Friday we dock at the Port of Vila and are ready to disembark by 9ish and laden with our donations for a local village school we head down the gangplank and head towards the throng of waiting taxi drivers and negotiate a driver for the day. We are lucky to secure Driver Roy who proves to be a great tour guide. We begin our journey through the city and quickly observe the varying stages of repair after Cyclone Pam left her mark on this island last year. Of course the government buildings are the ones most repaired and others are looking rather poor. Roy points out various buildings and we head out of the city centre along  potholed roads where dogs and chooks roam to their hearts content. Our olfactory nerves are given a wakeup by the stench from the village dumpsites on the side of the road. WE soon arrive at the village English school and as I step out of Roy’s “bomb” I am immediately approached by this delightful LITTLE 5 year old boy who shakes my hand, then WOOMPA!!! 50 kids are swarming us, they have huge smiles and are soon singing us a song. We make our donation of various craft supplies to the administrators and continue to meet and greet the children. AS we wander over to the kindergarten classroom I am feeling a growing sympathy for the conditions that these children have to learn in and an even greater concern for the teachers. The kindergarten room has 60 children and a few flashcards on the wall. Himself and I chat to the teacher and learn that these children now only learn English from Year 4. WE make our way to the upper grades and the conditions are worse!!!! These children have a makeshift Unicef Classroom tent!!!!!! but the kids quickly arrange themselves into a photo opportunity. As we exit the classroom to move on, Himself is overcome with emotion and we comment on how we have NO REASON to complain about working conditions. (Sorry for the pause, had to wipe a tear from my cheek) …a little more time passes and we are back in Roy’s “bomb” and heading to the waterfall. A steamy walk up hills, across slippery creeks and we end up at a very picturesque waterfall with rock pools at the base. We trek back the 1000m walk and back into Roy’s bomb to head to Hideaway Island. Here we had a relaxing few hours snorkeling the reef (very disappointing)…lots of damage, maybe from the cyclone , but me thinks it is damage from tourists who have trampled the reef . A few local ales and then we head back to Roy’s bomb to go back to the ship. WE bounce and bobble along through the peak hour traffic avoiding the dogs and chooks, get back on board and head to a bar for a Toblerone or two before dinner and the usual cruise ship night time entertainment .

Mrs Always Right……I’m sure Himself will post some snaps soon as we catch up on posts that we were unable to post on board.