“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” ―Helen Keller
We’ve spent the last week helping our son and his family move and get settled into their new home in Pennsylvania. It’s a pretty little town and the surrounding countryside is beautiful.
CONTINUE READING HERE…»
June 24 – Bloomsburg, PA
SUSUI WOMEN GARDEN CLUB
SUSUI WOMEN GARDEN CLUB
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| Sea Mercy Volunteer and Susui Sponsor Gretchen (S/V Peregrine) and the Susui Women Garden Club |
Loma Loma, Vanua Balavu (Fiji)
June 24, 2016
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| Weeding through the Chinese cabbage (Photo Tessa Irvin) |
One island at a time, one village at a time, one garden at a time, we’ve distributed seeds to 12 gardens already, and Susui Island was our 13th distribution. Like in the other villages, our little group of volunteers was overwhelmed by the kindness and ardor of these hard-working women.
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| While we wait for the women to gather for pesticide instruction, the kids draw caterpillars and bugs and fish and pigs…. |
Take Bale, for example, the leading woman of the village. When we called on her at 8 AM to start the gardening program, she had spent all night out fishing, caught 70 small fish that she was frying for our dinner, and had not gone to sleep yet. Kindly, she took us to the community garden, not complaining that she was tired, not asking us to come back after her nap!
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| Bale’s daughter lunch: dry ramen noodles tucked into her shirt |
The Susui Women Garden Club, as they call themselves, is a small, enthusiastic group of young women, full of energy. Before our 1st visit, they had already built a fence to keep the pigs out of the garden and had planted a few beds: tomatoes and green beans. But the main problems was poor weeding and white flies. It’s not enough to turn the soil over, you need to remove all weed and roots.
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| Bale learns how to seed carrots with Sea Mercy volunteers JP, Willie and Gretchen |
We made quick work of seed distribution and planting instructions, including pesticide information and spraying. When we returned the following day, the women had gotten up at 4 AM, awoken by the village drum, as they do every day, had gone to church promptly, had breakfast, sent the kids to school, and had weeded the beds and sprayed the chili-garlic brew on the beans… all before we cruisers were even awake! JP and Gretchen seeded the 1st bed of carrots: once more, the women were so excited about those carrots, which they had never grown before!
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| Let’s get this weeding party going…. |
By now we have this gardening program running pretty smoothly. Gallons of chili-garlic and white oil sprays, 88 Ramakrishna seed packs distributed, DOMINO’s contribution is now at its end, since we are leaving tomorrow for Vulaga, Onega and Vatoa, all Southern Laus islands. Tomorrow, it will be some other Sea Mercy volunteer who will take this program to Cikobia, another isolated island inside the Vanua Balavu lagoon.
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| Susui’s kids (Photo Tessa Irvin) |
This has been an amazing time and we wish all the women of Vanua Balavu a rapid recovery and a plentiful harvest.
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| Domino delivers water in Susui (photo Tessa Irvin) |
Till next time…
dominomarie
SEA MERCY – AVEA ISLAND GARDEN
SEA MERCY – AVEA ISLAND GARDEN
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| The younger generation at work |
Loma Loma, Vanua Balavu (Fiji)
June 24, 2016
(Photos and Videos by Tessa Irvin, S/Y REWA, Sea Mercy Volunteer)
Perhaps it is because they only have ONE day a week to work in their community garden for ONE hour only, perhaps it is just their nature, but the women of Avea Island pour their hearts, energies, and pure joy into their garden.
Avea is a very small, low island north east of Vanua Balavu, and Winston hit it hard. The school and community center are gone, a good chunk of the beach has been washed away, and the soil in the village is salty and sandy, not very fit for gardening.
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| Deep in the valley… irrigated plots |
But away from the village, there is a fertile land at the bottom of the hills, where fresh water flows abundantly and the alluvial soil is very rich. The problem is getting there! It’s either a 30-minute walk, wading along the shore at low tide (unreacheable at high tide) or a very wet long-boat ride, racing the tide.
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| Transplanting Chinese cabbage: too small… JP instructed in bigger tanspland (“Petite salade, gros chou!”) |
While JP and DOMINO were delivering water into the village’s cistern, the Sea Mercy volunteer women hopped into the long boat and were in for a surprising ride! As if to squelch their discomfort, the women were singing their hearts out, a pot and machete their marching drum!
Once our driver Tomasi dropped us all on the beach, thoroughly soaked, we single-filed through the struggling coconut grove, through the beetle-infested sweet potato beds, only to arrive at the Garden of Eden.
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| Rich, thick, wet soil |
WOW! A large field of deep-dark soil, divided into irrigated rectangular family plots, lay before us.
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| Sea Mercy Volunteer Willie (S/V Dream Catcher) gives it a go! |
Nana Sarah, the women’s leader, explained. “These are family plots. Some families exploit their gardens, but not all. We have not started a community garden yet, but that’s what we are here for today. Let’s get started!” In no time, the women had tilled beds and were planting seeds, helped by our volunteers.
Our ride back, downwind, prompted the women to more singing and dancing, making circles around DOMINO to try to get JP’s attention!
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| Nana Sarah brings home Chinese cabbage and coconut |
JP and I returned the next day with a small party of women. It’s a long walk at low tide, under the glaring sun, bare foot on the cutting reef, but they walk on, carrying shovels and forks, while JP and I brought our pesticide sprays (and forgot our camera.) It took only an hour to inspect the sweet potatoes and spray for white flies and potato beetle, to walk through the beans and taro plants to remove the caterpillars, to teach the women how to prevent bug infestation and seed carrots, start a composting pile. Exhausted, Nana Sarah accepted to wear my hat (now HER hat) and returned to the village with a smile.
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| Teaching the next generation |
Avea now has a community garden, of which we are glad. But in Avea, I think it was us, the volunteers, who were the winners, having gained so much joy and happiness from this fun-loving and hard working women!
Until next village…
dominomarie
SEA MERCY – SEEDS OF HOPE in BOITACI
SEA MERCY – SEEDS OF HOPE in BOITACI
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| Long Beans sprouting in that 1st bed |
Loma Loma, Vanua Balavu (Fiji)
June 24, 2016
All over Vanua Balavu, the Sea Mercy gardening program, in partnership with the Ramakrishna Mission Fiji and the Australian Aid, has distributed seeds to community gardens. One hundred packs, thousands of seeds: French beans, long beans, butter beans, cow peas, radish, carrots and Chinese cabbage. In the villages of Delaconi, Malaka, Mua Mua, Mavana, Boitaci, Mua Levu, Avea, Susui and (tomorrow) Cikobia, Sea Mercy is sowing seeds of hope.
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| Sea Mercy Volunteers Gretchen and Anita present Vuli with the 1st pack of seeds and instructions |
BOITACI – We’ve reported after our fist visit that the garden was a mess, such a challenge that we even contemplated to change the site. But the Sea Mercy Chain Saw team went into that project like a tornado… Fletcher (S/V Interlude,) Marc (S/V Amelie IV) and Norm (S/V Dream Catcher) let their chain saws loose and within a day had cleared the site of the biggest logs and fenced the garden against the pigs.
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| Sea Mercy Volunteer Norm (S/V Dream Catcher) heads the chain saw team |
On our second visit, the women had already prepared some beds and were anxious for our seeds.
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| Boitaci women, ready for work |
On our third visit, all the seeds had been planted and we started a composting pile. Still the garden’s topography was a disaster. Water had been water logging the bottom of the garden, stumps had been burned and left in place, piles of garbage had been burned, nothing looked right.
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| Sea Mercy Volunteer Anita Damiani checks the spigot: let’s order 100 yards of garden hose and a clamp! |
We returned for a fourth visit with three ARC volunteers, three young men happy to help. Within seconds of the Loma Loma Hospital Pick-up truck dropping us off, all the women were in the garden, giving our boys working orders.
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| “Facebook! Facebook!” The young women ordered our boys around and wouldn’t let them leave! |
“Take this clump of banana trees, divide it, and replant each tree along the fence.”
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| Replanting the banana trees |
“Clear these burned stumps.”
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| Clearing the stumps |
“Dig a drainage ditch.”
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| This sloping garden needs drainage |
“Level off this pile of soil.”
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| Clearing charred stumps and debris |
Meanwhile, JP was teaching how to seed carrots, a first for all the women.
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| Heavy soil for carrots, added ashes to lighten it up… |
On the edge of the garden, I joined Vuli in sifting though the ashes of the rubbish fire. With her bare hands, she was removing broken glass, spiky roofing straps, melted metal meshing, a charred bicycle chain, blackened tin. We soon used sticks, but that wasn’t doing the job very fast. So I grabbed my folding camp shovel/pick combo out to my backpack. “I dig, you pick!” Within minutes we had sifted through the entire pile of ashes, now clear of solid debris. Vuli looked at my hand tool, the only one in the village. Of course, I left it with her, this little camping shovel her most prized gardening possession.
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| No watering can, no garden hose: Gretchen delivers collapsible water jugs |
When we finally etched a plan for amending the soil, the women were carrying handful of ashes in their bare hands, fault of any other type of bucket or shovel or hand tool, except for the machetes we distributed.
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| First sign of Chinese cabbage |
On our fifth and last visit, Vuli proudly showed us the progress: beans 1/2’ tall, sprouting Chinese cabbage, and a new bed of carrots.
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| Carrot bed, sheltered from the harsh sun and pecking birds |
We didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to the women. On our last visit, they were sitting with the grief counselor. Winston took 4 lives in this tightly close community, scarring children and adults. But Vuli sat with us for a last chat: our pesticide presentation. We left her, our samples of garlic spray and white oil, getting away in our Police ride, cheered along by a throng of chirpy and unforgettable Boitaci kids.
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| Vuli is thrilled with her pesticides and the kids ran along the car, singing their goodbyes (photo Tessa Irvin) |
Until the next village…
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| Boitaci Kids (Photo Tessa Irvin) |
dominomarie
Sitka to Sitka – June 8-13
Among the communities in SE Alaska, Sitka is one of the most popular. In population, it ranks 3rd, behind Juneau and Ketchikan, so most services are available. Its harbor only has one dock capable of a cruise ship and that is a couple of miles north of town so even when a cruise ship is in, it doesn’t feel overwhelmed. Tourism other than cruise ships is high as it is a sport fishing destination and a community with a rich history going back to the Russian ownership of Alaska. The commercial fishing industry is quite vibrant so it has an economic base besides tourism.
We know of several pleasure craft that spend 3 to 4 weeks in the Sitka area using it as a base from which to go fishing for a few days then to return for reprovisioning. We thought we’d try a reduced version of that concept this year.
We headed out on Wednesday, June 8, towards the popular fishing area on the north side of Biorka Island, about 15 miles SW of Sitka. As we approached, the wind and seas picked up and we couldn’t see anybody fishing We decided to fish a more protected nearby area but no bites and no evidence of fish on the fish finder. We spent the night in Herring Bay, an anchorage on an island about 8 miles away.
The next day, we reached the fishing area earlier and there were other boats present. The conditions were better than the day before but still “lumpy” with a 15 knot southerly wind coming over the island and a westerly swell coming in from the ocean. Despite the conditions, Marcia was able to hook and land a nice king salmon.
That evening we gave Annie-cat a subcutaneous infusion of lactated Ringer’s solution using the new setup Marcia obtained from a Sitka veterinary office. Rather than needing to restrain Annie while we gave her injections, the solution is infused through a smaller gauge needle attached to a drip bag as she naps on the helm chair.
We hoped to repeat the fishing performance on Friday, June 10, as we went out to Biorka again. Unfortunately, despite excellent sea conditions, the fish were absent. We anchored for the night in deGroff Bay on Krestof Island, an anchorage new to us.
For Saturday, we traveled to the fishing area near Kalinin Bay on the north side of Kruzof Island. We were too late for the morning bite so we anchored for a few hours waiting for the afternoon bite. Marcia took the opportunity to make cinnamon rolls while we waited. Once again, no salmon were hooked.
On Sunday morning we were out bright and early. As we were finishing up the final pass before leaving, Marcia hooked a fish which turned out to be 33″ ling cod. While not the salmon was looking for, it was a nice fish with plenty of meat on it.
As we were crossing Sitka Sound intent on trying some more fishing the winds kicked up similar to the week before. Soon we were bashing through 25 knot winds and steep 3 to 4 foot seas. We altered our course and headed towards the secure anchorage of Samsing Cove.
All was calm by Monday morning as we pulled back into Eliasen Harbor in Sitka, just a few steps away from the slip we had vacated five days earlier.
Sea Mercy – One Garden at a Time
SEA MERCY – ONE GARDEN AT A TIME
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| In Malaka, preparing a bed to seed the first carrots |
Loma Loma, Vanua Balavu
June 23, 2016
“First Winston destructed all our crops. Us, women, replanted our small gardens but six weeks later cyclone Xena hit us again, not as hard as Winston, but still destructed our new crops. We planted again, but then the caterpillar came. We’d never seen caterpillars before. They ate all our crops. We replanted again, and now the caterpillars eat our plants and the doves eat our seeds. We are desperate!”
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| Found in the sweet potatoes |
In Mua Levu, Nani’s plight reflects the mood of Vanua Balavu’s women. They are alone, most of the men have left for Suva to pick up the financial aid from the Fijian government and order building materials for their homes. Meanwhile, the women are left in the villages, fending for themselves and the children. One of their main concerns, aside from shelter and water, is food. Of course, they have received more rice and canned goods than they imagined, but that is not their usual diet. They need fresh vegetables and there are none to be found.
Some have started small gardens by their homes; some villages have started community gardens, spurred by Australian Aid that had distributed seeds to the villages just before Winston. But all seeds have been planted, and there is no more.
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| In Boitaci, Sea Mercy volunteer Anita Damiani presents a sample pack of seeds. |
Enter Sea Mercy and the Rama Krishna Fiji Seeds Program. With 100 packs of seeds to distribute throughout Vanua Balavu, we started a community gardening program, complete with seed distribution, composting instructions, proper bed preparation and seeding instruction, and a natural pesticide program. With the OK from the public health officer and the agricultural officer, we went to work in 8 villages.
Seed packs included 150 seeds of each: long beans, French beans, butter beans, cow peas, as well as radish, Chinese cabbage and carrots. The women had never seen carrot seeds and were delighted!
DELACONI – Voted the best community garden in Vanua Balavu, Delaconi served as our model garden. The soil had been well worked and the women’s gardening club was harvesting cabbage and even selling us some! But it was also time to distribute seeds, so welcome!
The caterpillars had been at work on the cabbage, though, and the potato beetles on the sweet potatoes. It was time for our natural brews of white oil and chili-garlic spray.
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| Megan (S/V AMELIE IV) presents white oil and chili-garlic spray to the women, attentive in spite of their grief |
But our timing was awful: when we showed up for our scheduled pesticide presentation, the entire village was in mourning, having lost our friend Biu’s husband the day before. I was ready to turn around, but it was Biu herself, sobbing in my arms, who insisted that we should go on with the presentation. Dressed in black, all the women pulled chairs around the banquet table (for once, there was a table) and while I was choking on words, it was 15-year old Megan (S/V Amelie IV) who pulled herself together and talked about caterpillars and natural pesticide.
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| In Malaka, Unisi’s daughter harvests cucumbers to sell to the fleet. Thai Basil grows wild, here, and women have no idea it can be used for cooking; They only use it for medicinal purposes (sore throat) |
MALAKA – Unisi, the chief’s wife, and her daughter are very good gardeners. They walked us through beds of cucumbers in full production, and were proud of the upcoming long beans, green beans and tomatoes. They too, were out of seeds and our distribution put big smiles on their faces.
Like we had in Delaconi, we started a compost pile, hoping that the organic wastes will, in time, lighten up the heavy soil.
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| On board DOMINO, JP and Tessa (S/V REWA) prepare a batch of chili-garlic spray, Recipes sent by our son James via Iridium communication… pretty cool! |
There too, the caterpillars were at work and we gave our presentation: by the 2nd presentation of the morning, our team was smelling pretty ripe of garlic and chili, but nobody minded.
On our last visit, we bought more cucumbers and green beans, happy to have given the women a new source of income.
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| Mua Mua: green beans coming up |
MUA MUA – Lo and her sister have a grip on the garden, a green thumb, and had no idea of how to fight caterpillars. In no time, our little group was walking through the rows and picking and squashing the big, fat, green caterpillars.
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| Pesticide presentation is a hit! |
Our seed distribution and pesticide presentation under the cooking shed was a big hit —standing room only — mixing the aromas of wood fire and garlic, the smoke of a smoldering fire and the vapors of crushed hot chilis… lovely on a rainy morning!
Our fleet was only delighted to buy fresh watermelon while the women smiled ear-to-ear, pocketing the $ bills for their produce and new seeds for their garden.
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| Smell of garlic in the morning! |
The three villages on the west coast were easy-peasy. When we visited the east coast, however, the picture changed to dismal.
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| Gardening day in Boitaci: fenced against the pigs… so much to do! |
BOITACI – The garden was a mess! Pigs were roaming through the village and had destroyed the garden. It looked like a bomb had exploded, craters and tree stumps dotting the dry and pocked landscape. There was nothing we could do until the Sea Mercy chain saw team came to chop down trees and build a fence to hold the pigs out.
All we could do was to deal out water jugs for watering, ordering a hose to reach the spigot 70 yards away, and distribute some seeds to get started.
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| Boitaci’s kids, always following us imitating us |
There was so much to be done in this garden, we had no idea if it would ever be fruitful… but more on this later.
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| Mavana’s overgrown school garden |
MAVANA – What once had been a beautiful school garden was now —3 months after Winston— abandoned and overgrown. But the schoolmaster and Va, the woman with the Green Thumb, were determined to get it started again.
JP traipsed through the weed, picked up a handful of soil and beamed: “Beautiful! This is going to be great for carrots!” Yet, clearing all this brush with nothing but machetes looked over our capabilities.
We distributed packs of seeds, wondering when we could put them in that ground.
Five days later, we returned with a work party (3 young boys from the World ARC Rally) only to find out that the women had cleared the entire garden, 1/3 of it already tilled and planted. They had seeded all their seeds.
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| JP & the ARC volunteers are joined by the village’s men to dig new beds. |
Needless to say, JP and the 3 boys went to work, tilling 3 more beds. But a funny thing had happened: two men were now working in the women’s garden, removing stumps, tilling, doing the hard labor. The women’s courage was motivating the men to help out. It was with pleasure that we left more seeds for the new beds.
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| Va’s beautiful garden at the back of her house |
Va keeps her own garden behind her house, in more than unconventional containers. She and her sister sat down on the grass with us and once more we gave our pesticide control presentation. But since Va has such a green thumb, we also gave her extra garlic heads and dried chiles to grow new plants… they can make their own pesticide!
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| Mua Levu’s struggling sweet potatoes |
MUA LEVU – This is a totally different village, based on a strong clan system. There are 4 clans in the village, which means 4 community gardens. In addition, Betty (the chief’s wife) has her own garden behind her house… so, make that 5 gardens to watch!
This village was caterpillar heaven! All sizes, colors and varieties of caterpillars, worms and beetles were feasting and had destroyed a good part of the crops.
We started with the easy part: walking through the rows of taro and sweet potatoes, removing the bugs and squashing them underfoot. It took a bit of persuading, but the result was immediate: no more bugs!
Each clan leader took a volunteer to their garden, visits followed by a full “debriefing” conducted by Betty under the chief’s awning. Wow! So much structure!
Losanna’s garden was being eaten by doves? It was a job for young Megan who returned 2 days later to build a scarecrow.
Once more, we gave our pesticide presentation and distributed the last of our seeds for this village, pretty confident that they would soon harvest sweet potatoes and green beans.
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| Betty’s crop ravaged by caterpillars and beetles |
This was an intense program, giving our pesticide presentation to 6 villages in 1 morning, driven by the police pick-up truck, slip-sliding in the mud, sloshing garlic-chili sauce all over, squashing bugs, but unmistakably supporting those beautiful Fijian women in their fight to survive Winston!
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| In the back of the truck, JP going to work! |
More gardening in the next blog; Until then…
dominomarie
Road Trip to Red Head
Up at 4 am, in the rental car by 4:44 am. This is no ordinary road trip. The crew is psych’d.
Cape Lookout
Our first stop after leaving the Palm Beach area was at Cape Lookout in North Carolina, just south of Cape Hatteras. We’d stopped there en route to Boston mainly to wait out a storm that would be passing through the Boston area, but it turned out to be an excellent anchorage. We toured the Cape…
Bedding, fillets & tape
Sorry it’s been a few days with no words. Things just sorta got in the way I guess. Jeep needs a new clutch and when I was at the garage to arrange that the old Camaro wouldn’t start! I guess if you’re going to break down the garage is the best place. …
Sea Mercy – One Water Tank at a Time
SEA MERCY – ONE WATER TANK AT A TIME
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| Dirk (S/V PEREGRINE) inspects the 300 yards of garden hose suspended over the reef – No snag, please! |
Susui Island – June 18, 2016
One of the main hardships after a hurricane wipes out a village is the lack of fresh water. It may be raining but there is no water to be had. In most of the villages of Vanua Balavu, the main source of water is rain catchment from the roofs into large water tanks. No roof, no gutter, no water tank = no water. It will be months before the community centers, churches and homes have new roofs and gutters. Indeed, our Sea Mercy Recovery team has asked for roofing and guttering for the villages in dire needs. But what to do in the meantime?
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| Living in precarious conditions, to say the least |
Our team has identified 3 villages in critical need, all on islands off of the main island of Vanua Balavu: Avea, Susui, and Cikobia.
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| Stern anchor into the reef, as close as we dare, it took a team to set-up the delivery |
Two weeks ago, the super yacht NOMADESS delivered 6,000 liters in Avea and Cikobia, and 8,000 liters in Susui. But in spite of rationing the population to 1 liter/person/day, the villages are running out of water. So, our little fleet rallied to see what we could do.
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| In Avea, no more water catchment… living in makeshift tin houses |
AVEA – Located Northeast of Vanua Balavu, Avea is a small, low island, where 330 people fight to survive. When we arrived, the cisterns were almost empty.
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| Portable water maker, solar panels, pumps… let’s get it to shore |
One team of engineers worked on setting up the water maker stored on board DOMINO and soon they were pumping water out of the brackish water well and turning it into fresh water, slowly filling the main tank at the center of the village.
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| In Avea, let’s fill this cistern! |
Meanwhile, DOMINO was moving into position, dropping anchor in front of the village and backing close to the reef, a stern anchor set inside the reef. How do you deliver water? Strong from the experience on board NOMADESS, the Sea Mercy water team quickly deployed 200 yards of garden hose, floated them above the reef, dropped the end into the village’s 2nd water cistern.
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| Hard-hit Avea |
JP fired up the 12 KW Northern Light Genset, powered up the HORIZON Seafari HRO watermaker, and that was it! Water making at the rate 250l/hour – DOMINO pumped water for almost 14 hours (with a 2-hour break for shut-eyes) and delivered close to 3,500 liters of water, to the great joy of the locals who gave us an amazingly warm tea party and church ceremony, singing choir and all!
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| All the kids sang and danced for us! |
SUSUI – No sooner had we disconnected the hoses from Avea at 0800 and let the HRO rest a bit, we were en route for SUSUI, 11 miles south, where S/V PEREGRINE’s Dirk and Gretchen had prepared our arrival.
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| It’s just a short hop from Avea to Susui |
Under Dirk’s brilliant guidance, JP dropped anchor in front of the village, backed up in a small hook in the reef, and Dirk dropped our stern anchor as close to the reef as possible. But the bottom was rock-hard and I ended up diving the anchor, wedging it between dead coral heads, making sure that all the chain was flat on the bottom and that no line was caught into the rising coral heads. Piece of cake at low tide on a flat-calm day!
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| JP and I taking care to float the hose above the reef. |
Within minutes, our volunteers were stringing 300 yards of hose off our stern, once more floating them over the reef, and dropped the end into the cistern. By 11:30 we were pumping again.
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| A happy Jacob inspects our Horizon HRO water maker |
We pumped all day and most of the night, till the 3 PM the next day, some 23 hours of pumping and 5,600 liters of water. Jacob, the village’s mayor, helped us all day and night, keeping a night watch and calling us, checking on the water flow.
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| Jacob loved the power of our Northern Light genset |
On board, JP checked on the flow volume every 30 minutes, checking our tank’s level, adjusting the makeshift distribution valve for an even flow: no need to overflow or dry-out DOMINO’s tanks!
HOW LONG can the HRO pump? We have no idea! This was the first time we ran the water maker for so long and it worked beautifully.
Enough water? Not quite! The rest of the fleet had ran their own on-board water makers, delivering close to 1,000 liters in water jugs.
Once more, the villagers took care of us, with a nice kava ceremony and community dinner. We were blown away!
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| The villagers in Susui prepared a feast! |
Hopefully, this will hold the village till the roofing and guttering gets installed. Sea Mercy is shipping the materials and we can’t wait to see the roofing go up at the community centers!
CIKOBIA – This kind of water delivery operation demands flat calm conditions, which we had for the 3 days in Avea and Susui. But the wind kicked up and is not supposed to let up for the week to come. Cikobia is a tricky delivery, needing high tide in the middle of the day and glassy waters. Unfortunately, we were not able to deliver and the fleet is waiting for better conditions while the village is still rationed at 1 liter/day/person. They really need roofing, guttering, and a way to tap into their collapsed water source. To be followed.
If you want to help any of those 3 islands with
water makers and stream head pumping,
visit the
and make a donation for
VANUA BALAVU!
Thank you!
Until next time…
dominomarie
