Back to the Banks

Cyclone Yasi has passed and is headed for Queensland. It barreled through Penama province as a Category 1, then Torba as a Category 2. I got a hold of my host mama on Monday morning around 9:30. She said they’d been hiding in the house since bedtime Sunday night, but that it was starting to quiet down so they were thinking about going out to check things out. She was worried about ME. I was like, “I’m in VILA! You’re in a HURRICANE!”

I haven’t heard anything yet about any damage. Obviously the cell phone tower is still up, or I wouldn’t have been able to contact anybody, but I don’t know anything about roofs with wind damage or flooded “bridges” (we don’t really have any real bridges… but that’s for another post).

I had texted one of my coworkers over the weekend to say that because of the storm I wouldn’t be coming on Monday, so don’t send the truck. This should have been obvious when Monday actually came, bringing the cyclone with it. Yet I still got a text saying, “okay, i stret, torba i gat cyclone naoia.” (Okay, that’s fine, Torba has a cyclone now.) … I didn’t even know what to say haha

I will be headed north tomorrow, starting with a 7am flight to Santo, sitting around for a while, then the 2:30 flight up. Usually on Mon/Wed/Fri there is only one flight to Torba, around 10am. I’m wondering if this 2:30 is to replace the canceled flights on Monday.

The first day of school (as declared by the Ministry of Education) is February 14, so my work will actually be picking up a little bit soon. VERY excited to have something to do! Some of the MoE will be visiting us for a couple of days next week (including their lovely PCV, Jenni!!) so that will be awesome!

Our Irish VSO volunteer will be leaving in March, and rumor has it she will be replaced by an Englishwoman, so that’s another bit of excitement! Life is looking up.

I don’t know what my house is going to be like when I get there… not only because of it not being finished, but now also because it’s been hit by a cyclone. But the good news is that with school starting, the men who’ve been building it will come back from vacation and actually (maybe) get it done!! I’m going to have to start being a stronghead and demanding they finish it, otherwise I doubt it’ll happen. I’ll give them to March.

Finally, the other tidbit of news is that (a) I will be taking my laptop to the Banks with me, and (b) Torba might be getting internet soon!! Apparently there was a national movement to make sure all the hospitals (or clinic, in my case) closest to the 6 provincial centers received internet. Naturally, they forgot about Torba. But I heard th system was touch-and-go before I left, so it might be quasi-reliable in the future! So you all might have to deal with me before August now after all!