I am sitting here in Mangis about a 20 minutes hike north from Mongaliliu. This place has become our little sanctuary away from the village. It is a short hike and it is a beautiful sandy beach under some huge trees. A few of us set out hammocks up and take turns taking naps on this lazy Saturday afternoon. I do feel a little productive today as I helped my Mama make some Pima Coleslaw. The Pima Coleslaw has earned a permanent place among my condiments at my dinner table. It is nice and HOT!!!
As I woke up in my hammock with my book lying across my chest I thought back on how wonderful this last couples of days have been. On Thursday after lunch we divided our group into those who are teacher trainers and those of use that are Regional Training Center Advisors (I am an RTC Volunteer). Well the teacher trainers sat through yet another toktok, while we headed up into the bush and began building a karen (garden.)
When we arrived to the spot it was about 2 feet deep with vines and shrubs and plants. You could not see one inch of dirt due to all the plants. So we worked in pairs to clear out a section of land about 40’ by 40’. After we cleared the lot some of us headed a little deeper into the bush and began cutting down trees using our bush knives. The ideal tree was about 20 feet tall and about 3 inches thick. We then hauled these trees back to our empty lot and turned some into fence posts and the others into rails. You may be wondering what we used for nails? Or more likely it never crossed your mind, so I will just tell you. We headed into the bush again and found a special tree that we cut down and peeled the bark off of to make rope. We then took our straps of bark and tied the fence rails to the fence posts. It was really one of the best days that I have had here. When we finished we all sat around admiring the work that we had completed as a team.
At one point we all learned a valuable lesson from one of our fellow trainees. He thought it would be a great idea to clear out more bush and expand the garden even more. Well at this point we had already spent a grueling two hours clearing the bush and everyone was tired and trying to catch a little shade before going to get the trees. So he tried to rally the troops and got a little snappy with us saying “COME ON GUYS!” WE NEED TO CLEAR THIS BUSH OUT LETS GO!” Well I don’t respond well to people telling me I need to do anything, especially when they are not doing anything themselves. So I grabbed my bush knife and said “I am sorry, is something wrong with your bush knife, because you are more then welcome to use mine!” To which he replied oh well I have a blister. Lesson is: Don’t tell people to do anything that you are not willing to do yourself!
When we finished we headed down to the solwota and spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the water and watching the sun drown into the ocean. As I sat there watching the sunset and started getting emotional at the thought of this wonderful place. I am so lucky to be here in Mongaliliu. This place is amazing and so are the people who call this piece of paradise home. In a week I will be heading off for my wokabaot to my permanent site. Being in middle bush is going to be awesome, but I am going to miss the ease of walking 100 yards from my house down to the solwota to swim or just watch the sunset.
Well that night the chief came and got me and told me he wanted to take me and his host son up for some kava and storian. He bought a shell for Brian, McKenzie, and me. This shell was filled to the top, so it was more like two and a half shells. He talked about how we should drink kava by looking at the moon, saying a prayer, and then drinking it in one go. I had a hard time getting it all down but did manage to do so. A little later McKenzie asked if I wanted another one, to which I “should” have said no. But of course I said sure. My body was revolting before I even started drinking it. And after I did drink it my body was just a little angry at me. I had to walk into the bush where my mouth watered with the anticipation of throwing everything up that I had just drank. I managed to keep it down and came back to the group where I had a great conversation with the chief. I felt bad that I had been out so late and wanted to get home for dinner.
When I got home there was no food sitting on my table which I thought was very strange. Maybe mama was upset that I was not there earlier. Well it turns out that it was Jackie’s seventy-second birthday and she is my cousin by way of host families. So we headed to the chiefs house and had a big feast. I love how family gets together for anything here. It always has such a warm feeling. It is a good thing too because as Jackie found out it is tradition to have a bucket of water thrown on you for your birthday. My grandmother said come here I think your dress is dirty, while Jackie’s Mama came up behind her to dump the big bucket of water over her head.
My Mama then asked me oh when is your birthday Kaltao? I told her but then said but I am save (understand) to their little game. My grandmother laughed and said she was going to throw it through my bedroom window which is about three inches from me head. I told her on November 16th I am going to close and lock my window, to which all the Mamas laughed.
Well all day Friday we looked forward to our Friday night debauchery. We were to start the night off with our first Tantric Yoga class followed by a fire and hanging out on the beach. Well I was just sitting down to diner with my Ted Laelarula ,(my aunt Bridgette) when my papa walked up. I had literally just scooped my dinner on my plate when he asked me “ Kaltao, yufala i kakae i finis?” (Have your finished eating?) I told him no and he said good and that I needed to come drink Kava. I told him no, that I did not want to go. I recounted my horrible experience form the night before and explained I needed a night off. He told me that my grandpa had already bought it for me and he was waiting.
Well how do you tell your grandfather no? Here, you just don’t! It would not be kosher. So I pushed my plate back and headed up with my papa to go to hoas blo papa blong Noah where the kava was being made. I am glad I went, as this was one of the best kava nights I have had. Not so much because of the kava but more so because the sense of community and the camaraderie that I saw and felt there. It was absolutely amazing. Noah then pulled out some wine which just hit the spot. It is really nice to get the kava taste out of your mouth. I talked with the Chief about the white men who I saw in the village earlier that day. They are from the TransPacific Real Estate Company. There are a lot of land disputes in Vanuatu right now. So this is a very hot topic. Pis Kop is trying to do a lot of education on the selling of lands right now. There is no way we are going to stop the locals from selling their land. Our goal, or the goal of many of us, is just to make sure they are making educated decisions, hoping that that they think about the needs of their pikinini before just selling the land for a quick buck. In Vanuatu they have a saying graon i laef. (Ground is life) With out ground you have nothing.
I looked at my watch and realized I had five minutes to eat and make it to Yoga. I told one girl I don’t think I am going to make and to apologize to Jani because she was really counting on me being there. But it was just out of my hands. Well I go to sit down and my Mama walks up and tells me that the dog ate the entire diner off the table and that she sent my papa to go get more beans and tin meat. I told I wanted Rice only (rice is the only thing the dog did not eat, and I was fine with just having that, especially after all the Kava.) But she insisted that I could not eat just rice. So I had to wait for my papa to go to the store and bring back the beans and meat. I scarf’d it down and then excused my self from the table. I felt a little bad about eating and running but I really wanted to make it to Yoga
I made it just in time. There were actually a lot more people there then I had expected. In our morning yoga we usually have only 4-5 people, but tonight we had about 20 people. I think most were curious about the myth behind Tantra. I am so glad that we had such a great turn out. We gathered in a circle and used our kerosene lamps for light. It is hard to explain exactly what we did, but I think the main thing was to take you out of your comfort zone and become vulnerable to the others in the group.
Some of us volunteered to make an inner circle in the group, where we faced out towards the rest of the group. We would spend about 3 minutes with the person in front of us before the outer circle would move to the left. While the person was in front of you we had different task with each person. The first person we just stared into each others eyes, looking to see the beauty or divine light in that person. As we rotated the circle the tasks turned to telling that person all the things you fear while they listened. After two minutes or so you listened to what they feared. As the outer circle rotated around it went on to telling what you loved, hated, etc. It was a truly wonderful bonding experience.
We then broke into groups of four and took turns walking around a person in the middle whom kept there eyes closed while we whispered things in there ears things that we loved or admired about them. We did this until everyone had a turn. I think this came at just the right time for our group as different clicks start to get frustrated with other people in the group. It was such positive experience and I am looking forward to us doing it again.
When we finished the yoga it was time to play! Jani had ordered some fire Poi and we were going to put a show on for the rest of our group. I think they were all amazed, but more importantly though, it just felt great to play with some fire. There is nothing like the sound of fire whooshing past your head while big circles of flames leave trails of light buzzing around you. I love it!!! I am going to look for something to blow fire with next time I am in town.
We then just sat around a beach fire sharing stories and laughing. That is until someone came down with a pile of mail! You have no idea how nice it is for volunteers to get stuff from home. I don’t think it even matters what is inside. Just getting that letter or package feels so good. Thank you all for the letters that you have sent. Please keep them coming. I promise there is mail heading your way too. I hope all is well.
Lukem Yu,
Kaltao
PS- Big thanks to Marcy, Monica, Tracey, mo Lex for the packages. I can’t tell you how much myself and all the volunteers appreciate it. Although, I think we all ended up with tummy aches. Thursday night we are making a Halloween celebration here, so I am going to bust out that package of Candy Corn for all the pikinini. I am sure they are going to love it! We are also going to carve pumpkins, have apple bobbing, and one volunteer made a shark piñata!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Kokonas Krab
Once again, my mama made some great dinner. So my aunt Bridgette and I stuffed our selves. Well I had to use the small house after, so as I excused my self from the floor, Bridgette gave me some crap about not coming back. Last week, I had gone to the small house and did not come back for four hours, because I ran into some volunteers and headed to the salwota with them.
I assured her that I would be right back. Well…. On my way back I leaned over my neighbor’s wall to say good night and they offered me a plate of coconut crab. Well I have had mixed emotions about coconut crab because some people say they are becoming endangered. But this was already dead and it would be wrong to not honor the crab by eating it. OH MY GOSH!!! It is so sweet! Coconut crabs have huge claws that they crack open coconuts with (or your arm if it is in the way.) Because of their fruit diet they have very sweet meat. Mmmm…. About 30 minutes later Bridgette came walking by and of course gave me a little more crap about not coming back home. OH well, I could not turn down the crab.
My Papa and Brother went out the next day to try and catch some Kokonas Krab for us, but they got scared by a wild puscat and ran away before finding any crab. Luckily my grandmother had gone out and grabbed some snails and hermit crabs for dinner. I know, I know. Half of you are going that is disgusting and the other half is saying Hmmm? A little garlic and some olive oil and wa la! The hermit crabs are huge. There claws are only a little smaller then the red rock crab we get back home. The sea snails are amazing too. I was eating them thinking man I wish the “crew” was here to enjoy these.
Well the rain persisted yet another day. I am sick of the rain. I did not even want to go to school today. It did not help that all of the pikinini had the day off because of school. It seems only fair that we should get the day off too. I ended up just staying in and storian witem family blong mi. We sang some island songs and talked about some land disputes going on near by. Land disputes are a big thing here right now. It is a shame to see people sell off their land for so little money. A lot of volunteers ask themselves the question of why these kids need to learn English. They grow their own food, they take care of each other, and they will probably never leave their island. One volunteer explained it best when she said that she teaches these kids English in hopes that one day when someone comes to try and buy their land that they can make an informed and educated decision on whether it is a good idea or not.
Well it is now Tuesday night October 23, 2007 and the sun is back! What a beautiful day. Of course I had a full day of classes so I did not get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked, but I still managed to get some ultimate Frisbee at lunch. I also had a chance to talk to Kevin George about my possible site. Now all this can change tomorrow, but it sounds like I will be going to the middle bush of Tanna.
I am excited about Tanna because it is fulap witem kastem mo kuljer, (It has a lot of Customs and Culture,) more so then any other island in Vanuatu. It is also home to Yasur (google it) the largest volcano in Vanuatu. They talk about having ManTanna there. Which to my best guess mean it is full of machismo. The women have many taboos and are not allowed to go into the Nakamals. If the men want to have a meeting they merely say women yufala I mas go nao, (You women must leave now.) I believe that Tanna gel I drea aontop ( The Tanna women do not wear any calico up top. No shirts, No full island dresses, only grass skirts.) I imagine it being very National Geographic like.
The only down fall that I see so far with middle bush Tanna is that it is in the middle of the island, so I would be about a 2 hour walk from the solwota. You can tell that I am already spoiled here in Mongaliliu. I only have to walk about 100 yards to be down sitting on a rock next to the solwota. I guess that a two hour hike is better then a two hour drive though. I am looking forward to finding out for sure if this is going to be my site. Kevin told me he should know for sure tomorrow, which by the time I send this it will be tomorrow.
I hope everyone is well and please keep the emails coming. By the way apparently there was a typo in my volunteer email. The actual email address that you can send me emails to while I am in the bush is volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov You can send me emails here and the office will print them and bring them to me at the training village. If you had emailed me before at the previous address and wondered why I never responded it is because it was not a good address.
I hope to hear from everyone.
Ale tata,
Mi Lukem Yu,
Christopher Flyr
I assured her that I would be right back. Well…. On my way back I leaned over my neighbor’s wall to say good night and they offered me a plate of coconut crab. Well I have had mixed emotions about coconut crab because some people say they are becoming endangered. But this was already dead and it would be wrong to not honor the crab by eating it. OH MY GOSH!!! It is so sweet! Coconut crabs have huge claws that they crack open coconuts with (or your arm if it is in the way.) Because of their fruit diet they have very sweet meat. Mmmm…. About 30 minutes later Bridgette came walking by and of course gave me a little more crap about not coming back home. OH well, I could not turn down the crab.
My Papa and Brother went out the next day to try and catch some Kokonas Krab for us, but they got scared by a wild puscat and ran away before finding any crab. Luckily my grandmother had gone out and grabbed some snails and hermit crabs for dinner. I know, I know. Half of you are going that is disgusting and the other half is saying Hmmm? A little garlic and some olive oil and wa la! The hermit crabs are huge. There claws are only a little smaller then the red rock crab we get back home. The sea snails are amazing too. I was eating them thinking man I wish the “crew” was here to enjoy these.
Well the rain persisted yet another day. I am sick of the rain. I did not even want to go to school today. It did not help that all of the pikinini had the day off because of school. It seems only fair that we should get the day off too. I ended up just staying in and storian witem family blong mi. We sang some island songs and talked about some land disputes going on near by. Land disputes are a big thing here right now. It is a shame to see people sell off their land for so little money. A lot of volunteers ask themselves the question of why these kids need to learn English. They grow their own food, they take care of each other, and they will probably never leave their island. One volunteer explained it best when she said that she teaches these kids English in hopes that one day when someone comes to try and buy their land that they can make an informed and educated decision on whether it is a good idea or not.
Well it is now Tuesday night October 23, 2007 and the sun is back! What a beautiful day. Of course I had a full day of classes so I did not get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked, but I still managed to get some ultimate Frisbee at lunch. I also had a chance to talk to Kevin George about my possible site. Now all this can change tomorrow, but it sounds like I will be going to the middle bush of Tanna.
I am excited about Tanna because it is fulap witem kastem mo kuljer, (It has a lot of Customs and Culture,) more so then any other island in Vanuatu. It is also home to Yasur (google it) the largest volcano in Vanuatu. They talk about having ManTanna there. Which to my best guess mean it is full of machismo. The women have many taboos and are not allowed to go into the Nakamals. If the men want to have a meeting they merely say women yufala I mas go nao, (You women must leave now.) I believe that Tanna gel I drea aontop ( The Tanna women do not wear any calico up top. No shirts, No full island dresses, only grass skirts.) I imagine it being very National Geographic like.
The only down fall that I see so far with middle bush Tanna is that it is in the middle of the island, so I would be about a 2 hour walk from the solwota. You can tell that I am already spoiled here in Mongaliliu. I only have to walk about 100 yards to be down sitting on a rock next to the solwota. I guess that a two hour hike is better then a two hour drive though. I am looking forward to finding out for sure if this is going to be my site. Kevin told me he should know for sure tomorrow, which by the time I send this it will be tomorrow.
I hope everyone is well and please keep the emails coming. By the way apparently there was a typo in my volunteer email. The actual email address that you can send me emails to while I am in the bush is volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov You can send me emails here and the office will print them and bring them to me at the training village. If you had emailed me before at the previous address and wondered why I never responded it is because it was not a good address.
I hope to hear from everyone.
Ale tata,
Mi Lukem Yu,
Christopher Flyr
Sandei afta Nguna
Well it is Sandei (Sunday) night here and I am lying in bed typing another email. There has been a lot going on since my last entry. I had written my last entry while sitting in the Pis Ko office. I always feel rushed using there computers, because there are only 5 of them and a whole lot of volunteers waiting to use them. As I left you last time, I was just heading out the door to go to the “Saloon.” We were told about its great American style food and beers, and that they would have the series on. Well we piled into a taxi van, which gave us bus fair prices, so we were pretty stoked. This place is on the outside of town.
As I walked through the old saloon style doors, I could not laugh to myself as I thought what in the world is this place? It was about as cheesy as it comes. The bar stools were saddles and they have a talking fish on the wall (rolling… rolling…. Rolling on the river!) Turns out that they do not serve food and do not even have a TV! So we stood in the road for a bit till a bus picked us up and took us into town to Shooters. The buses here are just mini vans and they cost about 100Vatu to go to most places. We had a good lunch at Shooters. The food is okay, but the company was great! We ate with several current volunteers who gave us some valuable insight into what life is going to be like in our villages.
On Thursday we were divided into groups based on our language skills. I am in the intermediate group. A couple days earlier, when Bob from DC was here he told about how he hated all the people in his group that picked up the language like they were natives. Well I fully understand what he means now. It actually put me in a bad mood and made me a little antisocial that day as I buried my head in my Bislama books to study. I know it is just an ego thing and I needed to get over it. The nice thing about Vanuatu is no matter how bad of a day you are having, you are still in Vanuatu!!
Well Friday did not start off much better for me. During my first session of the day I found out that I will most definitely not be going to South River, Erromango. The day before Kevin George (Country Director) met with the village and they are going to wait till the next group of volunteers, so they may have some time to grieve. They also have a custom where they will have to burn his house down. I understand that this is probably best and I knew the entire time that there was a chance of me not going there. But mentally I was already there. I had been researching the island, preparing myself for the 8 hour walk and so forth. So when I got the news I felt a little deflated. As of right now I do not have a site. Wokabaot is in 2 weeks, so I imagine I will have one by then.
Friday night we went to the local public school here in Mongaliliu for a fundraiser event. It was a 200 VT to get in, 100 VT for a shell of Kava, and 200 VT for some aelen kakae. They had several performances by the pikinini and from some villagers from the island of Lelepa. Even the rain did not stop us from having a great time. The kids sang songs and did various local dances. The adults from Lelepa did a song that they acted out, about Father Christmas. (A littler early I thought for Christmas stuff, but then I remembered that Halloween is next week and you guys probably already have Christmas crap on sale at your local retail store!) We danced with all the pikinini in the rain for about two hours. Besides the fact that everyone was fully dressed, and the music came from a keyboard that made everything sound like a 80’s Nintendo game, and there were no hippies or drugs, it really felt like it could have been Woodstock. Dancing in the rain must have some therapeutic benefits. I felt like one of the little pikinini. The Mamas loved it! They are still talking about the white men dancing. The next morning it was the first thing I heard from Mama blong Elin, is oh you must be tired from dancing all night. Well I was a little tired and the fact that it was 0600 when I was talking to her did not help.
We had to be up early so that we could catch a truck to the Nuna Island. The truck was to pick us up at 0700 and with all the rain I would have been fine if we had just cancelled. Why is it raining so much? Well there was the first Cyclone of the season up in the Banks (the most northern islands in Vanuatu.) It apparently dissipated before getting to far south, so our trip was still on.
Well the truck did not get here until about 0830. This is standard around here and to think that anything is going to happen on time is a waste of frustrations and emotions. We loaded our gear into the back of the pickup and climbed inside. We were piled on top of each other and because they had covered the back with a tarp to keep the rain off of us, we began sweating instantly. Luckily they pulled over about 30 minutes into the trip and took the tarp off. The rain was way better then sweating, plus this way we got to see where we were going.
We arrived at a small wharf about an hour later where we all piled into two small boats. These boats took us across the sea to the island of Nguna. We were heading there to go to another fundraiser put on by the volunteer in that village. Once we got to Nguna we had to hike up hill into the middle bush for about 45 minutes. Her village was incredible. They had a small prayer and toktok when we arrived and then gave us lunch. Mmmm… I love the aelan kakae! We then headed down to the tourist area which is on top of some very steeps cliffs that head straight down to the breaking waved below. It was beautiful. It reminded me of the northern California coast like, except for the sea foam green colored water.
Later that night they had a BBQ and a string band came and played for us. Ahh…. BBQ. We had BBQ chicken and Steak! The steak was so good! We looked like a pack of starving wolves taking down a baby lamb when they brought another plate of steak in for seconds! Mmmmm…
After dancing and sitting by the fire for a while we all retired to our nice comfy concrete floor that we were sleeping on. We are required by Peace Corps to take our government issued life jackets with us anytime we get on a boat. It is kind of a pain, but they double as a great pillow for occasions like this. When we woke up in the morning it was still raining and about half of the group opted to stay at the center while the rest of us hiked up to the top of Nguna.
Nguna is a inactive volcano. They told us it was an hour hike. Wrong! The trail was up a bush road. If you asked me what a bush road was yesterday, I would of told you it is just a trail. Well that would not do justice to what a bush road really is. A bush road is a path that goes in the most direct route from point A to point B. It does not matter what is in between. There would never be a switch back on a bush trail. If you want to get to the top of the mountain you walk straight up it. This is exactly what we did. They had just cleared this trail for us a few days before we arrived. The hike started off in the heavy bush which is rain forest like conditions. Every once in a while we would come across a volcanic rock wall. These walls have been here for who knows how long. We believe that they were once used for terrace crops by the early NiVans.
Because the trail was freshly cut there was cane stalks sticking up from the middle of the path, about 4”-5” high. I was worried the entire time about slipping on a wet rock or grass and having one of these stalks pierce part of my body. Well after about an hour of walking through the jungle like conditions we ended up out into the tall grass.
The grass was taller then I am, but every once in a while the wind would blow it down and you could look out and see the ocean and other islands. Did I mention there is was a cyclone in the northern islands? This is the worst weather Eddie (the current Mongaliliu volunteer has seen in his 18 months here.) Well after the 2 hours we finally made it to the top of the hill. The sky was grey and raining pretty hard, but the first of us that made it up there got a chance to look inside of the crater.
The crater looks like something straight out of Jurassic Park. There were huge palm trees and thousands of floral plants. It was truly beautiful. I took a couple of pictures but I am not sure how they turned out yet. Well the last half of our group showed up about 6 minutes later. Now I feel bad for this group because even though they were just 6 minutes behind, they only saw grey clouds in any direction. Visibility changed from a ¼ mile to about 20 feet! I made every ones day when I pulled out some starburst gummy candy. After a good hike everything just tastes better!
Well we spent about ten minutes there before we turned around to hike straight back down. Well some of us hike others I think slipped and fell there way down most of the hill. By the time we got down to the village it was time to get straight on the boats and head back to Mongaliliu.
Well, this email turned into five pages so I cut it in half and turned it into two attachments too hopefully make it easier to read. I hope all is well back home.
Ale, Lukem Yu
Christopher
As I walked through the old saloon style doors, I could not laugh to myself as I thought what in the world is this place? It was about as cheesy as it comes. The bar stools were saddles and they have a talking fish on the wall (rolling… rolling…. Rolling on the river!) Turns out that they do not serve food and do not even have a TV! So we stood in the road for a bit till a bus picked us up and took us into town to Shooters. The buses here are just mini vans and they cost about 100Vatu to go to most places. We had a good lunch at Shooters. The food is okay, but the company was great! We ate with several current volunteers who gave us some valuable insight into what life is going to be like in our villages.
On Thursday we were divided into groups based on our language skills. I am in the intermediate group. A couple days earlier, when Bob from DC was here he told about how he hated all the people in his group that picked up the language like they were natives. Well I fully understand what he means now. It actually put me in a bad mood and made me a little antisocial that day as I buried my head in my Bislama books to study. I know it is just an ego thing and I needed to get over it. The nice thing about Vanuatu is no matter how bad of a day you are having, you are still in Vanuatu!!
Well Friday did not start off much better for me. During my first session of the day I found out that I will most definitely not be going to South River, Erromango. The day before Kevin George (Country Director) met with the village and they are going to wait till the next group of volunteers, so they may have some time to grieve. They also have a custom where they will have to burn his house down. I understand that this is probably best and I knew the entire time that there was a chance of me not going there. But mentally I was already there. I had been researching the island, preparing myself for the 8 hour walk and so forth. So when I got the news I felt a little deflated. As of right now I do not have a site. Wokabaot is in 2 weeks, so I imagine I will have one by then.
Friday night we went to the local public school here in Mongaliliu for a fundraiser event. It was a 200 VT to get in, 100 VT for a shell of Kava, and 200 VT for some aelen kakae. They had several performances by the pikinini and from some villagers from the island of Lelepa. Even the rain did not stop us from having a great time. The kids sang songs and did various local dances. The adults from Lelepa did a song that they acted out, about Father Christmas. (A littler early I thought for Christmas stuff, but then I remembered that Halloween is next week and you guys probably already have Christmas crap on sale at your local retail store!) We danced with all the pikinini in the rain for about two hours. Besides the fact that everyone was fully dressed, and the music came from a keyboard that made everything sound like a 80’s Nintendo game, and there were no hippies or drugs, it really felt like it could have been Woodstock. Dancing in the rain must have some therapeutic benefits. I felt like one of the little pikinini. The Mamas loved it! They are still talking about the white men dancing. The next morning it was the first thing I heard from Mama blong Elin, is oh you must be tired from dancing all night. Well I was a little tired and the fact that it was 0600 when I was talking to her did not help.
We had to be up early so that we could catch a truck to the Nuna Island. The truck was to pick us up at 0700 and with all the rain I would have been fine if we had just cancelled. Why is it raining so much? Well there was the first Cyclone of the season up in the Banks (the most northern islands in Vanuatu.) It apparently dissipated before getting to far south, so our trip was still on.
Well the truck did not get here until about 0830. This is standard around here and to think that anything is going to happen on time is a waste of frustrations and emotions. We loaded our gear into the back of the pickup and climbed inside. We were piled on top of each other and because they had covered the back with a tarp to keep the rain off of us, we began sweating instantly. Luckily they pulled over about 30 minutes into the trip and took the tarp off. The rain was way better then sweating, plus this way we got to see where we were going.
We arrived at a small wharf about an hour later where we all piled into two small boats. These boats took us across the sea to the island of Nguna. We were heading there to go to another fundraiser put on by the volunteer in that village. Once we got to Nguna we had to hike up hill into the middle bush for about 45 minutes. Her village was incredible. They had a small prayer and toktok when we arrived and then gave us lunch. Mmmm… I love the aelan kakae! We then headed down to the tourist area which is on top of some very steeps cliffs that head straight down to the breaking waved below. It was beautiful. It reminded me of the northern California coast like, except for the sea foam green colored water.
Later that night they had a BBQ and a string band came and played for us. Ahh…. BBQ. We had BBQ chicken and Steak! The steak was so good! We looked like a pack of starving wolves taking down a baby lamb when they brought another plate of steak in for seconds! Mmmmm…
After dancing and sitting by the fire for a while we all retired to our nice comfy concrete floor that we were sleeping on. We are required by Peace Corps to take our government issued life jackets with us anytime we get on a boat. It is kind of a pain, but they double as a great pillow for occasions like this. When we woke up in the morning it was still raining and about half of the group opted to stay at the center while the rest of us hiked up to the top of Nguna.
Nguna is a inactive volcano. They told us it was an hour hike. Wrong! The trail was up a bush road. If you asked me what a bush road was yesterday, I would of told you it is just a trail. Well that would not do justice to what a bush road really is. A bush road is a path that goes in the most direct route from point A to point B. It does not matter what is in between. There would never be a switch back on a bush trail. If you want to get to the top of the mountain you walk straight up it. This is exactly what we did. They had just cleared this trail for us a few days before we arrived. The hike started off in the heavy bush which is rain forest like conditions. Every once in a while we would come across a volcanic rock wall. These walls have been here for who knows how long. We believe that they were once used for terrace crops by the early NiVans.
Because the trail was freshly cut there was cane stalks sticking up from the middle of the path, about 4”-5” high. I was worried the entire time about slipping on a wet rock or grass and having one of these stalks pierce part of my body. Well after about an hour of walking through the jungle like conditions we ended up out into the tall grass.
The grass was taller then I am, but every once in a while the wind would blow it down and you could look out and see the ocean and other islands. Did I mention there is was a cyclone in the northern islands? This is the worst weather Eddie (the current Mongaliliu volunteer has seen in his 18 months here.) Well after the 2 hours we finally made it to the top of the hill. The sky was grey and raining pretty hard, but the first of us that made it up there got a chance to look inside of the crater.
The crater looks like something straight out of Jurassic Park. There were huge palm trees and thousands of floral plants. It was truly beautiful. I took a couple of pictures but I am not sure how they turned out yet. Well the last half of our group showed up about 6 minutes later. Now I feel bad for this group because even though they were just 6 minutes behind, they only saw grey clouds in any direction. Visibility changed from a ¼ mile to about 20 feet! I made every ones day when I pulled out some starburst gummy candy. After a good hike everything just tastes better!
Well we spent about ten minutes there before we turned around to hike straight back down. Well some of us hike others I think slipped and fell there way down most of the hill. By the time we got down to the village it was time to get straight on the boats and head back to Mongaliliu.
Well, this email turned into five pages so I cut it in half and turned it into two attachments too hopefully make it easier to read. I hope all is well back home.
Ale, Lukem Yu
Christopher
Five Day Ceremony for John Roberts
Wow what a weekend. First off I want to thank everyone that has been writing me. It is so nice to hear about things on the home front. Although, I will admit that yesterday we had a man from Washington DC here to talk with us and at the end he asked if we wanted to know about anything going on back home and frankly I did not.
He came out here to deal investigate that situation with John Roberts. He talked to me for a while about where my thoughts were. It sounds like I am defiantly going there. Last night we had a five day ceremony in Mongalilu. Like I said before they mourn for five days. So last night we had a feast and ended the crying for John. From today on people are to be strong again. It has been a warm and heartfelt few days. These people are so amazing. It is obvious that we make a strong impact on them.
The Chief of Mongalilu gave a great speech about how we are his children and that we were born once in the United States but when we come here we are reborn into a new family. They do this same thing if a NiVans comes from another island. That way you always have family there. When you are adopted into the family you are truly treated like family and they will take care of you as one of there own. On the flip side of that you may also fall into taboos that come with being a family member, like not being able to hang out with your older brother!
I have posted some pics of my Mama, smal sister, mo smal brada. They are so amazing. Anyways, I digress. So we had a feast last night. It was full of all sorts of aelen kakae (Island Food.) The night before the trainees had to help prepare the food. The first part of preparing the food was catching it!!
We started by chasing around the chickens! They do not keep their chickens in a coop so this is harder then you think. We lost one chicken into the bush. I ended up taking a tree branch to the head that instantly drew blood. I know have a fat scab across my skull! We learned from the natives that we don’t need to catch it the nice way. That if we can throw a big stick at it and kill it then that is just as good.
Luckily for us we managed to just catch them with the help of some pikinini. Well once we had three chickens, it was time to learn how to kilim i ded (kill them dead.) One man from our group grabbed the chicken and went for the grab its head and twist approach. This seemed like it work pretty well till he tossed the “dead” chicken on the ground and it ran away. Luckily a pikinini caught him quickly again. He then held the chicken by the legs, in one hand and swung a stick at its head with the other. Every time he swung with his right hand he lifted the chicken up with his left and would miss. It was very funny.
The next guys to try and kill the chicken went with the grab the chicken by the feet and swing his head into a tree. He kept hitting the body of the chicken, which does not kill them very quickly. I ended up jumping in and lending a hand. I then did the last chicken the same way. Two solid swings on the tree and the chicken is ded I finis.
Well after killing them it was on to cleaning them. We were shown on one chicken and then left to do the other two. I did one myself. It is a good experience to clean your own food.
Later that night we helped prepare the manioc, wild yams, and other aelan kakae. Afterwards I went up and watched Home Alone! I know I know. On one hand it seems so primitive and on the other I have some serious luxuries!!
Well yesterday we started off with some bislama classes and then I went for a wokabot witem Elin mo Dan. We walked up to the Chiefs house. He is my Chief Papu because it is my grandfathers brother. We just missed them sacrificing the pig for the feast. Apparently they kill it with three solid hits in the head with a 4 inch thick stick. (Dad how many shots to the head did it take you to take down our pigs?) I told all the men about how we killed the pigs at home and that that one pig we killed five times before he decided to die. If they don’t use the stick then they take a sharp knife or stick and stick them under the front shoulder near the armpit.
We then helped them clean the pig. We shaved it clean so that we could bury him in the ground, Hmmm… It is making me hungry just thinking about our dinner last night. Well we ended heading back and being late for our class. Luckily, they still had two pieces of chocolate which the three of us split (hint hint hint, volunteers loves American chocolate, again that is American chocolate to
Christopher flyr,
PMB 9097
Peace Corps/ Vanuatu
Port Vila
Vanuatu
South Pacific)
Well after all of our classes it was finally time to go up for the ceremony. I have never seen so many people in Mongalilu. We started off with some speeches from the Country Director, our Chief, and the Chief of South River. Our Chief made an offering of food for the people of Erromango, the 19b (Johns PCV group), and those of VDKA (an RTC group.) The rest of us were to eat off of the main buffet table.
But first we must drink Kava to celebrate John. So I went over and grabbed my first shell. Well it was in a big glass and was really about two shells. I then grabbed one more with fren blong mi Noah. Then as I was storion with him mama blong mi came over and said You must go eat now, if you don’t go eat now there will be no food left. So I left Noah and went over and filled my plate.
I started by slicing two big fat ribs off of the pig! I then went down the line filling my plate with wild yams covered in coconut, island cabbage, some laplap taro, fruit salad with papaya, banana, and coconut, curry chicken wings, green beans, stuffed bell peppers, a lot of fish and a nice fresh squeezed lemon aid to wash it all down.
Well as I just finished filling my plate, I was approached by a member of the South River Community. He asked if I was done eating and I said no I have not started yet. He said very good. The Chief of South River wanted to have a shell of the special kava given to them by my Chief. I went over and drank two shells with them and then storion with them. They then gave me some of their ceremonially kakae. It was laplap with a big slice of pork tenderloin on top! Mmmm… I asked the Chief if he liked Kava. He told me that before he would drink it, but he does not drink it any more. But because this was a ceremony for John that it is a respect factor that you can not turn it down.
Well when it came time for them to leave I stood up. WOW!!! So here is the thing about Kava. Your head stay sharp and clear. I really felt nothing until I stood up. But after I stood up I realized I was walking at a 45 degree angle. I was glad to hear that some people were heading down to the nakamal where we have class. It is right next to the water.
We hung out there watching the stars while Noah from Hawaii played the Ukulele and sang songs. It was great!!!! I feel like I am always at summer camp here. This place is amazing. I went to sleep at about 11 pm.
I woke up at about 5 am this morning. I just laid in bed looking out my window at the palm tree blowing in the wind. It was very windy this morning. So windy that at one point when I was like wow I have never felt the wind blow my house and bed like this before. Well turns out there were a 4.8 earthquake this morning.
Well I am going to leave you know. We are heading down to the saloon to have some American eats and watch the series.
He came out here to deal investigate that situation with John Roberts. He talked to me for a while about where my thoughts were. It sounds like I am defiantly going there. Last night we had a five day ceremony in Mongalilu. Like I said before they mourn for five days. So last night we had a feast and ended the crying for John. From today on people are to be strong again. It has been a warm and heartfelt few days. These people are so amazing. It is obvious that we make a strong impact on them.
The Chief of Mongalilu gave a great speech about how we are his children and that we were born once in the United States but when we come here we are reborn into a new family. They do this same thing if a NiVans comes from another island. That way you always have family there. When you are adopted into the family you are truly treated like family and they will take care of you as one of there own. On the flip side of that you may also fall into taboos that come with being a family member, like not being able to hang out with your older brother!
I have posted some pics of my Mama, smal sister, mo smal brada. They are so amazing. Anyways, I digress. So we had a feast last night. It was full of all sorts of aelen kakae (Island Food.) The night before the trainees had to help prepare the food. The first part of preparing the food was catching it!!
We started by chasing around the chickens! They do not keep their chickens in a coop so this is harder then you think. We lost one chicken into the bush. I ended up taking a tree branch to the head that instantly drew blood. I know have a fat scab across my skull! We learned from the natives that we don’t need to catch it the nice way. That if we can throw a big stick at it and kill it then that is just as good.
Luckily for us we managed to just catch them with the help of some pikinini. Well once we had three chickens, it was time to learn how to kilim i ded (kill them dead.) One man from our group grabbed the chicken and went for the grab its head and twist approach. This seemed like it work pretty well till he tossed the “dead” chicken on the ground and it ran away. Luckily a pikinini caught him quickly again. He then held the chicken by the legs, in one hand and swung a stick at its head with the other. Every time he swung with his right hand he lifted the chicken up with his left and would miss. It was very funny.
The next guys to try and kill the chicken went with the grab the chicken by the feet and swing his head into a tree. He kept hitting the body of the chicken, which does not kill them very quickly. I ended up jumping in and lending a hand. I then did the last chicken the same way. Two solid swings on the tree and the chicken is ded I finis.
Well after killing them it was on to cleaning them. We were shown on one chicken and then left to do the other two. I did one myself. It is a good experience to clean your own food.
Later that night we helped prepare the manioc, wild yams, and other aelan kakae. Afterwards I went up and watched Home Alone! I know I know. On one hand it seems so primitive and on the other I have some serious luxuries!!
Well yesterday we started off with some bislama classes and then I went for a wokabot witem Elin mo Dan. We walked up to the Chiefs house. He is my Chief Papu because it is my grandfathers brother. We just missed them sacrificing the pig for the feast. Apparently they kill it with three solid hits in the head with a 4 inch thick stick. (Dad how many shots to the head did it take you to take down our pigs?) I told all the men about how we killed the pigs at home and that that one pig we killed five times before he decided to die. If they don’t use the stick then they take a sharp knife or stick and stick them under the front shoulder near the armpit.
We then helped them clean the pig. We shaved it clean so that we could bury him in the ground, Hmmm… It is making me hungry just thinking about our dinner last night. Well we ended heading back and being late for our class. Luckily, they still had two pieces of chocolate which the three of us split (hint hint hint, volunteers loves American chocolate, again that is American chocolate to
Christopher flyr,
PMB 9097
Peace Corps/ Vanuatu
Port Vila
Vanuatu
South Pacific)
Well after all of our classes it was finally time to go up for the ceremony. I have never seen so many people in Mongalilu. We started off with some speeches from the Country Director, our Chief, and the Chief of South River. Our Chief made an offering of food for the people of Erromango, the 19b (Johns PCV group), and those of VDKA (an RTC group.) The rest of us were to eat off of the main buffet table.
But first we must drink Kava to celebrate John. So I went over and grabbed my first shell. Well it was in a big glass and was really about two shells. I then grabbed one more with fren blong mi Noah. Then as I was storion with him mama blong mi came over and said You must go eat now, if you don’t go eat now there will be no food left. So I left Noah and went over and filled my plate.
I started by slicing two big fat ribs off of the pig! I then went down the line filling my plate with wild yams covered in coconut, island cabbage, some laplap taro, fruit salad with papaya, banana, and coconut, curry chicken wings, green beans, stuffed bell peppers, a lot of fish and a nice fresh squeezed lemon aid to wash it all down.
Well as I just finished filling my plate, I was approached by a member of the South River Community. He asked if I was done eating and I said no I have not started yet. He said very good. The Chief of South River wanted to have a shell of the special kava given to them by my Chief. I went over and drank two shells with them and then storion with them. They then gave me some of their ceremonially kakae. It was laplap with a big slice of pork tenderloin on top! Mmmm… I asked the Chief if he liked Kava. He told me that before he would drink it, but he does not drink it any more. But because this was a ceremony for John that it is a respect factor that you can not turn it down.
Well when it came time for them to leave I stood up. WOW!!! So here is the thing about Kava. Your head stay sharp and clear. I really felt nothing until I stood up. But after I stood up I realized I was walking at a 45 degree angle. I was glad to hear that some people were heading down to the nakamal where we have class. It is right next to the water.
We hung out there watching the stars while Noah from Hawaii played the Ukulele and sang songs. It was great!!!! I feel like I am always at summer camp here. This place is amazing. I went to sleep at about 11 pm.
I woke up at about 5 am this morning. I just laid in bed looking out my window at the palm tree blowing in the wind. It was very windy this morning. So windy that at one point when I was like wow I have never felt the wind blow my house and bed like this before. Well turns out there were a 4.8 earthquake this morning.
Well I am going to leave you know. We are heading down to the saloon to have some American eats and watch the series.
Tradgedy in Vanuatu
Well we went to class this morning only to be presented with some bad news. One of our fellow Peace Corps Volunteers in Vanuatu was killed yesterday. He was helping the village do some clean up work. They were apparently cutting down some branches out of a tree. A young boy was in the tree cutting a small branch that fell and knocked down a larger branch. That branch fell on top of both John (PCV) and a local NiVan from the village. Both of them were killed instantly. John will be flown back to the United States on Sunday. His body will be accompanied by Jane our Peace Corps Medical Officer.
The village is mourning the death of both of their brothers. When our PCMO went out by helicopter the village had already dressed John in his best clothes and have given traditional mats and flowers for the his parents back home. They also tried to give them the biggest pig in their village (this is a huge deal in Vanuatu, pigs are a sign of wealth and status, so giving one away is about the ultimate sign of respect here), The helicopter pilot had to refuse though.
As is custom in Vanuatu, no work or play is to happen until the body is buried. The teachers have canceled all of our classes for the day. We sat around talking about what had happened for about an hour and then said a short prayer for John and his family. The PCMO then pulled me a aside to go for a short walk to storion.
Even though I have not met John, I probably know more about him then anyone else in my group. John is the Peace Corps Volunteer that I was to replace in Erromango. SO every chance I have had to talk to a volunteer about where I am going I would always ask about John and the village. They would always laugh and say “oh john…” and then tell me some funny story about him. The PCMO is concerned about how I feel going there after all of this and that if I have any real concerns that I need to voice them before I go.
I know from the Peace Corps point of view they are going to want to get some one in there. The villagers are already concerned that this will ruin their relationship with the Peace Corps. I was to be the last phase of the 3 phase project in South River, Erromango. It is a pretty heavy weight to bear. I have a lot to think about. It will be some big shoes to fill and I worry about how the villagers will respond to me after this tragedy. Deep down I already know the answer. When I interviewed with the Peace Corps I had refused to put down where I would like to go, or not go for that matter, because I wanted to go where ever the Peace Corps felt like I was needed. Well that seems to becoming obvious here.
Tomorrow we will go into Vila to have a memorial for John and storion with other PCVs that knew John best. I have talked to the PCMO and we both agreed that it may be good for me to write a letter to John’s parents and let them know about the stories I have heard about John and that if they need a liaison between them and the villagers of South River, Erromango that I would be honored to do so.
I am not sure if this will make the news back home or not. I am sure that in a couple of days that you will be able to google it and find some stories. There are already people from Washington heading this way to talk to the volunteers. There are about 3-4 deaths a year in the Peace Corps, that is out of about 8,000 volunteers.
The village is mourning the death of both of their brothers. When our PCMO went out by helicopter the village had already dressed John in his best clothes and have given traditional mats and flowers for the his parents back home. They also tried to give them the biggest pig in their village (this is a huge deal in Vanuatu, pigs are a sign of wealth and status, so giving one away is about the ultimate sign of respect here), The helicopter pilot had to refuse though.
As is custom in Vanuatu, no work or play is to happen until the body is buried. The teachers have canceled all of our classes for the day. We sat around talking about what had happened for about an hour and then said a short prayer for John and his family. The PCMO then pulled me a aside to go for a short walk to storion.
Even though I have not met John, I probably know more about him then anyone else in my group. John is the Peace Corps Volunteer that I was to replace in Erromango. SO every chance I have had to talk to a volunteer about where I am going I would always ask about John and the village. They would always laugh and say “oh john…” and then tell me some funny story about him. The PCMO is concerned about how I feel going there after all of this and that if I have any real concerns that I need to voice them before I go.
I know from the Peace Corps point of view they are going to want to get some one in there. The villagers are already concerned that this will ruin their relationship with the Peace Corps. I was to be the last phase of the 3 phase project in South River, Erromango. It is a pretty heavy weight to bear. I have a lot to think about. It will be some big shoes to fill and I worry about how the villagers will respond to me after this tragedy. Deep down I already know the answer. When I interviewed with the Peace Corps I had refused to put down where I would like to go, or not go for that matter, because I wanted to go where ever the Peace Corps felt like I was needed. Well that seems to becoming obvious here.
Tomorrow we will go into Vila to have a memorial for John and storion with other PCVs that knew John best. I have talked to the PCMO and we both agreed that it may be good for me to write a letter to John’s parents and let them know about the stories I have heard about John and that if they need a liaison between them and the villagers of South River, Erromango that I would be honored to do so.
I am not sure if this will make the news back home or not. I am sure that in a couple of days that you will be able to google it and find some stories. There are already people from Washington heading this way to talk to the volunteers. There are about 3-4 deaths a year in the Peace Corps, that is out of about 8,000 volunteers.
Mongaliliu October 6,2007
How is life back in the states? Life here is great! Each day gets better then the last. It is nice to be able to catch what people are saying now. While I still have a hard time speaking bislama I am understanding more and more each day. It is Saturday night here right now. Mitufala I jas kambak long haos blong fren blong mi Ryan. Mitufala I long storian mo lukem family guy. I just got back from my friend Ryan’s house where we talked and watched the Family Guy. He has a Television and DVD player at his parent’s house.
This village is probably one of the wealthiest villages around. Although, I hear at my site I may have a government issued solar charger and 12 volt battery because my site runs the short wave radio for the entire island.
I have managed to get in the water almost every day. It is so nice to wake up and go snorkeling before school. I am the first person in my group to see a shark! I was swimming along the reef and came across a 4’ reef shark. It was absolutely beautiful. Very majestic. You could tell it had a certain confidence that only a shark has in the ocean. It just strolled through like it owned the place. It stayed around long enough for me to get the attention of two other volunteers. We were all pretty stoked to see it.
Our days have been filled with sessions and language lessons. Everyday at lunch the mamas make wan bigfala kakae ( a big lunch) for us. We have started playing ultimate Frisbee on our lunch as well to get in a little exercise. Some days we play in the rain. It is fun while we are doing it, but we pay the price when we have to sit in class all soaked through to the bone.
Today I took a walk with Papa blong mi (my papa) down to Mangis. This is a sacred site that the world heritage project is trying to make into a world heritage site. They would have tourist come through as part of this to help bring money into the village.
On Sunday we all went to Jej (church) and sang songs in their local language. After church we ate and then went back down to Mangis to hang out for the day. It is sucha nice place to hang out with some big trees creating a blanket of shade over some soft sand about 25 feet from the water. A couple of us set up our hammocks (such a great invention!) and took some power naps while listening to other play the guitar and ukulele. We played some Frisbee, climbed the trees, threw around a football, and swam in the sea.
While I was swimming in the ocean I found a cool little tunnel in some of the rock/coral. So I swam down one side of the rock and started pulling my self threw the rocks upside down (don’t worry I did not drown!) As I got to the other side opening, I grabbed onto the rock and pushed myself out with a little force. Well I think I pushed off to hard because I came to a quick stop when my right shoulder slammed into a rather large chunk of coral behind me. As the blood started coming out, I instantly thought of the shark I had seen. Getting cuts in the salt water here is not like at home. At home we say oh the salt water is great for it. But here the water is so warm that it allows bacteria to grow in the salt water that is not good for cuts. Yeah, my first real chance to use my medical kit!!!
Last Thursday we had a jam making session that was fun and educational. We ‘attempted’ to make two type of jam; one coconut jam (more like coconut caramel) and one popo jam (paw-paw, papaya.) We made these starting with the fresh fruit. The papaya we had to scoop out and mash up before mixing it with the water and sugar. The coconut is a little more complex. First you must crack open the coconut. This is where carrying around wan bigfala neif (our bush knifes) come in handy. I am getting pretty good at this. You actually crack it open with the blunt side of the knife.
After you crack it open, you must scrape out the meat of the coconut. Once you have all of the meat scraped out, you must squeeze the milk out of the milk. We did this by putting the meat in a piece of calico, rolling it up like a burrito, and the twisting it like you are wringing out a wet t-shirt. After we spent an hour doing this we added water at a 1:3 ratio, along with the sugar. It was not until a few hours later when we were sitting around the fire, trying to cook the jam, that we realized that we were not supposed to add water to the coconut. So the coconut jam never set. I will have to make some later because it seems like it would be a nice treat on some island bread.
The popo jam did turn out and between Laelarula (Bridgette, my Peace Corps aunt) and myself, we have managed to finish a very large jar of it in about 5 days. It was nice sitting around the fire cooking the jam. While we cooked the jam, we sang songs. With 23 people we can get through a lot of full songs. We have some great guitar players here so they would back us up if they knew the tune.
It has been nice to have another volunteer to eat my meals with. For one, it is a big security blanket. I always know that either the two of us can talk in English or we can explain something if the other does not understand what my host family is saying. I say my family because we eat with my mama or my papa, sometimes her mama will join us (her mama is my grandma), but if her papa joins us, that means my papa can not be any where around.
This culture has some very interesting customs. So it is disrespectful for a man to be near his father in law. He is not allowed to talk to his father in law. If they are in a town meeting and the son in law wants to say something to the father in law, he has to speak through someone else. If you are walking down a trail and the father in law is coming the other way, then the son in law will walk into the bush where he can not be seen until the father in law passes.
The same goes for siblings. If I was to get married then my sister would not be allowed to be friends with my wife. They could say hello to each other but that is about it. If my sister and I were talking and my wife walked up, then my sister would have to leave. Brothers are not allowed to play with each other after about age twelve or so. Most of these customs came about from Chief Roi Mata in a time of war. He set many guidelines that are still followed today. Many of which are very hard to understand from an outside perspective. It is too bad because my Papa is really cool and so is my grandfather. It is a shame that we all can not kakae (eat) together.
Yesterday we went to help build a smal haos (toilet) for the local public school. We had to get empty bags of rice from our mama’s first. One girl asked what an empty bag of rice was and the smart ass in me came out and said it is a bag of rice that is empty. My trainer who is a NiVan could not stop laughing. Well we found out quickly why we needed these empty bags. We had to walk down to the solwota and fill them up with sand and then haul them back to the school. I took three trips to the water and carried four bags. Those years of moving around bags of feed came into play quickly here.
As I was sweating down the trail passing other volunteers I shouted out “who finally feels like a Peace Corps volunteer?” It is the first time I actually felt like I have done something here to help. It is kind of frustrating to sit around in sessions all day talking about what we are going to do. Lets just do it!!!
We had played a hard game of Ultimate Frisbee just before going and helping with the smal haos. After helping them get the sand, we went on a walk to look at some gardens and explore the local edible fruits, nut, and greenery. It is nice to be outside of the normal classroom setting. On top of doing all of this, I managed to get about 45 minutes of Yoga in with some of the other Peace Corps folks. It felt good to get a good stretch on. We are planning on doing this every other day for about an hour. With such a big day I was exhausted. That night we sat around and toktok. After I ate dinner I was ready to crash out for the night.
Tonight I went down and sat by the solwota by myself. I just sat there and enjoyed one of our amazing sunsets. (Monica, imagine those conference room sunrises, but over water.) The clouds light up like they are on fire. They are such vivid colors of orange and red that it is almost blinding. I sat there and watched until the sky line changed from a beautiful sunset to a sky filled with stars. I can see a few more then what we are used to in Sacramento. As I sat there, I thought about everyone back home and wondered what you were doing right then. I then started thinking about all the strong friendships I have already established with my fellow trainees.
I think it is going to be a hard adjustment to go from the comfort of mongalilu to an isolated village far away from the other trainees in my group. When I thought about this before it has always been just a fleeting thought, but today it kind of sank in that I am going to be the only white man ( no political correctness in Vanuatu, either you are a white man or a black man, they just call it as it is) where no one will speak English. It is actually very scary. I am sad that I will be away from all my new friends.
But is that not why I came? I had a heart to heart with another volunteer about this and I was explaining to them that I think that is why most of us came here to begin with. We all are looking for the life experience that pushes us out of our comfort zone, which makes us question our own morals and beliefs in a way that we can not do back in the states.
I know there will be many hard roads ahead of me here, but for now I am here in Mongalilu where life is good. I eat good food. I play hard with good people. I storion with my family. I enjoy incredible sunsets. I eat fresh fruit everyday. I walk down the road and chop down chunk of sugar cane to chew on. I swim with sharks. I eat snails (I ate sea snails today at lunch, Mmmmm Mmmmm Good!) I play cards. I play other peoples guitars ( I am buying one tomorrow if I can find my wallet, yeah not good, I have no idea where it is.) I play with the pikinini. I sing songs.
Through out the day you can hear me say “I love my life!” I think that sums everything up here, I love my life. I so miss everyone back home and wish you could experience a little taste of Vanuatu.
This village is probably one of the wealthiest villages around. Although, I hear at my site I may have a government issued solar charger and 12 volt battery because my site runs the short wave radio for the entire island.
I have managed to get in the water almost every day. It is so nice to wake up and go snorkeling before school. I am the first person in my group to see a shark! I was swimming along the reef and came across a 4’ reef shark. It was absolutely beautiful. Very majestic. You could tell it had a certain confidence that only a shark has in the ocean. It just strolled through like it owned the place. It stayed around long enough for me to get the attention of two other volunteers. We were all pretty stoked to see it.
Our days have been filled with sessions and language lessons. Everyday at lunch the mamas make wan bigfala kakae ( a big lunch) for us. We have started playing ultimate Frisbee on our lunch as well to get in a little exercise. Some days we play in the rain. It is fun while we are doing it, but we pay the price when we have to sit in class all soaked through to the bone.
Today I took a walk with Papa blong mi (my papa) down to Mangis. This is a sacred site that the world heritage project is trying to make into a world heritage site. They would have tourist come through as part of this to help bring money into the village.
On Sunday we all went to Jej (church) and sang songs in their local language. After church we ate and then went back down to Mangis to hang out for the day. It is sucha nice place to hang out with some big trees creating a blanket of shade over some soft sand about 25 feet from the water. A couple of us set up our hammocks (such a great invention!) and took some power naps while listening to other play the guitar and ukulele. We played some Frisbee, climbed the trees, threw around a football, and swam in the sea.
While I was swimming in the ocean I found a cool little tunnel in some of the rock/coral. So I swam down one side of the rock and started pulling my self threw the rocks upside down (don’t worry I did not drown!) As I got to the other side opening, I grabbed onto the rock and pushed myself out with a little force. Well I think I pushed off to hard because I came to a quick stop when my right shoulder slammed into a rather large chunk of coral behind me. As the blood started coming out, I instantly thought of the shark I had seen. Getting cuts in the salt water here is not like at home. At home we say oh the salt water is great for it. But here the water is so warm that it allows bacteria to grow in the salt water that is not good for cuts. Yeah, my first real chance to use my medical kit!!!
Last Thursday we had a jam making session that was fun and educational. We ‘attempted’ to make two type of jam; one coconut jam (more like coconut caramel) and one popo jam (paw-paw, papaya.) We made these starting with the fresh fruit. The papaya we had to scoop out and mash up before mixing it with the water and sugar. The coconut is a little more complex. First you must crack open the coconut. This is where carrying around wan bigfala neif (our bush knifes) come in handy. I am getting pretty good at this. You actually crack it open with the blunt side of the knife.
After you crack it open, you must scrape out the meat of the coconut. Once you have all of the meat scraped out, you must squeeze the milk out of the milk. We did this by putting the meat in a piece of calico, rolling it up like a burrito, and the twisting it like you are wringing out a wet t-shirt. After we spent an hour doing this we added water at a 1:3 ratio, along with the sugar. It was not until a few hours later when we were sitting around the fire, trying to cook the jam, that we realized that we were not supposed to add water to the coconut. So the coconut jam never set. I will have to make some later because it seems like it would be a nice treat on some island bread.
The popo jam did turn out and between Laelarula (Bridgette, my Peace Corps aunt) and myself, we have managed to finish a very large jar of it in about 5 days. It was nice sitting around the fire cooking the jam. While we cooked the jam, we sang songs. With 23 people we can get through a lot of full songs. We have some great guitar players here so they would back us up if they knew the tune.
It has been nice to have another volunteer to eat my meals with. For one, it is a big security blanket. I always know that either the two of us can talk in English or we can explain something if the other does not understand what my host family is saying. I say my family because we eat with my mama or my papa, sometimes her mama will join us (her mama is my grandma), but if her papa joins us, that means my papa can not be any where around.
This culture has some very interesting customs. So it is disrespectful for a man to be near his father in law. He is not allowed to talk to his father in law. If they are in a town meeting and the son in law wants to say something to the father in law, he has to speak through someone else. If you are walking down a trail and the father in law is coming the other way, then the son in law will walk into the bush where he can not be seen until the father in law passes.
The same goes for siblings. If I was to get married then my sister would not be allowed to be friends with my wife. They could say hello to each other but that is about it. If my sister and I were talking and my wife walked up, then my sister would have to leave. Brothers are not allowed to play with each other after about age twelve or so. Most of these customs came about from Chief Roi Mata in a time of war. He set many guidelines that are still followed today. Many of which are very hard to understand from an outside perspective. It is too bad because my Papa is really cool and so is my grandfather. It is a shame that we all can not kakae (eat) together.
Yesterday we went to help build a smal haos (toilet) for the local public school. We had to get empty bags of rice from our mama’s first. One girl asked what an empty bag of rice was and the smart ass in me came out and said it is a bag of rice that is empty. My trainer who is a NiVan could not stop laughing. Well we found out quickly why we needed these empty bags. We had to walk down to the solwota and fill them up with sand and then haul them back to the school. I took three trips to the water and carried four bags. Those years of moving around bags of feed came into play quickly here.
As I was sweating down the trail passing other volunteers I shouted out “who finally feels like a Peace Corps volunteer?” It is the first time I actually felt like I have done something here to help. It is kind of frustrating to sit around in sessions all day talking about what we are going to do. Lets just do it!!!
We had played a hard game of Ultimate Frisbee just before going and helping with the smal haos. After helping them get the sand, we went on a walk to look at some gardens and explore the local edible fruits, nut, and greenery. It is nice to be outside of the normal classroom setting. On top of doing all of this, I managed to get about 45 minutes of Yoga in with some of the other Peace Corps folks. It felt good to get a good stretch on. We are planning on doing this every other day for about an hour. With such a big day I was exhausted. That night we sat around and toktok. After I ate dinner I was ready to crash out for the night.
Tonight I went down and sat by the solwota by myself. I just sat there and enjoyed one of our amazing sunsets. (Monica, imagine those conference room sunrises, but over water.) The clouds light up like they are on fire. They are such vivid colors of orange and red that it is almost blinding. I sat there and watched until the sky line changed from a beautiful sunset to a sky filled with stars. I can see a few more then what we are used to in Sacramento. As I sat there, I thought about everyone back home and wondered what you were doing right then. I then started thinking about all the strong friendships I have already established with my fellow trainees.
I think it is going to be a hard adjustment to go from the comfort of mongalilu to an isolated village far away from the other trainees in my group. When I thought about this before it has always been just a fleeting thought, but today it kind of sank in that I am going to be the only white man ( no political correctness in Vanuatu, either you are a white man or a black man, they just call it as it is) where no one will speak English. It is actually very scary. I am sad that I will be away from all my new friends.
But is that not why I came? I had a heart to heart with another volunteer about this and I was explaining to them that I think that is why most of us came here to begin with. We all are looking for the life experience that pushes us out of our comfort zone, which makes us question our own morals and beliefs in a way that we can not do back in the states.
I know there will be many hard roads ahead of me here, but for now I am here in Mongalilu where life is good. I eat good food. I play hard with good people. I storion with my family. I enjoy incredible sunsets. I eat fresh fruit everyday. I walk down the road and chop down chunk of sugar cane to chew on. I swim with sharks. I eat snails (I ate sea snails today at lunch, Mmmmm Mmmmm Good!) I play cards. I play other peoples guitars ( I am buying one tomorrow if I can find my wallet, yeah not good, I have no idea where it is.) I play with the pikinini. I sing songs.
Through out the day you can hear me say “I love my life!” I think that sums everything up here, I love my life. I so miss everyone back home and wish you could experience a little taste of Vanuatu.
Day two in Mongaliliu
Day two in Mancalilu.
I woke up an had some gud kakae (good food) in the morning. We started our classes today. We had two Bislama language lessons in the morning and then had a speaker from the Ministry of Education. I could hardly stay awake through his talk. The class was at the Nakamal (meeting place) down by the salwota (ocean) and I was enjoying the view. After his long and drawn out talk, (it took one and a half hours to what I could tell you in about 8 minutes) we headed up to the Mango tree for lunch.
The Mamas prepare food for lunch everyday. It is so good, but I know I should not get used to it, because there will become a time when I wont be able to rely on their cooking. Some of the kakae we eat is: fried banana fritters with coconut butter on top, aelan kabis (island cabbage,) fruit salad with bananas, po-po (papaya,) and coconut milk, faol (chicken) prepared ten different ways, pumpkin with coconut on top, maniok, and Taro, plus ten different kinds of fruit juices.
After our big meal we had two more sessions that seemed to take forever. The problem with these sessions is that the people leading them are not good public speakers and they have a hard time conveying their message. Between sessions we did manage to get a good round of Frisbee in.
After class was done for the day I ran home and got m mask and snorkel and headed out to sea. Wow this place has some great diving. While there is not as much life in the water as NorCal, there is still some amazing things here. I saw a giant clam the size of a 17” computer monitor. Coral so white that it looked like it had diamonds on the ends glowing in the sunlight. I saw a strand of sea snake eggs and about three good sized lobsters. The pikininis are great divers too. We had about three kids swimming diving with us. Parents back home would freak out at what kids here can do. They go swim in the ocean at about 5 and 6 by themselves. They swing bigfala naif (machete) around as soon as they can hold one.
Later that evening I went and had some Kava with my uncle. It is much different here then in Vila. Instead of being at some business, it was just in the front yard where one of my fellow Pis Ko volentia lives. We sat out side and storion (told stories) while I stared up at the stars. In the early evening I have a great view of Scorpio straight over head and later in the evening I can see Orion, but he is upside down.
When I came home, my Mama put out dinner. After which we sat around, sang camp songs, and I did some magi tricks. The kids loved it. They just eat it up and are always toktok one more, one more plis. I was thinking that because of my big swim and drinking kava that I would get some great sleep. WRONG!!!!!
I woke up at a little before 1 am because one corner of my mosquito net had fallen down. No big deal, it only barley woke me up, but then I felt something crawling across my arm and I quickly swatted it away. My first thought was man that was a huge spider. So with my curiosity wanting to see it I grabbed my headlamp, not really thinking too much of it. Well what I thought was a giant spider and was big ugly handredleg (centipede.) I was about 6”or 7” long. You can guess how quickly I jumped out of bed. I had my Bigfala knife in my hand in no time and was no about to go on a hunt. I lit my kerosene lantern and put on my headlamp. I knew I could not just cut him in half because then I would have two angry centipedes on my hands, so I looked around and found a biohazard plastic bag. With the bag and machete in hand I went looking for the beast.
I found him on my mosquito net I a hit him with my knife. This made him very angry and he stood up on end preparing to fight back. Centipedes have a serious bite to them; with their gnarly poisonous pinchers they are pretty intimidating. I somehow managed to scoop him into the bag and I tied the end in a knot. Not knowing if he could eat his way through the plastic I put that bag inside of a dry sack and sealed that as well. When I hung that bag up on the hook I scared a spider about the size of a tennis ball and he went scurrying off. The spiders are harmless and eat mosquitos, so I was glad for him to be here.
Let me tell you, trying to go back to sleep after a giant centipede has walked across you is not easy. Every time I closed my eyes I could only see the hideous creature that I had just battled. I finally did fall a sleep and had terrible nightmares about killing a centipede with my knife and it growing two heads back almost instantly. I should tell you that I also took my melfoquin earlier that day. Some of you may remember the bad wrap melfoquin got back after Vietnam, when the three vets came home and all brutally murdered their wives? The only link between all three was the melfoquin. It can cause extremely bloody nightmares, so bad that some people have to be switched to doxycyclin. The problem with doxy is that you must take it everyday or run the risk of getting malaria. The melfoquin you only need to take once a week, so your chances of forgetting your pill and getting malaria are decreased.
Well I am laying in bed typing this out and I am still freaking out because I can here things scurrying about and I am afraid it is going to be another handredleg. But tomorrow we must get up early to go into Vila where hopefully I can send this out to you guys. Well good night. Me and my Bigfala knife are going to sleep now.
I woke up an had some gud kakae (good food) in the morning. We started our classes today. We had two Bislama language lessons in the morning and then had a speaker from the Ministry of Education. I could hardly stay awake through his talk. The class was at the Nakamal (meeting place) down by the salwota (ocean) and I was enjoying the view. After his long and drawn out talk, (it took one and a half hours to what I could tell you in about 8 minutes) we headed up to the Mango tree for lunch.
The Mamas prepare food for lunch everyday. It is so good, but I know I should not get used to it, because there will become a time when I wont be able to rely on their cooking. Some of the kakae we eat is: fried banana fritters with coconut butter on top, aelan kabis (island cabbage,) fruit salad with bananas, po-po (papaya,) and coconut milk, faol (chicken) prepared ten different ways, pumpkin with coconut on top, maniok, and Taro, plus ten different kinds of fruit juices.
After our big meal we had two more sessions that seemed to take forever. The problem with these sessions is that the people leading them are not good public speakers and they have a hard time conveying their message. Between sessions we did manage to get a good round of Frisbee in.
After class was done for the day I ran home and got m mask and snorkel and headed out to sea. Wow this place has some great diving. While there is not as much life in the water as NorCal, there is still some amazing things here. I saw a giant clam the size of a 17” computer monitor. Coral so white that it looked like it had diamonds on the ends glowing in the sunlight. I saw a strand of sea snake eggs and about three good sized lobsters. The pikininis are great divers too. We had about three kids swimming diving with us. Parents back home would freak out at what kids here can do. They go swim in the ocean at about 5 and 6 by themselves. They swing bigfala naif (machete) around as soon as they can hold one.
Later that evening I went and had some Kava with my uncle. It is much different here then in Vila. Instead of being at some business, it was just in the front yard where one of my fellow Pis Ko volentia lives. We sat out side and storion (told stories) while I stared up at the stars. In the early evening I have a great view of Scorpio straight over head and later in the evening I can see Orion, but he is upside down.
When I came home, my Mama put out dinner. After which we sat around, sang camp songs, and I did some magi tricks. The kids loved it. They just eat it up and are always toktok one more, one more plis. I was thinking that because of my big swim and drinking kava that I would get some great sleep. WRONG!!!!!
I woke up at a little before 1 am because one corner of my mosquito net had fallen down. No big deal, it only barley woke me up, but then I felt something crawling across my arm and I quickly swatted it away. My first thought was man that was a huge spider. So with my curiosity wanting to see it I grabbed my headlamp, not really thinking too much of it. Well what I thought was a giant spider and was big ugly handredleg (centipede.) I was about 6”or 7” long. You can guess how quickly I jumped out of bed. I had my Bigfala knife in my hand in no time and was no about to go on a hunt. I lit my kerosene lantern and put on my headlamp. I knew I could not just cut him in half because then I would have two angry centipedes on my hands, so I looked around and found a biohazard plastic bag. With the bag and machete in hand I went looking for the beast.
I found him on my mosquito net I a hit him with my knife. This made him very angry and he stood up on end preparing to fight back. Centipedes have a serious bite to them; with their gnarly poisonous pinchers they are pretty intimidating. I somehow managed to scoop him into the bag and I tied the end in a knot. Not knowing if he could eat his way through the plastic I put that bag inside of a dry sack and sealed that as well. When I hung that bag up on the hook I scared a spider about the size of a tennis ball and he went scurrying off. The spiders are harmless and eat mosquitos, so I was glad for him to be here.
Let me tell you, trying to go back to sleep after a giant centipede has walked across you is not easy. Every time I closed my eyes I could only see the hideous creature that I had just battled. I finally did fall a sleep and had terrible nightmares about killing a centipede with my knife and it growing two heads back almost instantly. I should tell you that I also took my melfoquin earlier that day. Some of you may remember the bad wrap melfoquin got back after Vietnam, when the three vets came home and all brutally murdered their wives? The only link between all three was the melfoquin. It can cause extremely bloody nightmares, so bad that some people have to be switched to doxycyclin. The problem with doxy is that you must take it everyday or run the risk of getting malaria. The melfoquin you only need to take once a week, so your chances of forgetting your pill and getting malaria are decreased.
Well I am laying in bed typing this out and I am still freaking out because I can here things scurrying about and I am afraid it is going to be another handredleg. But tomorrow we must get up early to go into Vila where hopefully I can send this out to you guys. Well good night. Me and my Bigfala knife are going to sleep now.
October 1, 2007
It is 0333 on Monday morning, for everyone back home in California it is only 0933 on Sunday. Happy Birthday Cassandra. By the time I get into town to send this it will probably be a week late. I am laying in my bed of my new home for the next 9 weeks or so.
The day started with a lot of packing. It reminded me back when Jeff and I took our trip to Europe, trying to find the perfect arrangement of clothes and gear into a my bag so that I could be as streamlined as possible. I feel like a have a ton of stuff, but then I look at my colleagues and realize I have half of the gear that they do. In time I will see if they brought too much or I did not bring enough.
At 1400 or so (island time,) we climbed into a couple of buses (mini vans) and headed for Moncalilu. Moncalilu is only about 20km away but takes about 40 minutes to get there due to the steep hill and the horrible condition of the sealed road (pavement.) The crushed coral road is actually in much better shape then the sealed road.
Once we all arrived at the village we headed down the main road to meet the chief. We came to the village entrance where a man dressed in only a little grass mini skirt and a band of flowers around his head blew a conch shell three times. It was a very beautiful sound, what we did not know was this was the call to the warriors which interrupted the beautiful sound of the conch with there war cries has they bombarded our group. They ran at us with spears and clubs, screaming and crying. They did a great job of hiding as no one in my group had seen them. The group was made up of all men and some young boys. It was a great welcome.
We were then escorted by them to our chief where the country director and he exchanged ceremonial kastam mats. After some brief thank you talks and a short prayer we had an adoption ceremony were we all were adopted by a host family. I feel very lucky to have been put with the family I was.
They are a young family. My father, Sasa, is 36 and my Mama, Kathleen is 28. I have three Ti’s (siblings.) The oldest is Luke (pronounced with a strong e), age 10 followed by Asana, age 6, and then little Frances. Frances is only 2 but will surely be a future rugby player. He is like a little ox. Kathleen is also pregnant again and I will have another brother or sister in February.
Kathleen’s father is my Papu, or grandfather. He is also the Chiefs twin brother. I have not found out yet how his brother was selected over him. My guess is that his brother was born first. We all live on the same lot, which comes with great privileges like a light bulb on my porch for when the chief runs his generator. Don’t worry I do not have any other electricity in my house. By the way even though I live with a host family, I actually have my own traditional house to my self. So it truly is made out of coconut palms for a roof, woven bamboo for siding and a tree in the middle for a center support. My floor is made of woven mats. I have a raised bed, with a mosquito net surrounding it. There is one table (no chair) and a shelf. Oh and of course my kerosene lantern to light it up at night. I will send a pic when I get a chance.
Now while this was the first time I have ever seen or met my family, I know for a fact that that Noah has seen my Tarti (grandmother) and my Papu’s brother, as he is not only famous here in my village but has been on a major television show back home in the states. When Survivor was filmed here in Vanuatu they filmed it here in Mongalilu, actually right in my new backyard.
When the cast arrived by Cruise ship they sent out a canoe to get the new contestants. The person paddling the canoe is actually my host Tarti or grandmother. After the contestants came ashore they were greeted by my Papu’s brother, the chief. He only spoke to them in our local language (not bislama) and gave them a shell of Kava.
The chief also performed the pig killing ceremony and wiped the blood on the contestant’s faces. My Mama and the pikinini all laugh when they tell this story about how the people looked away in horror when the pig was clubbed to death. For them this is just life and there is nothing strange about it.
I did not realize when I saw that Survivor was filmed here that I would actually be living in the same village it was filmed. My family recalls the story while laughing and giggling. They have very fond memories of the Survivor experience. At least for the American version, two more Survivors were filmed here after, one being Australia and the other France. They said the Americans were the most hospitable. They hired the villagers for almost everything, would feed them the left over food, and left all of there tools and wheelbarrows behind for the villagers.
We discussed this over kakae (food/dinner) tonight in front of my house. My grandparents are also hosting a Pis Ko volunteer. So she instantly becomes my aunty, or in Bislama my Ted Bridget. We will be having most of our meals together as a family unit. It is a nice time to storian, or share stories. My Mama is great. Her sister told her to take the tulok down to the welcome ceremony for everyone to eat, but my Mama said no we will just let our family enjoy it! Just so happens that tulok is my favorite dish here, so both me and my ted Bridget were very excited to have it for dinner, along with some hot Lipton tea.
I slept pretty well, until about 0300 and then about 0330 the roosters began there first wake up calls. It is now about twenty to five and if I do not fall back a sleep I may get up and go for an early morning swim before class. The ocean is about a 45 second walk. Ahhh yeah! What a life!!!!
The day started with a lot of packing. It reminded me back when Jeff and I took our trip to Europe, trying to find the perfect arrangement of clothes and gear into a my bag so that I could be as streamlined as possible. I feel like a have a ton of stuff, but then I look at my colleagues and realize I have half of the gear that they do. In time I will see if they brought too much or I did not bring enough.
At 1400 or so (island time,) we climbed into a couple of buses (mini vans) and headed for Moncalilu. Moncalilu is only about 20km away but takes about 40 minutes to get there due to the steep hill and the horrible condition of the sealed road (pavement.) The crushed coral road is actually in much better shape then the sealed road.
Once we all arrived at the village we headed down the main road to meet the chief. We came to the village entrance where a man dressed in only a little grass mini skirt and a band of flowers around his head blew a conch shell three times. It was a very beautiful sound, what we did not know was this was the call to the warriors which interrupted the beautiful sound of the conch with there war cries has they bombarded our group. They ran at us with spears and clubs, screaming and crying. They did a great job of hiding as no one in my group had seen them. The group was made up of all men and some young boys. It was a great welcome.
We were then escorted by them to our chief where the country director and he exchanged ceremonial kastam mats. After some brief thank you talks and a short prayer we had an adoption ceremony were we all were adopted by a host family. I feel very lucky to have been put with the family I was.
They are a young family. My father, Sasa, is 36 and my Mama, Kathleen is 28. I have three Ti’s (siblings.) The oldest is Luke (pronounced with a strong e), age 10 followed by Asana, age 6, and then little Frances. Frances is only 2 but will surely be a future rugby player. He is like a little ox. Kathleen is also pregnant again and I will have another brother or sister in February.
Kathleen’s father is my Papu, or grandfather. He is also the Chiefs twin brother. I have not found out yet how his brother was selected over him. My guess is that his brother was born first. We all live on the same lot, which comes with great privileges like a light bulb on my porch for when the chief runs his generator. Don’t worry I do not have any other electricity in my house. By the way even though I live with a host family, I actually have my own traditional house to my self. So it truly is made out of coconut palms for a roof, woven bamboo for siding and a tree in the middle for a center support. My floor is made of woven mats. I have a raised bed, with a mosquito net surrounding it. There is one table (no chair) and a shelf. Oh and of course my kerosene lantern to light it up at night. I will send a pic when I get a chance.
Now while this was the first time I have ever seen or met my family, I know for a fact that that Noah has seen my Tarti (grandmother) and my Papu’s brother, as he is not only famous here in my village but has been on a major television show back home in the states. When Survivor was filmed here in Vanuatu they filmed it here in Mongalilu, actually right in my new backyard.
When the cast arrived by Cruise ship they sent out a canoe to get the new contestants. The person paddling the canoe is actually my host Tarti or grandmother. After the contestants came ashore they were greeted by my Papu’s brother, the chief. He only spoke to them in our local language (not bislama) and gave them a shell of Kava.
The chief also performed the pig killing ceremony and wiped the blood on the contestant’s faces. My Mama and the pikinini all laugh when they tell this story about how the people looked away in horror when the pig was clubbed to death. For them this is just life and there is nothing strange about it.
I did not realize when I saw that Survivor was filmed here that I would actually be living in the same village it was filmed. My family recalls the story while laughing and giggling. They have very fond memories of the Survivor experience. At least for the American version, two more Survivors were filmed here after, one being Australia and the other France. They said the Americans were the most hospitable. They hired the villagers for almost everything, would feed them the left over food, and left all of there tools and wheelbarrows behind for the villagers.
We discussed this over kakae (food/dinner) tonight in front of my house. My grandparents are also hosting a Pis Ko volunteer. So she instantly becomes my aunty, or in Bislama my Ted Bridget. We will be having most of our meals together as a family unit. It is a nice time to storian, or share stories. My Mama is great. Her sister told her to take the tulok down to the welcome ceremony for everyone to eat, but my Mama said no we will just let our family enjoy it! Just so happens that tulok is my favorite dish here, so both me and my ted Bridget were very excited to have it for dinner, along with some hot Lipton tea.
I slept pretty well, until about 0300 and then about 0330 the roosters began there first wake up calls. It is now about twenty to five and if I do not fall back a sleep I may get up and go for an early morning swim before class. The ocean is about a 45 second walk. Ahhh yeah! What a life!!!!
October 1, 2007
It is 0333 on Monday morning, for everyone back home in California it is only 0933 on Sunday. Happy Birthday Cassandra. By the time I get into town to send this it will probably be a week late. I am laying in my bed of my new home for the next 9 weeks or so.
The day started with a lot of packing. It reminded me back when Jeff and I took our trip to Europe, trying to find the perfect arrangement of clothes and gear into a my bag so that I could be as streamlined as possible. I feel like a have a ton of stuff, but then I look at my colleagues and realize I have half of the gear that they do. In time I will see if they brought too much or I did not bring enough.
At 1400 or so (island time,) we climbed into a couple of buses (mini vans) and headed for Moncalilu. Moncalilu is only about 20km away but takes about 40 minutes to get there due to the steep hill and the horrible condition of the sealed road (pavement.) The crushed coral road is actually in much better shape then the sealed road.
Once we all arrived at the village we headed down the main road to meet the chief. We came to the village entrance where a man dressed in only a little grass mini skirt and a band of flowers around his head blew a conch shell three times. It was a very beautiful sound, what we did not know was this was the call to the warriors which interrupted the beautiful sound of the conch with there war cries has they bombarded our group. They ran at us with spears and clubs, screaming and crying. They did a great job of hiding as no one in my group had seen them. The group was made up of all men and some young boys. It was a great welcome.
We were then escorted by them to our chief where the country director and he exchanged ceremonial kastam mats. After some brief thank you talks and a short prayer we had an adoption ceremony were we all were adopted by a host family. I feel very lucky to have been put with the family I was.
They are a young family. My father, Sasa, is 36 and my Mama, Kathleen is 28. I have three Ti’s (siblings.) The oldest is Luke (pronounced with a strong e), age 10 followed by Asana, age 6, and then little Frances. Frances is only 2 but will surely be a future rugby player. He is like a little ox. Kathleen is also pregnant again and I will have another brother or sister in February.
Kathleen’s father is my Papu, or grandfather. He is also the Chiefs twin brother. I have not found out yet how his brother was selected over him. My guess is that his brother was born first. We all live on the same lot, which comes with great privileges like a light bulb on my porch for when the chief runs his generator. Don’t worry I do not have any other electricity in my house. By the way even though I live with a host family, I actually have my own traditional house to my self. So it truly is made out of coconut palms for a roof, woven bamboo for siding and a tree in the middle for a center support. My floor is made of woven mats. I have a raised bed, with a mosquito net surrounding it. There is one table (no chair) and a shelf. Oh and of course my kerosene lantern to light it up at night. I will send a pic when I get a chance.
Now while this was the first time I have ever seen or met my family, I know for a fact that that Noah has seen my Tarti (grandmother) and my Papu’s brother, as he is not only famous here in my village but has been on a major television show back home in the states. When Survivor was filmed here in Vanuatu they filmed it here in Mongalilu, actually right in my new backyard.
When the cast arrived by Cruise ship they sent out a canoe to get the new contestants. The person paddling the canoe is actually my host Tarti or grandmother. After the contestants came ashore they were greeted by my Papu’s brother, the chief. He only spoke to them in our local language (not bislama) and gave them a shell of Kava.
The chief also performed the pig killing ceremony and wiped the blood on the contestant’s faces. My Mama and the pikinini all laugh when they tell this story about how the people looked away in horror when the pig was clubbed to death. For them this is just life and there is nothing strange about it.
I did not realize when I saw that Survivor was filmed here that I would actually be living in the same village it was filmed. My family recalls the story while laughing and giggling. They have very fond memories of the Survivor experience. At least for the American version, two more Survivors were filmed here after, one being Australia and the other France. They said the Americans were the most hospitable. They hired the villagers for almost everything, would feed them the left over food, and left all of there tools and wheelbarrows behind for the villagers.
We discussed this over kakae (food/dinner) tonight in front of my house. My grandparents are also hosting a Pis Ko volunteer. So she instantly becomes my aunty, or in Bislama my Ted Bridget. We will be having most of our meals together as a family unit. It is a nice time to storian, or share stories. My Mama is great. Her sister told her to take the tulok down to the welcome ceremony for everyone to eat, but my Mama said no we will just let our family enjoy it! Just so happens that tulok is my favorite dish here, so both me and my ted Bridget were very excited to have it for dinner, along with some hot Lipton tea.
I slept pretty well, until about 0300 and then about 0330 the roosters began there first wake up calls. It is now about twenty to five and if I do not fall back a sleep I may get up and go for an early morning swim before class. The ocean is about a 45 second walk. Ahhh yeah! What a life!!!!
The day started with a lot of packing. It reminded me back when Jeff and I took our trip to Europe, trying to find the perfect arrangement of clothes and gear into a my bag so that I could be as streamlined as possible. I feel like a have a ton of stuff, but then I look at my colleagues and realize I have half of the gear that they do. In time I will see if they brought too much or I did not bring enough.
At 1400 or so (island time,) we climbed into a couple of buses (mini vans) and headed for Moncalilu. Moncalilu is only about 20km away but takes about 40 minutes to get there due to the steep hill and the horrible condition of the sealed road (pavement.) The crushed coral road is actually in much better shape then the sealed road.
Once we all arrived at the village we headed down the main road to meet the chief. We came to the village entrance where a man dressed in only a little grass mini skirt and a band of flowers around his head blew a conch shell three times. It was a very beautiful sound, what we did not know was this was the call to the warriors which interrupted the beautiful sound of the conch with there war cries has they bombarded our group. They ran at us with spears and clubs, screaming and crying. They did a great job of hiding as no one in my group had seen them. The group was made up of all men and some young boys. It was a great welcome.
We were then escorted by them to our chief where the country director and he exchanged ceremonial kastam mats. After some brief thank you talks and a short prayer we had an adoption ceremony were we all were adopted by a host family. I feel very lucky to have been put with the family I was.
They are a young family. My father, Sasa, is 36 and my Mama, Kathleen is 28. I have three Ti’s (siblings.) The oldest is Luke (pronounced with a strong e), age 10 followed by Asana, age 6, and then little Frances. Frances is only 2 but will surely be a future rugby player. He is like a little ox. Kathleen is also pregnant again and I will have another brother or sister in February.
Kathleen’s father is my Papu, or grandfather. He is also the Chiefs twin brother. I have not found out yet how his brother was selected over him. My guess is that his brother was born first. We all live on the same lot, which comes with great privileges like a light bulb on my porch for when the chief runs his generator. Don’t worry I do not have any other electricity in my house. By the way even though I live with a host family, I actually have my own traditional house to my self. So it truly is made out of coconut palms for a roof, woven bamboo for siding and a tree in the middle for a center support. My floor is made of woven mats. I have a raised bed, with a mosquito net surrounding it. There is one table (no chair) and a shelf. Oh and of course my kerosene lantern to light it up at night. I will send a pic when I get a chance.
Now while this was the first time I have ever seen or met my family, I know for a fact that that Noah has seen my Tarti (grandmother) and my Papu’s brother, as he is not only famous here in my village but has been on a major television show back home in the states. When Survivor was filmed here in Vanuatu they filmed it here in Mongalilu, actually right in my new backyard.
When the cast arrived by Cruise ship they sent out a canoe to get the new contestants. The person paddling the canoe is actually my host Tarti or grandmother. After the contestants came ashore they were greeted by my Papu’s brother, the chief. He only spoke to them in our local language (not bislama) and gave them a shell of Kava.
The chief also performed the pig killing ceremony and wiped the blood on the contestant’s faces. My Mama and the pikinini all laugh when they tell this story about how the people looked away in horror when the pig was clubbed to death. For them this is just life and there is nothing strange about it.
I did not realize when I saw that Survivor was filmed here that I would actually be living in the same village it was filmed. My family recalls the story while laughing and giggling. They have very fond memories of the Survivor experience. At least for the American version, two more Survivors were filmed here after, one being Australia and the other France. They said the Americans were the most hospitable. They hired the villagers for almost everything, would feed them the left over food, and left all of there tools and wheelbarrows behind for the villagers.
We discussed this over kakae (food/dinner) tonight in front of my house. My grandparents are also hosting a Pis Ko volunteer. So she instantly becomes my aunty, or in Bislama my Ted Bridget. We will be having most of our meals together as a family unit. It is a nice time to storian, or share stories. My Mama is great. Her sister told her to take the tulok down to the welcome ceremony for everyone to eat, but my Mama said no we will just let our family enjoy it! Just so happens that tulok is my favorite dish here, so both me and my ted Bridget were very excited to have it for dinner, along with some hot Lipton tea.
I slept pretty well, until about 0300 and then about 0330 the roosters began there first wake up calls. It is now about twenty to five and if I do not fall back a sleep I may get up and go for an early morning swim before class. The ocean is about a 45 second walk. Ahhh yeah! What a life!!!!
The Nakamal
After our first day of class we decided to venture out and meet up with some current volunteers at one of the 133 Nakamals in Port Vila. The Nakamal is the local Kava bar. Kava is the national drink here in Vanuatu. Only in the city can it be enjoyed by both women and men. Once out in our villages only the men will be able to enjoy in the Kava. In fact a man at he cultural center ask you know what it means when someone says “its my time” or “its 4:30 do you have time?” Both of these refer to heading to the Nakamal.
Well in our hopes to meet up with the current volunteers we ended up at a different Nakamal. The Nakamal is distinguished by its colored light in front of the business (home.) This Nakamal had a green light and as we got closer we could smell the Kava. Even though the volunteers were not there we opted to stick it out instead of going back out in the rain.
This Nakamal did not have an amazing view of the ocean but instead was an enclosed back yard with benches and tables. They are set up so that a small group between 5 and 15 people can sit around and socialize. You do no drink the Kava at the tables. You head to the drinking area, say a small prayer or find your place of inner refuge and then chug your Kava. After spitting out the bad taste you head back to your table and enjoy the conversations of your friends, whether they are old friends or friends you just met.
On this night I had 3.5 shells of Kava and was definitely feeling the effects. At one point we lost all eliktrisiti. So the owner brought us a candle and we continued to enjoy our socializing. After a couple of hours there is was time to eat. So we headed in to Vila and went to Shooters.
Our days in class seem long and can drag on. I am looking forward to learning some Bislama and being able to put it to use. During lunch yesterday I went down to Mamas Maket and had lunch with some other volunteers. The Maket is amazing, like I said before it is about the size of Denio’s produce area except it is in a square. The Maket is open 24 hours a day except Sundays. The reason it is open 24 hours a days is that it you never know when items will get there.
After lunch half of the group headed to the cultural center. It is a small museum about the size of the California Indian Museum. The ol fala gave us a tok-tok on the history and culture and various issues they are having in passing down the oral history’s. Due to Christianity many of the traditional stories and kastams are being lost. The cultural center is trying to get these histories written down and preserved.
It was at the Cultural Center that I started to feel vary ill. I ended up with a 102 degree temperature and a very bad sore throat. The nurses took care of me and after about 12 hours of rest I feel much better today. I still have a sore throat but at least no headache or fever. I had some crazy dreams through out the night about an old friend in DC who offered me an electric blanket but then I ended up outside, sleeping on a door step. I think this was because of the fever. I was sweating the then freezing. Good times!!!
After I finally got up I went outside and talked to a couple of the guys staying with me. They told me how much I was missed at the dinner last night. We then ate breakfast and left for class at about 7 minutes till 8:00. The ol fala in front asked if he could be dropped off first and we said no problem. Well what is normally a 5 minute drive took us 35 minutes. The gentleman who asked to get dropped off first needed to go to the airport which is in the opposite directions. A couple of the Ol Falas with me were a little disturbed and I head to explain, hey its island time. I love island time!!! Nothing here starts on time. It is very hard to get used to as an American. I still feel rushed sometimes to get somewhere on time but end up getting there and waiting 15 minutes. That’s island time for you.
Well today I learned a lesson in the grocery store. I bought some snacks including some cashews. What I learned was that you should always look at the price because those cashews cost me $16-US.
After lunch I had my interview you with the country director. His name is Kevin George and seems like a genuinely great guy. During my interview he told me that it was between two island for me and more likely (80% chance, though neither him or I could tell what 80% meant besides that he was 20% unsure.) of heading to Erromango. The post at Erromango would be about the most remote Pis Ko post in Vanuatu.
On Erromango they do not have any vehicles. I would be dropped off at the airport and then hike in about 8 hours to my site. The nice thing is that the village is on the coast and I would hopefully be able to do some diving. I must admit it is a little intimidating to be that remote. There is one more volunteer on the island and he is about a 5 hour walk from my possible site.
I also found out more about our training. I will be in Port Vila until Sunday. On Sunday we will be trucked into our training village of Mongalilu. This is about 20km away and takes about 45 minutes to drive down the crushed coral road. While in our training village you can write emails to me at:
volunterr@vu.peacecorps.gov
Make sure to put Christopher Flyr 20B in the subject line.
They will print this out and bring it to me in the training village. I can then write down on paper and hand back to them and they will type it up and send back to you. It would be great to hear from everyone.
Hope to hear from everyone soon,
Christopher Flyr
Well in our hopes to meet up with the current volunteers we ended up at a different Nakamal. The Nakamal is distinguished by its colored light in front of the business (home.) This Nakamal had a green light and as we got closer we could smell the Kava. Even though the volunteers were not there we opted to stick it out instead of going back out in the rain.
This Nakamal did not have an amazing view of the ocean but instead was an enclosed back yard with benches and tables. They are set up so that a small group between 5 and 15 people can sit around and socialize. You do no drink the Kava at the tables. You head to the drinking area, say a small prayer or find your place of inner refuge and then chug your Kava. After spitting out the bad taste you head back to your table and enjoy the conversations of your friends, whether they are old friends or friends you just met.
On this night I had 3.5 shells of Kava and was definitely feeling the effects. At one point we lost all eliktrisiti. So the owner brought us a candle and we continued to enjoy our socializing. After a couple of hours there is was time to eat. So we headed in to Vila and went to Shooters.
Our days in class seem long and can drag on. I am looking forward to learning some Bislama and being able to put it to use. During lunch yesterday I went down to Mamas Maket and had lunch with some other volunteers. The Maket is amazing, like I said before it is about the size of Denio’s produce area except it is in a square. The Maket is open 24 hours a day except Sundays. The reason it is open 24 hours a days is that it you never know when items will get there.
After lunch half of the group headed to the cultural center. It is a small museum about the size of the California Indian Museum. The ol fala gave us a tok-tok on the history and culture and various issues they are having in passing down the oral history’s. Due to Christianity many of the traditional stories and kastams are being lost. The cultural center is trying to get these histories written down and preserved.
It was at the Cultural Center that I started to feel vary ill. I ended up with a 102 degree temperature and a very bad sore throat. The nurses took care of me and after about 12 hours of rest I feel much better today. I still have a sore throat but at least no headache or fever. I had some crazy dreams through out the night about an old friend in DC who offered me an electric blanket but then I ended up outside, sleeping on a door step. I think this was because of the fever. I was sweating the then freezing. Good times!!!
After I finally got up I went outside and talked to a couple of the guys staying with me. They told me how much I was missed at the dinner last night. We then ate breakfast and left for class at about 7 minutes till 8:00. The ol fala in front asked if he could be dropped off first and we said no problem. Well what is normally a 5 minute drive took us 35 minutes. The gentleman who asked to get dropped off first needed to go to the airport which is in the opposite directions. A couple of the Ol Falas with me were a little disturbed and I head to explain, hey its island time. I love island time!!! Nothing here starts on time. It is very hard to get used to as an American. I still feel rushed sometimes to get somewhere on time but end up getting there and waiting 15 minutes. That’s island time for you.
Well today I learned a lesson in the grocery store. I bought some snacks including some cashews. What I learned was that you should always look at the price because those cashews cost me $16-US.
After lunch I had my interview you with the country director. His name is Kevin George and seems like a genuinely great guy. During my interview he told me that it was between two island for me and more likely (80% chance, though neither him or I could tell what 80% meant besides that he was 20% unsure.) of heading to Erromango. The post at Erromango would be about the most remote Pis Ko post in Vanuatu.
On Erromango they do not have any vehicles. I would be dropped off at the airport and then hike in about 8 hours to my site. The nice thing is that the village is on the coast and I would hopefully be able to do some diving. I must admit it is a little intimidating to be that remote. There is one more volunteer on the island and he is about a 5 hour walk from my possible site.
I also found out more about our training. I will be in Port Vila until Sunday. On Sunday we will be trucked into our training village of Mongalilu. This is about 20km away and takes about 45 minutes to drive down the crushed coral road. While in our training village you can write emails to me at:
volunterr@vu.peacecorps.gov
Make sure to put Christopher Flyr 20B in the subject line.
They will print this out and bring it to me in the training village. I can then write down on paper and hand back to them and they will type it up and send back to you. It would be great to hear from everyone.
Hope to hear from everyone soon,
Christopher Flyr
Second Day in Port Vila
On my second morning in Port Vila, I woke up around 0600 came out and sat on our balcony for a couple hours. The place we are staying in is a B&B so the owner brought out a full spread for us. We had baguettes, Nuttella, jams, and honey, along with some bangers and a little sausage that reminded me of chorizo. Then there was the plate of fruits, papaya, mango, grapefruit, little bananas the size of fat fingers, and breadfruit. Breadfruit is wonderful.
After breakfast we headed down to the water were Ryan and myself went for a swim. The water is so salty that a literally was floating on my back with my hands resting behind my head, just as if I was laying on the grass to take a nap.
Due to everyone being spread out in Vila, we decided the night before to meet up at Irriki resort. There is a free ferry that takes you to the island and runs 24 hours a day. The ferry picks up next to the Mamas numbawan maket, which is the largest “farmers” market in Vanuatu, about the size of the produce area of Denios. This too is open 24 hours a day except on Sundays when they are closed.
So the resorts are free to use as long as you buy something. And no one is coming up to you asking whether you did or not. The beer is expensive at about 400VT about $4-. But when you factor in you are using there five tiered swimming pool it makes it well worth it. We stayed there through out the day. Just as we were about to leave a massive dumping of water came through so we all opted to give another 400 VT to the bar tender and sat out the heavy rain drinking another tusker.
Yeah I know, 3rd world developing country, so apparently in the Peace Corps world they actually refer to us as the BEACH CORPS. I can not describe to you how beautiful this place is.
Later in the evening we ventured out to the rainbow nakamal. Kava is almost an expected event, at least for the men. The women can only drink Kava in town. But in the villages this is how most things get accomplished, drink some Kava and talk with the local chieftains.
Today was our first day of class. Nothing too exciting, until lunch that is. Because it was our first day they had a huge potluck of local food. There was so much food, I tried to take one bite size portions so I could try it all, but still only made it half way down before my plate was full. A couple of the dishes were kind of bland, (lap lap) however, everything else was amazing, tropical fruit salad, baby coconut, some tulak, which reminds me of a hearty stew but in solid form. It was incredible.
After breakfast we headed down to the water were Ryan and myself went for a swim. The water is so salty that a literally was floating on my back with my hands resting behind my head, just as if I was laying on the grass to take a nap.
Due to everyone being spread out in Vila, we decided the night before to meet up at Irriki resort. There is a free ferry that takes you to the island and runs 24 hours a day. The ferry picks up next to the Mamas numbawan maket, which is the largest “farmers” market in Vanuatu, about the size of the produce area of Denios. This too is open 24 hours a day except on Sundays when they are closed.
So the resorts are free to use as long as you buy something. And no one is coming up to you asking whether you did or not. The beer is expensive at about 400VT about $4-. But when you factor in you are using there five tiered swimming pool it makes it well worth it. We stayed there through out the day. Just as we were about to leave a massive dumping of water came through so we all opted to give another 400 VT to the bar tender and sat out the heavy rain drinking another tusker.
Yeah I know, 3rd world developing country, so apparently in the Peace Corps world they actually refer to us as the BEACH CORPS. I can not describe to you how beautiful this place is.
Later in the evening we ventured out to the rainbow nakamal. Kava is almost an expected event, at least for the men. The women can only drink Kava in town. But in the villages this is how most things get accomplished, drink some Kava and talk with the local chieftains.
Today was our first day of class. Nothing too exciting, until lunch that is. Because it was our first day they had a huge potluck of local food. There was so much food, I tried to take one bite size portions so I could try it all, but still only made it half way down before my plate was full. A couple of the dishes were kind of bland, (lap lap) however, everything else was amazing, tropical fruit salad, baby coconut, some tulak, which reminds me of a hearty stew but in solid form. It was incredible.
Vanuatu
I am sitting here in Auckland, New Zealand waiting for my connecting flight to Port Vila Vanuatu. The flight from LAX was just under 13 hours. I must say Air New Zealand has to be the nicest airline I have ever flown on. Every seat had on-demand entertainment. So I watched three movies, had access to pause when needing a bathroom break or a stretch. I managed to get about 3 hours of sleep in as well.
I met up with my Peace Corps group (20b as we are known) in Los Angeles just a couple of days ago. It is amazing that we have 23 people in our group from all over the United States, from Maryland to Hawaii, again from 21 to 72 (her second time serving,) and instantly we act like we have known each other forever. The comfort level is incredible amongst our group.
We did two days of orientation in Los Angeles. This consisted of mostly PC (Peace Corps) protocol and regulations. There was also some great unintentional team building. Some how I instantly became the tour guise because I was from California, it was hard for them to understand that Nor Cal is so far away from So Cal.
We have had our share of hiccups along the way. On the way to the airport we had a shuttle bus pick us up and deliver us to United Airlines. Well we found quickly, but not soon enough, that we needed to be on United Airlines sister company, Air New Zealand. Well our shuttle bus was gone and now we needed to get 23 people to the opposite side of LAX with two carry on and checked bags each plus a guy with two surf boards. Not an easy feat. Along the way we had to take an escalator downstairs. As easy as that sounds, they we doing construction on the bottom and there was little room. I was the last one done and had to run up the escalator because I could see person after person falling on top of each other with no where to go. No one was injured and most of us laughed pretty hard about it.
In LAX they told us we could not check our bags all the way to Vanuatu and would need to claim them and go through customs in New Zealand. Well it turns out they should of checked them and we did not have to go through, but because we had to claim our bags we needed to stand in the customs line of the largest airport in New Zealand to retrieve our bags. While standing at the very end of the line I saw a sign that said flight crew and diplomats. Hmmm… worth a try? So I headed off to the diplomatic line, where there was one flight attendant ahead of me and passed right on through. I explained to the guy the situation and that 22 more people would head in behind me. Fastest customs experience of my life!
Well that brings me to sitting here in the airport where I just had a spicy salmon role and a kirin beer to wash it done! Life is pretty good. 8 hours from now I will be arriving in Port Vila and that is when the real adventure begins.
Well like always things do not go as planed. We all decided to check in right when the crew arrived and good thing because it took us two hours to get our crew through. While we never had an issue on the other flights here they are very strict about the weight of your luggage. And to make it tougher you can not just pay extra to get it on. So we had to rearrange many of our bags. I was okay but my carry on was two kilos over weight so I had to empty a bunch into my check in bag. The flight was pretty good. I was in the back of the plane against the wall that does not allow your seat to recline back. But the stewardesses were great. I have never seen so many drinks served. When they finished serving drinks they started over again with more. I had some NZ wine, which left something to be desired, but then I saw that Brian a fellow volunteer had ordered a Tusker which is the Vanuatu national beer, and more then it being the national beer it is the only beer. So if you don’t like the taste you learn to like the taste. I think it is pretty good. Reminds me of a Heineken. Being at the back of the plane did have its advantage. Turns out the exit is at the back of the plane, Dale and myself were the first to down on to the tarmac enjoying the first sights of our new home. Holy Crap is this a dream? There was a group of people yelling and waving at us (I think?.) Turns out they were some volunteers and staff there to greet us. But before we could get to them we had to go through customs again. The line zig zagged back and forth and then out the door. Then I remembered we are NOT visitors, we are now residents so we got in the line with one other person! Feels like we are kings here.
After grabbing our luggage we headed out side and were welcomed by the staff. After being here only one hour I was Leigh’d! They gave us some beautiful flowers made by one of the local mama’s. They then wrapped us in a very colorful skirt and handed us a coconut with a straw. What a life!!
This place is amazing. After a short tour of town and an orientation, where they gave us 16,600 VT for spending money we headed to our hotel. Unfortunately we are all split up. So the women are in one hotel and then four guys at another and four of us on the outskirts. Of course being the farthest away as its advantages. We are staying at a place called a room with a view. I am currently sitting on a balcony looking out to the bay. If I had a sling shot I could hit the water.
After a short shower we headed over to the Nakamal (kava bar). We got there just in time to see the sky turn fire red. Is this real? Seriously! I can not believe that I am here in the Beach Corps, I mean the Peace Corps! I had a four shells of kava and a couple of tuskers. The kava is made from the peppercorn family and tastes like peppery wheat grass. Instantly my lips went numb. It is hard to describe the feeling. I would tell you that son the voices dropped and we were all wrapped up in conversations and admiring the view of the ocean below us. I LOVE this place. After spending a few hours there we trekked about 3 miles over to L’Hostelete for dinner. Prices in Vanuatu are about as expensive as they are in California. For a small personal pizza it was 1,000 vatu, which is about $10US.
After dinner we headed back to our hotel.
I met up with my Peace Corps group (20b as we are known) in Los Angeles just a couple of days ago. It is amazing that we have 23 people in our group from all over the United States, from Maryland to Hawaii, again from 21 to 72 (her second time serving,) and instantly we act like we have known each other forever. The comfort level is incredible amongst our group.
We did two days of orientation in Los Angeles. This consisted of mostly PC (Peace Corps) protocol and regulations. There was also some great unintentional team building. Some how I instantly became the tour guise because I was from California, it was hard for them to understand that Nor Cal is so far away from So Cal.
We have had our share of hiccups along the way. On the way to the airport we had a shuttle bus pick us up and deliver us to United Airlines. Well we found quickly, but not soon enough, that we needed to be on United Airlines sister company, Air New Zealand. Well our shuttle bus was gone and now we needed to get 23 people to the opposite side of LAX with two carry on and checked bags each plus a guy with two surf boards. Not an easy feat. Along the way we had to take an escalator downstairs. As easy as that sounds, they we doing construction on the bottom and there was little room. I was the last one done and had to run up the escalator because I could see person after person falling on top of each other with no where to go. No one was injured and most of us laughed pretty hard about it.
In LAX they told us we could not check our bags all the way to Vanuatu and would need to claim them and go through customs in New Zealand. Well it turns out they should of checked them and we did not have to go through, but because we had to claim our bags we needed to stand in the customs line of the largest airport in New Zealand to retrieve our bags. While standing at the very end of the line I saw a sign that said flight crew and diplomats. Hmmm… worth a try? So I headed off to the diplomatic line, where there was one flight attendant ahead of me and passed right on through. I explained to the guy the situation and that 22 more people would head in behind me. Fastest customs experience of my life!
Well that brings me to sitting here in the airport where I just had a spicy salmon role and a kirin beer to wash it done! Life is pretty good. 8 hours from now I will be arriving in Port Vila and that is when the real adventure begins.
Well like always things do not go as planed. We all decided to check in right when the crew arrived and good thing because it took us two hours to get our crew through. While we never had an issue on the other flights here they are very strict about the weight of your luggage. And to make it tougher you can not just pay extra to get it on. So we had to rearrange many of our bags. I was okay but my carry on was two kilos over weight so I had to empty a bunch into my check in bag. The flight was pretty good. I was in the back of the plane against the wall that does not allow your seat to recline back. But the stewardesses were great. I have never seen so many drinks served. When they finished serving drinks they started over again with more. I had some NZ wine, which left something to be desired, but then I saw that Brian a fellow volunteer had ordered a Tusker which is the Vanuatu national beer, and more then it being the national beer it is the only beer. So if you don’t like the taste you learn to like the taste. I think it is pretty good. Reminds me of a Heineken. Being at the back of the plane did have its advantage. Turns out the exit is at the back of the plane, Dale and myself were the first to down on to the tarmac enjoying the first sights of our new home. Holy Crap is this a dream? There was a group of people yelling and waving at us (I think?.) Turns out they were some volunteers and staff there to greet us. But before we could get to them we had to go through customs again. The line zig zagged back and forth and then out the door. Then I remembered we are NOT visitors, we are now residents so we got in the line with one other person! Feels like we are kings here.
After grabbing our luggage we headed out side and were welcomed by the staff. After being here only one hour I was Leigh’d! They gave us some beautiful flowers made by one of the local mama’s. They then wrapped us in a very colorful skirt and handed us a coconut with a straw. What a life!!
This place is amazing. After a short tour of town and an orientation, where they gave us 16,600 VT for spending money we headed to our hotel. Unfortunately we are all split up. So the women are in one hotel and then four guys at another and four of us on the outskirts. Of course being the farthest away as its advantages. We are staying at a place called a room with a view. I am currently sitting on a balcony looking out to the bay. If I had a sling shot I could hit the water.
After a short shower we headed over to the Nakamal (kava bar). We got there just in time to see the sky turn fire red. Is this real? Seriously! I can not believe that I am here in the Beach Corps, I mean the Peace Corps! I had a four shells of kava and a couple of tuskers. The kava is made from the peppercorn family and tastes like peppery wheat grass. Instantly my lips went numb. It is hard to describe the feeling. I would tell you that son the voices dropped and we were all wrapped up in conversations and admiring the view of the ocean below us. I LOVE this place. After spending a few hours there we trekked about 3 miles over to L’Hostelete for dinner. Prices in Vanuatu are about as expensive as they are in California. For a small personal pizza it was 1,000 vatu, which is about $10US.
After dinner we headed back to our hotel.
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