A Very Vanuatu Census

Haos Gel Numba Two

About two weeks after I got back from New Zealand, I was sitting at the computer in the family room playing my very addictive computer game, Civilisation:  Call to Power.  Unlike today, when I have Pocahontas II playing in the background because Haos Gel Numba One and Two, Marie and Anais, are watching it, that day was a quiet one.  I heard a bus door slide open and then slide shut outside (remember Vanuatu buses are vans).  I wondered who that would be since Marie and Anais were here and very few other people arrive here in a bus.

Then a guy came walking down the path to the front door.  He was wearing a name badge and carrying what looked to be a questionnaire of some sort.  I assumed he was from the Census.

Vanuatu has been doing a Census.  Our house was marked in July or August with a little green post-it note over the front door.  When they came to put that up they asked how many people lived here and then we were told the numbers on the paper would identify our house for the Census being done in November.  This is needed because outside town the streets are not named and even in town the houses are not numbered.  At the time, I thought, “There is no way that little post-it note is going to stay there for four months.”