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