I Won the Lottery

October 3, 2010

So as we say around here, I won the lottery and have an illness that Vanuatu is ill-equipped and unable to fix. Who knew that kidney stones (or should I say renal colic) would require a trip to Australia. Nonetheless here I am in Brisbane. I am staying at what other PCV’s have deemed the “nursing home” and hope to at least see a koala or something if time permits. On my flight over I sat next to the only two Ni-Vanuatu men, one Man Aneityum and a Man Efate. Talk about some in-flight entertainment. Neither fellas had ever flown internationally. One lad spent a solid 30 minutes going through the Safety Instruction card and every now and then would look around for the exits and check under his seat for his emergency floating device. When the meal came around, the flight attendant automatically gave them the meal with meat and a coca cola. Without thinking about it, I devoured my meat with my hands like the two men. We spent the rest of the flight joking about how we’ve been in the bush way too long. And after instructions on how to use the radio and headset, they blared string band music the rest of the flight.
I was a bit overwhelmed when I entered the huge airport full of white folks. I grabbed my bag and found my way to the taxi line. Within minutes I was in a taxi with a young man driving speeding down the highway. The young man seemed a bit nervous and was biting his nails a lot. I noticed his gas light was flashing so just figured he was nervous about running out maybe. After a couple of minutes he called someone on his phone and though he was whispering I heard the word “American”. By this point I’m completely freaked out. I almost started crying thinking about how this man could be driving me anywhere since I don’t know Brisbane at all. I seriously thought I was going to be taken somewhere and sold into prostitution like on the movie Taken. Paranoid much? I made it fine to the “nursing home” and walked a little bit to a nearby petrol station where they sold rice cakes and milk….
Frogs, huge birds, cars, people on their phones, people with headphones, not saying good morning, butt shorts, rain, the smell of pine trees, cars and more cars…these are just a few of the things that I’ve noticed so far.