So somehow I always want a peaceful night at hoe and end up undertaking some grand adventure. Last night I headed over to two volunteers house, where we made some vegetable and cream cheese sushi rolls, drank wine, and attempted to play clue. They decided it was time to watch a James Bond movie and I decided it was time to go back to the Formule and go to sleep. After the 20 minute walk back to my hotel I was ready to sack out for the night. As I walked through the hotel I hear, “hey look what the cat dragged in! Perfect timing we are heading out!” To which I responded “Sori Fren, bae I go long slip nao.” (Sorry friends but I must go to sleep now.) Well some how I allowed them into talking me into just going out for one beer. This was at 2230; I finally went to sleep at 0530 this morning.
We started off at the Waterfront where we got our groove on. The band was happy to see us back there, as we were the life of the party the night before. The previous night we danced until the place closed down. They even came up to me and Bridget after we were swinging and gave us each a shot. I asked “from wanem?” and she said because we were the best dancers out there! To which I replied, “mitufala i stap danis nomo, hemi no gat wan narafala man i danis long placia!!” (We are the only two people dancing!) She laughed and gave us out drinks. I hope we were not that bad? But this night the place was full of tourist and so we danced a little but decided to head down the road to the Voodoo bar.
As we left a man said hey you going to Voodoo? I will give you a ride. So we climbed into the back of his pickup and headed to the Voodoo. We danced until about 0330. I am not sure how, but not one person from our group bought drinks that night. Every time we headed to the bar someone bought a round for us. I met all sorts of interesting people from various places. Each one with there own interesting story as to why they were in Vanuatu.
We ended up getting a ride home from the same guy who drove us to the Voodoo. Wow what a ride that was! Once back to our hotel we decided it would be a good idea to go swimming so the four of us climbed in the pool and did not get out until sometime after 0500. I love this group of volunteers. Everyone is up for anything.
Well after getting a few hours sleep I got up and started packing up spices and gear to take to my site on Monday. I must say I am a little worried about the ship ride to site. I think it is about a 24-36 hour trip. This is not like a ferry in the states or Europe. But I will say more about that after I make the journey.
Well tonight we had heard about the water dancers and some fire dancers doing a performance at The Sebel, which is a very nice hotel. I walked out the back door of the Sebel into the pool yard that over looks the ocean and Irriki Island. I looked around at all the well groomed people in their nice designer shirts and dresses. I quickly realized that I was way under dressed. As we walked down the steps to the pool there was a waitress holding tray of beer, and then a waitress holding a tray of beer, and a third with red wine. We walked past as I we knew that those drinks must be expensive. The four of us laughed as it all seemed so strange. We looked like a bunch of dirty hippies in the middle of high society philanthropy. Well next thing I know a gentleman is getting our attention and telling us to come the steps. I had a feeling our luck had run out and he was about to say I am sorry but you must leave. I would have said okay and left. But No! He says here grab some wine or beer or champagne. Then they came by with platters of shrimp and other tasty little treats. I was in complete awe. Why was this happening? Well after about 30 minutes of being there someone asked us what table we were at. Ummm… table? That was our cue for exit stage left. Apparently it was a private affair for some vary wealthy business owners. Oh well. We had a great time crashing their party. I am still amazed that we lasted there as long as we did.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Swearing in and saying goodbye
Well training has come to and end and we are all now official Peace Corps Volunteers. We had to go through a swearing in ceremony which seemed to take forever. I heard from the staff that this was the longest swearing in ceremony that they could remember. All in all it was a great day.
The day started by Mama blong mi gave me a new island shirt. I was confused as it as different then all of the other swearing in shirts and dresses I had seen. Well it turns out there was some confusion among the Mamas and some used one pattern of calico and others used a different one. I like mine the best! It is bright orange with a map of the Vanuatu islands on it. I then found out that my tarti (grandmother) had made me a custom, ceremonial mat to wear. We were all supposed to wear these and do a custom dance with Chief Mormor, but again there was confusion so not all the Mama’s made the mats. I felt like my Tarti had put all that work into making it I should wear it. I do not know how to really explain what it was. I guess you will have to look at the pictures online for this one. Otherwise, just think grass skirt.
At the beginning of our ceremony we all walked down to watch some kustom water dance. This was performed by a group of women up in The Banks (northern islands.) It was absolutely awesome!! Again this is going to be hard to explain. So the women who are wearing traditional mats around there waists, yellow leaves around there biceps, and a green lei of leaves around there neck. Kustom ceremonies always look straight out of national geographic. The women walk into the ocean and form a horse shoe looking circle. Then, one woman starts the beat by moving her hands through out the water. She is then joined by all the women doing the same rhythm. Swoosh… Boom… splash… splash… splash… swoosh… boom… splash… splash… splash… It reminded me of the Broadway show Stomp, where they use all household items to make music. The music made by these ladies was awesome! It was truly amazing to see and hear.
They do dances that celebrate various things in the sea, including dolphins. I am not joking that in the back ground of them making this dance, there was about 5 spinner dolphins doing double flips and jumping in and out of the water! This is the same spot that we swim in everyday, but this is the first time I have seen dolphins there!!! Truly amazing!!!
After the dancers were finished we headed back to our seats to begin the long line up of speeches. There were speeches given by the Chief, the Chairmen, our Country Director, local dignitaries, and U.S. Ambassador to Vanuatu, PNG, and the Solomon Islands, Leslie Rowe. Through out the speeches we had some entertainment provided by my group of trainees. We made a little skit about survivor. Then we did superlatives, i.e. Most likely too… I wont go through them all but my two were: Most likely to have his feet look like Dan’s at the end of service (Dan is in our group and has the grossest feet you have ever seen, and with all my feet injuries mine are on there way!!!) The other was most likely to show up at ALL VOL (all volunteer conference) with my beard braided into a Namba. We then sang parody of the 12 days of Christmas, which was the 12 days of training. It was pretty funny.
At the end we stood up and put our hands on our hearts and gave the swearing in pledge. It was official, we are no longer trainees!!! We then headed down to have kava with the Chief. By the time we had walked down to the kava there was already a full line of PCVs waiting for Kava. Now luckily I had been given advice from a volunteer who swore in six months ago that the old volunteers had drank all of the kava before any of the new volunteers could have any! Well that was not going to be acceptable to me on our swearing in day, so I had talked with the Chief and the Chairmen the previous day and told them that I thought that was rubis fasin, (Rubbish Fashion.) So we decided that the kava was to be Tabu until the new PCVs, the chairmen, and our language trainers had a toast of kava with Chief Mormor. A few old volunteers were like hey the line is over here. Ummm… yeah sori fren (sorry friend) new volunteers drink first in this village!
We then had a big kakae with all types of lap lap, yams, beef, pig, fish, pumpkin tops, cabbage, and a bunch of other goodies that I can not remember now. After we finished eating we put on a little fire show for everyone and then a group of young men from a nearby village performed a ceremonial war dance which was pretty awesome! Very intense! I think I may have been a little scared from their intensity. That is until they finished the war dance and then grabbed pompoms and started line dancing. It looked like they should have been an opening act for the Village People or a cabaret in the Castro. This place never stops amazing me.
Well once the pompoms were put away we fired up some tunes and started dancing. When I say some tunes I am referring to the five songs that they all love, Babylon, Akon, island paradise, Hips Don’t Lie, and string band! All night long was the same song over and over. But what ever, we danced our hearts out. So our dance floor is just crushed coral about 25 yards from the salt water. Now there may have been some tuskers that helped motivate us to dance until 2 or 3 in the morning. The little kids out lasted all of u volunteers. I think they were still dancing when I got up at 7.
At one point I started pushing my friend Liz. I was trying to grab her arm and push her to the side. She was getting irritated thinking that I was just being mean. But I swear all I was trying to do was move her out of the way of the sea snake that was slithering through the middle of the dance floor. These things are very poisonous! It was probably not the best idea for me to try and pick him up from right behind his head. As soon as I touched him he flipped around towards me. At this point a Ni-Van saw what was going on and came over to help me get him off the dance floor and back to the ocean. Only in Vanuatu can a deadly snake slither through the dance floor and not disturb the dance. Everyone just kept on dancing while we got it out of the way!
The next morning was a little rough. We had to load our gear up at 0700 and then say goodbye to everyone in the village. They lined up and we gave hand shakes, hugs, and kisses all the down the line. I think the entire village was there. I got to my Mama and she just had tears running down her face. She was absolutely the best mama in the village. I am really going to miss her a lot. If anyone ever comes and visits me here we will spend a couple days in Mongaliliu so you can meet them. I picked up Asana my little sister and threw her in the air trying to break some of the sad tension. It helped a little but man; even right now I can feel the sadness from missing them. When we got to the end of the line we climbed into the bus. As we drove away the Mama’s, Papa’s, and all the pikininis followed the bus and waved until we were out of sight. It was like straight out of a movie. I mean things like this just do not happen in real life. I tell you what, you want to feel loved, then come be adopted by a Ni-Van family!!
The day started by Mama blong mi gave me a new island shirt. I was confused as it as different then all of the other swearing in shirts and dresses I had seen. Well it turns out there was some confusion among the Mamas and some used one pattern of calico and others used a different one. I like mine the best! It is bright orange with a map of the Vanuatu islands on it. I then found out that my tarti (grandmother) had made me a custom, ceremonial mat to wear. We were all supposed to wear these and do a custom dance with Chief Mormor, but again there was confusion so not all the Mama’s made the mats. I felt like my Tarti had put all that work into making it I should wear it. I do not know how to really explain what it was. I guess you will have to look at the pictures online for this one. Otherwise, just think grass skirt.
At the beginning of our ceremony we all walked down to watch some kustom water dance. This was performed by a group of women up in The Banks (northern islands.) It was absolutely awesome!! Again this is going to be hard to explain. So the women who are wearing traditional mats around there waists, yellow leaves around there biceps, and a green lei of leaves around there neck. Kustom ceremonies always look straight out of national geographic. The women walk into the ocean and form a horse shoe looking circle. Then, one woman starts the beat by moving her hands through out the water. She is then joined by all the women doing the same rhythm. Swoosh… Boom… splash… splash… splash… swoosh… boom… splash… splash… splash… It reminded me of the Broadway show Stomp, where they use all household items to make music. The music made by these ladies was awesome! It was truly amazing to see and hear.
They do dances that celebrate various things in the sea, including dolphins. I am not joking that in the back ground of them making this dance, there was about 5 spinner dolphins doing double flips and jumping in and out of the water! This is the same spot that we swim in everyday, but this is the first time I have seen dolphins there!!! Truly amazing!!!
After the dancers were finished we headed back to our seats to begin the long line up of speeches. There were speeches given by the Chief, the Chairmen, our Country Director, local dignitaries, and U.S. Ambassador to Vanuatu, PNG, and the Solomon Islands, Leslie Rowe. Through out the speeches we had some entertainment provided by my group of trainees. We made a little skit about survivor. Then we did superlatives, i.e. Most likely too… I wont go through them all but my two were: Most likely to have his feet look like Dan’s at the end of service (Dan is in our group and has the grossest feet you have ever seen, and with all my feet injuries mine are on there way!!!) The other was most likely to show up at ALL VOL (all volunteer conference) with my beard braided into a Namba. We then sang parody of the 12 days of Christmas, which was the 12 days of training. It was pretty funny.
At the end we stood up and put our hands on our hearts and gave the swearing in pledge. It was official, we are no longer trainees!!! We then headed down to have kava with the Chief. By the time we had walked down to the kava there was already a full line of PCVs waiting for Kava. Now luckily I had been given advice from a volunteer who swore in six months ago that the old volunteers had drank all of the kava before any of the new volunteers could have any! Well that was not going to be acceptable to me on our swearing in day, so I had talked with the Chief and the Chairmen the previous day and told them that I thought that was rubis fasin, (Rubbish Fashion.) So we decided that the kava was to be Tabu until the new PCVs, the chairmen, and our language trainers had a toast of kava with Chief Mormor. A few old volunteers were like hey the line is over here. Ummm… yeah sori fren (sorry friend) new volunteers drink first in this village!
We then had a big kakae with all types of lap lap, yams, beef, pig, fish, pumpkin tops, cabbage, and a bunch of other goodies that I can not remember now. After we finished eating we put on a little fire show for everyone and then a group of young men from a nearby village performed a ceremonial war dance which was pretty awesome! Very intense! I think I may have been a little scared from their intensity. That is until they finished the war dance and then grabbed pompoms and started line dancing. It looked like they should have been an opening act for the Village People or a cabaret in the Castro. This place never stops amazing me.
Well once the pompoms were put away we fired up some tunes and started dancing. When I say some tunes I am referring to the five songs that they all love, Babylon, Akon, island paradise, Hips Don’t Lie, and string band! All night long was the same song over and over. But what ever, we danced our hearts out. So our dance floor is just crushed coral about 25 yards from the salt water. Now there may have been some tuskers that helped motivate us to dance until 2 or 3 in the morning. The little kids out lasted all of u volunteers. I think they were still dancing when I got up at 7.
At one point I started pushing my friend Liz. I was trying to grab her arm and push her to the side. She was getting irritated thinking that I was just being mean. But I swear all I was trying to do was move her out of the way of the sea snake that was slithering through the middle of the dance floor. These things are very poisonous! It was probably not the best idea for me to try and pick him up from right behind his head. As soon as I touched him he flipped around towards me. At this point a Ni-Van saw what was going on and came over to help me get him off the dance floor and back to the ocean. Only in Vanuatu can a deadly snake slither through the dance floor and not disturb the dance. Everyone just kept on dancing while we got it out of the way!
The next morning was a little rough. We had to load our gear up at 0700 and then say goodbye to everyone in the village. They lined up and we gave hand shakes, hugs, and kisses all the down the line. I think the entire village was there. I got to my Mama and she just had tears running down her face. She was absolutely the best mama in the village. I am really going to miss her a lot. If anyone ever comes and visits me here we will spend a couple days in Mongaliliu so you can meet them. I picked up Asana my little sister and threw her in the air trying to break some of the sad tension. It helped a little but man; even right now I can feel the sadness from missing them. When we got to the end of the line we climbed into the bus. As we drove away the Mama’s, Papa’s, and all the pikininis followed the bus and waved until we were out of sight. It was like straight out of a movie. I mean things like this just do not happen in real life. I tell you what, you want to feel loved, then come be adopted by a Ni-Van family!!
My New Nakamal
The Nakamal experience in my village is pretty amazing. First off let me just say that everything in middle bush revolves around Kava. We typically head over to the Nakamal between 1530 and 1630. The late afternoon is simply known as “taem blong yumi.” (It’s our time.) If someone says this to you then you know it is time to go drink kava.
Let me first describe what my Nakamal even looks like. Most Nakamals in Tanna are situated close to a large banyan tree. Ours is huge and provides shade to a majority of the Nakamal. There is actually a natural swimming pool at the top of the banyan tree; there is also a small three sided structure that everyone sits at to storian. They also use this for when it rains, as a storm would not prevent them from drinking kava! The rest of the area is open dirt surrounded by hedges and trees. There is a small log spilt in half used as a table for wash out food.
When I first arrived at the Nakamal I was worried about what this was going to be like, but it was such a great experience. Everyone sits around and storians. Now then this is kustom Kava so the men chew it here. At first I thought for sure that I was going to be drinking the spit from young boys, but this was not the case. Kava is a root and the men first clean it with coconut husk. Then they take big bites out of the root, it makes this crisp crunchy sound like biting into a crisp apple. They then chew the kava, turning it into a pasty mush. Once they have chewed it into a mush they spit it out onto a leaf.
So I laughed so hard to my self when I first sat down. These guys have roots hanging out of there mouth which is filled with as much kava as possible. It reminded me of Chubby Bunny, the old 4-h game where you have to fill your mouth with as many marshmallows as possible a then say chubby bunny. I think I was reminded about this because even though their mouths were filled to capacity they were not going to let that stop them from talking to me in Bislama! So here I am new to there language and they make it even more difficult for me by talking with there mouth completely full. It defiantly amused me.
So when they spit chewed kava on to a leaf they count how many people are there and divide it equally among everyone. Well that is not totally true. If they lots of kava then everyone will drink a full shell, but if they do not have that much then the chief will always get a full shell and then as a guest they would make sure I was taken care. After that they would divided the rest. Even if I was to try and argue and be like no I only want an equal share, they would not do that. They will always make sure that a guest gets the best kava, the best food, the best cut of pig, etc, etc etc. They are truly amazing people.
After they spit the chewed kava out they are not allowed to touch it again. Only a boy you has not started shaving (pre-pubescent) is allowed to “was” (prepare) the kava. Also if you have slept with a woman you are not allowed to touch the kava either. It basically means that only pre-pubescent boys are clean enough to make the kava for us. The boy then takes the appropriate amount of kava for one shell and someone else pours water into his kava and he begins to wash the kava. The final product is then drained into a single shell. I think kava is so good here because it never sits. They make it and then you drink it. When you get kava in a ready made Nakamal it has been made in bulk and could be sitting for a couple of hours.
The chief is the first person to drink his kava followed by any guests and then everyone else. I am not sure how they decide whose turn is next. When you drink your shell you are supposed to say a prayer to god and then you drink your kava ns when it is gone you spit and then sing out. When you sing out you are respecting your ancestors and praying for them too. This is kustom religion here in Tanna. My Chief has actually blocked church from my village, Kustom nomo!!
After you drink your kava you go grab some food off the table that the men’s wives have prepared. As an unmarried man I can eat as much of that food as I want because I don’t have a wife to make me diner afterwards. I try and grab a respectable amount and sure enough they always bring me another big piece of lap lap or pig. Which I gladly accept as it would be rude not too.
As people begin drinking the kava you can tell that the sounds of the Nakamal disappear. By the time the last person drinks his kava the place is silent. People head off and sit by themselves and build small fires around the Nakamal. You then sit there and pray. I find this to be a great time to mediate and just think. I can’t even think of half the stuff I have thought about in one week. But I know I had some in-depth inner monologues going on. One thing for sure, I am going to have lots of time to be able to think about what my beliefs are on evri samting. (Every something is my favorite term in Bislama, you don’t say everything, you say every something. I find if funny.)
At a certain point you will see one fire get a very bright and then you know someone is making the maca, which is the second round of kava. Again these shells are huge! They are about five times as big as the ones in Vila. People begin to leave at various points. There is no pressure to drink kava but I can tell this will be the place that I am most effective. There is one man here named James who is an intellect. He loves to talk about history of the US and of Vanuatu. I think I am really going to enjoy talking with him.
On a side not, women are not allowed at the Nakamal. SO much as to if they see a girl they will throw rocks at them...
Let me first describe what my Nakamal even looks like. Most Nakamals in Tanna are situated close to a large banyan tree. Ours is huge and provides shade to a majority of the Nakamal. There is actually a natural swimming pool at the top of the banyan tree; there is also a small three sided structure that everyone sits at to storian. They also use this for when it rains, as a storm would not prevent them from drinking kava! The rest of the area is open dirt surrounded by hedges and trees. There is a small log spilt in half used as a table for wash out food.
When I first arrived at the Nakamal I was worried about what this was going to be like, but it was such a great experience. Everyone sits around and storians. Now then this is kustom Kava so the men chew it here. At first I thought for sure that I was going to be drinking the spit from young boys, but this was not the case. Kava is a root and the men first clean it with coconut husk. Then they take big bites out of the root, it makes this crisp crunchy sound like biting into a crisp apple. They then chew the kava, turning it into a pasty mush. Once they have chewed it into a mush they spit it out onto a leaf.
So I laughed so hard to my self when I first sat down. These guys have roots hanging out of there mouth which is filled with as much kava as possible. It reminded me of Chubby Bunny, the old 4-h game where you have to fill your mouth with as many marshmallows as possible a then say chubby bunny. I think I was reminded about this because even though their mouths were filled to capacity they were not going to let that stop them from talking to me in Bislama! So here I am new to there language and they make it even more difficult for me by talking with there mouth completely full. It defiantly amused me.
So when they spit chewed kava on to a leaf they count how many people are there and divide it equally among everyone. Well that is not totally true. If they lots of kava then everyone will drink a full shell, but if they do not have that much then the chief will always get a full shell and then as a guest they would make sure I was taken care. After that they would divided the rest. Even if I was to try and argue and be like no I only want an equal share, they would not do that. They will always make sure that a guest gets the best kava, the best food, the best cut of pig, etc, etc etc. They are truly amazing people.
After they spit the chewed kava out they are not allowed to touch it again. Only a boy you has not started shaving (pre-pubescent) is allowed to “was” (prepare) the kava. Also if you have slept with a woman you are not allowed to touch the kava either. It basically means that only pre-pubescent boys are clean enough to make the kava for us. The boy then takes the appropriate amount of kava for one shell and someone else pours water into his kava and he begins to wash the kava. The final product is then drained into a single shell. I think kava is so good here because it never sits. They make it and then you drink it. When you get kava in a ready made Nakamal it has been made in bulk and could be sitting for a couple of hours.
The chief is the first person to drink his kava followed by any guests and then everyone else. I am not sure how they decide whose turn is next. When you drink your shell you are supposed to say a prayer to god and then you drink your kava ns when it is gone you spit and then sing out. When you sing out you are respecting your ancestors and praying for them too. This is kustom religion here in Tanna. My Chief has actually blocked church from my village, Kustom nomo!!
After you drink your kava you go grab some food off the table that the men’s wives have prepared. As an unmarried man I can eat as much of that food as I want because I don’t have a wife to make me diner afterwards. I try and grab a respectable amount and sure enough they always bring me another big piece of lap lap or pig. Which I gladly accept as it would be rude not too.
As people begin drinking the kava you can tell that the sounds of the Nakamal disappear. By the time the last person drinks his kava the place is silent. People head off and sit by themselves and build small fires around the Nakamal. You then sit there and pray. I find this to be a great time to mediate and just think. I can’t even think of half the stuff I have thought about in one week. But I know I had some in-depth inner monologues going on. One thing for sure, I am going to have lots of time to be able to think about what my beliefs are on evri samting. (Every something is my favorite term in Bislama, you don’t say everything, you say every something. I find if funny.)
At a certain point you will see one fire get a very bright and then you know someone is making the maca, which is the second round of kava. Again these shells are huge! They are about five times as big as the ones in Vila. People begin to leave at various points. There is no pressure to drink kava but I can tell this will be the place that I am most effective. There is one man here named James who is an intellect. He loves to talk about history of the US and of Vanuatu. I think I am really going to enjoy talking with him.
On a side not, women are not allowed at the Nakamal. SO much as to if they see a girl they will throw rocks at them...
I hear there is a tropical depression
So I hear there is a Tropical Depression up north. You can hardly tell, except from the high winds, the thunder and lightning, and the torrential down pour of water that is pounding down on my bamboo hut. Other then that you can hardly notice!!! With that said let me just tell you how amazed I am at the design of my house. I mean I truly am living in a grass hut with coconut palms for a roof and sliced bamboo shoots for walls, and I yet to feel a drop of water leak through. That is more then I can say for my apartment in downtown Sacramento!! I think we have all been pretty lucky with the weather so far. We are supposed to be in the middle of the hot-rainy season but thus far we have had relatively moderate weather. The NiVans talk about how they notice that the weather has been slowly changing over the past years. I believe global warming is taking its toll down here in the tropics. I think most NiVans have never heard of Global Warming, but they will be the first to tell you that the seasons are changing here.
So today (Sunday) we went in to Vila to say good bye to another trainee. We have now had two people leave our group which leave 21 of us to swear in on Thursday. (Unless anyone changes their mind last minute.) I know emotions are high here and I think we are all over the board with respect to where we each are in our own realm of emotions. Every once in a while I get a reality check that I welcome. Today I was talking with Dennis about where we both were in our journey and if we each were ready to make this commitment.
Right now we are all enjoying our lives in the “Ritz Carlton Mongaliliu,” but soon we will be heading out to the bush or the banks for Dennis. Both of which in their own right are very isolated. In fact I have come to ask the question, “What kind of isolation are you?” because everyone here is isolated in one form or another. I think we are all ready at this point to make this next venture in our journey. When I get down or emotionally drained from thinking about missing my new friends and family here, or being so far away from the solwota, I have to remind myself of how lucky I am to be here in Vanuatu. I never asked to come here. I told the Peace Corps to send me wherever they felt I would be the most needed. I often think about what if I was sent to the middle bush of Africa where the ocean is not even an option to drive to? Or, what if I was sent to the Ukraine where I would be huddled around my furnace drinking vodka (wait that does not sound too bad!) Yeah I think I am pretty lucky to be here with such an amazing group of like minded people,
Right now I am going to enjoy my indulgences while I can. Jumping in the solwota for some amazing snorkeling, (saw a beautiful sting ray about 4 feet from my face yesterday!!!) playing cards like pinochle, canasta and Texas Hold Em! Drinking a kol-kol tusker when I can, for that matter drinking anything kolkol (COLD.) Yeah I get to indulge now, but that will change here very quickly. Soon I will back out at my sight where I will have to learn how to amuse myself with little resources. Actually, I don’t think that it’s a matter of little resources, but a matter of different resources that I am used too.
The first two to three months at site I will have very little to do. RTC’s and schools shut down for Christmas break, same as in the states but for a longer period of time. I have several things that I want to accomplish during this time. First and foremost I really need to get my Bislama up to par. I feel pretty good with it, but I know after two months of only speaking Bislama I will be miles ahead of where I am now. Secondly I have some household project I would like to take care of. The floor of my house is old and decrepit and is in dire need of be repaired/ replaced. I was telling a volunteer in Lenakel (the provincial center of Tanna) about the house and she said I just need to tear it down and build me a new one. I think I agree. It would also give me a good way of making it my house and getting to know the men in my community. I also think I need to build a new toilet. Right now I have a long drop toilet, which is fine, but…. You can here, but not here, here, here, or there, because I think I could fall through. Now I am not sure how far down of a long drop it is, nor do I know what was put in there by previous volunteers, but what I do know if what I have left in there and to be frank I don’t ever want to see it again. So either I am going to build a new floor or just dig a new toilet. I am not sure how long it would take me to dig a hole about 15 feet deep, but it would give me something to do for a few days.
I am really looking forward to having some down time to read, play my guitar, and juggle. Here we are so busy taking advantage of each others company that it seems there is never time to do our own thing. This will change very quickly once at site. I have also been debating on buying a bicycle for my site. The debate is over the fact that I do not want to go in there and be “that guy.” The white man who comes in with all of his flas toys and I am already half way there with my laptop and camera. So I have decided that I am not going to buy a bike. Instead I am going to go back to my high school roots and become a cowboy on Tanna. I can buy a horse for 1,000 Vatu which is about $95-US. I have several men in my village who are cowboys so I told them to keep their ears open to see if anyone wants to sell one to me. The nice thing about a horse in Tanna is that I will never have to feed or water it and when I am done with my service I can make a bigfala kakae for my village and eat it!!!
I have come to terms with the fact that over the next two years I will probably end up eating every kind of meat that exists on Tanna, except Human! The previous volunteer from this site told me about all the wonderful things he has eaten at my future site. Things like goat, pig, beef, horse, grubs, dog, and cat. In fact on Tanna if you see a ca with one ear chopped off it is to show others that it is a pet and not to be eaten!!! I hear it is delicious, but I will let you know after I try it!! Out of everything, it is the grubs that I am most concerned about.
As I was drinking my Starbucks this morning, my Mama came in with her guitar and told Bridgette and me that we were going to sing a song in a local language. This is always fun. These guys hit such high notes that it rings your ear drums. As we were singing the same song over and over again out of the local language hymn book, I asked why we don’t sing more then just this one song. I mean after the entire hymn book is full of songs. Oh what’s that Mama? We are going to sing this in front of everyone at church? Oh well that makes sense then!!
So sure enough at church when they called for the choir Mama blong Mi, Bridgette, Jackie, Brian, and myself got up and sang in local language. I am sure we butchered the song to pieces, but I sure did have fun doing it!! I can only remember one line and it is Togo wo po doko, which means “we are going too.” Afterwards, Chief Mormor gave the sermon which was the best I have heard yet. He is such an animated man that it does not matter what he is talking about he always makes it interesting. He then started talking about us volunteers. He always refers to us as his pikinini. I should preface this by saying NiVans rarely show emotions. They are not allowed to show anger or sadness unless it is at a funeral or a wedding. But today in the middle of talking about us he had to stop and do the sly macho thing that all of us guys do when a tear starts to well up, (stupid allergies!) As I noticed him wiping his eyes I kind of glanced around and noticed that my grandfather and half of the other host parents of us volunteers were all wiping their eyes. It made me sit back and reflect on just how much we impact these people and how much they truly love us as their own children.
I love the family unit of Vanuatu. First off you would be hard pressed to go some where and not have a family member there. They adopt each others children all of the time. If you ever move to another village then a family will always adopt you, even though you are an adult. This way you have family there. Even if you get married and move to your husband or wife’s community then someone will adopt you so you have family there outside your spouse’s family. I was talking with Dennis about his situation in The Banks. I was surprised that him and his wife will each have their own host family there. At first I was like that is weird that you guys have two different host families. But after he explained their reasoning it seems so obvious. If they had only one host family between them then they would be married and be brother and sister, and that is just not acceptable here. Cousins? Sure, but not brother and sisters. I guess my point is that they do not take this lightly; it is not just for show that they call us family. We are now family forever and I think that is awesome!
So today (Sunday) we went in to Vila to say good bye to another trainee. We have now had two people leave our group which leave 21 of us to swear in on Thursday. (Unless anyone changes their mind last minute.) I know emotions are high here and I think we are all over the board with respect to where we each are in our own realm of emotions. Every once in a while I get a reality check that I welcome. Today I was talking with Dennis about where we both were in our journey and if we each were ready to make this commitment.
Right now we are all enjoying our lives in the “Ritz Carlton Mongaliliu,” but soon we will be heading out to the bush or the banks for Dennis. Both of which in their own right are very isolated. In fact I have come to ask the question, “What kind of isolation are you?” because everyone here is isolated in one form or another. I think we are all ready at this point to make this next venture in our journey. When I get down or emotionally drained from thinking about missing my new friends and family here, or being so far away from the solwota, I have to remind myself of how lucky I am to be here in Vanuatu. I never asked to come here. I told the Peace Corps to send me wherever they felt I would be the most needed. I often think about what if I was sent to the middle bush of Africa where the ocean is not even an option to drive to? Or, what if I was sent to the Ukraine where I would be huddled around my furnace drinking vodka (wait that does not sound too bad!) Yeah I think I am pretty lucky to be here with such an amazing group of like minded people,
Right now I am going to enjoy my indulgences while I can. Jumping in the solwota for some amazing snorkeling, (saw a beautiful sting ray about 4 feet from my face yesterday!!!) playing cards like pinochle, canasta and Texas Hold Em! Drinking a kol-kol tusker when I can, for that matter drinking anything kolkol (COLD.) Yeah I get to indulge now, but that will change here very quickly. Soon I will back out at my sight where I will have to learn how to amuse myself with little resources. Actually, I don’t think that it’s a matter of little resources, but a matter of different resources that I am used too.
The first two to three months at site I will have very little to do. RTC’s and schools shut down for Christmas break, same as in the states but for a longer period of time. I have several things that I want to accomplish during this time. First and foremost I really need to get my Bislama up to par. I feel pretty good with it, but I know after two months of only speaking Bislama I will be miles ahead of where I am now. Secondly I have some household project I would like to take care of. The floor of my house is old and decrepit and is in dire need of be repaired/ replaced. I was telling a volunteer in Lenakel (the provincial center of Tanna) about the house and she said I just need to tear it down and build me a new one. I think I agree. It would also give me a good way of making it my house and getting to know the men in my community. I also think I need to build a new toilet. Right now I have a long drop toilet, which is fine, but…. You can here, but not here, here, here, or there, because I think I could fall through. Now I am not sure how far down of a long drop it is, nor do I know what was put in there by previous volunteers, but what I do know if what I have left in there and to be frank I don’t ever want to see it again. So either I am going to build a new floor or just dig a new toilet. I am not sure how long it would take me to dig a hole about 15 feet deep, but it would give me something to do for a few days.
I am really looking forward to having some down time to read, play my guitar, and juggle. Here we are so busy taking advantage of each others company that it seems there is never time to do our own thing. This will change very quickly once at site. I have also been debating on buying a bicycle for my site. The debate is over the fact that I do not want to go in there and be “that guy.” The white man who comes in with all of his flas toys and I am already half way there with my laptop and camera. So I have decided that I am not going to buy a bike. Instead I am going to go back to my high school roots and become a cowboy on Tanna. I can buy a horse for 1,000 Vatu which is about $95-US. I have several men in my village who are cowboys so I told them to keep their ears open to see if anyone wants to sell one to me. The nice thing about a horse in Tanna is that I will never have to feed or water it and when I am done with my service I can make a bigfala kakae for my village and eat it!!!
I have come to terms with the fact that over the next two years I will probably end up eating every kind of meat that exists on Tanna, except Human! The previous volunteer from this site told me about all the wonderful things he has eaten at my future site. Things like goat, pig, beef, horse, grubs, dog, and cat. In fact on Tanna if you see a ca with one ear chopped off it is to show others that it is a pet and not to be eaten!!! I hear it is delicious, but I will let you know after I try it!! Out of everything, it is the grubs that I am most concerned about.
As I was drinking my Starbucks this morning, my Mama came in with her guitar and told Bridgette and me that we were going to sing a song in a local language. This is always fun. These guys hit such high notes that it rings your ear drums. As we were singing the same song over and over again out of the local language hymn book, I asked why we don’t sing more then just this one song. I mean after the entire hymn book is full of songs. Oh what’s that Mama? We are going to sing this in front of everyone at church? Oh well that makes sense then!!
So sure enough at church when they called for the choir Mama blong Mi, Bridgette, Jackie, Brian, and myself got up and sang in local language. I am sure we butchered the song to pieces, but I sure did have fun doing it!! I can only remember one line and it is Togo wo po doko, which means “we are going too.” Afterwards, Chief Mormor gave the sermon which was the best I have heard yet. He is such an animated man that it does not matter what he is talking about he always makes it interesting. He then started talking about us volunteers. He always refers to us as his pikinini. I should preface this by saying NiVans rarely show emotions. They are not allowed to show anger or sadness unless it is at a funeral or a wedding. But today in the middle of talking about us he had to stop and do the sly macho thing that all of us guys do when a tear starts to well up, (stupid allergies!) As I noticed him wiping his eyes I kind of glanced around and noticed that my grandfather and half of the other host parents of us volunteers were all wiping their eyes. It made me sit back and reflect on just how much we impact these people and how much they truly love us as their own children.
I love the family unit of Vanuatu. First off you would be hard pressed to go some where and not have a family member there. They adopt each others children all of the time. If you ever move to another village then a family will always adopt you, even though you are an adult. This way you have family there. Even if you get married and move to your husband or wife’s community then someone will adopt you so you have family there outside your spouse’s family. I was talking with Dennis about his situation in The Banks. I was surprised that him and his wife will each have their own host family there. At first I was like that is weird that you guys have two different host families. But after he explained their reasoning it seems so obvious. If they had only one host family between them then they would be married and be brother and sister, and that is just not acceptable here. Cousins? Sure, but not brother and sisters. I guess my point is that they do not take this lightly; it is not just for show that they call us family. We are now family forever and I think that is awesome!
Halloween mo Walk about
Wow has it been a while since I have written anything in my journal here. I guess the last time I wrote anything was just before Halloween. So I will try and pick up from there. I know I am going to miss a lot of the emotions that I have gone through, but that is okay. So on Halloween, we put on a celebration here in Mongaliliu. We did face painting, carved pumpkins, set out mats to hand out candy (it did not take long for the pikinini to learn those famous American words: Trick or Treat!), made a shark Piñata, and us guys dressed up in the girls Aelan Dresses. I think everyone had great time that night.
The next night was Friday and we had another Tantric Yoga class down by the beach. This has been a Friday night custom that I am really going to miss when I go to site. When we finished class we sat around playing with fire and storian.
Well Saturday was the big day. It was time for walk about. My Mama woke me up at 0500 so that I would not miss my flight. I think it was very nice of here, but because I had just gone to bed at 0455, I was not exactly ready to get up. Luckily for me, my truck was not leaving until 0830, so I was able to get in a solid 1.5 hours sleep. Leaving for the airport everything seemed so surreal. Noa and I boarded our plane and we were off to land unknown. We arrived about an hour later in the Lenakel Airport where we were met by Noa’s future counterpart and two other volunteers that are currently serving in Tanna.
My site is in middle bush. Middle bush is not exactly what I was expecting. My site is about 1,000’ elevation and it sits on top of a large plateau. Well the first day was spent hanging our and storian with the locals in the village. I will tell you that I was very worried about my first nakamal experience here. I had heard the stories of the gigantic shells of Kava and I had been having serious reactions, like gagging. I had also heard about how they chew the kava here. Well I must tell you it is the best Kava I have here in Vanuatu.
So here is the Nakamal experience: It is large open area covered by an ancient banyan tree, there is a small covered area for when it rains, and men build small little fires to storian on by. When we arrived we sat down and began chatting with some men. We did this while they chewed the Kava. So here I was worried about understanding Bislama and I find out that I will spend every night trying to learn Bislama while they have there mouths overflowing with branches and roots of kava being chewed in their mouth. I mean they actually have sticks hanging out of their mouth. What they are trying to accomplish here is turning the roots into a mush that can them be washed by the young boys. They make one shell of kava at a time and the shell is huge. Imagine the largest coconut shell you have ever seen, that is what they use to drink the kava. In Vila we drink 100 vatu shells that I have to choke down with about 5 big swallows. This kava is about a 500 vatu shell and it takes about 1 minute to drink the whole thing. Luckily, it is the best kava I have had. It goes down like water. After you drink your shell the mood changes. Everyone begins talking quieter and quieter. Then after the last man has drank his kava, everything goes silent, expect for the locust which take there cue and began wailing there songs in the bush. By the way no woman are allowed in the Nakamal. It is men nomo. In fact if they see a woman walking by they will throw rocks at them (or so I have heard, I never saw a woman approach the area.) The women do contribute to the Nakamal experience by cooking food for there husbands to bring and share with the other men. After we drink our shell we grab food that the woman have prepared and we wash out the horrible taste of Kava with some good aelan kakae.
The next night was Friday and we had another Tantric Yoga class down by the beach. This has been a Friday night custom that I am really going to miss when I go to site. When we finished class we sat around playing with fire and storian.
Well Saturday was the big day. It was time for walk about. My Mama woke me up at 0500 so that I would not miss my flight. I think it was very nice of here, but because I had just gone to bed at 0455, I was not exactly ready to get up. Luckily for me, my truck was not leaving until 0830, so I was able to get in a solid 1.5 hours sleep. Leaving for the airport everything seemed so surreal. Noa and I boarded our plane and we were off to land unknown. We arrived about an hour later in the Lenakel Airport where we were met by Noa’s future counterpart and two other volunteers that are currently serving in Tanna.
My site is in middle bush. Middle bush is not exactly what I was expecting. My site is about 1,000’ elevation and it sits on top of a large plateau. Well the first day was spent hanging our and storian with the locals in the village. I will tell you that I was very worried about my first nakamal experience here. I had heard the stories of the gigantic shells of Kava and I had been having serious reactions, like gagging. I had also heard about how they chew the kava here. Well I must tell you it is the best Kava I have here in Vanuatu.
So here is the Nakamal experience: It is large open area covered by an ancient banyan tree, there is a small covered area for when it rains, and men build small little fires to storian on by. When we arrived we sat down and began chatting with some men. We did this while they chewed the Kava. So here I was worried about understanding Bislama and I find out that I will spend every night trying to learn Bislama while they have there mouths overflowing with branches and roots of kava being chewed in their mouth. I mean they actually have sticks hanging out of their mouth. What they are trying to accomplish here is turning the roots into a mush that can them be washed by the young boys. They make one shell of kava at a time and the shell is huge. Imagine the largest coconut shell you have ever seen, that is what they use to drink the kava. In Vila we drink 100 vatu shells that I have to choke down with about 5 big swallows. This kava is about a 500 vatu shell and it takes about 1 minute to drink the whole thing. Luckily, it is the best kava I have had. It goes down like water. After you drink your shell the mood changes. Everyone begins talking quieter and quieter. Then after the last man has drank his kava, everything goes silent, expect for the locust which take there cue and began wailing there songs in the bush. By the way no woman are allowed in the Nakamal. It is men nomo. In fact if they see a woman walking by they will throw rocks at them (or so I have heard, I never saw a woman approach the area.) The women do contribute to the Nakamal experience by cooking food for there husbands to bring and share with the other men. After we drink our shell we grab food that the woman have prepared and we wash out the horrible taste of Kava with some good aelan kakae.
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