Trip to Ifira Island

Good Afternoon,

When I arrived in Port Vila last Friday afternoon, one of the first things I did was take a quick trip over to Ifira island. Ifira is one of a few small islands off the coast of Efate and some volunteers refer to it as Port Vila's suburb. It certainly had a quiet, suburban, even wealthy feel to it. Kids and teachers commute over to Ifira five days a week for school. In fact, Peace Corps volunteer Jane is one of only a handful of teachers at the Ifira primary school that actually lives on the island.

To get off the "mainland" and over to Ifira, I had to jump in a water taxi that looked just like the bottom yellow boat pictured above. Transport to the island costs 100 vatu (about 1 US Dollar) and a boat or two run back and forth for much of the day.

I was curious about the smaller yellow boat pictured above. I'd seen it several months before as a raffle prize at Au Bon Marche, the major grocery store in Port Vila. I guess somebody finally won themselves a Sun Rice sponsored speed boat and has since pressed it into service.

All Aboard! I'm sitting in the back of a different yellow boat and we are taking on more passengers near the Port Vila mama's market. That's the Big Sista in the background, a larger island hopping passenger vessel that will take me back to Epi tomorrow. The Big Sista is how I got from Epi to Efate last December on the first leg of my Christmas trip to Tanna.

Port Vila harbor has several yachts stationed in it on any given day. Some just pass through while others, like this one, seem to linger for months. The owner seems to be cleaning the boat or doing maintenance.

That's Iririki island in the background, a resort just off the coast of Port Vila. I have no idea how much those seaside bungalows cost per night, but it's probably more than I can afford. We had to pass Iririki to get to Ifira.

We are about half way to Ifira island. I guess when this is your daily commute, you pass the time by reading the paper, sending text messages, or covering your head and napping. While I was snapping photos and grinning at my adventurous self, these folks were probably just thinking about getting home and making supper like I would on a subway train. Yep, just another beautiful post-card view on the way home. How dull

In the distance you can see Star Wharf, possibly the main conduit for outside trade in Vanuatu. Yet, look how small it is. Also, if you look over the sea wall at Port Vila and into the bay of the busiest port in the country, you will see straight to the bottom through clean water with live coral and fish in it.

One of the kids was so bored by his fifteen minute boat ride to yet another tropical island that he just fell asleep. I was looking at orange colored clown fish in the water below, but I guess once you've seen one beautifully fragile clown fish from a small boat in the South Pacific, you've seen them all so why not nap a little.

There's Ifira. There seemed to be a higher level of development or more wealth on the island. Notice the concrete houses and the large church with iron roofing.

This is Jane in her house at the school on Ifira island. She came to Vanuatu at the same time I did and works mainly in the school library. Despite being in Vanuatu for a year and a half and despite how easy it was to get to Ifira, this was the first time I'd visited Jane.

Since so many people ask about volunteer accommodations, let me point out that Jane's house seems typical for our teachers. It's mostly concrete with an iron roof rather than bamboo or timber walls and a thatched leaf natangura roof like some of us have. She's even got electricity and a small refrigerator.

Jane works at the nearby school five days a week and although she has had some issues with the institution, she has said some wonderful things about the kids she gets to work with.

Speaking of kids, I was sitting around with two of the teachers after school had finished and some of the boys started a mini-football game nearby. Eventually, many if not most of the students would go back to Efate where they live, but they seemed to trickle out slowly and some lingered to play.

That's a mango tree in the foreground so of course I asked about it. I was assured that during mango season, the ground is simply yellow all around and the teachers make the kids rake up rotting mangoes so the place doesn't stink.

Unfortunately, I was too slow to get a good photo of Jane hurling stones to run off some big marauding pigs that had wandered onto the school grounds. The teachers told me pig-stoning had become one of Jane's adopted duties.

The teachers and I were sitting with out backs to Jane's library watching the football when to my left, two small children came outside to see who the visitor was. I noticed in my brief time on Ifira that the school children were a lot more talkative with their teachers and even to me, the strange white guy. Compare this to Epi were even students who know me are too shy to talk to me much when I pass through the high school grounds at Laman Bay. A few Ifira students took the chance to practice their English on me.

Inside the library, there is a big world map on one wall. This is a common project for Peace Corps volunteers around the world. Students enjoy making the map with the volunteer and for some, it is the first time they've seen one. I now from sharing my big, laminated, store bought map in the village that many people have no idea what the rest of the world looks like or where Vanuatu fits in.

Walking around Ifira a bit with Jane, I saw lots of maintained paths like this. The island has no trucks or truck roads. It may seem silly, but when I walk through a new village I always take note of the paths and hedges and make a snap judgement of how old and how organized the village is. This one looks old, but moderately organized on the Daniel Community Path Judgement Scale.

Here's a typical house on Ifira. Notice the concrete, the iron siding and the store bought wooden sheeting. They even have a white plastic rain tank and metal rain spouts.

Che Guvera seems to show up all over Vanuatu, just like Bob Marley. I have no idea why. His likeness is on trucks, buses, shirts, and now houses. Yet, I've never heard anyone say his name and I know lots of people don't know about Cuba. No one has yet muttered anything about a Marxist rebellion either.

What a view. This is the Ifira church with Port Vila in the background. I think the church is Presbyterian.

These school girls have boarded the boat and headed back home to Efate for the evening. They are sitting on the boat's roof even though the boat is mostly empty, but that's not uncommon.

And then, back to Port Vila.

That concludes our boat adventure to Ifira island. We hope you had a pleasant ride and will avail yourselves of our offerings in the gift shop.

-- Daniel --