Latest addition to the Frawley family



Baby Rex and bear

 My cousin (Daniel) and his wife (Kat) who live in Dubai are the proud new parents of their first child - Rex - and the latest addition to the Frawley family. Rex brings to five the number of great-grandchildren of John Frawley who moved permanently to Sri Lanka in October this year - as you do when you are 95. JF is very proud of this new member of the family and followed Rex's arrival into the world through the wonders of the internet. There is a video of Rex a few days after his birth (if it loads) alternatively a couple of pictures.

Congratulations Dan and Kat.



Rex and father



Fly the flag

I copied this moving Vanuatu flag image from someone else's website over the weekend. It demands an acknowledgement but I can't remember where it comes from probably the page of one of the local resorts. If it is made any larger it goes all wobbly so you will have to content yourselves with the original size...

Next trick is to try and add some music. What until you hear a traditional Vanuatu string band.

Local markets

The local markets in Port Vila on Efate and Luganville on Santo are fascinating places to visit not only for the amazing selection of local produce but also to meet local people and see some of the real Vanuatu. The market in Port Vila is open almost 24 hours day from Monday morning until midday Saturday and you can buy fruit, vegetables, herbs, nuts, coconut oil, peanuts from Epi, seas shells, and so on.  Here are pictures of a market day last month in Santo - the market buildings are tent-like in strucuture with lots of benches groaning under the weight of produce and food items and with plenty of produce (see below) spread out on the ground on mats or tarps.


Luganville market, Espirtu Santo




Local produce for sale at Luganville market: L-R, Yam (I think), Jackfruit, Bananas




















Last Thursday night I went looking for fresh basil and I ended coming home with 2 big pieces of fresh pineapple (it's so sweet) and two large floor mats, the latter I had no intention of buying but when I saw them I thought since they were only vt800 each (about $8.70) they would look good in the flat and would be good for beach visits back home. The mats are now spread out on the sitting room floor and make a pleasant contribution to the overall aesthetic - better than the pictures on the walls at least. And I didn't end up buying any basil - none left. One thing I have learnt is that if you see something at the market and you think you might need or use it soon buy it then and there because chances are next time you visit the market it won't be available.




Three generations of stallholders at the Luganville market

(toddler stallholder looks decidely unhappy being in the picture).

The fresh flowers are the market are always beautiful and there is generally a good selection of greenery and different flowers on sale. I don't the names of any of the flowers below although I think one is a waratah (or at least waratah looking). Vanuatu is incredibly verdant vis the quality and variety of produce and flowers at the market. Occasionally you see some fresh crabs and live chickens for sale.

These flowers last for a long time and keep their

beautiful red colour.

 Throughout the markets baskets woven from palm branches are used to carry and store things such as taro, yam and potatoes. You can see in the photo below how the palm fronds are woven together to form the basket and handle, they are durable and can carry quite a bit of weight - sort of like the ultimate recyclable shopping bag because when it is finished with it goes on the garden as mulch and then another branch is cut down to make a new basket.



It looks like kumara and yam in these baskets.



The flowers in the two pictures below look like the tuila flower that is very common in Samoa. Someone told me they are called ginger flowers here in Vanuatu but they don't look like a ginger flower - more like a tuila flower. Perhaps they are the ni-Vanuatu cousin of the Samoan species. Whatever they are the look lovely in a vase and are so cheap at the market. A bunch of eight costs about vt400 (around $4.20).

Daily news in Vanuatu

The local and national news in Vanuatu comes via several sources,. There are two newspapers printed during the week the Vanuatu Daily Post http://www.dailypost.vu/ and The Vanuatu Times . Both newspapers print news items in Bislama, English and French (the three official languages of the Republic of Vanuatu) and there is a smattering of items from the Pacific Region, Australia, Europe, Asia and the USA.  The Vanuatu Times promotes itself as Vanuatu's indigenous owned newspaper but the contents of the two publications don't seem that different given is owned locally and the other isn't.

There is a somewhat amusing section in the Daily Post on a Saturday called Mi harem se, sort of like a gossip column with brief items about local affairs in Port Vila and Luganville. This morningwe read the following...

Mi harem se Morkin Steven was the first of the new ministers to pick up his car. Given Morkin's history with alcohol and car accidents last time he was a minister, everyone will be watching to see what happens this time around. Silip!

And another, this is a real cracker...

Mi harem se a woman Paama was inside a bus late at night when she saw her husband with a married Bali Hai girl whose husband is currently picking fruit in NZ. They were drunk and going for it so she hid at the back of the bus so they couldn't see her. Trouble is she heard everything including the need for them to 'do it' and him wanting her to play her Ambae mouth organ on the bus. That was it. She rushed at them. He ran off and she grabbed the girl and it was a full on Paama, Ambae bitch slapping contest. Paama won and the Ambae girl was stripped clear naked with her panties, bra and clothes all taken and left to walk home naked along the main road at No3. The cuckolded wife said she was keeping the clothes she had ripped off to show the woman's husband when he returned from NZ. Hemi nao woman. Silip!

People tell me it is quite common to be spoken about in Mi harem se so I wonder if it is a sign that one has arrvied in Port Vila if one scores a mention in this section of the paper. I must look out over the next couple of weeks and see if anything I have done around town excited sufficient interest for someone to write to the Daily Post. For the tourism awards, dinner this evening at Le Lagon, I volunteered my time as a judge so perhaps some disgruntled Vanuatu tourism operator who saw me out and about judging (not that I told anyone) might take umbrage at not winning and complain in Mi harem se - one can only hope, anything said in print is better than nothing said at all.

I don't listen to a lot of radio, only when driving in the car, but the BBC World Service broadcasts in Port Vila on 99.0 FM and there are two other local radio stations, Capital FM107 and another the name of which escapes me on 99.0FM, these two stations have hourly news bulletins in Bislama, which is great for me to listen to now that I am attending a weekly Bislama class (more about that another post).

As there isn't a television in the apartment I haven't seen television news, actually any television for that matter, since I left Australia. Don't miss it in the slightest to be honest. I did hear about the election in Victoria but couldn't rouse enough interest to inform myself about what happened.