The daily emails from Lance in Vanuatu.

It's quite painful to type today. Read on to find out why. This cute little girl cat turned up a few days ago and has been hanging around. But comes inside and steals our own cat's food. So I put a feeler out in the local resident's group and sure enough, the owner identified herself....

As I write today I can hear the buzz of our gardener using the grass-cutter outside. Although lawn mowers are present and used in Vanuatu, the tool of choice is the grass-cutter. They are light, cheap to buy and run, and easy to repair. In the hands of an experienced operator, they give as...

Today - a few hours before writing this on a Saturday afternoon - I was working in the garden when I felt something land on the back of my neck. Sure enough, next instant there was a sudden VERY sharp pain! If you've had the experience of a wasp sting you know what I am talking about. You...

When you leave the central business area of Port Vila and drive up the hill with the harbour on your right, you pass many places where it's customary for people to gather on a Friday evening for a drink with friends. Since it's almost Friday evening as I write this, it seems a good time to talk...

"Oh, he's gone to Santo" ...meaning the island of "Espirito Santo," or substitute any of 80+ other islands they might have gone to. It's a common response here in Vanuatu. You go into a government or business office, and the ONLY person who can actually help you is not available because they...

My best friend is from Europe, and her family on her mother's side are Jewish. Which means nearly half her family was wiped out in the Holocaust. However not all. Some Jews in the 30s and 40s escaped Europe in the face of the Nazi threat. Some of her family had a passport from another country....

There would be lots of reasons why someone could not get a second Citizenship via one of the Citizenship By Investment programmes out there. The most common one would be price, since they are all over 100 thousand USD. However, one of the LEAST likely reasons why having obtained a Citizenship...

Yesterday on our day off, Adeline and I invited a friend over for lunch. While we sat on the patio enjoying the mild sunny Vanuatu day and the view of the water, our talk turned to the subject of citizenship. Our friend first came here for for a 6-month work stint about 2003, then...

 Let me relate the saga of getting my local Vanuatu driver licence.  I had been told I only needed my Australian Driver Licence and no tests, practical or theory, would be needed. So armed with my piece of plastic, I went hunting.  As it turned out this was partially true......

I was driving from Erakor (suburb of Port Vila) back to the main artery when an oncoming cavalcade of decorated vehicles forced me to the side of the road. All traffic going the same way as me halted while the long train of cars and trucks filled with revellers waving coloured flags, palm...