Week 35 - Status: Site swap or Staying... outcome unknown.

Nov 24 - 30

(24) Monday
So far been a slow day. I tried making a printer work on the network but the heads are dirty and it get stuck inside. Also every time I try to add it to the network and they restart it it loses it connection.

I gave up on it for a bit had a lunch with Rich and Kate and Bryan. Nice LUNCH.

Last week of hanging out with my Rich so Frisbee tonight. It is so hot out... oh well. Time for a nap.

Ended up playing some ultimate Frisbee yesterday one of the last games with Rich. Hunter showed up.

(25) Tuesday
Went into town had some french fires and a pastry at Attar. Nice lunch.

Not sure what else to do to consume the day until we have spaghetti at Bryan and Kate's tonight.

No news about my site from Keith.

I fixed a printer and now I am tempted to take a play a video game and kill time.

So I hear what is probably going to happen now.
1) I am moving from my site at college de luganville.
2) Might move to Staffords site. Not sure yet. His house is 1/3 as nice as mine... kind of a rough move in that sense.

Little depressed with this but that is what I am dealing with.

(26) Wednesday

I love this article on this : http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/french/2014-11-24/vanuatu-la-peine-de-mort-pour-les-sorciers-pourquoi-pas/1392587

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Vanuatu: the death penalty for wizards, why not 

Updated 24 November 2014, 5:08 p.m. AEDT 

Caroline Lafargue 

Willie Jimmy, the former finance minister, called for a law to punish the practice of black magic. 

Sorcery 

(Credit: AFP) 

Willie Jimmy spoke from torture and hanging of two men on the island of Akam in mid-November. Songi Samuel and Simion Bahvaus were suspected of killing villagers practicing black magic. The public execution was conducted by Presbyterian ministers and chiefs of the island. In all, forty people participated in the torture. They were placed in custody after the crime, but we do not yet know who was indicted. 

  

According to Willie Jimmy, witchcraft is a scourge that the current legal system does not fight. : 

"I am even ready to support a bill that would provide for the death penalty for criminals who use black magic. » 

In Vanuatu, the legal system is based on the British and French system. To convict someone, you have tangible evidence. 

"The problem we have, we who believe in black magic is that the legal system inspired by the West needed to provide concrete evidence, yet it is very difficult to prove a case of black magic. » 

  

Perhaps that is why no law punishing witchcraft has never been adopted in the country, while the debate resurfaces almost systematically with each new news story which alleged witches are the victims. On the other hand, the international community would not see a good eye restoring the death penalty for extremely hard to prove crimes. Willie Jimmy: 

"The international community does not have the same traditions as we do. Our Constitution states that Vanuatu is based above all on traditional Melanesian values ​​before Christian principles. So our Melanesian values ​​are alive and well, good and bad. » 

  

Punitive raids against suspected witches are quite common in Vanuatu. Earlier this year, police rescued in extremis a man suspected of practicing black magic in a village in eastern Efate. The villagers were about to drown.

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Yeah I mean it sucks that this country can't pass a law to trial people for witchcraft and execute them based on very weak evidence... that would be a really great thing if they could just start murdering the people (that probably agitate the status quo) and put them in a phoney court trial for charges of casting spells.

My friend Amanda will land in Santo today about 7pm. Last visitor I will likely be having as I am not sure where I will be living in the next few months.

Tonight we have ultimate frisbee and a going away thing for Rich and Hunter.

(27) Thursday
My couch surfer showed up last night very late. I figured she was lost or missed her plane. The gift she got me she lost so I am sad about that. Oh well. This country in general is consistent on a few things, one is constant disappointment.

Today is thanksgiving with the widdips... (not sure how to spell their name) that should be fun. I suggested that Amanda go into town and talk with a dive place to arrange going for the next few days while we send off Rich in style.

Now that I am forced to deal with considering my service in this country and decide if I want to try moving to a new site I am wondering if there will be any point to it. This place has proven a great many things to me, one of the biggest is that the locals are mostly hell bent on not doing anything when they can get away with it. I came here to help, not to do it all, if there is nothing resembling a true counterpart then who am I helping to learn something, is there any point to helping here at all or am I just basically free labor that is unwelcomed, unthanked and mostly I should stop caring about their causes. I am not sure yet.

 I am pretty close to hating this place but I am not used to feeling anger like this. Perhaps there is this sincere annoying desire that I get, that some people here try to pretend that everything here is fine and magical and that the culture is valid and does not suck shit but sadly that feels vapid to pretend such things. I find that there are so many negatives about being here I have a hard time finding any positives. They have nice beaches. I don't really like beach. They have turtles. OK true. The people are nice if you don't really need anything and want to pretend they care about you. Vanuatu is an abusive relationship I am just curious how it will backhand me today.

(28) Friday
So it is five am and my principal decided that it was a good time to play childrens pan flute music the same song over and over and over and over and over and over and over... because he is a thoughtless.

The sunrise was nice but I love this guy so much. Good morning Vanuatu!

9:00am
It was my school's graduation ceremony and I was asked to wear their shirt that fit poorly and was extremely itchy  and hot so I could walk around and take photos of my principal and all the people at my school I never got to know and that never made me feel welcome. So I took a 190 photos in the first 30 minutes of the graduation thing and then left. Which felt pretty great not being there and yet doing some work to make them happy.

1:00pm
After being freed from the bondage of my school I hung out with my friends, and we met up at deco stop and swam in the pool.

6:00pm
Amanda was tired from her diving but I went ahead and met up with the other Peace Corps at end blo coltar. I spell it wrong for sure, because it is a stupid bislama word meaning end of the cold tar road but whatever... we sat around drinking the kava drink. I went mostly to say goodbye to the friends that are leaving.

They went to beachfront after but I went home and made pasta with Amanda. Best to save money versus blowing twenty dollars on a mediocre pizza and five dollar shity beers.

(29) Saturday
Soon I can get out of here and head up north and enjoy a stay at this resort called Towoc... near champaign beach. Getting as far away from my school is the best thing possible.

I hate my site I am assigned but I should try and not be so hostile towards this place.. they are not all mean like my principal. So... sorry I went off the other day and bashed everything as much as possible. And even though I hate kava does mean I should call it crap.

5:45am
The sunrise was really beautiful this morning. And No stupid music from my cruel principal.
Double win.

7:45am
I woke from one of my strangest dreams in as long as I can remember. Maybe the hope that this whole nightmare is coming to an end is allowing me to remember my dreams again. I was in a Vanuatu wasteland of buildings some decaying and others were new ones being made. I was attacked and chased by dogs, lured into strange seductive cavernous mazes and bizarre dragon like creature again attacked me but I survived and in the end I woke up feeling like I ran the gauntlet of horrors and made it out alive.

11:30am
We had one last big group that went to Aore Island and we goofed off at the pool for hour and hours.

On the Boat with Rich and Hunter and Mike, the three returning volunteers from Santo.

This photo is me with Daria and her animal Filo... It was super sunny and I used my iphone to take this shot, so this photo got a bit blurry too bad it is blurry she's very beautiful and her dog is cute.

6:00pm
So Bryan, Kate, Amanda, this Kiwi volunteer, Rich and I hung out at my house and watched a great movie called Brazil. I can't believe they have never seen this movie before. The sound was shit on it I think my copy of the movie was with a bad sound track.

(30) Sunday

Today... I woke up and made some breakfast and now just sitting and thinking about what today might entail. One option is to go with Rich and find a place way upstream on the Saracata River and jump from cliffs into the water. I thought today we were BBQ'ing and I already invited the baby docs... but they is ok if we don't they might not show up anyway.

9:30am
Amanda my house guest is going to go Aore Island again, she forgot her special suntan lotion there and hopes to find it. I doubt it will be there.

3:30pm
Just returned from the last river plunge with Rich on the Saracata. I took some photos... here they are:

5:30pm
Going away grill party photos taken:

Week 34 - Exploring up north

Nov 17- 23

(17) Monday
Went up the coast trying to get to Port Orly. That failed but we made it to Champaign beach and camped at this Nivan owned resort called Towoc Bungalows run by this lady Jannet Toto. She is pretty great. And here are some photos of it.

It was a unexpected ordeal to get to the site we stayed at... I knew it could be as much as 5000 to get from town to port orly but there is a bus that brings people into town and then back home. The bus in from Port Orly is starts at 6am and costs 500vt and the bus back to Orly from luganville is around 3pm same price. We missed the first bus so then there are some trucks that go there and we tried to get a ride with one but he wanted 1000vt. Val hates it when she feels that she is being cheated or given an unfair price so we passed on that and instead looked for a vehicle that would go to Champagne Beach for 500vt. It took a while but we eventually found one. It was pretty funny the ride in this bus. We waited for about 30 minutes for some mama's to make their way back to the bus stop (if you want to call it that) which was at a gas station, Pacific Gas Station, but buses don't leave without out I guess or maybe they are such regular riders that to leave without them would hurt his business since each bus acts as an independant business. Anyway once they finally came back we made five maybe six pit stops to pick up more produce and fuel and so on... (I was waiting for a chicken to appear in the bus to make it have that whole developing world feel to it but it didn't) then we finally go toward our destination. I was worried a bit because first off we never fully booked our stay, it was getting late and there would be a chance it was full or not available for us to stay at. I was glad I bought bug spray a lighter and my head lamp in case we had to spend a night out on the beach.

We finally get there after about an hour driving... and the resort was nearly abandoned only one newly wed couple was staying there in a bungalow.  They set up our tent on the beach we walked around the point to the beach and then returned to the resort's dining house, ate a little bit of food and then pretty much crashed. Semi anti-climatic but happily so. I would have been unhappy being eaten alive by mosquitos on the beach.

(18) Tuesday
It was fun day but a shitty night because of the rainstorm that soaked the tent I was sleeping in. Oh well. Not that big a deal.

I took a bunch of photos so I will post them up now and let that work for a few hours and then backfill some stories about this trip

(19) Wednesday
I just got back home and I was a little stressed but things are ok. The internet problem was all TVL's fault and my counterpart was able to resolve it... WOOHOO... that was a good thing because it means he is learning some stuff from me.

I sat and watched a little of the football game but ran home to get my soaking wet clothing washed and then check on my fam back home... today is my Niece's birthday. She turned 11. Happy birthday Mila.


Oh this photo I took as well and had to post it too:

(20) Thursday
My couch surfer has headed off to her final dive today and I wish her the best on her journey's... she was fun.

So today is Hunters going away kava thing. I offered hosting a BBQ for him in the afternoon via Stafford but have not heard if he wants to do that or not. If he does cool if not whatever. So we will go to his place near his house and that is cool nokemal.

Might be working out with Rich in a bit at about 9am it is 8:17 now.

And I am curious how this whole talk with my principal will go down with Peace Corps admins. He (my Head Master) does not want to allow me to work on secondary sites.

1:00pm
After a workout with rich I went up to get money from the accountant at the school so I could pick up the power supply and fix a PC... then my principal asked to talk with me... the conversation was a bit confusing. What I understood from it was in bits and pieces... He Barthélémy (my principal) is of these beliefs

1) There will be a meeting to discuss my working at Malo (Isabelle, Peace Corps and Barthélémy )
2) I might move to a different site early next year after I finish work at College de Luganville
3) My Principal said I need to ask permission for doing secondary project work
4) My principal said Antoine agreed with him that I need to say I am sorry.

So few more conversations I corrected these statements with Peace Corps informing them that:
1) I have had meetings with Isabelle and my principal about work on malo / no sneaking off business
2) I have only gone there 4-5 times and only once have I not informed him of going there
3) I have only done evaluation "work" not actual construction and these were half days
4) Work at Malo has not interfered with work at the college
5) My Peace Corps admin Antoine should help defend me and not fold like a dead fish.
6) I ask the school to help me perform some sustainable work 10 or 20 times at the school and they FAIL to engage in any work... so I sit and wait for them to come and look for me. I am losing faith they will ever be willing to do the work.
7) Peace Corps encourages secondary projects. I should NOT have to ask permission to work on them... it should only be a courtesy that I inform them of my whereabouts for safety reasons...
8) As long as secondary projects do not interfere with my work at the school there should be no problem. BUT my principal does not want to allow me to do any work outside his location even if there is no impact to work at his school.

These all lead me to thinking that this site is not really an ideal location for a Peace Corps Volunteer.

And my Country Director Agrees. So next we will try and give them one last chance to get their act together or I will move sites.

6:00pm
It was one of the last big kava gathering of peace corps in Santo everyone but Jes who is already back home or going home... Sam, Mike and Mike, Bryan & Kate, Hunter (an hour late), Maureen was there, Rich, myself. It was an interesting time hearing about how Mike Hawkins is no longer extending because he was denied his extension... I was looking forward to hanging out with him next year. He put it this sort this way... "you know you feel after being in a unhealthy relationship and then getting dumped... you see how bad it was and the magical cloud that was around you is gone and you see it for what it was worth... it feels like Vanuatu dumped me."

So mike is out. Then My shit.

It was an interesting kava.

(21) Friday
Well today is the earliest date possible to get our pay in the bank I have seen it deposited on the 21st before and as late as the 27th. Let's hope it shows up today because I am broke again.

Hope nothing ugly goes down today but I know the CD (country director Keith Honda) is talking to my school and trying to resolve the problems I am having there.

Painfully slow day. Tried to get a old school printer onto the network but the touch screen interface is not working... and locked up on the password screen. I wish they did not have that stupid password screen. I mean the printer is in the office... why do you need a password.

(22) Saturday
Today was one of the better days I have had in a while... started off slow just made some breakfast and then I hung out with Daria and we went to beach front. It was really nice.

After that I met up with Rich and Kate and Bryan... and we headed off to Ban Ban... to meet with with his host family and eat a little food. It was supposed to be a marriage celebration and to check on if they guy would buy his bike... turns out no. But after we went to the coolidge dive site to look at the bioluminescent algae and it was scary being in the water at night but we found them and they were amazing. Cool stuff.

(23) Sunday
Just spoke with my parents about the condo back home and things are looking good.

Then Rich came over and I made him a wheat pancake and scrambled egg with pork, tomatoes, onion and a bit of curry and potatoes... and that was a hit. I like to put a bit of strawberry on top with syrup and butter. Almost made him pass out from being so stuffed. I wonder where MIke Hawkins is.

This afternoon we are having a small BBQ and watch some movies.

6:42pm
It was a nice day... weather was great a little hot but sunny and beautiful sunset... we started grilling some steaks potatoes pineapples. Bryan surprised us with some kool aid, grape flavor.

After that Dari showed up and went to Beachfront, Rich Kate, Bryan Daria and myself. Then we returned to my place and watched a really weird movie called the Rover. Not sure I would recommend it. Slow moving. Kind of pointless. Rich feel asleep but he had a dog sleeping next to him so I think it was better he slept than watch the movie.

Week 33 - A new visitor

(10) Monday

Very slow day... just reading and playing some video games. But this friday a new friend will visiting Valerie should be fun.

Not sure what to write about, with Tim's visit over and only myself at the house it is suddenly less lively. It was fun having a group of guy's just goofing off and watching movies until late for days on end and grilling. Those are great memories.

I made a decent meal at least I should experiment more with some stir frying.

6:00pm
Missing ultimate frisbee but had an excellent day of sleeping and doing nothing much at all. Managed to hit LCM and restock on things but until I have to I am trying to not spend a single vatu.

I have to pray my condo gets rented soon... If not I am just going to bleed money to death. Please please please Metro god of rental units... please find me a renter soon.

Other than worrying about going broke I read some and thought about writing which is not as good as writing.

(11) Tuesday

What to do... read, maybe? Go to my lab and transfer money to pay off mortgage yeah fun times... I need a renter stat or I am going to suffer financially soon. I guess it snowed a ton back home too making moving into a place less exciting for people... Oh god... why did I ever buy that property.

Workman came and took the concrete drill I was using for all the fix ups on my house. With only one or two left to go I figure I don't really care if he takes it now.

My brother is visiting my parents house this week with my niece being there too I wish I was able to skype with them. I will try now...

(12) Wednesday
It was pretty close to a do nothing day. I did the pushup challenge with Rich which seemed pretty hard 250 push ups.

After that I did nothing really... ate a little read a little. Played FTL a bunch and killed time but really it was an extremely boring day.

(13) Thursday
Slow day as well. I let my neighbor use my computer for a skype session for an application for a university in New Zealand. I think her odd are slim at best. She has no connections in New Zealand, not place to stay, no job, no grants. I think they would like her to come but there seems no way to make that a reality. Fingers crossed for her.

Valerie is in town and I would like to run into her today if possible but if not that is ok too.

Went into town saw mike hawkins... but not much else was going on.

I would like to get a new power supply for a burned out one.

(14) Friday
I woke up and was considering doing something then read and fell back to sleep. About 7:45 a rap at my door woke me and it was my deputy principal. He asked me in the typical vanuatu way of asking by telling me to come with him and and bring my camera. I am literally reduced to a man with a camera. So I figured following him might break up the monotonous day. We went into town and behind LCM there is some kind of conference room called the VNPF. Inside there were a ton of people. It was a graduation ceremony for some year 8 kids. I took some photos and listened to their speeches. They were pretty funny.

One lady said some especially funny stuff... she asked what is the value of your life. No one answers of course so she went on her ramble. It was funny because she got all scientific on them... She told them the body if 70 percent water, then some carbon and fat and iron and other elements and so on... but that the value of those raw materials is about 8000vt about 80 bucks. She then asked are you only worth 80 dollars. It as a trick question. She then said her next blerb on her fun rant. She told them the body is composed of some 8 with 27 zeros of atoms. With that little science fact she pulled out a bag of peas. And said imagine each one of these peas as an atom. If we covered the whole planet 4 feet deep in peas, that would not be as many atoms in your body. It would take hundreds of planets covered in feet of peas to equal your amount of atoms. Then she added one more science fact about how much electrical energy a body creates in our lifetime and how much that equates in power / cost, some 77 million dollars. All this and more in a short little congrats speech she used to try inspire these kids to feel like their lives are important. It was an unexpected speech.

Then I ducked out and went and ate a pizza. After which I got an estimate for a power supply and then walked home to take a nap.

(16) Saturday
So we had a slow start Valerie and myself... but after a few episodes of Broad City and some breakfast we headed for the wharf and took a boat to Aore Islands and walked about for a few hours there to the hidden beach.

Took only a couple photos:

(17) Sunday

Not sure what the plan is for today. We just woke up it is 6:34am and the weather appears nicer than yesterday. Several option 1) Go to a blue hole 2) Millennium caves 3) go South Santo to visit Hawkins and I am not sure which one we will attempt to do.

We ended up going to beach front and swimming then having a grill party later. Pretty small get together.

Week 32 - Same old Santo week after week.

Nov 3-9

(03) Monday

Mostly I tried to get better today  I caught a small cold last night and have been sick all day. Nose is like a faucet head hurts... oh well.

Tried to fix my bike tired as it keep popping every time I ride it and patch the tire. I have 4 patches on the tire now. I wonder if I will have 4 more 10 or 30 patches by the end of the month. I search the tired for metal scraps in the tired but there is nothing. I am not sure what is ruining my tired every time I ride it.

Checked on the lab just now... nothing interesting going on. Might as well make use of it to download an update to my laptop.

I am skipping ultimate frisbee but I just don't feel like playing when I am sick.

Tim Harding is supposed to show up tonight... wish I was not sick but that is life.

7:00pm
Tim Finally showed up. He was picked up my Lester from the Hospital and dropped off. We watched some Rick and Morty and some other shows. I started updating my laptop with apple Yosemite OS.

(04) Tuesday

Seems like my neighbor Principal likes to be annoying as possible. At 5:30am he decided to start BLASTING shity music and really bad country karaoke with his very untalented kids singing. I kept wishing for a power surge or lightning from the little rain storm to blow up his speakers and prevent him from doing it again. Please blow his equipment up please...

New OS on my laptop now... it is pretty good. I don't see much that is different really yet.

8-9am
Walked with Tim into town and met with the health dept people. He is teaching them about the software he and his team worked on. That job seems more like what I should be doing. Might make me feel useful as well.

Then ran into Amanda Russell on her way to the airport. Guess her trip here is over. Too short if you ask me... but tonight we might have a taco night. Fingers crossed. Still a little sick so I think I need to lie down as my mac mini gets an OS update.

Had some pizza with the Hawk... Mike Hawkins... (FYI the hawk is in reference to a character in twin peaks) Mike hates that show which is too bad he might think I am making a reference to Bird Person from Rick and Morty. That pizza was magical... it made me sweat out some of my cold. I felt better after eating it.

Oh and correction Amanda is not going back the flight was full... wonder if she wants to hang out with the big group or not?

Photos from taco Tuesday:

(05) Wednesday

Made some breakfast and texted with Elise in New Zealand... helping her arrange for a host gift for Bryan and Kate and telling Katie Peckler about her being on schedule. I wish I could travel around and do some fun stuff here. If only my condo was rented I would not have to bleed money for an empty unit. Sucks.

What to do today. Well since there is nothing going on at my school... i guess read and rest is my plan. Still getting over this little cold. Hate being sick.

4:00pm
I managed to stay busy today... not always easy let me tell you... but I made a bookshelf in the living room, fixed the screen door preventing bug entry, added a hook for hanging towels in the bathroom.

Then I ran over to Rich's place grabbed a ton of books from his house before he goes I want to expand the library... and we worked out but not before my deputy Principal interrupted me asking me to take photos of some ceremony with an MP at the school. The MP was not very nice when i tried to arrange them for a decent photo asking if was a Minnesota custom to move people around so they look decent in a photo. I said it was a human custom to get the photo to look nice.

Here is

a  photo: The MP member of parliament is the guy with the sun glasses on his head my Principal is the guy with mic in his hands... Sam my counterpart is wearing the blue shirt. If the MP would have stopped heckling me I would have moved my deputy principal from the back row where his face is mostly hidden and put him in a better spot but screw them since they seemed happier with a fast and sloppy photo.

(06) Thursday

Breakfast and Rick and Morty with mr. Tim.... a good way to start the day. The principal was cranking the shitty music as normal but we ignored it. And the neighbors have some kid staying with them and he LOVES to ball his brains out every few minutes. That never gets old to listen to. I wish the principal and them team up and cranked this kid crying his brains out that would be epic.

Most of the day I tried to find ways to kill the time. I spent about 6 hours re-orging my music and movie collection. It is nice and neat again.

And then I went into town and sat and got stared at like I am white sideshow freak by a ton a people with their jaws dropping and that laserbeam HOLY SHIT its a WHITE guy stare I love seeing so much. Yup. Makes me intentionally ignore them and stare into space and not want to say hello.

Then I went home and watched fight club. I love that movie too bad TRW's copy of it is shit and low quality for those who only use a laptop and not a 9 foot projections seeing half inch pixels is not a thrill but it was still a fun movie to cheer me up.

(07) Friday

Thank god another week is almost over... only few million more weeks to kill before time is up and I can return home where there is something for me to do to occupy my time. Lets see today. I will eat, sleep, eat again and then sleep. Entertaining mr. Tim is fun too. Lots of movie time. Oh and write. Soon there will be some friends visiting and that will occupy the time again. Hopefully we can go to a blue hole or something but it seems like it just rains non stop these last few days.

Oh I guess I am the snapshot guy at my school. I took some photos of a class for a teacher. Here there are:

Yeah... back to writing.

So in recap after making some lunch Tim and I watched some movies, I made a new playlist that no one will like probably, then we went to deco stop and met with Stafford and Rich... Lana was there and then eventually Grace. We had some apps and then hit the road back to my place and watched some archer and crashed. Pretty great night.

(08) Saturday

Made Tim and Mike S. some pancakes and potatoes and bacon/sausage with coffee breakfast... then we watched tim play Xenonauts for a while. Might be a nice day for the beach but Tim is not very interested in swimming.  That is unfortunate because half of what there is to do in Vanuatu is swimming related.

There are a lot of rules in this game Tim was explaining about armor and bootcamp and such I lost context too quickly partially because my laptop was down to 2% power and I sat on the floor near my power plug so I could charge because Tim was using my couch table with Mike showing how the game works... I am not really watching them play... the sun is baking the concrete and kicking out some heat. I am pretty happy with the improvement I made to my screen door because now not many flies or mosquitoes can slip through the cracks.

It would be fun to go to Manavulu but not sure I can win that idea.

Most of the day we played video games and watched you tube videos.

Never made it to the blue hole but we did have a great get together... Large grill event with Elise, Katie P, Kate & Bryan, Mike and Mike, Tim, Grace and Lana, Rich, some texas girl with Mike named Bree. Made steaks and burgers, roasted corn.. Should have taken a photo or two.

(09) Sunday

Might be heading to a blue hole... with Mike and Mike and Bree.

Made some pancakes and hash browns for Stafford and I... perfect start for the day.

4:30pm
So we made it to the best blue hole by bus which is a bit unusual. Here are some photos.