So like what's up?

I thought it'd be cool to give a little overview about what I'm doing for work over here in Malampa Province!

So what's really sweet about my new job is that  I'm working at the provincial level. Malampa Province has three major islands -- Malekula, Ambrym, and Paama -- along with a  bunch of smaller ones. As part of my work, I'm going to be traveling around to as many places as I can on all of the islands.  I'm so excited. I like walking around, and, honestly, I get bored pretty quickly staying in one place all the time. So this is just perfect.

The major thing I'm doing is community disaster risk reduction and climate change awareness presentations. (What a mouthful.) I inherited a nice sum of climate change-related grant $$ from my lovely predecessor, Maureen, so that's what's paying for everything. My two counterparts and I have made a pretty ambitious  work plan, and I'm really excited to see how it works out. We're going to Central/North East/North West/South West/ and South East Malekula (no South), all of Paama, and West/South East Ambrym. It's going to be boss. We did our first one last month in a village called Mahe, and should be doing another one on 2/3/15.

I'm also doing school-based disaster drills and first aid training, which is very exciting as well. A lot of times, schools get overlooked, but they're very important (considering how often kids are in school!) We don't have this really done out yet but since school just started on 2/2, that gives a little time to work things out.

After this, the rest of what I'm doing is working with the two guys in my office (Red Cross Branch Officer and Malampa Disaster Officer) to assist in their projects. Their work plans and funding should be finalized sometime this month, so that'll be great. The RC Officer hasn't heard yet, but the DO should be forming Community Disaster Committees, which is top.

That's that!