My Home

The title of this blog post is a song by the most popular reggae artist in Vanuatu called Naio. For the next year and a half, my home is Vanuatu and I want to tell you all a bit about Vanuatu.

Vanuatu is a very interesting country. It is made up of about 81 Islands. It is divided into seven provinces and there are about three major islands in each province. The province that I am located in is called Malampa province and the three major Islands in this province are Malekula, Ambrym and Paama Islands.

Most of Vanuatu is still very rural. Rural meaning that a lot of places do not have running water, centralized electricity is a distant dream and paved/sealed roads are the ravings of a mad man. Some places are more developed than others though. The capital of Vanuatu is called Port Vila and it is located on the Island of Efate. As such, Efate Island is a bit more urban than other places. However, as urban as Efate is, centralized electricity and water is still limited to the capital of Port Vila and its immediate suburbs. It is expected in the future that Efate will become even more developed because a road that goes around the entire Island will soon be entirely sealed/paved/tarred, so more businesses will be able to expand to outside of Port Vila.

Another place that is pretty developed is the town of Luganville, which is located on the Island of Santo in the north of Vanuatu. Santo is the biggest Island in Vanuatu and was a major operations center for the US military during World War II. The military built the town of Luganville for their bases and this has helped in the development of Luganville because after WWII the infrastructure for a town was already present.

Outside of these two places, the rest of Vanuatu is pretty much rural. Two other places deserving of mention in terms of development are the Island of Tanna and the Island of Malekula. Tanna is a major tourist destination because of the world famous volcano - Mount Yasur which is located there. I believe that this has helped a bit in the development of Tanna and the provincial center (the capital of a province) for the Tafea province is located on Tanna which helps also. 

Malekula is the same way, expect that it is not really a major tourist destination, however the provincial center for the Malampa province is located there.

The four Islands are the only places in Vanuatu that have centralized electricity and some sort of centralized water system and these only extend a small radius. The rest of Vanuatu is made up of small villages of about 300 people, with some much bigger villages and some much smaller villages.

Coming from the States and even from Nigeria, it is very difficult to imagine a place like Vanuatu. The amenities we take for granted  are not present here. The interesting thing is that the absence of these amenities are not the exception, but rather the rule here.

So this is my home for now.