Michel's first weeks in Port Vila on Efate/Vanuatu

The journey to Vanuatu took 4 days. It went through Berlin, Singapore, and Sydney to the capital Port Vila. Thanks to relaxed hosts in Berlin (Cay) and Sydney (Trudy) and plenty of sleep on the plane, the tour was relatively stress-free. The accommodation here is a room with a bathroom in a guesthouse with a lagoon view and a nice owner. Overall, I was surprised by the good infrastructure, the variety of shops, and the high price level. The first days were dominated by explorations of the surroundings, organizational meetings with the president of the beach volleyball association, and slight feelings of loneliness at the other end of the world. But thanks to the great weather, beautiful places in the area, and many interesting people, that quickly sorted itself out. It quickly became clear that I have free rein in taking care of the different athletes, planning training and competitions, and nominating the squads, and that there are pretty high expectations for my actions. The mentality of the Ni-Vanuatu is very relaxed, fixed times are rarely followed, and the athletes are mainly concerned with having fun. Overall, it's a big challenge to combine all of that with professional training. 😃 The main tasks are preparing a U18 (w) team for the Youth Olympics in Argentina in October and preparing the women's national team for the qualification for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The local coach, Josh, is a good guy, fairly inexperienced, but working with him is a lot of fun, and even off the courts, he's already a true friend after 2 weeks (partying, kayaking, and trying local food on the beach during lunch breaks with a Bislama language course). Time flew by with exciting experiences every day, a completely new culture, and lots of action on the courts and during leisure time, and now Anni is here too!