The Santo Story
Our love for Vanuatu is incredible, the people and culture and the pure essence of happiness. This is our raw honest and humble experience of over 3 years of owning land in the tropical Pacific Island of Espiritu Santo
Prologue– 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 –13 – Epilogue
Container? – Build a Shed? – Decisions Time
Sometimes taking a huge step back for your situation and looking again with fresh eyes reveals a more positive outcome.
Yesterday we were so wound up in the quest to find a container we really started losing ourselves in the whole situation and stressing out way more that we should have. Really this shouldn’t be so hard.
The reality is we don’t need to have a container straight away, and if we’re prepared to wait then Wayne from the importing company will have what we need in time.
On top of that there is another couple who are emigrating from Melbourne who have a container arriving on the 5th October if all goes well.
After working out the costs for building a shed (which will only serve as a temporary shelter until we build) has shown us that there is minimal difference between the two types of buildings.
The pros for the container outweigh the cons of building a shed as it will give us more time to clear the land and to create a place to put the container in the future.
So now we have only one person to see, Wally, as we never managed to get back to him yesterday. If he sell us one of his containers then it’s all on again.
So, today is gathering up supplies for camping. Today we’ll get everything we need to survive the next 3 weeks on the block in the bush. At some stage we’ll head over to our neighbours Bruno and Jocelyn as we’ve pro iced that we’ll catch up with them. It’s going to be another full on day.
Our first stop is to see Wally to discuss if we can buy one of the many containers littering the back yard. Wally is an interesting character and is not sure if he wants to sell, after an hour of discussing island and world politics, financial markets and our dreams to escape the grid and the rat race I leave Wally with my number in the vain attempt to secure a container.
Elena’s now on my case that the whole conversation took to long and we still have so much to do, so now were heading to town and looking for food supplies. LCM is the largest supermarket in Luganville. Boasting a substantial array of products and including fabrics and limited range of hardware it’s always a first port of call.
With boxes and bags loaded we had to offload back at Hibiscus, before taking another journey, this time to Santo Hardware in search of hammers, tomahawks and handsaws. Our shopping list was getting crossed off and our trips back and forth were becoming more and more frequent. But by 2pm we’d achieved out goals for the day we even managed to get back to the banks to submit our details on an account application.
Now we had the afternoon free to go see our neighbours Bruno and Jocelyn to see how much they had done on their property since we were last there almost a year ago. Grabbing a bottle of wine we hailed a taxi.
It’s incredible what one year can bring, our new neighbours either side of our block have cleared so much and Arriving at Bruno and Jocelyn’s place showed us what hard work and determination can achieve. Our friends have cleared their land and in one year have built stage one of their house. I’m so inspired by there two as they have no building experience yet managed to build everything themselves (with the exception of the roof)
Our stay was only to be short but who can resist such fine French hospitality. Bruno and Jocelyn bagged us to stay for dinner and meet with their new neighbour Christof another French guy who is building his home from a shipping container.
With fresh vegetables from their garden, spaghetti and mince a quick Spag-Bowl ensued. We produced a bottle of wine and as the sun when down we all got reacquainted and discussed our dreams of what we are yet to accomplish on Santo.
It’s strange, we had thoughts of one business with a lady in Australia organising Paddle boards here. To cut a long story shot (another blog another time) now it’s the furthermost thing from my mind, now my whole thoughts turn to the style of building we want to do and talking this Christof (who’s a builder) about our unorthodox building ideas, he was in great support.
Finally, it came time to bid farewell and now being pitch black the plans of walking to the road and hailing a taxi were exhausted. Bruno had offered to take two trips to town delivering each of us back to Hibiscus but we could see he was tired, then Bruno just offered us his little motorbike and said he’ll catch a bus (which means riding in the back of a pick up truck) to town in the morning.
Riding home secure in the knowledge that we can build what we’ve been dreaming about coupled with cementing great friendships with our neighbours left us in high spirits, now I just had to navigate Bruno’s motorbike in the darkness and avoid and potential potholes that may dampen the night. Considering our early nights arriving back to Hibiscus at 9.30pm felt like the middle of the night, a quick cup of tea and bed.