September 2004 - Paul Jeffries

Olsem wannam....

September was a split month for me as it continued on from the August trip to Malakula. The Vodafone team of Beatrice, Katherine, David and Anthony stayed in Vanuatu until the seventh of September, and I stayed a further two weeks until the end of September.

In my last report, I raved about the commitment and drive shown by these four young people - and it is still bearing fruit to this day. From the date the ‘Vodafone Four’ left for NZ, Russell Burns and I loaded the two trucks with donated goods and spent three days driving to the smaller, more remote villages, and handing out clothing and food.

We had lots of laughs. The looks on the people’s faces were priceless. A funny thing happened during my last week there - we had a minor delay for a day so Russell and I decided to deliver more goods. Whilst loading the trucks we found a big box of Vodafone beanies - red ones given out to us when we had our heads shaved for ‘World of Difference Day.’ The box had over 130 beanies in it.

So picture this - Russell and I driving down the road (track) and stopping any and all public transport vehicles in the middle of the road - jumping out, racing to the driver’s door and throwing in three hats, (for the driver and two passengers), then a further ten or fifteen on the back of the truck to his passengers. They thought we were nuts but everyone wanted one! We gave out 130 hats in less than an hour.

It was a huge amount of fun. The following day, and even now, there is an abundance of people walking around with these red beanies on. Even on my last trip in November I was asked if there were any more! Hey - they get cold in Vanuatu just as we do here.

At the end of September I arrived home having lost a little more weight than usual, and feeling pretty poorly, to say the least.

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