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