Problem Solved

Those of you who read our post on "Houston, we have a problem", might be wondering, "what ever happened to the shipment?!?" Well, as they almost always do, things did indeed work out, but not exactly in the way I had planned. If you haven't read that post yet, you might want to read it first so that you are up to speed.

Last you heard from us, I was at the Internet cafe in "town" on Friday morning, under the impression that the ship was going to arrive the next day and that I had "booked" a transport (thanks to Alsen's assistance) to take all our stuff back to the village. I was just supposed to call him when I was ready to go to the wharf, and he would come pick me up and off we'd go.

On a side note, the decision to "just make a night of it" turned out to be a great idea. We stayed at the Nabelchel Bungalows, which was recommended by our New Zealander friend, who volunteers in the tourism department. The bungalow was very simple, clean (relatively new), and located in the midst of nice gardens. We heard through the grapevine that most tourists (though there really aren't that many yet) balk at the price - $60 per night. On one hand, I totally understand their thinking, as it is quite basic, but to us it had running water, electricity, and cooked meals, so yeah it was worth every penny! Too, we cheated a bit and fed the kids Ramen noodles and had them in bed by about 7:00 (which is normal), and then snuck over a stone's throw away to the common dining area and had a great tasting dinner (fresh fish, sautéed pumpkin, kumala, rice and cucumber salad - I had bought a Coke in town and put it in their freezer for an hour, which completed the meal nicely). We had he place to ourselves for the first thirty minutes or so, when two local guys came in for dinner. We all sat at the same table, and enjoyed getting to know them a bit. Of course, situations like those always provide us with an opportunity to share about our work and the Lord's church. But I digress!

About 9:30 the next morning, Steve (the bungalow's new chief cook) told me that he had just heard that the Big Sista had just pulled into port. I immediately starting walking towards Litz-Litz wharf at a brisk pace. I figured I might as well gain some ground while I waited on my truck to come get me. However, in true Vanuatu fashion, I called the driver (whom, by the way, I had seen in town the day before and reconfirmed) and seemingly woke him up. I told him the the ship had arrived and where I was. He groggily said (in Bislama), uhhhh..... sorry..... but, uh, I can't take you today because, uh, the truck's no good and, uh, yeah, the truck's no good, so, sorry.".

I was a bit miffed, but had known that such was always a possibility. I asked him if he could help me find another truck, but he said he didn't know of any. That really irritated me, because every truck driver on the island knows every other truck driver on the island - it's kind of a fraternity of sorts. Anyway, I knew there was no sense in arguing with him, as I was just wasting time. You see, the unloading of the Big Sista is a mass hysteria free-for-all. And oddly, there is always seemingly a 10-to-1 person to parcel ratio. That means that if you are not present when your stuff is thrown (literally) off the ship, you might well never see it (though I must admit that the level of theft is amazingly low). All that to say, I really wanted to be there when the ship started unloading. Problem was, I was over an hour's walk away from the wharf, and when I made it the wharf I wouldn't have a truck to load anyway (I was a unique customer because (a) I had a full truckload of stuff, and (b) I needed them to go all the way to Tulwei Village (a little over an hour's drive one way).

Though I had already made some progress down the road by this time, I decided to turn back to Nabelchel and ask Steve if he knew of any trucks. He tried a few of his friends, but they were all already at the wharf with trips scheduled. Steve really wanted to help, but there was nothing he could do. He gave me his phone number just im case, which actually worked out quite nicely. You see, in a classic moment of boneheadedness, I packed the charger for both mine and Shawnda's cell phones in our stuff on the ship. So by Saturday, they were both maxed out. Thankfully I had my old one as a backup, and now I could communicate with Shawnda if need be, through Steve's phone.

My only option now was to take off walking, and hope that I could find a truck to at least get me to the wharf. Problem was, most trucks don't run on Saturdays, and those that did were most likely already at the wharf. As I speed-walked in the direction of the wharf, I called my aforementioned friend from New Zealand, to get the number of a local mechanic we both know. I explained the situation and Howard assured me that it was no problem to store our stuff at his place (and even we could stay there if need be) until we could find a truck to the village (now most likely to be Monday).

I was able to get the number of the mechanic, and he agreed to call a few people to try and help me out, though he wasn't very optimistic about finding a truck to the village at this late stage. I had been walking for about 20 minutes when a transport approached from behind me and stopped when I flagged him down. He was actually taking three men to the wharf, so I got a ride all the way there. I tried to pay him when we got there, but he refused my offer.

I hurried my way down to the ship, keeping an eye out all the while for a truck I might recogize and cooerce into service, and noticed and it had only recently began unloading. I saw that some of my things were indeed waiting to be picked up, but also saw a familiar face from the village and spoke to him briefly (we'd been talking back and forth in town and the village since we were in the same boat (pardon the pun) trying to retrieve our cargo from the delayed ship). He assured me that a truck from the village had come loaded with kava to send on the Big Sista, and thus would be going back empty, and that the two of us could share it. What a relief! I then began the process of collecting my things one by one as they were offloaded. This actually proved fairly difficult because the relatively small wharf is extremely overcrowded with people getting off the ship, people getting on the ship, people retrieving cargo from the ship, people trying to get cargo loaded onto the ship, 20 or shiphands, every truck in town trying to get as close as possible so people won't have to carry their stuff very far, lots of people just there for the entertainment value, and one white guy. We shipped a record 22 things this trip, becuase this was our last shipment before we completely move out of our house in Vila, which basically means we had to ship everything we want to keep in Vanuatu, save a few items we'll leave with some friends in Vila.

Having so many pieces and being the only white guy there ended up being quite favorable, as before long all 200+ people there knew exactly who "Eric Brandell, Litz-Litz Wharf, Tulwei Village, Malekula" was. Before long people were carrying things to my pile for me. By the time I got all my stuff together, I turned around to see my "empty" truck 75% full (keepingin mind that I basically need a whole truck to myself). It was beginning to look like plan B (store everything at Howard's until Monday) was going to go into effect.

My friend soon noticed our truck too, and went to talk to the driver again (the driver's response was "we can just pile every thing up really high"). While he did, I spotted another driver that I knew and went to talk to him. I had met Yano back in 2010 when we got stranded in Santo together (perhaps some of you remember my "we have a plane and we have gas, but we have no truck to get the gas from the garage to the plane" story?) Anyway, Yano and I had spent several hours together then, and I has since seen him a few times around town in Malekula. I asked him about the possibility of taking me to Tulwei, knowing that he would have to complete one trip first as he was already loaded down. He said he'd be happy to, but that his trip to Rano Village would take over an hour round trip. It was really my only option now, so I said I would just wait for him there. I called Shawnda to give her a heads up, estimating that it would be about two hours before we were there to pick her and the kids up (and as it turned out, it was only two minutes shy of two hours - do I know Vanuatu or what?!?).

Within the next few minutes the boat was off for Santo (with several of the crew members yelling bye to me by name as they sailed off) and all the people and trucks cleared out ... and then there was one. There is absolutely no shade whatsoever at the wharf, and since there was still the occassional wanderer passing by, I couldn't leave the wharf altogether. So there I sat in the sun for a good two hours total. I was actually quite patient, but being the American that I am, I couldn't resist calling Yano twice just to confirm that he was indeed coming back for me.

Sure enough, he came back and we got all our stuff loaded. He had received a watermelon in Rano (as partial payment, I presume), and asked if it was okay if we ate it before we departed. Let me tell you, watermelon never tasted so good! I gobbled down several pieces, enjoying the opportunity for rehydration.

It was smooth sailing (another pun?!?) from there, as there was even still one store in town open where I bough a bottle of water and a sleeve of cookies (not even out of date ones!). Within an hour we were unloading our things in the village. I gave Yano an extra $10 to show my appreciation, and waived goodbye.

And so, as I mentioned before, "problem solved" - in a very-Vanuatu sort of way! ;)