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I have now been back from Vanuatu for a month and after a beautiful four weeks of catching up with family and friends I am spending time processing my 6 months away.
Having read recent threads from James and Gemma I have realised that I didn't really give any of those kinds of details from my trip. For many reasons this was the case - perhaps computer access being the main one, but also that in order to manage the differences I worked hard to make everything "normal" very quickly. Once it was normal, it then became tricky to sit outside it and think about what people might be interested to hear.
I am currently putting together a report / and excerpts of my writing from that time and will lodge it on this website for you to access.
Returning to the the Western World is a fascinating process. During my time in Vanuatu I became incredibly close friends with many people who live a subsistence exsistance. Knowing them and their lives, sheds a very interesting light on the world I have returned to. How do I make sense of our materialistic world where things and money seem to have more value than people.
The development dilemma is something that I am doing a lot of thinking about, we go into these countries to "help" but what is the end vision - are we just trying to globalise them? Is international aid about human rights to water, food, safety and shelter - or is it about ensuring that a country is a viable economic proposition?
Trying to summarise my learnings and gains is an exciting process - which I won't take you through here, but there will be more to come.
Gemma - whilst I was in Vanuatu I helped to organise the first National Youth Aids Congress - we brought 100 young people from all over Vanuatu to Port Vila for a week of intensive workshops and discussions. We used music, drama, peer education and resource production to raise awareness and initiate a whole stack of smaller projects throughout the country. I have some resources that could be useful for you - and could access more. What kind of awareness raising are you working on? Do you need suggestions for drama based workshops? Do you need videos? I can get these sent to you for free...... If you need basic information and workshop material I could access that too. This is a huge area of focus in Vanuatu at the moment as the rate of STIs and teenage pregnancies are high, but there is only one identified case of HIV Aids. PNG has an epidemic of at least 7000 cases now, and Fiji has 600 known cases, Vanuatu is perfectly positioned for an HIV explosion unless something is done quick - and it is the younger generation who need to lead the way.
Anyway - let me know it any of this kind of stuff sounds useful to you, and then send me a postal address.

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