Infotropism Kirrily Robert’s blog

Vanuatu and OpenStreetmap

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Meet Hervé Soksok, Vanuatu’s first GPS-toting, creative-commons-licensing community cartographer.

I ran into Hervé at Wan Smolbag’s computer centre a few weeks ago and we swapped email addresses. He’s been attending daily computer classes there, where he spends an [...]

Vanuatu’s new technical library

A giant thank you to all the geeks who donated books to Vanuatu. Here’s a photo of the results:

I carried these back to Vanuatu in my checked luggage: one box (ex copying paper) taped to within an inch of its life and holding 20kg, and another 5kg or so in my backpack. [...]

Off to Pentecost

Burao flower

I’m off to Pentecost Island for 5 days or more. It’s a remote area with no intertubes, so I’ll be incommunicado til I get back.

Pentecost is known as the original home of bungee jumping but around here people mostly talk about the beautiful baskets woven by the Pentecost women.

I’ll be back next [...]

Famili blong Freswota

This is a short video I made in Vanuatu, with the kids who live next door to Dan’s place:

Here’s a transcription of most of what they’re saying; they’re speaking Bislama. Translation is left as an exercise for the reader.

Ameline: Halo! [???]

Angeline: Halo, nem blong mi Angeline.

Rayline: Halo, nem [...]

Middle class life, Vanuatu style

With the help of some friends, I’ve put together a little tour of a household in Freswota (pron, “Fresh water”), a neighbourhood of Port Vila which my host Dan describes as “solidly middle class” by Vanuatu standards. This household is about 200m from here as the crow flies, and houses an extended family [...]

Technical books for Vanuatu

Vanuatu’s a bloody long way from anywhere.

It’s hard to realise how far until you come to visit, and people start asking you to bring things. “Can you buy me a pair of Tevas?” asked Dan. One of his friends who’s installing a security system asked me to pick up some [...]

Las Kad

This morning I woke early — around 5:30 with the chickens and the next door neighbours’ kids — and dressed before my host, Dan, had emerged. Since I’d gotten a little sunburnt yesterday, today I chose to wear a real button-down shirt with a collar instead of the singlet that’s been my usual [...]

The best public transport system in the world?

Port Vila has what is, arguably, the most efficient public transport system in the world.

The main way of getting around, for the locals, is by bus. Don’t think of a 40-seater behemoth; what we have here are mini-buses that seat around 10 passengers, some on fold-down seats, with a sliding side door. [...]

Vanuatu so far

The whole place smells of wood smoke; it was the first thing I smelt as I came off the plane.

Dan’s brother Jakob — part of an adopted family who took him under their wing when he first came here — is teaching me Bislama, the local pidgin language, and I can now [...]

And we’re off

I’m off on two months of travel, during which I may have patchy or intermittent net access. I’m hoping to blog and post photos, but I’ll have to see how the bandwidth looks when I get there.

Here are my travel plans courtesy of Dopplr, who have recently created this facility to add a [...]