week 64 - Much to do on Malo

(15) Monday

#MaloIsland #PeaceCorpsVanuatu

Going to get some wood supplied in Luganville and then run back to site to continue building.

(16) Tuesday

I am sick but I am going to try working all day. Ozzies whew... they are frustrating... was waiting and thinking one was going to help me but then got a late developing message sorry going to the Banks Islands. The Banks... who cares. You have one shot going here and getting five star treatment free... what you get on the banks nothing. Bad decision making if you ask me.

Oh well who cares? I am going to work and kick ass all day. Wait for more photos and see how awesomeness looks.

Couple photos:

These are now mounted into the walls and the table is painted white... Floors need mats or something because it is dusty but oh well. Two more benches to make to put in the middle section. Then next week the computers get plugged in and set on top.

I put side panels on three bookshelves. Then I have to make the inner seperators... that will take time. I will work on this tomorrow or the next day.

(17) Wednesday

Today I will make a bench or two. Recovering from a cold I caught the other day. I am soar all over but I am still working.

Last bench finally. Done.

Look at this guy... met him this morning... crabby little guy:

(18) Thurday

I heard I have my last shipment of timber coming today... If that is true then I can start on the last two bookshelves. Really hope I can finish them this week... then it will mostly be downhill for building.

I am not sure when the computers will be setup but that is easy. Need the power regulator installed to make it clean power but oh well.

And last but not least set up the books. So much to do in that area... not sure how to handle that.

Oh well taking it step by step.. day by day.

Delivery of my X's and 2x2 board... now I can finish the bookshelves.

Started building:

Here are the x's

Finishing shelf 4:

End of Day:

(19) Friday

All day I was :
Making the bookshelf inner walls:

(20) Saturday

Today I will make the shelves all day. Hopefully we can use the plywood to complete the other bits when we run out of 8x2's because we will run out of them fast today. It takes one board 6 feet long to make 5 small board to make a cubby slot. I mis-estimated my original design ... short about 60 board. Opps. So I will try and re-design them to use fewer pieces. and I came up with a solution I think that will look good.

(21) Sunday

Finished two major objectives... Bookshelves are good enough to use now and the mural is finished as far as the major items are concerned:

here is a photo update>

week 63 - Rosewood, black bean and pine, oh my.

(08) Monday

Started Monday off finishing of this bench and then staining it...

Good job Amanada... take five.

Went to Nanduatu with Amnada and painted a little on the mural.

(09) Tuesday

Finished the week by making 12 bookshelf parts the main more time consuming bit of sizing each 8x1 by 82 in boards to make them square and lined up then zip them together with 5 pieces of 2x2 boards one on each end and three in the middle to support it, hold it together nice and used as the means to put the side boards on to cover up the support structure inside the book case.

Moved things down on this farm tractor trailer setup:

Have 12 more to make next trip then haul them all over to Malo and start assembling them. Last huge thing then we can hook up the computers and put the books on the shelves... and set up the inventory tracking system and start labeling all the books and ordering them. Time consuming stuff.

I will need lots of markers and tape.

Here check this out this fisherman brought in a bunch of huge red snappers might take me a few hours to upload the photo... gotta love developing world internet speed... 1-2 k per second its like being in the 80's :

(10) Wednesday

Ordered 11 more pieces of 2x2 by 2 meter boards for the support structure of the bookshelves and over a thousand screws to piece them all together. should be set for building materials for a few weeks now. It's like about 30 pounds of screws.

After a nice breakfast and a small nap I will head into the NDMO and see whats up work on my slide show and VRF... call it a day. Then pizza at Byran and Kate's.

Hopefully my neighbor buys my BBQ and Microwave and I can get rid of some of my expensive items that I no longer use...

(11) Thursday

If all goes according to plan then tomorrow my microwave and grill are sold and moved... only a few big items left to get rid of. Extra mattress and I think my bike might be sold as well. Woohoo. Goodbye big items.

(12) Friday

Well thank god I head back to build stuff... two days of boredom in Luganville Santo is long enough for me... Can't wait until I am in the USA and there is a nightlife and things to do besides just sitting at my house.

Found this photo on facebook decided to share it... of the return trip from australia when we went back to port vila efate after the cyclone pam was gone.

(13) Saturday

Moved a huge quantity of material over to the Nindiutu/malo site and it was pretty amazing. I took a
bunch of photos here are few good ones:

(14) Sunday

Today I plan to build as many bookshelves as I can. Mabe get all 5 framed up and solid and then starting adding the separators and sides and back to them. It is a ton of material to cut and screw in. I think it is quite daunting but I am sure I can do it.

Here is what we ended up with on Sunday night... 3 framed up bookshelves and 2 ready to piece together when I return next Thursday. I need 25 more X's support and 3 more 2x2's to make support struts... then it over buying stuff... and the end of this build is near. Woohoo... So many pounds of screws must be over a 2 thousand. I was teaching these kids how to build all day. As some of you know who know me... I like to talk so I was explaining everything as I built stuff. That way they learn and see at the same time. That is my style of teaching, by doing.

week 62 - Last shell

June 1st Monday

With any luck today I can arrange to get my books picked up and brought to malo. Been months of waiting and finally I think I can get them.

After that I can get some of the last lumber I see at Malcoffee Sawmill limited. I am excited this is the last load of timber I need.

4 benches to make and 4 bookshelves. At least the painting bit is almost done I can fill in the top part with tree foliage easily enough one day. Kate was having fun painting this big mural.

Samantha Hunt G24 will be leaving for the USA soon and we have her last shell celebration over at my place well the Kava Bar in front of my house Lakren kava bar. Should be a pretty good party. Almost five year in this country... I could never last that long.

10:00am
wen to the office of the brisk and found my books will have them picked up asap. Then I went to Malcoffee sawmill and ordered another 150 bucks of redwood to finish the benches next time I build.

I will need another 300 bucks in screws and two more tins of stain to complete the bookshelves and benches. Maybe I will get them tomorrow. Probably about 30 pounds of material.

(02) Tuesday

Secured more hardwoord from malcoffee, after a few convsations some will be rosewood but will be forced to use a new kind a little more brownish in color but still very nice looking hardwood.

(03) Wednesday

Boring day. Nothing going on. Reading.

(04) Thursday

So I hung out with Amanda Russell going to Attar and Beachfront for pizza and a swim. It was a pretty chill day.


(05) Friday

I think Kiki is going to come by my place and buy a few things. Good to lighten the load a little. Have not used by BBQ since I lived at the college last year.

Sam's last kava shell in Santo tonight at the kava bar in front of my house.

(06) Saturday

Stayed busy building benches with Amanda Russell ... not much time to write on blog because of it.

(07) Sunday

Same thing... build build build.

But here is a photo:

week 61 - few more rounds

Monday May (25)

It is hard to leave such a beautiful place to return to a week in Santo... but here I am ready to do whatever.

There are a few other g26er's are visiting on Santo... Elise was here for a day or so... and Steve and Alexi. Hope they have a good visit.

Forgot to post a photo of the bookshelf that is being made:

(26) Tuesday

So far the day is going great... ordered more supplies 59, 4x1 by 2.5 meter treated whitewood boards and they will be ready for my work this weekend. Then they are making some support X's for the internal stability. 100 bucks. Bought a few hundred screws, snadpaper, stain, drill bits and that came to 100 bucks. So much material with so little red tape. Love it. I can buy it and not have to beg for it. Ratua Foundation RULES!!!

Then I found my world bank books and will have them delivered this weekend.

That is a big plus.

Things are looking bright this week.

(27) Wednesday

I went for a walk to the Brisk office and looked at the books I will be receiving. Not sure how many there are but none of them appear to be french, all english. One box i opened was English fiction stories for junior / high-school age kids. They are used but in good condition. They look great. Hope their are more of them and lots of other cool things inside.

Not much else going on at the moment.

(28) Thursday

Went to Nindautu again and hauled over the generator, tools, a bench and plywood and such... I get to the library and i see a nivan kid with a paint tray on the beautiful rosewood table i made getting grey ugly paint all over it. I freaked out WHAT THE HELL MAN.... ran over tossed the tray off and started scrubbing it with alcohol. He ruined the finish unfortunately so I will have to resand it and restain it.

We managed to clean the rooms of the all the rubbish and sweep it pretty well. Made a leg for the bench, fixed the bookshelf leg and prepped everything for the electrician that is going to be here tomorrow.

Photo of the room before cleaning:

(29) Friday

It was a day  of mostly being patient and letting others use my tools and I was there to make sure nothing was lost or broken. I tried to get back to Ratua to build but i was stuck on Malo all day with little to except help the electrician install power at the site. But he needed little help. Good news is most of the power was setup.

(30) Saturday

Day two of babysitting at the Malo while most of my work is put on hold. It was tedious just being idol. Good news is the workman at Malo installed the windows using my tools and he likely will buy them from me so it was good in that way. But I was wishing that I could have used my time to build my things more than watch him do his work. Best part is I got all my things back and he only broke one drill bit. Also the power was setup and now if I work at the site I don't have to drag a generator over.

(31) Sunday

Bryan and Kate came over to Malo and we painted again... and worked on my bookshelf. Marc the owner of Ratua was around he was happy with all the work we were doing for Ninduatu. Here are a few photos:

not finished yet but close... it's based on something Isabelle wanted us to paint from some french kids story book called TinTin... never heard of it but was like sure we can do whatever. We put a volcano in the background erupting.

week 60 - building like mad

(18) Monday

Placing a large order of building material at Veneer Lumber ... and trying to get ready to construct 5 large bookshelves. Huge quantity of stuff for this place 155 8x1x2 meter white wood. just for the shelves.

Excited to build these and then the last major construction item is finished. They think it will take them a month to get the material ready... that is too slow. I need it this week. Oh well hopefully they can give me partial orders and I can make it worth going to Malo this week.

(19) Tuesday

I like looking at this blue and green beach from the air.

Back to making more benches and bookshelves this week. I should have plenty of rosewood to make benches and enough to make at least one bookshelf. That and Sam and her dude vato will be working with me this weekend.

Next week I will bring up this one girl I don't know that well but she seems nice and then Bryan and Kate are back so they will be up again to help paint the last bit of the mural.... If laura wants she would be welcome to join me anytime... and Maybe I will ask I can have the smiths visit once unless they are too busy swimming at million dollar point.

Suppose I will stop in at the NDMO and make sure nothing is going on... but after breakfast.

So I had a great breakfast and then got an haircut. Feel like a million vatu which is like what 100K us.

if you ever want to read some new from this place this link is interesting... has the local stories that are quite bizzare: http://www.dailypost.vu/

It is funny when i am town there is absolutely nothing to do. When I leave town I have work... this is the opposite of what most people experience town = busy... not for me.

I was walking home from NDMO and this kid oh maybe 7 built up the tremendous courage to say,  "Yu go Where?" heh I said, "Mi go house blo me." I know i still suck at bislama but whatever... and then I tried to get them to talk more but that was all they could handle I think... because when i turned back to look they were giggling and high fiving each other just from saying that and hearing me talk. Pretty funny.

(20) Wednesday

So tomorrow I am making better versions of this. Five of them, one extra board in the middle with separators and backs... should be pretty nice:

(21) Thursday

Wood supplies are not here yet so i am preparing my plan and getting all my things ready.

Having time to think is nice i guess... the boat ride out to Ratua takes about 40 minutes... It's kind of funny what you get used to week to week... this to me is like my bus ride or train ride to work... I rather be on a boat skipping across waves and getting a taste of sea salt on my face as we dart over the choppy water. But at the same time it's always sitting and waiting. Waiting for the boat to show up, waiting on the boat to get to the site and then waiting for the boat to leave and drop me back in Luganville. I don't mind waiting so much anymore as long as I know I have a sure ride and that part is taken care of.

(22) Friday

Here is the bench prototype I made last week and I am hoping to make more of them full sized this weekend.

Here are my wood supplies:

Here is a book shelf but not finished yet because I am out of 8x1 boards to build the seperators... and support structure inside the bookshelf:



(23) Saturday

We made these:

And this is what it looks like unoccupied:

(24) Sunday

Made this:
The next day

Week 59 - Another quick mystery

(11) Monday

Well here I am at the NDMO. Not much going on again.

Already thinking about lunch since I skipped breakfast. Had the chicken wrap a million times but sick of pizza... no point in the burger since its mostly blah.

Last night I was the middle man in a text-a-thon that was sort of fun.

playing dodge the chairs in the pitch black night through the kava bar to the store and back... getting dodging advice from the nivans with their ultra night vision was the only other highlight of the night.

Look at this nice detailed map... shows both my town luganville and Malo... you can see the blue hole near the ninduatu village on Malo.

(12) Tuesday

Well life is getting simplier... sold my fridge and projector and trying to get rid of all my large ticket items like the BBQ grill and bike. All these items take time to sell so might as well get rid of them all before time runs out.

Not much really going on at the moment... has Hannah over to watch a movie and cook up the last of my eye filet steaks... no sense in wasting that beautiful steak.

Today I am posting up the items I am selling and thursday I hope to return to Malo to finish this furniture making thing.

(13) Wednesday

Let the liquidization of material items begin... I post my sale up and am unloading items as fast as possible. Less is more and more is less.

Can't wait to have zero overhead and be free of the burden of having items. It will make life easier.

I return to Malo tomorrow and hopefully that will end the boredom of the week. I have done nothing for like over week and it am tired of just sleeping so much. My body is not used to this level of inactivity, brain so unstimulated, and just seeing the same things every day. How can people live like this forever?

(14) Thursday

Well this is a picture of the table I made...

Look at those sexy legs... made of rosewood which they call bluewood because it turns blue in the water and stink wood because it smells when they cut it down. Both rare wood to find here... only 5 percent of the trees are hardwood and only 1 percent this red and beautiful stuff.

(15) Friday

 GOATs... RUN

Bunch of baby goats too.. they seem and scatter... pretty funny hard to photograph.

(16) Saturday

Yesterday was a mess had to run into town to get more timber to work with and isabelle is coming to visit monday so I want to finish a bench and my bookshelf. That is the goal for today.

Made another piece of furniture...

A bench but I have to decide if I want to have a back on it or not...i  am betting I will make a back because I have a curiosity of how that will look.

plus it is a prototype... why not experiment.

(17) Sunday

Returned to Santo. Ate at attar and went home.

Nothing much more to report. One of the most consistent things about life here is the boring nature of it all.

week 58 - The end game

(04) Monday

Getting closer and closer to finishing this Nindautu project. Can't wait to make some more furniture and get the rooms completed and filled with books and PC's. It is a brilliant project lucky I have a great sponsor.

Well back to work at NDMO not sure what that will entail. Hope there is something to work on.

Check out this barge carrying fuel... it was half flooded going over rough water with a broken water pump. I am glad it did not sink.

Yesterday evening we (Hannah, the Smith's, and myself) had mini-pizza at Kate and Bryan's. It was really good. Too rainy for frisbee which is fine by me... I hate running around in the mud because then I have to deal with the messy clothes after.

(05) Tuesday

Today I need to get more timber to built with and clean up my house for people to come over and watch a movie and have dinner.

Well some people came on time and others were late... but the dinner and movie night was successful. We watched really strange movie about a fat kid that was obsessed with his mom and only wanted them to be friends and does his best to sabotage his mother's new relationship. Had Marisa Tomei in it... she's ages since my cousin vinny but still pretty hot.

After a few hours of work at the NDMO, I had a nice lunch at attar cafe. Daria made an appearance.

Downloaded some software from the college and started playing with frontline sms. Might make my own messaging system.

(06) Wednesday

Started the day at NDMO... then went to eat... pretty much nothing intesting happened. I went to MSL (Melcoffee Sawmill Limited) made a small order of timber to complete the bookshelf and table... and then went home. I watched a few movies and played some Faster than Light video game... packed and got ready to work at malo then slept.

(07) Thursday 

So I got up went to the warp waited for 3 hours before finally breaking down and getting topup on my phone called the ratua folk... no boat today. So I went to get lunch and then went to NDMO.

It's ok... I kinded needed a break from Malo... was getting a little spoiled with too much work.

(08) Friday

Designing in my software doc all morning... made some progress on designing how the survery portion of the application might work.

Now it is lunch time and most likely I will go to attar again. There has been a couple cute people hanging out there lately.

(09-10) Saturday-Sunday

Pretty much nothing to report.

Had a movie night and made some food for friends...
We biked to Pelakula beach and swam on saturday...
Sunday I went o beachfront and had a pizza. Nothing exciting.