mia meets lucy

this lovely lady insisted on holding mia. she has 5 children of her own and does babysitting for the resort next to us. we were very priviledged as she invited us into her home. basically it was a concrete hut, not dissimilar to my mum and dad's garage. we were pretty shocked by vanuatu. it is advertised as a south pacific paradise yet i would say it was far from paradise for the true locals who live in tin, wooden and concrete huts and even banyan trees. one side of the street is lined with resorts and large luxury homes, t'other side of the street contains shacks with women spending hours doing their washing in big buckets. yet these are the friendliest people you could ever hope to meet. most survive on their own produce and those who are lucky (?) work in the supermarkets and tourist resorts/bars servicing the rich expats and tourists. the contrast between rich and poor has never seemed so real to us before and we felt pretty uncomfortable pushing mia around in a buggy, taking photos with a decent camera and staying in aircon luxury. even on christmas day the staff weren't given time off and stood fanning the food, preventing flies from landing on it. most definitely a reality check for us, just a shame mia is too young to remember how she spent christmas 2006. it was so humid too, good preparation for february in auckland i guess. mia's eczema flared up immediately and we have just got it back under control now. a strange week all in all. we were forced to stay indoors most of the time cos of the heat and this made us give 110% to mia. she is now standing strongly, is able to take the odd step on her own here and there, taking pleasure in books and we now have a recognisable noise that she makes when she wants something. glad we went but even more glad to be home!