandals, but this is more comfortable.

After a month, we finally have all of our books almost dry from the hurricane (Cyclone Uma, 06 February, 1987). I wrote a letter last week to the owner of the hotel we stayed in during the hurricane, giving him the gears about how his son, who was acting manager in his absence, took off long before the storm hit (I later learned that in the storm's aftermath, while we were searching for shelter, he was drinking beer in his back yard) and soliciting his views on an innkeeper's ethical and contractual obligations to his guests. His response, if he bothers, should be interesting. (It was short and insulting -with that managerial attitude towards guests, small wonder the place went into receivership later.)

If it isn't hurricanes, it's earthquakes. We've had several small ones in the past 2 weeks, with the strongest one on Saturday while we were eating lunch. You can hear them coming from the east, and they hit like a wave - build up, peak, and subside. Saturday's peaked early for about 10 seconds, then tapered off. The locals say they've been getting worse lately. I asked if it was building up to the "big one", but just got back nervous laughter. Various pseudo-scientists have been telling us how animals can detect earthquakes. They sure can - as soon as they're over, all the dogs bark, and the birds squawk.

I finally went snorkeling for the first time yesterday. Not a very good spot - murky - but lots of butterfly fish and big coloured sponges.

Stan Combs, Regional Development Planner, all decked out in his work clothes. Photo ©H. Morgan.

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©S. Combs, 1995.