VanuatuMapSeptember 3–4, 2013 Australians and New Zealanders come here on vacation.  The locals live just like the residents of an average African country.  Yet they’re kind and easy-going.  Every license plate has a decorative frame with the name or slogan of a company. The letter in front of the license number indicates the type of vehicle: bus, taxi, rental car, and so on.  A bus stop.  Public transportation is provided primarily by minibuses. The fares are very cheap.  An unusual local sign: turns prohibited. It resembles an aleph.  A small grocery store.  Children.  Children in the flesh.  A car wash.  There are beautiful flowers blooming everywhere.  No kava or alcohol drinking in the park.  A communications hatch cover design that honestly reflects the truth: all the wires are tangled up inside.  All the hatches are marked with yellow and red striped posts.  A street sign.  ATMs are tucked away inside round half-booths.  Supermarkets usually keep water on the shelves and not in the fridge.  A city trash can.  Haphazard waste disposal.  There are mini irrigation ditches along the roads, covered with warped grates.  Payphones.  The post boxes are turquoise-colored.  Electrical boxes.  A fire hydrant.  A market.  The locals love to collect many years’ worth of inspection stickers on their windshields.  Vanuatu is a delightful country with a pleasant climate, kind people, beautiful scenery, and an easy-to-understand language, Bislama, which is essentially a simplified version of English.  |
