October 2004 - Paul Jeffries

After arriving back from Vanuatu I started feeling very bad. A bad dose of influenza had gone through our household whilst I was in Vanuatu, and my wife and I thought, “Oh well I’ve just picked it up from the kids.”’ But no - you guessed it - I had Malaria!!

I suddenly found I was 9.5 kilos lighter, having eaten two meals in eight days. I tell you now - it’s a great diet but not very pleasant at all!

I knew I was running out of time with the end of October in sight and having lost so much time, so the last part of October was spent chasing support in the form of funding and materials for the next two tanks, the last for the year.

It was looking as though November would be the time for the trip and last minute preparations were all running smoothly. Again Air Vanuatu came to the party, and VanAir in Vila also played a big part in transport. As usual I was going to be well over the weight limit, but both airlines helped out.

Materials for the two tanks were waiting in Malakula, and we had a few extra lengths of drainpipes and gutters for a school project we wanted to undertake. November was going to be great, nothing was going to stop us, however I had this feeling that after all the set backs from the malaria, this trip was going to run smoothly.

All too soon November was approaching. A small relapse of malaria didn’t help, but come the end of the month I was fit and raring to go - at least I could eat and drink and had started to put back the kilos lost.

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