"We've been here before"

We're back in Vanuatu. In the capital city of Port Vila on the island of Efate. After a great 3 months last year, we decided to return to this beautiful place after a stop in Kiel. With prospects of jobs, a nice first shared apartment, and lots of sunshine, we couldn't resist.

Michel traveled two weeks ago to prepare everything and resume his job as a beach volleyball coach. This was necessary because there is a lot to do before the World Championships in Hamburg and the Pacific Games in Samoa in July 2019. Together with volleyball president Debbie, he selected a team of 6 women and created plans for the upcoming weeks. This includes ball training, strength training, competition preparation, and recovery sessions. This is now Michel's focus, as last year he managed the entire volleyball department (men, U18/U16, and kids). These areas are now going to be handed over to Josh and other assistant coaches. Let's see how everything works out :)

A special highlight of the past few weeks was the training camp at a resort on the other side of the island, where 4 of the girls, Debbie, Michel, and a mental coach from Australia (Aaron), were present. Intense time spent together with many conversations, team games, and free time brought the group closer together and, thanks to new insights and ideas especially from Aaron, enabled the creation of a good, new plan. Aaron developed a high-performance training center in Papua New Guinea over the past 5 years and topped the medal table at the last Pacific Games. His experience was very helpful, and some clear instructions brought in fresh ideas. Now we hope that the discipline the girls showed last week will continue and the team can prepare optimally for the next World Tour tournaments. These are taking place at the end of February in Cambodia, India, and Sydney. During the time when Michel is traveling the world, Trudy from Australia has already booked flights to visit me for a few days in Port Vila. I would then fly to the tournament in Sydney and get a taste of the World Tour atmosphere in Manly.

My journey on Wednesday, after leaving Kiel on Saturday, went smoothly but ended in a huge period of tiredness. I flew with budget airline Scoot from Berlin to Singapore. There, I spent a day at the spa and enjoyed the Asian perfection in the city. In the evening, I flew with Fiji Airways to Fiji, where I spent a night in an Airbnb right by the airport. Everything seemed fine, but the heat really got to me. The first few days in Vanuatu have passed with temperatures of 29°C (feels like 37°C). The sun feels great, our apartment's pool is worth gold, and there's a breeze along the coast. To my luck, I can just relax for the first few days, sleep a lot, and do nothing, because Michel has already organized everything. The business plan is in the registration process, a room for my practice has been found, and the apartment was ready to move into. So we could move in straight away when I arrived and make ourselves comfortable. With a view of the harbor, we have a beautiful outlook and enough space with 3 rooms. We can reach the beach volleyball courts and my workplace, which is a spa, on foot. The chiropractor Paul works and manages the place and is quite happy about the additional therapy offering. A meeting is planned for Monday, and then we'll see what the future holds for "AnniMarie Physiotherapy."

In addition to finding an apartment, Michel followed his longing and got us a quad bike. It belongs to his former roommate Ruth, who was happy to hand it over to us. For the first two weeks, Michel had a nice shared living experience in what is probably the biggest penthouse in Port Vila. It belongs to the financial officer Julie, who offered him the opportunity to live there with her and Ruth (a friend). Both women are around 60 years old and mothers of adult sons. So they were happy to have a young man in the house. They cooked, took Michel everywhere, and helped wherever they could. Today we are invited there for dinner, and in the future, we will definitely visit them again every now and then.