Nius blong Mitufala

Apologies ...

... for the lack of posts.  Typepad has upgraded their editor and it doesn't load correctly on my outdated browser on my work computer.  Our work computers are locked, which means we can't add, update or delete any software ourselves.  Our central IT unit is located in Canberra, Australia and has not yet been to Vanuatu to update our computers to Windows 2007.  As work is where I do the majority of my posting and photo uploading (who wants to spend their evenings on their computer when you spend your whole day on one...), this has meant no posting for a few weeks.  I hope to upload photos very soon!

Testing Video

Hello faithful readers...

I've been trying to upload video of Simon... CRAWLING!  Well, sorta.  He does the jungle crawl, arm over arm, while his legs lie useless behind him like a little paraplegic.  Otherwise, he gets up on all fours, moves his legs forward but forgets to move his arms and then face plants.

Anyway, I've been wanting to put video on here for a while but I don't want to use Vimeo or YouTube because I would prefer for the videos to remain in the private domain.  TypePad has just introduced an internal video feed that I'm trying to upload... with no success yet.

Stand by and in the meantime, Fred salutes you with a shell of kava...

 

 

Time for Translations

One of the joys of being on holiday is being able to make this a truly bi-lingual blog.  Generally, Fred and I write in our own languages and we don't translate either from lack of time or from lack of desire.  (A blog should be fun to keep up, right?  As soon as it becomes a chore, the posts will definitely get fewer and further between).  However, because we have both the time and the desire while we're on holiday, we'll be trying to translate each other's posts.  So to kick things off, I've translated Fred's last two posts into English for your reading enjoyment.

I will be posting soon as well, but for the time being - shout out to Andy Halseth and Andrew Contreras who took us out for great Italian and even better conversation.  Shout out to Jason Frentress who we met up with in San Fran and who's off to do a European Tour!  Finally, the biggest shout of all to Amy and Steven Singham who treated us like a king and a queen while we squatted at their place for three nights.  Thanks so much!

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Une des joies des vacances, c est de faire ce blog entierement dans les 2 langues. Normallement, nous ecrivons dans nos propres langues et nous ne traduisons pas par manque de temps ou parce que nous n en avons pas envie. (On doit prendre plaisir a mettre a jour le blog, n est ce pas ? Des que ca devient une corvee, les postes deviennent moins nombreux et le temps entre chaque est plus long.) Bref, comme on a tous les 2 le temps et l envie tant que nous sommes en vacances, nous allons essayer de se traduire les postes entre nous. Donc pour commencer, j ai traduit pour votre plaisir les 2 derniers postes de Frederic.

Je ferai moi meme un poste tres bientot, mais en attendant, salut a Andy Halseth et Andrew Contreras qui nous ont amene dans ce superbe restaurant italien et avec qui nous avons pase un tres bon moment. Salut a Jason Frentress qu on a revu a San Franscico et qui etait sur le point de partir pour un petit tour en Europe ! Enfin, un grand merci a Amy et Steven Singham qui nous ont accueillis comme des rois dans leur maison pour 3 nuits. Merci beaucoup !

A Fortunate Mistake

I have been flat out trying to get not only my daily work finished but also this extra translation that I have taken on (an architectural report than I'm translating from English to French - luckily, Fred's doing the proofing).  So, full weekends as well as week nights are taken up by trying to find the appropriate translation for "sarking" in French.  That necessitates me knowing what sarking is in the first place, so you can imagine the struggle.

Thinking that I was going to be coming back to work later one evening, I left my computer on.  I decided at the last minute, however, to work from a laptop at home and so didn't get a chance to turn my computer off.  When I came in to work the next morning - lo and behold - there were three chat windows open in my email!  Friends had tried to communicate virtually with me, live!  I had been under the impression that any and all chats had been blocked by the University's draconian internet censorship policy (I mean, really, what else am I supposed to be doing at work?).  But no!  Yahoo! chat has slipped through the net, perhaps because they just rolled out a new interface.

So, can I just say that I'm generally in front of my computer most of the day?  And that I would love to chat live with the vast majority of the readers of this blog?  I particularly encourage my American and Pacific friends to get on-line because our time differences are either so huge that my work hours fall right when when you're getting off of work or so small that it doesn't make a difference.  Unfortunately for the European readers of this blog, one or the other of us will have to make a sacrifice to chat... and I'm REALLY not a morning person. ;)

Leaving on a (Pacific) Jetplane

In the interest of securing as many visitors from the US as possible, I thought I would let you all in on a little tip that I got on my way from Vanuatu to Fiji.  I met a man named Bob who is a long-haul US truck driver.  Every six months or so, he comes to Vanuatu on his own expense and does handyman duties for the more remote Catholic missions.  I know that truck drivers can make some good money - but could it be two trips a year to Vanuatu good, I asked him.

Per Bob, the Fijian airline "Air Pacific" has great rates out of Los Angeles right now.  He told me that he got from Los Angeles to Port Vila, Vanuatu for a little over 1000 USD (tax included).  I couldn't believe it!  That's almost half-off depending when you come!  Bob said that the only catch is that you can't order on-line - you have to call their toll-free US number, order you tickets and then pick them up at the Air Pacific counter in LAX.  As LAX is most likely the world's worst airport, this could be a deterent to some.  But if your gunning to come to Vanuatu and a 300 - 600 USD savings is worth it, I highly recommend this.

The other little glitch - I went on the Air Pac website to check out Bob's fare and the one he was talking about was only advertised for LA to Nadi, Fiji.  Hmmmmm.  A little further down the page, you'll find a fare for LA to Port Vila for about 1300 USD (tax included).  Still a great price, but less interesting than 1000 USD.  However, Bob swore up and down that if you call the Air Pac people you can get this fare.  Worth a try if you want to get here before mid-June!

Go to www.airpacific.com - click on "Special Fares" - click on "Bula Fares from the USA"

Rendez-vous telephonique

Guide - Carte Telephonique Allomundo

Tous mes excuses aux francais qui ont achete une carte telephonique SpeedyPin pour nous appeler au Vanuatu.  (Sori tumas, Laure!)  Vous avez decouvert que les taux ne sont pas aussi avantageux qu'aux Etats Unis.  En effect, 10 USD donne que 10 minutes depuis la France tandis qu'il donne 50 depuis les EU!!!

J'ai fait un peu de recherche et j'ai trouve la carte Allomundo qui donne 36 minutes depuis la France vers le Vanuatu pour 15 euros.  C'est la meilleure carte que j'ai pu trouve - mais si vous en trouvez d'autres, n'hesitez pas a nous faire part des nouvelles!  Je vous mets en piece jointe une "guide" que j'ai redige pour vous aider a vous souscrire a cette service en ligne. (voir lien ci-dessus)  Sinon, pour ceux qui sont "internet savvy" je vous donne le lien directe au site:  www.allomundo.com

Sinon, le principe est le meme qu'avec SpeedyPin.  Vous achetez en ligne une carte telephonique "virtuelle."  C'est-a-dire qu-apres paiement, on vous envoie un code secret par email et puis vous l'utiliser comme si vous avez une vraie carte telephonique dans la main.  Vous appelez un numero de telephone speciale, vous tappez votre code, vous tappez notre numero de telephone et VOILA!

Un conseil - il vaut mieux utiliser la carte dans un seule coup de fils car sinon, vous perdez quelques minutes precieuses en guise que "taxe" sur la carte.

A bientot au telephone!

Update on Phone Calls

I talked with my mom this morning, and she explained the fees attached to the calling cards to me.  The calling card that she uses is called "Total Quality Minutes".  It had a twice montly 59 cent fee attached to it as well as some sales tax taken out of it.  I was under the impression that your credit card was charged these fees and the sales tax IN ADDITION to the cost of the calling card.  However, my mom told me from experience that these fees are taken out of the calling card each time you use it - your credit card is only billed the cost of the card.

The best way to maximize the calling card is to use it all in one go.  A $20 calling card ends up lasting about 50 minutes to Vanuatu and you're only charged the 59 cent fee and the tax once.  This still seems like the best deal around for a good connection - there's almost no delay on the line!

I shall reiterate my offer of alternating the buying of calling cards for anyone who would like to call once in a while.  I'll buy the first one, you buy the second one, I buy the third one, etc.

Now we're talkin'!

This post is to officially announce that I am the proud owner of a home phone!!!  I applied to have one installed quite some time ago (about two weeks or so) and today at lunch it was installed.  I still have to buy a phone, but that should be done as of 5pm my time.

If dailling from either the States or France:
011-678-24571

I have also gotten in to a handy-dandy habit of using a the "Vanuatu Time Converter" to figure out what time it is when I'm calling someone.  I started doing this after I once woke my dad up at 5am to ask him some questions about insurance and I missed a couple phone dates with my mom.  Here's the URL:  http://www.worldtimeserver.com/time_converter.aspx?f=VU

I'm generally home before 7:30am, between 12 and 1:15pm and after 6pm.

For US callers, I would like to recommend a site that my mom uses:  www.speedypin.com
We could use Skype, but the internet speed here is so slow that the connection is generally pretty bad.  As a result, my mom has bought several calling cards from speedypin that allow approximately one hour's talking time to Vanuatu for 20 USD.  This is a fantastic rate as the US phone rate is generally about 2 USD a minute and it's about the same for me to call the US from Vanuatu.  There are no calling cards that let me call out of Vanuatu for a decent rate, so I have arranged a deal with my parents.  We're going to take turns purchasing the phonecards on-line and the pin numbers will always be sent to my parents' house.  They'll have to be the ones calling me all the time, but at least this way I'll be able to cover half the costs.  I'd be willing to make this deal with anyone anytime!  One note of caution:  there are a couple calling cards that have a monthly or bi-weekly fee connected with them.  It's better to buy a calling card without fees attached.

Pour les francais, vous pouvez essayer le meme site:  www.speedypin.com  Ils ont des carte pour appeler le Vanuatu qui ont des tres bons prix.  Je serai prete a faire le meme accord que j'ai avec mes parents:  j'achete la premiere carte telephonique, vous achetez la deuxieme, etc.  Mais comme il n'y a pas de carte Vanuatuaise pour appeler la France d'ici, meme si j'achete la carte ca serait toujours vous qui nous appelez.  Sinon, je vais faire un peu de recherche pour savoir comment les francais d'ici gerent leurs appels.  J'aurais bien aime utiliser Skype mais la connexion internet ici est tellement lente que ca ne vaut pas le coups.

If anyone has any other suggestions, feel free!  I'm always reading your comments...

Mes excuses aux francais!

Bonjour a tous les francais qui suivent ce blog!

Je vous presente mes excuses pour le fait que ce blog soit uniquement en anglais. J'avoue qu'il sera trop de travail de traduire chacun de mes commentaires en francais. Donc, je vous encourage de suivre mes adventures en anglais... et de ne pas hesiter de poser des questions pour clarifier certaines mysteres si jamais vous en avez besoin.

Je m'excuse egalement pour le manque d'accent mais pour le moment je n'ai pas acces a un clavier AZERTY.

Je vous embrasse tous!