After hanging out in Lenakel for a bit I decided it was time to try and catch a truck back on top to middle bush. The truck dropped me off at the bush market about 45 minutes from my house. As I walked up the bush trail I ran into some locals who told me that my village had something going on. It turns out it was the one year dead for my brother James father.
I walked into the Nakamal at about 2 pm and was immediately handed a shell of kava. We drank kava all afternoon and storied about life, until it was time to drink our custom shell when we would all go wan wan. I kept seeing one man who I had no idea who he was, but he never came to shake my hand so I assumed we had met before. Finally after about 40 minutes of him making busy work in the Nakamal he came over to shake my hand and when he said “oh yes brata blo mi.” I realized it was my brother James.
One custom here is that when your father dies you can not shave for one year. I have only known James to have a very full beard. He always looked liked some shady character that you would not want to mess with. That day being the one year mark of his fathers death he could finally shave. What a difference, I never would of known it was him if he hadn’t spoke to me.
My village was very interested in my journey to Futuna and Aniwa. I told them all about the adventures and everything that had happened there. I then told them that Peace Corps was going to change my site and man that did not go over well at all. Some people were pissed off. Some people were sad. It was very hard. I mean I have broken up with girlfriends before and that is hard, but to break up with an entire village. Ouch.
Yesterday, Relvie from Peace Corps came and gave a toktok to my community about me leaving. It was very hard. Some of the men cried while trying to explain their thoughts. In the end they decided that it was custom to pull out my custom name and that because Peace Corps had broken the contract that they would be responsible to buy a bullock for us to eat at my last kakae. Peace Corps has no intention of buying us a bullock but it was nice try.
It is a strange feeling to know that I am almost out of here. How will I get my stuff to Vila? When does the ship come again? What will it be like to say goodbye to these people that I call brother, sister, mama, dada, tawi, and uncle too? It is going to be hard I am sure. Well it is finally a suny day so I think I am going to walk down and see Noa and if he is not there just go swim at the waterfall.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Vila
There is a feeling that comes over you when you first get to Vila, Oh man do I smell like the islands. When you are at site, especially on Tanna, you tend to let go of some of our usual hygiene. It is so cold here in Tanna right now that only showering once a week is normal. So when I got into Vila after being in Futuna and Aniwa for a week all I wanted to do was take a shower. Of course as is usual with life on the islands this did not go as planned.
I got on the wrong bus at the airport. This is not to say there is a bus route or anything of that nature, but I should know better to get on a bus that already has people on it and not ask where it is going. What usually takes only 15 minutes took me over an hour. By the time I made it to the Peace Corps office I found out that Micahel, Roxy, Jade, and Bridge were all meeting for dinner at La Casa Pizzeria. So I marched my way down to them and had some pizza with them. The Pizza was alright, but the company was awesome. It is so nice to come in and talk with people of your same culture.
The plan was that I was only going to come into Vila for 5 days. I wanted to be back to Tanna for our Fourth of July celebration. Well After storian with my Country Director about my site visits, I explained to him I was worried that we were only looking in the TAFFEA Province and that maybe the perfect job was elsewhere. He agreed and we discussed some other options. After which he decided to send me to Emao for another site visit. My time on Emao was very short as I had to be back in Vila by 1pm. If I was going to miss my Tanna Party I surely was not going to miss the Vila celebration.
My trip to Emao was short but the place is beautiful. I did not feel the same attraction to the people as I did on Futuna, but I the job sounds very exciting to me. I mean after all I will be able to snorkel almost everyday and call it work! If only I was being paid for it. My time in Emao was also ahrd because I was so excited about who was in Vila and mean while I was pulled out to go to a different island. Oh well alls well that ends well.
I made it back to Vila in time to see Lizzie and Bridget heading out to Pango, where Lizzie lives. I decided to just stay at the Cyber Café until they came back. While I was on Emao they had all got together and had a small party and made Jello Shots for the party that night. Our party was our at sea and we had to be to the wharf at 1430. There was about 15 of us who went out on the ship.
The ship resembles a pirate ship and in fact usually when people hire this ship the captain and all the guests dress up like pirates and sail around the island. We had different plans. The captain is from America and along with him and two other Americans we set out to celebrate America. We had food and drinks and of course the Jello shots. My friend Jack who is on Malekula had sent me a Cuban Romeo y Julieta cigar, so I had tried asking the captain if there was a smoking section. Well the Captain did not hear me but one of the young girls, maybe 9, did.
She told me it was a non-smoking ship and then gave me a lecture on why smoking is bad. I was kind of teasing her about it and finally she said well wait… You can smoke if…… lets see here….. Okay you have to go swimming with us and do anything I tell you! I asked anything? She then thought about it and said okay you have to let me push off the boat and into the water. I agreed to the conditions and told her I would even pretend I did not know she was going to push me in.
Well we never anchored off to go swimming until we got back to the harbor. At this time it was already dark but I had made a promise to her so I pulled off my shirt and climbed over the rope and just hung around until she came running across from the other side of the boat and gave me a push. This lead to everyone else jumping in and we played in the water for about an hour or so. We had the music blasting and when we were not swimming we were dancing.
After hanging out on the ship and talking with Josh, man America on another ship, I decided that sailing around the world is a very economical and responsible way to see the world. Right now it is just day dreaming but when I am done with Peace Corps you never know what will happen. I think a sailing from west coast to east coast via the Panama Canal would be a good start. The night came to an end and we climbed in the dingy and set off for the main land. It had been a long day so we just went back to Susan’s house and hung out and made dinner.
This trip to Vila has been much quieter than my previous trips. We never went to Voodoo to go dancing, even though we did dance a few times at waterfront. It was nice to just have quiet nights and sharing stories with each other. We were staying at Susan’s house with a full kitchen so we took full advantage of it. One night Susan made a big pot of Popcorn and she put me in charge of the butter. Well I decided that butter was not enough so I made a caramel sauce to put on it. Mmmm… it was soooo good. Well that turned into me making fudge and chocolate and various other surgery treats. On one of the mornings I got up and made us all Scrambled eggs with cheese and onions fried up in the grease from the real bacon I had just cooked up. Man I miss American food. I love my Tanna soup but, nothing compares to the tastes of America.
I ended up being in Vila for two weeks. Man time flies around here sometimes. As always it is hard to say good bye to everyone. We have such strange relationships here. We make these wonderful friends and then we only see them every two or three or six months. It is really hard. I gave Susan a hug goodbye as this is the last time I will see her in Vanuatu. She goes home well I think she is already out of this country. I waved goodbye to Bridget at the airport and climbed on my plane back to Tanna. I had only gotten two hours sleep the night before so when they plane took off, I passed out.
Coming back to Tanna knowing that I only have two weeks left here was very strange. I felt sad as I hung out at the Mama’s market in Lenakel. Seeing Sultan and Tim and Nathan made me realize how lucky I am to have other volunteers on the islands. I am really going to miss Sultan. We always have a good time hanging out making fun of each other.
I got on the wrong bus at the airport. This is not to say there is a bus route or anything of that nature, but I should know better to get on a bus that already has people on it and not ask where it is going. What usually takes only 15 minutes took me over an hour. By the time I made it to the Peace Corps office I found out that Micahel, Roxy, Jade, and Bridge were all meeting for dinner at La Casa Pizzeria. So I marched my way down to them and had some pizza with them. The Pizza was alright, but the company was awesome. It is so nice to come in and talk with people of your same culture.
The plan was that I was only going to come into Vila for 5 days. I wanted to be back to Tanna for our Fourth of July celebration. Well After storian with my Country Director about my site visits, I explained to him I was worried that we were only looking in the TAFFEA Province and that maybe the perfect job was elsewhere. He agreed and we discussed some other options. After which he decided to send me to Emao for another site visit. My time on Emao was very short as I had to be back in Vila by 1pm. If I was going to miss my Tanna Party I surely was not going to miss the Vila celebration.
My trip to Emao was short but the place is beautiful. I did not feel the same attraction to the people as I did on Futuna, but I the job sounds very exciting to me. I mean after all I will be able to snorkel almost everyday and call it work! If only I was being paid for it. My time in Emao was also ahrd because I was so excited about who was in Vila and mean while I was pulled out to go to a different island. Oh well alls well that ends well.
I made it back to Vila in time to see Lizzie and Bridget heading out to Pango, where Lizzie lives. I decided to just stay at the Cyber Café until they came back. While I was on Emao they had all got together and had a small party and made Jello Shots for the party that night. Our party was our at sea and we had to be to the wharf at 1430. There was about 15 of us who went out on the ship.
The ship resembles a pirate ship and in fact usually when people hire this ship the captain and all the guests dress up like pirates and sail around the island. We had different plans. The captain is from America and along with him and two other Americans we set out to celebrate America. We had food and drinks and of course the Jello shots. My friend Jack who is on Malekula had sent me a Cuban Romeo y Julieta cigar, so I had tried asking the captain if there was a smoking section. Well the Captain did not hear me but one of the young girls, maybe 9, did.
She told me it was a non-smoking ship and then gave me a lecture on why smoking is bad. I was kind of teasing her about it and finally she said well wait… You can smoke if…… lets see here….. Okay you have to go swimming with us and do anything I tell you! I asked anything? She then thought about it and said okay you have to let me push off the boat and into the water. I agreed to the conditions and told her I would even pretend I did not know she was going to push me in.
Well we never anchored off to go swimming until we got back to the harbor. At this time it was already dark but I had made a promise to her so I pulled off my shirt and climbed over the rope and just hung around until she came running across from the other side of the boat and gave me a push. This lead to everyone else jumping in and we played in the water for about an hour or so. We had the music blasting and when we were not swimming we were dancing.
After hanging out on the ship and talking with Josh, man America on another ship, I decided that sailing around the world is a very economical and responsible way to see the world. Right now it is just day dreaming but when I am done with Peace Corps you never know what will happen. I think a sailing from west coast to east coast via the Panama Canal would be a good start. The night came to an end and we climbed in the dingy and set off for the main land. It had been a long day so we just went back to Susan’s house and hung out and made dinner.
This trip to Vila has been much quieter than my previous trips. We never went to Voodoo to go dancing, even though we did dance a few times at waterfront. It was nice to just have quiet nights and sharing stories with each other. We were staying at Susan’s house with a full kitchen so we took full advantage of it. One night Susan made a big pot of Popcorn and she put me in charge of the butter. Well I decided that butter was not enough so I made a caramel sauce to put on it. Mmmm… it was soooo good. Well that turned into me making fudge and chocolate and various other surgery treats. On one of the mornings I got up and made us all Scrambled eggs with cheese and onions fried up in the grease from the real bacon I had just cooked up. Man I miss American food. I love my Tanna soup but, nothing compares to the tastes of America.
I ended up being in Vila for two weeks. Man time flies around here sometimes. As always it is hard to say good bye to everyone. We have such strange relationships here. We make these wonderful friends and then we only see them every two or three or six months. It is really hard. I gave Susan a hug goodbye as this is the last time I will see her in Vanuatu. She goes home well I think she is already out of this country. I waved goodbye to Bridget at the airport and climbed on my plane back to Tanna. I had only gotten two hours sleep the night before so when they plane took off, I passed out.
Coming back to Tanna knowing that I only have two weeks left here was very strange. I felt sad as I hung out at the Mama’s market in Lenakel. Seeing Sultan and Tim and Nathan made me realize how lucky I am to have other volunteers on the islands. I am really going to miss Sultan. We always have a good time hanging out making fun of each other.
Futuna, Aniwa, and Customer Service
It has been three weeks since I last updated my journal. I have so much to write and share and I have a feeling I am going to forget most of it. I had left my laptop in Tanna thinking I would not have power in Futuna and Aniwa. Well I started my journey by heading back to Futuna to try this site development back again. I was happy to see that my luggage made it with me this time. I had been given a name to ask for when I got there, so I asked for the headmaster, nini.
Nini? Oh sori hem I stap long plaen. (Sorry he just got on the plane.) So the one of the people I was so supposed to meet with would not be back until I was leaving. Awe Vanuatu! Well I met Brian who is a teacher at the school and he took care of me. Before making the 45 minute hike up to the village we stopped and had some lunch at Ruth’s house. I tell you these people are amazing. They had no idea I was coming and yet in ten minutes I was eating a good lunch and have a good stori with these guys.
The hike up to Harold bay was pretty intense. There are no trucks on this island. There is only one bush road that goes around the edge of the island. When I mean edge I really mean the edge. The island is built like a cake. So on one side of the road is straight up and the other side is straight down about 350-500’. It was pretty intense. They arraigned to have a meeting with me and the key people of the village the next day. So the first night I just hung out with everyone. I had so much fun with these guys.
I was only there for three nights, but felt I made better friends there then I have in Tanna in 7 months. For one thing Brian is very well educated so we talked politics and the future of Vanuatu. It was great. WE stayed up till about 11 pm every night talking, playing the guitar, and singing songs, while drinking fresh lemon grass tea. I did go to church there more then I have since Mangaliliu. It was worth it to be able to eat with them. We ate nawita (octopus) with rice and soup. Mmmm… I could go for a bowl right now!
The terrain of Futuna reminds me of northern California, rocky coast line with shear cliffs and beautiful waves breaking in. On the second to last day, Brian and I walked down to Mission Bay which is where the airport is located. After dropping my stuff off at Ruth’s house, Brian and I met up with a few girls and walked down to the sand beach. Once there they asked if we wanted to go to the swim hole. We both were indifferent because we did not want to swim, but finally they said come on lets go.
So we ended up at this swim hole that was so incredible. I wish I had my Nikon with me to try and capture it. It is almost like a natural infinity pool. It is a like a huge tide pool, deep enough o dive head first into it. During high tide the water comes up high enough o put water into the pool. Water runs off on one side into the ocean and when big waves come they dump into the pool. I ended up swimming for about 30 minutes in the water, jumping and diving off of the rocks. I can not tell you how beautiful this place is.
Well the next day I had to get on the plane to go to Aniwa. I was really sad to leave all of these great people I had just met. They gave me a beautiful mat and a Futuna Basket. I said my goodbyes and then jumped on the plane to head to Aniwa. In Aniwa I ran into David Stein and two Italians there working on a wind power project. I ended up eating my meals with all of them. The one Italian, Antonio, was great to talk too. He has worked with many world organizations and has lived in various African and Middle Eastern countries along with South America.
The people in Aniwa were nice as well but I did not have the same feeling as I did in Futuna. The people in Futuna seemed really eager to have a volunteer to help them with various projects; where as in, Aniwa they seemed eager just to have a volunteer. I got to snorkel a few times in Aniwa which was really nice. It has been a long time since I have been in the water. Of course this is all going to change with my new site.
Well on Sunday I found the public phone and called the Peace Corps resource room to find out who was in town. I got to talk to Elin and Jade from my group. They informed me of the murders that just took place in Vila. We had 19 prisoners escape and they are now armed. They murdered two people in town after they had escaped. I believe half of them have been captured. The prison system here is a joke. People get weekend passes to go home and at four pm when the guards go home, so do some of the prisoners!
After talking with them I called up to Tongoa to see if I could talk with Bridget. She has had to put up with me and all my stressed about my site and moving sites. It has been nice to have someone to help me get these things out of my head. After making the site visits I felt sure I was making the right choice by leaving Tanna, but was left confused about where to go. She said she was heading to Vila the next day and that I should try and come in.
Well the next day we had a Custom ceremony in Aniwa. It was from the boys coming out from hiding. After they circumcise the boys, they must hide in the Nakamal for 30 days or so. After they come out they have a big feast and custom dance. It was really cool to see it. I then packed up my stuff and headed to the airport. At the airport I decided that maybe I would go into Vila. This way I could talk with other volunteers about my decision and also talk with Kevin George, my Country Director.
If I had only known how angry this trip was going to make me I do not know if I would of gone. To fly from Aniwa to Tanna is 4,900VT. To Fly from Tanna to Vila is 12,890VT. To fly from Aniwa (via Tanna) to Vila is only 12,900VT. I told the guy in Aniwa I wanted to change my ticket so that I was only paying the difference in price. He said no problem and that when I land in Tanna to take care of it there. Okay no big deal.
When I landed in Tanna and talked to the guy he said sorry your ticket is used so nothing I can do. I was like hey man the guy on Aniwa told me to take care of it here. He said that if the guy on Aniwa had called him first it would not have been an issue! This pissed me off and I was like hey can you call the main office in Vila and find out if there is anything they can do? He said No they are at lunch. I called him out on his blatant lie, because I knew for a fact that the Van Air office always has someone inside working.
I saw that the last truck was about to leave the airport so I thought screw it I will just go to Lenakel and deal with Sam at the Van Air office. As I got to the truck someone called me back to tell me he was on the phone with Vila. I thought great told the truck goodbye and walked back up to the man I had been dealing with. He was on the phone with Vila. Now then, having worked in service related industries for some time, I expect thing to happen a certain way. All I wanted was for him to try and help. Maybe ask them hey here is what happened, is there anything we can do for him? But this is what I heard him saying, “I already told him it is against our policy and that I won’t do it for him, so now I want you guys to tell him the same thing.” Then he hands the phone to me.
I was so livid. I talked to the lady on the phone and it sounded like she was going to make the change for me, then she asked to put him back on the phone and he once again told her he would not, and then hung up and told me they said no. Man I have never been so pissed here in Vanuatu. I called him a tipskin and that his rubbish fashion is exactly why Man Tanna has a bad name in this country and then used a few more choice words with him. I made my way to the road and started walking to town. Luckily after 30 minutes a truck came buy and picked me up.
I went in and explained everything to Sam and the office. He called up the customer help number (why the first guy never did that I do not know.) They tired helping me but nothing came of it, but a bunch of sories. By this point I was determined to go to Vila. I asked Sam to do me one favor. I told him that I would pay full price right now, but to call up the office and inform the manager that I would be in office when they opened in the morning. I could hear the girl on the other end saying, but why is he coming in? Ya but..
Well I did not go in the next day. By the time a slept on it I was like, whatever just let it go? Then I had lunch with Jani and started telling her about it and I got al fired up again. After Lunch I went into the office and sat down with the manager. She was very nice and by the time I left I had a credit for the difference of the tickets and she gave me a 20% discount on my return ticket to Tanna.
Nini? Oh sori hem I stap long plaen. (Sorry he just got on the plane.) So the one of the people I was so supposed to meet with would not be back until I was leaving. Awe Vanuatu! Well I met Brian who is a teacher at the school and he took care of me. Before making the 45 minute hike up to the village we stopped and had some lunch at Ruth’s house. I tell you these people are amazing. They had no idea I was coming and yet in ten minutes I was eating a good lunch and have a good stori with these guys.
The hike up to Harold bay was pretty intense. There are no trucks on this island. There is only one bush road that goes around the edge of the island. When I mean edge I really mean the edge. The island is built like a cake. So on one side of the road is straight up and the other side is straight down about 350-500’. It was pretty intense. They arraigned to have a meeting with me and the key people of the village the next day. So the first night I just hung out with everyone. I had so much fun with these guys.
I was only there for three nights, but felt I made better friends there then I have in Tanna in 7 months. For one thing Brian is very well educated so we talked politics and the future of Vanuatu. It was great. WE stayed up till about 11 pm every night talking, playing the guitar, and singing songs, while drinking fresh lemon grass tea. I did go to church there more then I have since Mangaliliu. It was worth it to be able to eat with them. We ate nawita (octopus) with rice and soup. Mmmm… I could go for a bowl right now!
The terrain of Futuna reminds me of northern California, rocky coast line with shear cliffs and beautiful waves breaking in. On the second to last day, Brian and I walked down to Mission Bay which is where the airport is located. After dropping my stuff off at Ruth’s house, Brian and I met up with a few girls and walked down to the sand beach. Once there they asked if we wanted to go to the swim hole. We both were indifferent because we did not want to swim, but finally they said come on lets go.
So we ended up at this swim hole that was so incredible. I wish I had my Nikon with me to try and capture it. It is almost like a natural infinity pool. It is a like a huge tide pool, deep enough o dive head first into it. During high tide the water comes up high enough o put water into the pool. Water runs off on one side into the ocean and when big waves come they dump into the pool. I ended up swimming for about 30 minutes in the water, jumping and diving off of the rocks. I can not tell you how beautiful this place is.
Well the next day I had to get on the plane to go to Aniwa. I was really sad to leave all of these great people I had just met. They gave me a beautiful mat and a Futuna Basket. I said my goodbyes and then jumped on the plane to head to Aniwa. In Aniwa I ran into David Stein and two Italians there working on a wind power project. I ended up eating my meals with all of them. The one Italian, Antonio, was great to talk too. He has worked with many world organizations and has lived in various African and Middle Eastern countries along with South America.
The people in Aniwa were nice as well but I did not have the same feeling as I did in Futuna. The people in Futuna seemed really eager to have a volunteer to help them with various projects; where as in, Aniwa they seemed eager just to have a volunteer. I got to snorkel a few times in Aniwa which was really nice. It has been a long time since I have been in the water. Of course this is all going to change with my new site.
Well on Sunday I found the public phone and called the Peace Corps resource room to find out who was in town. I got to talk to Elin and Jade from my group. They informed me of the murders that just took place in Vila. We had 19 prisoners escape and they are now armed. They murdered two people in town after they had escaped. I believe half of them have been captured. The prison system here is a joke. People get weekend passes to go home and at four pm when the guards go home, so do some of the prisoners!
After talking with them I called up to Tongoa to see if I could talk with Bridget. She has had to put up with me and all my stressed about my site and moving sites. It has been nice to have someone to help me get these things out of my head. After making the site visits I felt sure I was making the right choice by leaving Tanna, but was left confused about where to go. She said she was heading to Vila the next day and that I should try and come in.
Well the next day we had a Custom ceremony in Aniwa. It was from the boys coming out from hiding. After they circumcise the boys, they must hide in the Nakamal for 30 days or so. After they come out they have a big feast and custom dance. It was really cool to see it. I then packed up my stuff and headed to the airport. At the airport I decided that maybe I would go into Vila. This way I could talk with other volunteers about my decision and also talk with Kevin George, my Country Director.
If I had only known how angry this trip was going to make me I do not know if I would of gone. To fly from Aniwa to Tanna is 4,900VT. To Fly from Tanna to Vila is 12,890VT. To fly from Aniwa (via Tanna) to Vila is only 12,900VT. I told the guy in Aniwa I wanted to change my ticket so that I was only paying the difference in price. He said no problem and that when I land in Tanna to take care of it there. Okay no big deal.
When I landed in Tanna and talked to the guy he said sorry your ticket is used so nothing I can do. I was like hey man the guy on Aniwa told me to take care of it here. He said that if the guy on Aniwa had called him first it would not have been an issue! This pissed me off and I was like hey can you call the main office in Vila and find out if there is anything they can do? He said No they are at lunch. I called him out on his blatant lie, because I knew for a fact that the Van Air office always has someone inside working.
I saw that the last truck was about to leave the airport so I thought screw it I will just go to Lenakel and deal with Sam at the Van Air office. As I got to the truck someone called me back to tell me he was on the phone with Vila. I thought great told the truck goodbye and walked back up to the man I had been dealing with. He was on the phone with Vila. Now then, having worked in service related industries for some time, I expect thing to happen a certain way. All I wanted was for him to try and help. Maybe ask them hey here is what happened, is there anything we can do for him? But this is what I heard him saying, “I already told him it is against our policy and that I won’t do it for him, so now I want you guys to tell him the same thing.” Then he hands the phone to me.
I was so livid. I talked to the lady on the phone and it sounded like she was going to make the change for me, then she asked to put him back on the phone and he once again told her he would not, and then hung up and told me they said no. Man I have never been so pissed here in Vanuatu. I called him a tipskin and that his rubbish fashion is exactly why Man Tanna has a bad name in this country and then used a few more choice words with him. I made my way to the road and started walking to town. Luckily after 30 minutes a truck came buy and picked me up.
I went in and explained everything to Sam and the office. He called up the customer help number (why the first guy never did that I do not know.) They tired helping me but nothing came of it, but a bunch of sories. By this point I was determined to go to Vila. I asked Sam to do me one favor. I told him that I would pay full price right now, but to call up the office and inform the manager that I would be in office when they opened in the morning. I could hear the girl on the other end saying, but why is he coming in? Ya but..
Well I did not go in the next day. By the time a slept on it I was like, whatever just let it go? Then I had lunch with Jani and started telling her about it and I got al fired up again. After Lunch I went into the office and sat down with the manager. She was very nice and by the time I left I had a credit for the difference of the tickets and she gave me a 20% discount on my return ticket to Tanna.
Day trip to Futuna
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I set my alarm to 0645, something I was not very excited about doing. Unfortunately I was not sure whether my check in time was at 1000 or that the plane left at 1000. I of course had not packed yet so I needed to get an early start. As it always seems when you need a good nights sleep something interferes. For me it was the new dog living on campus. I grabbed the only thing I could find to throw at the dog, but every time ai went outside the dog was no where to be found. The alarm went off at 0546 and I felt like I only had a couple hours of sleep.
I got up and packed my bag for my week long trip. Most of what I packed was my camera gear. I left with out eating breakfast and started down the truck road. After about 15 minutes I was picked up by a passing ruck. This took a lot of pressure off me missing my flight. I got to town and got my ticket updated for the flight then the guy said check in was actually at 1100 and the flight was out at 1200. I had plenty of time so I walked down to Aunty Mary’s for lunch. It was pretty sad as I was the only one there. Not that I mind eating by myself, it is just that this is where I would always meet to the volunteers who just COS’ed/ I then went to the post office and pick up some mail. Two new magazines!!! I grabbed out some money from the bank for my trip. I hope it is enough. Peace Corps never put the money for this trip in my account so I am just guessing on how much to bring.
It was around 1100 when I began heading to the airport. In town it is easy to catch a truck heading that way. When I got to the airport the plane was already there but I had to wait to check in until all the Vila people finished checking in. I got al checked in and then I hung out with the Japanese volunteer for while. I ran into the English guy from the ther side and storied with him as well.
At around 1300 the guy finally said the plane to anychum was leaving. He would not let me go. It turns out the plane goes to anychum and then back here to tanna before going to Futuna. So I waited go go. Finally the plane came back and as I waited for them to callfor the boarding I started talking with some NiVans. I finally walked out to the plane to see what time we were going and they were just shutting the door to take off! I ran and got on the little plane. This is the smallet plane I have ever been in in my entire life.
There was only three of us on the flight and I was sitting just behnd the co-pilot seat. There was only one pilot so I could watch what she was doing and look out the front window. Futuna is pretty scary looking on the approach. There is a small landing strip near the solwota and then the island goes straight up to 330 meters. It is like a big cake, no foothills, just a straight wall of bush.
When I got out the plane I waited as they unloaded the entire plane. Then as they were beginning to load the plane I asked, Hey basket blong mi stap wea? Where is my luggage? Well turns out it was still on Tanna. I asked the pilot if there was room on the plane. She called to Aniwa and said there was one empty seat. But I would have to sit up from in the co-pilot seat. The fact that she was a beautiful 24 year girl did not make my decision very tuff.
It was really cool to sit up front. I was a little scared on the landings being able to see everything. The run ways start right on the edge of a cliff and she puts the plane down about 2 feet into the runway. We landed in Aniwa and picked up some more passengers, before heading back to Tanna. As we were landing in Tanna I looked out and saw Noa fishing on the reef. He looked up and we waved to each other. When I got off the plane the runway guy came up and said Hey we forgot to put your bag on the plane! Gee really? Why do you think I am back!
We rescheduled my flight for Monday and I will be back then. Can you imagine this in the states? You fly somewhere and they forget your luggage, so they just let you fly home and re book the flight? Only in Vanuatu! The pilot was very apologetic but I told her I had been here long enough to expect stuff like this to happen to me. Awe Tanna!!
I set my alarm to 0645, something I was not very excited about doing. Unfortunately I was not sure whether my check in time was at 1000 or that the plane left at 1000. I of course had not packed yet so I needed to get an early start. As it always seems when you need a good nights sleep something interferes. For me it was the new dog living on campus. I grabbed the only thing I could find to throw at the dog, but every time ai went outside the dog was no where to be found. The alarm went off at 0546 and I felt like I only had a couple hours of sleep.
I got up and packed my bag for my week long trip. Most of what I packed was my camera gear. I left with out eating breakfast and started down the truck road. After about 15 minutes I was picked up by a passing ruck. This took a lot of pressure off me missing my flight. I got to town and got my ticket updated for the flight then the guy said check in was actually at 1100 and the flight was out at 1200. I had plenty of time so I walked down to Aunty Mary’s for lunch. It was pretty sad as I was the only one there. Not that I mind eating by myself, it is just that this is where I would always meet to the volunteers who just COS’ed/ I then went to the post office and pick up some mail. Two new magazines!!! I grabbed out some money from the bank for my trip. I hope it is enough. Peace Corps never put the money for this trip in my account so I am just guessing on how much to bring.
It was around 1100 when I began heading to the airport. In town it is easy to catch a truck heading that way. When I got to the airport the plane was already there but I had to wait to check in until all the Vila people finished checking in. I got al checked in and then I hung out with the Japanese volunteer for while. I ran into the English guy from the ther side and storied with him as well.
At around 1300 the guy finally said the plane to anychum was leaving. He would not let me go. It turns out the plane goes to anychum and then back here to tanna before going to Futuna. So I waited go go. Finally the plane came back and as I waited for them to callfor the boarding I started talking with some NiVans. I finally walked out to the plane to see what time we were going and they were just shutting the door to take off! I ran and got on the little plane. This is the smallet plane I have ever been in in my entire life.
There was only three of us on the flight and I was sitting just behnd the co-pilot seat. There was only one pilot so I could watch what she was doing and look out the front window. Futuna is pretty scary looking on the approach. There is a small landing strip near the solwota and then the island goes straight up to 330 meters. It is like a big cake, no foothills, just a straight wall of bush.
When I got out the plane I waited as they unloaded the entire plane. Then as they were beginning to load the plane I asked, Hey basket blong mi stap wea? Where is my luggage? Well turns out it was still on Tanna. I asked the pilot if there was room on the plane. She called to Aniwa and said there was one empty seat. But I would have to sit up from in the co-pilot seat. The fact that she was a beautiful 24 year girl did not make my decision very tuff.
It was really cool to sit up front. I was a little scared on the landings being able to see everything. The run ways start right on the edge of a cliff and she puts the plane down about 2 feet into the runway. We landed in Aniwa and picked up some more passengers, before heading back to Tanna. As we were landing in Tanna I looked out and saw Noa fishing on the reef. He looked up and we waved to each other. When I got off the plane the runway guy came up and said Hey we forgot to put your bag on the plane! Gee really? Why do you think I am back!
We rescheduled my flight for Monday and I will be back then. Can you imagine this in the states? You fly somewhere and they forget your luggage, so they just let you fly home and re book the flight? Only in Vanuatu! The pilot was very apologetic but I told her I had been here long enough to expect stuff like this to happen to me. Awe Tanna!!
Day two with Elin
We woke up at an early nine am and headed into the kitchen for breakfast. We were all kind of dragging and were looking forward to a good breakfast. We had bread and butter and jelly, along with some instant coffee and some milo. I think Sultan and I ate a loaf and half each of bread. We were having a hard time deciding what we were going to do with ourselves all day long. We decided we would head down to Port Resolution for the day.
A guy from Jungle went and waited by the road for a truck to come by. He found us a truck and having a little knowledge of how things work here asked how much? The guy said 500 each, each way. This means it was going to be 4000VT to go 30 minutes down the road. We ended up getting it down to 2250VT for the whole trip. They dropped us off near the beach and once again I became jealous of how other volunteers live. (There is a volunteer in this community)
The beach was absolutely amazing, so incredible. We hung out on the beach, swam in the water, walked down the way collecting shells and looking at cool things in the tide pools. After a few hours we decided to walk up to the Yacht Club and see if they had any cold drinks. They had cold tuskers and made us lunch. When we first asked about lunch it was egg and rice for 750VT. We were like come on who set this price you? She said it was her brother and then went and talked to him. She came back and told us 500 each but not to tell the four English speaking tourists next to us that were paying 750 for the same food.
We ended up riding back to Jungle with the Swiss couple. They were very nice and we had a good stori for a bit. By the time we made it back to jungle it was time to head up the volcano. Of course the truck that was supposed to take us was already at the top with another tourist. We waited, go go, and then finally decided just to walk to the road and try and catch another truck. When we got to the main road the Jungle truck came and picked us up.
Remember a couple of blogs back when I said I went to the volcano with Brizz and they would not let me in because I did not have a receipt. I explained that my brother smoked my receipt and the guy said well to bad so sad. And that even if I had my receipt it would only entitle me to half off of the 2250 entrance fee. Well: We pull up to the gate and the driver says Olgeta oli Pis Kops. (They are all Peace Corps.) The guy smiled and waved and we drove right in with out paying! Awe Tanna!
The volcano was only at a level two. This is the first time I had seen a level two and was kind of disappointed. Every other trip up I have been scared to death that I was going to die. But a level two I was never even worried. Well One did give me a little shake. I hauled up all my camera gear and got some decent shots. Of course even the best shot does not do justice to the volcano.
When we came back down to Jungle we went straight to dinner. It was the same gcouple form the previous night, us, and a new guy named guy. He was from England. We were going to invite them all to come hang out in our room and storian but he was on the phone and the Swiss couple disappeared. I assume running away from the crazy Americans. We shared a bottle of wine, listened to some tunes, laughed a lot, and then passed out! We had to be up early if we wanted to catch a free truck to Port in the morning. It was free because the owner had a tourist council meeting in Port so he was going there anyways.
We ate some crackers and drank some coffee with Guy while we waited for the truck. While we waited the bill for the weekend came. It was going to be 11,000 each for Sultana and I. This is for two nights. We went and talked to the owner and explained that this was not cool. We both live on Tanna, not as business men but as volunteers. We always send Peace Corps to stay there, including about 11 different people in the last month. And that mainly we just want to let him know that we look out for them and hope that they will look out good for us. The price then came down to 7,000 each and then 6,000 and then finally 5,000 each. I felt okay with this price.
It is not that we do not mind paying, but do not try and rip us off like some tourist. We know how it works around here. We both decided that from now on we are sending people to stay in Port Resolution. There are beautiful beaches, it is only and extra 500 to hire a truck to the volcano, and it does not seem like they will try and take advantage of us. Although on one of these trips I hope to stay in the tree house which looks really cool.
Guy came with us to Port and hung out all day. He was a pretty funny guy, that Guy. He had us laughing hard as we all shared stories about traveling. He was talking about his fiancé and how wonderful she is. We all agreed that a woman that says yeah you go ahead and go on holiday for 6 months while I plan our wedding is a pretty good catch. We think that this is her ace in the whole when ever she wants anything in the future. You know, remember that time I planned our entire wedding while you gallivanted around the South Pacific? Well….
After a while the truck came and picked us up. This time they found two more tourists and agreed to take them back to the airport as well. The back of the truck was already filled and we still had two more tourists to pick up along with their luggage and all of ours. We manage to fit it all in, although I was worried that we may fall out of the truck. We stopped at Tuhu and Sultan jumped down. We then drove another 10 minutes and dropped me off.
There is a bush market where my half road is so they all jumped out and looked around. One of the ladies had to go Pis-Pis (pee) so she asked if there was a toilet there. This gave Elin, Randy, and I more time to storian. They asked this is your village, No. See that road there. No? Well that little trial? Take that 45 minutes north and that is where my house was. It was hard saying goodbye to them. I had such a wonderful time. I kept telling them it was sensory overload with them there. Just too much fun!
Well I still have not packed for my trip and honestly I probably won’t until morning. Swim trunks, a blanket, and my camera. What else do I need! I am a little nervous about this trip. I have a lot of decisions to make here soon. Nobody on the two islands even knows that I am coming to do this site development work. It should be very interesting and a good learning experience for me as well. I told my brothers that I am going to Aniwa and now they have all put orders in for oranges. Apparently Aniwa has the best oranges in the South Pacific, better then AU and NZ. I think I can manage to bring a few home. I also heard that it is taem blong naora blong solwota long Futuna, (Lobster season in Futuna.) So I am hoping to eat lobster every day!!! We will see.
Ta.
A guy from Jungle went and waited by the road for a truck to come by. He found us a truck and having a little knowledge of how things work here asked how much? The guy said 500 each, each way. This means it was going to be 4000VT to go 30 minutes down the road. We ended up getting it down to 2250VT for the whole trip. They dropped us off near the beach and once again I became jealous of how other volunteers live. (There is a volunteer in this community)
The beach was absolutely amazing, so incredible. We hung out on the beach, swam in the water, walked down the way collecting shells and looking at cool things in the tide pools. After a few hours we decided to walk up to the Yacht Club and see if they had any cold drinks. They had cold tuskers and made us lunch. When we first asked about lunch it was egg and rice for 750VT. We were like come on who set this price you? She said it was her brother and then went and talked to him. She came back and told us 500 each but not to tell the four English speaking tourists next to us that were paying 750 for the same food.
We ended up riding back to Jungle with the Swiss couple. They were very nice and we had a good stori for a bit. By the time we made it back to jungle it was time to head up the volcano. Of course the truck that was supposed to take us was already at the top with another tourist. We waited, go go, and then finally decided just to walk to the road and try and catch another truck. When we got to the main road the Jungle truck came and picked us up.
Remember a couple of blogs back when I said I went to the volcano with Brizz and they would not let me in because I did not have a receipt. I explained that my brother smoked my receipt and the guy said well to bad so sad. And that even if I had my receipt it would only entitle me to half off of the 2250 entrance fee. Well: We pull up to the gate and the driver says Olgeta oli Pis Kops. (They are all Peace Corps.) The guy smiled and waved and we drove right in with out paying! Awe Tanna!
The volcano was only at a level two. This is the first time I had seen a level two and was kind of disappointed. Every other trip up I have been scared to death that I was going to die. But a level two I was never even worried. Well One did give me a little shake. I hauled up all my camera gear and got some decent shots. Of course even the best shot does not do justice to the volcano.
When we came back down to Jungle we went straight to dinner. It was the same gcouple form the previous night, us, and a new guy named guy. He was from England. We were going to invite them all to come hang out in our room and storian but he was on the phone and the Swiss couple disappeared. I assume running away from the crazy Americans. We shared a bottle of wine, listened to some tunes, laughed a lot, and then passed out! We had to be up early if we wanted to catch a free truck to Port in the morning. It was free because the owner had a tourist council meeting in Port so he was going there anyways.
We ate some crackers and drank some coffee with Guy while we waited for the truck. While we waited the bill for the weekend came. It was going to be 11,000 each for Sultana and I. This is for two nights. We went and talked to the owner and explained that this was not cool. We both live on Tanna, not as business men but as volunteers. We always send Peace Corps to stay there, including about 11 different people in the last month. And that mainly we just want to let him know that we look out for them and hope that they will look out good for us. The price then came down to 7,000 each and then 6,000 and then finally 5,000 each. I felt okay with this price.
It is not that we do not mind paying, but do not try and rip us off like some tourist. We know how it works around here. We both decided that from now on we are sending people to stay in Port Resolution. There are beautiful beaches, it is only and extra 500 to hire a truck to the volcano, and it does not seem like they will try and take advantage of us. Although on one of these trips I hope to stay in the tree house which looks really cool.
Guy came with us to Port and hung out all day. He was a pretty funny guy, that Guy. He had us laughing hard as we all shared stories about traveling. He was talking about his fiancé and how wonderful she is. We all agreed that a woman that says yeah you go ahead and go on holiday for 6 months while I plan our wedding is a pretty good catch. We think that this is her ace in the whole when ever she wants anything in the future. You know, remember that time I planned our entire wedding while you gallivanted around the South Pacific? Well….
After a while the truck came and picked us up. This time they found two more tourists and agreed to take them back to the airport as well. The back of the truck was already filled and we still had two more tourists to pick up along with their luggage and all of ours. We manage to fit it all in, although I was worried that we may fall out of the truck. We stopped at Tuhu and Sultan jumped down. We then drove another 10 minutes and dropped me off.
There is a bush market where my half road is so they all jumped out and looked around. One of the ladies had to go Pis-Pis (pee) so she asked if there was a toilet there. This gave Elin, Randy, and I more time to storian. They asked this is your village, No. See that road there. No? Well that little trial? Take that 45 minutes north and that is where my house was. It was hard saying goodbye to them. I had such a wonderful time. I kept telling them it was sensory overload with them there. Just too much fun!
Well I still have not packed for my trip and honestly I probably won’t until morning. Swim trunks, a blanket, and my camera. What else do I need! I am a little nervous about this trip. I have a lot of decisions to make here soon. Nobody on the two islands even knows that I am coming to do this site development work. It should be very interesting and a good learning experience for me as well. I told my brothers that I am going to Aniwa and now they have all put orders in for oranges. Apparently Aniwa has the best oranges in the South Pacific, better then AU and NZ. I think I can manage to bring a few home. I also heard that it is taem blong naora blong solwota long Futuna, (Lobster season in Futuna.) So I am hoping to eat lobster every day!!! We will see.
Ta.
Eiln and Randys first day
So I am probably not in the right mind set to be writing about these last few days right now, but I am supposed to be packing for my trip to Aniwa and Fortuna. What a better way of putting that off then by writing about my adventures. So Monday morning I woke up to my usual routine; wake up earlier then I want, annoyed by the singing pikinini, go out side and sit on my door step, someone bring me a big bowl of Tanna soup, and then storian small with some of my people. I then packed my bag and headed down to Lenakel.
When I started to walk down I sent a text message to Sultan that I was heading down and we should meet for lunch. Well on the walk there I quickly realized that a black shirt was the wrong thing to wear. While it was only about 75 out it felt like a 101 in that shirt. It did not help that I was hauling around my back pack camera bag with my tripod. I got to the main road and hoped and hoped a truck would stop and pick me up. Well a truck did stop but it was going in the opposite direction. As the truck approached I noticed it was all yungfala’s from my village. I should have expected the flying nuts heading my way, but before I could I took one right where it counts. They all got a big laugh out of this. Got to love the Tanna sense of humor!
They convinced me to jump in the truck and head all the way back to my village before heading back down. So off we went back to my village. We unloaded the sand beach and then headed back to back down to Lenakel. Riding around with my brothers is pretty fun. They are so goofy. They sing out to every girl we pass and make fun of the little kids.
When we got into town I saw Sultan and the JICA (Japanese Volunteers,) along with two random Americans. The two Americans have been in Sultans village doing some kind of church work.
Sultan and I cruised around town. I stopped into the JK Nalas store and bought and ice cream cone. It is 120VT for a generic Drumstick and I am hooked on them. I probably eat at least two on every trip to Lenakel. We ended up hanging out in front of the post office/ bank. This is our usual spot. When it was time for me to head to the airport and pick up Elin and her father, I asked if Sultan wanted to cruise to the airport with me.
We caught a truck that ended up heading down to some school right on the solwota. This school grounds are so incredible. It seems like somewhere to have a resort not a public school. Well after sitting there for ten minutes we thought we should just walk down the road and catch a different truck. Well before another truck came this guy came up again and gave us a ride the rest of the way. I tried to give him 200 for the ride but he wouldn’t take it. A lot of people treat us like we are one of there in-laws here.
When we got to the airport I found the guy from Jungle Oasis. I told him the two people he was picking up were friends of mine and that I was going to go with them. He said okay and then a few minutes later he asked a question that seemed odd to me. He did not know that Elin and her Dad, Randy, were coming, even though they had already paid, (probably more then they should of because they did it through vila.) The driver was at the airport to pick up a parcel. There plain landed and I walked out past the security, one of my brother cousins, and gave Elin a huge hug. I laughed because she said my dad is getting out our luggage. I told her Elin this is a real airport they bring it to you. Elin got to ride in the extra pilot seat of the 8 seater plain. That must have been a cool view.
We threw there stuff in the truck and headed down the road laughing at the Vanuatu. The driver only came to pick up a parcel, never got the parcel, but got some tourists by he did not even know had already paid for the truck service. Awe Tanna! We twisted Sultans arm to come with us. He gave us a bunch of excuses like he didn’t pack anything and had no change of clothes. Then we found out he bought a new tooth brush, some snacks, and some other goodies and came to the conclusion that he was well packed for the trip.
The ride out there started to get chilly as we headed through the bush. Luckily our jackets were pretty easy to get to. I loaned Randy my rain jacket and through on my fleece. If he wasn’t there I would have worn both of them. It is so cold!! We kept getting “closer” and closer and closer. We would not have known this if it was not for Sultan who kept telling us, yeah were closer now.
When we got to Jungle we could not decided if we wanted to go straight up the volcano or wait until the next night. We opted to relax and go eat dinner. We did not realize that dinner was going to be such an experience. We had a lovely smelling steak with rice and veggies. I was focused on cutting my steak into tiny bite size pieces, when I looked up and saw everyone having issues with there steak. Randy said he could not even cut his, Elin on has a butter knife, and Sultan has the whole steak in his hands trying to tear off a piece with his teeth. I felt bad for Swiss couple we were sitting with because were having fits of laughter about the steak. Elin said well Chris is eating his. I explained well you just have to cut it into a small enough piece that you can swallow it. Sultan was almost crying when he said he was afraid to even try and swallow it. Poor Randy hardly ate anything. Of course Sultan and I made sure everything but the steak did not go to waste. When the guy came to clear our plates he said yeah the mit hemi strong huh? Olgeta oli bin kutem no gud. (the meat is strong huh? Yeah they cut it the wrong way!) So this guy knew that we were eating tough steak. Awe Tanna!
After dinner we went back to the room and had a night cap of Jim Bean and coke. Elin had her ipod and speakers so we drank and listened to the sounds of the Beatles and the Beach Boys while listening to Mt Yasur rumble in the back ground. We laughed so hard and had so much fun with each other. It felt like being at summer camp. The next morning we had no idea what the day was to bring. We were just hoping it was not more of that steak!
So while I was writing this I got a knock on my door. My room service had arrived. It was a nice bowl of Tanna soup that smelled like a wet dog. Then I saw a junk of meat int eh middle. My first thought was wow I finally get to eat dog! But, then I noticed that there were also intestines in the soup as well. Ah yes, Flying Fox intestines! Yummy!! I have of course eaten everything but the intestines. I have just have not been able to bring my self to do that yet. The leg of the Flying Fox was a little bloody, I hope bats don’t have salmonella!!
When I started to walk down I sent a text message to Sultan that I was heading down and we should meet for lunch. Well on the walk there I quickly realized that a black shirt was the wrong thing to wear. While it was only about 75 out it felt like a 101 in that shirt. It did not help that I was hauling around my back pack camera bag with my tripod. I got to the main road and hoped and hoped a truck would stop and pick me up. Well a truck did stop but it was going in the opposite direction. As the truck approached I noticed it was all yungfala’s from my village. I should have expected the flying nuts heading my way, but before I could I took one right where it counts. They all got a big laugh out of this. Got to love the Tanna sense of humor!
They convinced me to jump in the truck and head all the way back to my village before heading back down. So off we went back to my village. We unloaded the sand beach and then headed back to back down to Lenakel. Riding around with my brothers is pretty fun. They are so goofy. They sing out to every girl we pass and make fun of the little kids.
When we got into town I saw Sultan and the JICA (Japanese Volunteers,) along with two random Americans. The two Americans have been in Sultans village doing some kind of church work.
Sultan and I cruised around town. I stopped into the JK Nalas store and bought and ice cream cone. It is 120VT for a generic Drumstick and I am hooked on them. I probably eat at least two on every trip to Lenakel. We ended up hanging out in front of the post office/ bank. This is our usual spot. When it was time for me to head to the airport and pick up Elin and her father, I asked if Sultan wanted to cruise to the airport with me.
We caught a truck that ended up heading down to some school right on the solwota. This school grounds are so incredible. It seems like somewhere to have a resort not a public school. Well after sitting there for ten minutes we thought we should just walk down the road and catch a different truck. Well before another truck came this guy came up again and gave us a ride the rest of the way. I tried to give him 200 for the ride but he wouldn’t take it. A lot of people treat us like we are one of there in-laws here.
When we got to the airport I found the guy from Jungle Oasis. I told him the two people he was picking up were friends of mine and that I was going to go with them. He said okay and then a few minutes later he asked a question that seemed odd to me. He did not know that Elin and her Dad, Randy, were coming, even though they had already paid, (probably more then they should of because they did it through vila.) The driver was at the airport to pick up a parcel. There plain landed and I walked out past the security, one of my brother cousins, and gave Elin a huge hug. I laughed because she said my dad is getting out our luggage. I told her Elin this is a real airport they bring it to you. Elin got to ride in the extra pilot seat of the 8 seater plain. That must have been a cool view.
We threw there stuff in the truck and headed down the road laughing at the Vanuatu. The driver only came to pick up a parcel, never got the parcel, but got some tourists by he did not even know had already paid for the truck service. Awe Tanna! We twisted Sultans arm to come with us. He gave us a bunch of excuses like he didn’t pack anything and had no change of clothes. Then we found out he bought a new tooth brush, some snacks, and some other goodies and came to the conclusion that he was well packed for the trip.
The ride out there started to get chilly as we headed through the bush. Luckily our jackets were pretty easy to get to. I loaned Randy my rain jacket and through on my fleece. If he wasn’t there I would have worn both of them. It is so cold!! We kept getting “closer” and closer and closer. We would not have known this if it was not for Sultan who kept telling us, yeah were closer now.
When we got to Jungle we could not decided if we wanted to go straight up the volcano or wait until the next night. We opted to relax and go eat dinner. We did not realize that dinner was going to be such an experience. We had a lovely smelling steak with rice and veggies. I was focused on cutting my steak into tiny bite size pieces, when I looked up and saw everyone having issues with there steak. Randy said he could not even cut his, Elin on has a butter knife, and Sultan has the whole steak in his hands trying to tear off a piece with his teeth. I felt bad for Swiss couple we were sitting with because were having fits of laughter about the steak. Elin said well Chris is eating his. I explained well you just have to cut it into a small enough piece that you can swallow it. Sultan was almost crying when he said he was afraid to even try and swallow it. Poor Randy hardly ate anything. Of course Sultan and I made sure everything but the steak did not go to waste. When the guy came to clear our plates he said yeah the mit hemi strong huh? Olgeta oli bin kutem no gud. (the meat is strong huh? Yeah they cut it the wrong way!) So this guy knew that we were eating tough steak. Awe Tanna!
After dinner we went back to the room and had a night cap of Jim Bean and coke. Elin had her ipod and speakers so we drank and listened to the sounds of the Beatles and the Beach Boys while listening to Mt Yasur rumble in the back ground. We laughed so hard and had so much fun with each other. It felt like being at summer camp. The next morning we had no idea what the day was to bring. We were just hoping it was not more of that steak!
So while I was writing this I got a knock on my door. My room service had arrived. It was a nice bowl of Tanna soup that smelled like a wet dog. Then I saw a junk of meat int eh middle. My first thought was wow I finally get to eat dog! But, then I noticed that there were also intestines in the soup as well. Ah yes, Flying Fox intestines! Yummy!! I have of course eaten everything but the intestines. I have just have not been able to bring my self to do that yet. The leg of the Flying Fox was a little bloody, I hope bats don’t have salmonella!!
Port resolution
Well my necklace making class went great, besides for the fact that the students flattened my role of rope. At first the boys did not seem interested. When I told people to come up and cut their rope the girls jumped right up, but the boys kind of hem hawed around. In the end the boys really dug it and wanted to know different ways to braid them. It is island bling bling I guess.
After my class I was supposed to walk to Tuhu School to meet Brizz. Brizz is a fifth year volunteer here who works in Vila. Tuhu is about a 45 minute walk from my house. Well I was feeling lazy and never made it down there. I tried calling Brizz but that was of no use. The next afternoon I was pan frying some horse in BBQ sauce, when I heard a truck pull up. I went out side and there was Brizz walking my way. Two Twix bars in hand. Yes it was nice to see him, but even better to see the Twix!! It turns out he never made it to Tuhu and was just then on his way there. I made plans to walk down Thursday after class and drink kava with him and Brett.
Thursday afternoon rolled around and I was still feeling lazy. Here in Bislama I would say “mi mi les long wokabot.” ( I am sick of walking.) So I decided that instead of walking the 1:45 to town I would walk the 45 minutes to the main road and try and catch a truck. (I do not know why I have been feeling lazy lately. I think it may be lack of protein. I have bought some peanut butter and have been feeling better.) I found Brizz in town and found out that it would be just him and I drinking kava. We Nakamal hopped to two different kava bars. The kava was decent, nothing great but decent none the less.
Friday morning, Brizz and I jumped on the office of Education truck and headed to Port Resolution. Port is on the South Eastern part of Tanna. Up to this point I had only been as far as Mt Yasur. Port is beautiful. Port Resolution is where Captain Cook first came to shore in Vanuatu. He had seen the glowing lights from Mt Yasur and came to investigate. When he got here and tried to ask the locals what this place was called, they were confused. So Captain Cook picked up some dirt and asked again what this was called. The locals finally caught on and told him Tanna. Of course that was not the name of the island that is the name of what he picked up. So the translation of Tanna is Ground.
It is a beautiful bay and I decided that while Brizz was working with the school I would go for a walk and explore the area. There were about five yachts in the bay. I saw two girls rowing their dingy into shore so I walked down and storied with them for a little while. One of the girls was from France and the other was Connecticut. I heard a truck up on top and thought it best to head back up there. The two girls came along with me.
As we were walking we talked about there journey and what they thought of Tanna so far. They had been here a few days already and said they had really enjoyed the island and the people. As we were walking we passed a Nakamal that had several men in it. One of the men came up and started talking. I thought he was talking to the two girls but it turns out that the truck had come looking for me and headed down towards Sandra’s house, (Another PC volunteer.) As we walked away the American girl asked, now what language was that in? I said wasn’t it English? She said nope. Huh it must have been Bislama then. The language is so much like English I sometimes have a hard time believing that English speakers can not figure out what the people are saying.
I found Brizz and we got back on the road and headed towards the volcano. Brizz had never seen it and was looking forward to going. I was excited to see it in the day time, even though I know that at night it is more spectacular. We got to the gate and the gate man wanted to charge both of us 2250. I explained that I had already paid once. He asked me where my receipt was. I told him one of my brothers in my village used it to roll his tobacco. He said sorry you need a receipt. Every other time I have been here this has not been an issue. But this guy was not budging so I told Brizz to have fun and I jumped out of the truck and spent my time waiting, harassing the gate keeper for his rubbish fashion. Okay not really, there was a string band doing a benefit so I just hung out wrote some letters and listened to the string band.
When we finally got back to Lenakel I ran into the gang and got to say goodbye to Matt Dewitt. He had to head back to his village so that is the last time I will se him in Country. I met up with Sultan and we hung out with the JICA and GAP volunteers until it was time to meet Brett for kava. The Kava was horrible. I had not eaten very much all day so I was expecting the kava to really kick. No such luck. The first two Nakamals did nothing for me. The third one it started to kick.
I wish people could see this last Nakamal we went to. If this place was in the states, there is not a one of you who would dare to walk into this place. The closest I can describe it too is the seediest back alley of the worst part of Harlem. A tin shelter off in the corner with five guys huddled around a small fire. The only other light coming from one light bulb hanging high in a tree. The only sound is the guy in the bushes throwing up. We all talked about how at home none of us would ever put our selves into this kind of situation. But here in Vanuatu, well it is just our life.
Saturday morning I rode out to the airport with Brizz. I had a package waiting for me from Peace Corps. Inside the packet is site development form. Peace Corps is sending me to the islands of Fortune and Aniwa to do site development work for possible new volunteers, actually possible sites for me. Peace Corps has decided to explore the option of changing my site. This is due to the fact that I am the fourth generation and fifth volunteer here. The school runs great. I feel that I could be helping more in a place that is not already sustainable. We will see if that holds to be true.
I am very nervous about this. For one thing, I really love the people in my village and will miss all of them. Secondly, Tanna is awesome. Our weather is probably better than any other island in Vanuatu. There are nine volunteers on island that I can go see anytime I want. We meet for lunch every Friday in town and storian. We have two real restaurants and one with homemade ice cream. We have more stores then we really need. There are two flights a day, so I can get mail fairly easily.
I could end up on an island like Aniwa, where they have never had any volunteers before. The closet bank is on Tanna, there are no restaurants, and they only have two planes a week (sometimes, less depending on the weather.) Well I guess we will see what I think in a week from now.
I am excited that tomorrow Elin and her Dad are flying into Tanna and I am going to go hang out with them for two nights. Oh yeah that’s one more great thing about Tanna, everyone eventually has to come here to see Yasur!
After my class I was supposed to walk to Tuhu School to meet Brizz. Brizz is a fifth year volunteer here who works in Vila. Tuhu is about a 45 minute walk from my house. Well I was feeling lazy and never made it down there. I tried calling Brizz but that was of no use. The next afternoon I was pan frying some horse in BBQ sauce, when I heard a truck pull up. I went out side and there was Brizz walking my way. Two Twix bars in hand. Yes it was nice to see him, but even better to see the Twix!! It turns out he never made it to Tuhu and was just then on his way there. I made plans to walk down Thursday after class and drink kava with him and Brett.
Thursday afternoon rolled around and I was still feeling lazy. Here in Bislama I would say “mi mi les long wokabot.” ( I am sick of walking.) So I decided that instead of walking the 1:45 to town I would walk the 45 minutes to the main road and try and catch a truck. (I do not know why I have been feeling lazy lately. I think it may be lack of protein. I have bought some peanut butter and have been feeling better.) I found Brizz in town and found out that it would be just him and I drinking kava. We Nakamal hopped to two different kava bars. The kava was decent, nothing great but decent none the less.
Friday morning, Brizz and I jumped on the office of Education truck and headed to Port Resolution. Port is on the South Eastern part of Tanna. Up to this point I had only been as far as Mt Yasur. Port is beautiful. Port Resolution is where Captain Cook first came to shore in Vanuatu. He had seen the glowing lights from Mt Yasur and came to investigate. When he got here and tried to ask the locals what this place was called, they were confused. So Captain Cook picked up some dirt and asked again what this was called. The locals finally caught on and told him Tanna. Of course that was not the name of the island that is the name of what he picked up. So the translation of Tanna is Ground.
It is a beautiful bay and I decided that while Brizz was working with the school I would go for a walk and explore the area. There were about five yachts in the bay. I saw two girls rowing their dingy into shore so I walked down and storied with them for a little while. One of the girls was from France and the other was Connecticut. I heard a truck up on top and thought it best to head back up there. The two girls came along with me.
As we were walking we talked about there journey and what they thought of Tanna so far. They had been here a few days already and said they had really enjoyed the island and the people. As we were walking we passed a Nakamal that had several men in it. One of the men came up and started talking. I thought he was talking to the two girls but it turns out that the truck had come looking for me and headed down towards Sandra’s house, (Another PC volunteer.) As we walked away the American girl asked, now what language was that in? I said wasn’t it English? She said nope. Huh it must have been Bislama then. The language is so much like English I sometimes have a hard time believing that English speakers can not figure out what the people are saying.
I found Brizz and we got back on the road and headed towards the volcano. Brizz had never seen it and was looking forward to going. I was excited to see it in the day time, even though I know that at night it is more spectacular. We got to the gate and the gate man wanted to charge both of us 2250. I explained that I had already paid once. He asked me where my receipt was. I told him one of my brothers in my village used it to roll his tobacco. He said sorry you need a receipt. Every other time I have been here this has not been an issue. But this guy was not budging so I told Brizz to have fun and I jumped out of the truck and spent my time waiting, harassing the gate keeper for his rubbish fashion. Okay not really, there was a string band doing a benefit so I just hung out wrote some letters and listened to the string band.
When we finally got back to Lenakel I ran into the gang and got to say goodbye to Matt Dewitt. He had to head back to his village so that is the last time I will se him in Country. I met up with Sultan and we hung out with the JICA and GAP volunteers until it was time to meet Brett for kava. The Kava was horrible. I had not eaten very much all day so I was expecting the kava to really kick. No such luck. The first two Nakamals did nothing for me. The third one it started to kick.
I wish people could see this last Nakamal we went to. If this place was in the states, there is not a one of you who would dare to walk into this place. The closest I can describe it too is the seediest back alley of the worst part of Harlem. A tin shelter off in the corner with five guys huddled around a small fire. The only other light coming from one light bulb hanging high in a tree. The only sound is the guy in the bushes throwing up. We all talked about how at home none of us would ever put our selves into this kind of situation. But here in Vanuatu, well it is just our life.
Saturday morning I rode out to the airport with Brizz. I had a package waiting for me from Peace Corps. Inside the packet is site development form. Peace Corps is sending me to the islands of Fortune and Aniwa to do site development work for possible new volunteers, actually possible sites for me. Peace Corps has decided to explore the option of changing my site. This is due to the fact that I am the fourth generation and fifth volunteer here. The school runs great. I feel that I could be helping more in a place that is not already sustainable. We will see if that holds to be true.
I am very nervous about this. For one thing, I really love the people in my village and will miss all of them. Secondly, Tanna is awesome. Our weather is probably better than any other island in Vanuatu. There are nine volunteers on island that I can go see anytime I want. We meet for lunch every Friday in town and storian. We have two real restaurants and one with homemade ice cream. We have more stores then we really need. There are two flights a day, so I can get mail fairly easily.
I could end up on an island like Aniwa, where they have never had any volunteers before. The closet bank is on Tanna, there are no restaurants, and they only have two planes a week (sometimes, less depending on the weather.) Well I guess we will see what I think in a week from now.
I am excited that tomorrow Elin and her Dad are flying into Tanna and I am going to go hang out with them for two nights. Oh yeah that’s one more great thing about Tanna, everyone eventually has to come here to see Yasur!
Naora and Jackie Long
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Coming back to Tanna has been an adjustment bak bakagen. Saying goodbye at the airport was hard to do. Several of my friends were there to say goodbye, each of them trying to get back to their islands. I think one or two of us wish that we could spend a few more days together. I would argue that our Peace Corps experience is harder then any other out there. I am sure everyone PCV in Every country says this but here I think its true. We are isolated more then any other country. I guess I just feel it more now that I have just spent the better part of two weeks getting to know all the other volunteers, most of whom I would never had met had it not been for All Vol.
So, we gave some big hugs at the airport and as I headed to the plane I kept looking back to see a pair of hands waving goodbye to me. I am truly sad to be leaving my Peace Corps family. I can only imagine how hard it will be to say goodbye in December 2009. As I got off the plane in Tanna it did feel good to be back home. For one thing, my wallet needed a break of Vila. Vila is more expensive then California. At $4- a beer and no lunch cheaper then $10 bucks your small volunteer paycheck goes pretty quick. As we say here, Vila hemi kakae everi samting. Well Jackie, her sister, and Jackie’s daughter Jackie Jr. were on the plane with me back to Tanna.
When we got of the plane I got to storian with them a little longer. I introduced them to their driver who would be taking them to Jungle Oasis. This is the same place my father and me stayed at when we went to Mt Yasur. I was going to hop a ride with them, but saw Namke and his entire family at the airport. I said good bye to Jackie and her family and I climbed into a different truck with Namke and the family.
I was disappointed to not be able to storian with Jackie a little longer. I was also hoping to show her my site, but that just did not work out. I got back to my site just in time to drop my gear off and head to the Nakamal. It was nice to drink a shell with my brothers and dada’s. My brother Lucas told me everyone was down making a new house at another village (Housing is a sore subject for me has mine is probably the worst PCV house in Vanuatu.) He asked if I wanted to go down their in the morning and we could kakae naora blong solwota. We had eaten Naora for wasmaot (wash your mouth) at the Nakamal. Naora is small crayfish, but Naora blong solwota is spiny lobster. How do you turn that down? Well I didn’t. At 8 am the next morning Lucas and I were heading down a bush road to a small village near the solwota. It was about an hour and half to our tawis village.
With in five minutes of shaking hands with everyone, I was sitting next to a fire eating a bowl of Tanna soup with a full spiny lobster draped across the plate. There was not a piece of edible meat left on that thing when I was done. Even the smallest leg was cracked open and devoured. After we ate, Lucas and I headed to the Nakamal and drank a small pikinini of Kava. Once everyone else showed up we headed down to the solwota. The last half hour was incredible. This will be a must see for anyone coming to Vanuatu to visit me. Rolling green hills give way to sharp jagged cliffs lined with coconut palms which drop straight on to the black sand beach. We took a bunch of photos and I snorkeled around for a while. The visibility was not that good as it had been raining a day before.
My Tawi Rexson had been diving and caught some fish and a small nawita (octopus.) We grilled up the fish and the nawita and ate them on the beach. As I was eating my last bite of Nawita I heard someone say hey there’s Noa running down the beach. One of my brothers ran down to tell him I was down there. He came over and we storied for about an hour before he had to head back to a Nakamal to watch the olfala kutem kok blong oli pikinin, (circumcision ceremony.) As Noa said goodbye we packed up to head back up the hill. More then anything I just wanted to get home to my bed.
Well we stopped at the Nakamal and it became clear I would not be sleeping in my own bed that night. We had a couple of shells and headed up to get some dinner. I was kind of annoyed but really could not do anything about it because I did not know the road back to my village. I slept in a house at the Kindy school. I froze my butt off all night long. It was so cold. I had two small blankets and just could not get warm. When I finally got up sometime around seven I walked to the village and huddled up with everyone around the fire. They offered me some yam for breakfast but I just was not in the mood for it.
I am glad I held out because an hour later they handed me another bowl of Tanna soup with a giant lobster on top. Not only that there were two more on the side! I only ate one because they said if I did not finish it that they would wrap it up for me to take on my walk about. They wanted me to take photos of them at a nearby waterfall so we headed out to take some more photos. I am learning that when someone wants to go to a waterfall, be prepared that you will be scaling a cliff to get to the bottom. I slipped once and thought for sure I was going over the cliff. Luckily I grabbed the root of some tree and managed to hang on. It only would have been a 20 foot drop to jagged rocks, but I was thankful I did not have to chance it. Once to the creek bed everything changed. It was so beautiful. We swam around and jumped off some rocks into the pools.
The hike out was not nearly as bad although to say I was not scared most of the time would be a lie. I thought man I have got to show this to the crew when they come out, but then I realized Hulsey would need to do some laundry when we got to the bottom. Half way up the cliff we stopped and drank green coconuts. They call these tusker coconuts, because they are almost carbonated. They squirt when you open them and bubble as they go down. They are my favorite coconut on a hot day.
Once back to the village I packed up my gear and headed out with my tawi Rexson who was going to show me a shortcut to get over to Jungle Oasis to see Jackie. He walked me about two hours through the bush before we got to the main road. Once I was on the main road I thanked him for his guide services and I went on my way. It took about 5 hours to get to Jungle Oasis. I was so happy to be there and could not wait to see the look on Jackie’s face. Well that would have to wait because apparently they took off that morning to go back to the west side of Tanna! So I turned around and started walking home. Thank god they packed up those Naora for me, because that was the only food I had. I am also lucky that rexson gave me small water bottle.
Walking through the Mt Yasur ash plains I felt like I was deserted in the Mojave Desert. As far as the eye can see it is only volcanic ash fields. My water was empty and I was thirsty, not a good combination. I finally passed a truck that I waved down to get a ride. The problem is he was only going about 100 yards before turning off on a side road. I still asked if he would drive me that far as I needed a break. From where he dropped me off it was only about 100 yards to a hospital clinic who I knew had water. So I had a pikinini run and fill my bottle up. I drank the first bottle in one go and went back for more.
I met some nice people on the way. They all got big goofy grins on there face when I greeted them with dawit lanaeyu., which is good night I their local language. They could not believe how far I had walked or that I was trying to head back home. As I was just about to crest the snake hill, (called snake hill because it is so steep the road has to zigzag back and forth like a snake) a truck was heading my way. Usually you stand at the side of the road and try to wave them down. Not today though! I was not taking any chances. I stood in the middle of the road till he stopped and then told him where I was going.
They got me to the half road near my house which is only about a 45 minute walk to village. I had walked a straight 8 hours with pretty much no breaks. I was beat!!! My phone finally came into village and I was happy to hear some voicemails from various people. I gave a call up to Tongoa and storied with Bridget for a while. It was nice to be able to download the days events with someone in English.
As I walked passed the Nakamal my brother peter tsk tsk tsk’ed me and gave the sign for a shell. So I walked in a grabbed a shell. Not having but 24 ounces of water to drink over an eight hour hike, that shell of kava hit me like a ton of brick. I sat down next to a fire and next thing I knew I was passed out. I tried to fight it, but the my tired body and the warmth of the fire just put me out. I woke up to my brother handing me another shell. I stayed awake for a while linger but then decided to end it all and go home. I had some hot tanna soup with the family and then called it a night. I was out cold!
Coming back to Tanna has been an adjustment bak bakagen. Saying goodbye at the airport was hard to do. Several of my friends were there to say goodbye, each of them trying to get back to their islands. I think one or two of us wish that we could spend a few more days together. I would argue that our Peace Corps experience is harder then any other out there. I am sure everyone PCV in Every country says this but here I think its true. We are isolated more then any other country. I guess I just feel it more now that I have just spent the better part of two weeks getting to know all the other volunteers, most of whom I would never had met had it not been for All Vol.
So, we gave some big hugs at the airport and as I headed to the plane I kept looking back to see a pair of hands waving goodbye to me. I am truly sad to be leaving my Peace Corps family. I can only imagine how hard it will be to say goodbye in December 2009. As I got off the plane in Tanna it did feel good to be back home. For one thing, my wallet needed a break of Vila. Vila is more expensive then California. At $4- a beer and no lunch cheaper then $10 bucks your small volunteer paycheck goes pretty quick. As we say here, Vila hemi kakae everi samting. Well Jackie, her sister, and Jackie’s daughter Jackie Jr. were on the plane with me back to Tanna.
When we got of the plane I got to storian with them a little longer. I introduced them to their driver who would be taking them to Jungle Oasis. This is the same place my father and me stayed at when we went to Mt Yasur. I was going to hop a ride with them, but saw Namke and his entire family at the airport. I said good bye to Jackie and her family and I climbed into a different truck with Namke and the family.
I was disappointed to not be able to storian with Jackie a little longer. I was also hoping to show her my site, but that just did not work out. I got back to my site just in time to drop my gear off and head to the Nakamal. It was nice to drink a shell with my brothers and dada’s. My brother Lucas told me everyone was down making a new house at another village (Housing is a sore subject for me has mine is probably the worst PCV house in Vanuatu.) He asked if I wanted to go down their in the morning and we could kakae naora blong solwota. We had eaten Naora for wasmaot (wash your mouth) at the Nakamal. Naora is small crayfish, but Naora blong solwota is spiny lobster. How do you turn that down? Well I didn’t. At 8 am the next morning Lucas and I were heading down a bush road to a small village near the solwota. It was about an hour and half to our tawis village.
With in five minutes of shaking hands with everyone, I was sitting next to a fire eating a bowl of Tanna soup with a full spiny lobster draped across the plate. There was not a piece of edible meat left on that thing when I was done. Even the smallest leg was cracked open and devoured. After we ate, Lucas and I headed to the Nakamal and drank a small pikinini of Kava. Once everyone else showed up we headed down to the solwota. The last half hour was incredible. This will be a must see for anyone coming to Vanuatu to visit me. Rolling green hills give way to sharp jagged cliffs lined with coconut palms which drop straight on to the black sand beach. We took a bunch of photos and I snorkeled around for a while. The visibility was not that good as it had been raining a day before.
My Tawi Rexson had been diving and caught some fish and a small nawita (octopus.) We grilled up the fish and the nawita and ate them on the beach. As I was eating my last bite of Nawita I heard someone say hey there’s Noa running down the beach. One of my brothers ran down to tell him I was down there. He came over and we storied for about an hour before he had to head back to a Nakamal to watch the olfala kutem kok blong oli pikinin, (circumcision ceremony.) As Noa said goodbye we packed up to head back up the hill. More then anything I just wanted to get home to my bed.
Well we stopped at the Nakamal and it became clear I would not be sleeping in my own bed that night. We had a couple of shells and headed up to get some dinner. I was kind of annoyed but really could not do anything about it because I did not know the road back to my village. I slept in a house at the Kindy school. I froze my butt off all night long. It was so cold. I had two small blankets and just could not get warm. When I finally got up sometime around seven I walked to the village and huddled up with everyone around the fire. They offered me some yam for breakfast but I just was not in the mood for it.
I am glad I held out because an hour later they handed me another bowl of Tanna soup with a giant lobster on top. Not only that there were two more on the side! I only ate one because they said if I did not finish it that they would wrap it up for me to take on my walk about. They wanted me to take photos of them at a nearby waterfall so we headed out to take some more photos. I am learning that when someone wants to go to a waterfall, be prepared that you will be scaling a cliff to get to the bottom. I slipped once and thought for sure I was going over the cliff. Luckily I grabbed the root of some tree and managed to hang on. It only would have been a 20 foot drop to jagged rocks, but I was thankful I did not have to chance it. Once to the creek bed everything changed. It was so beautiful. We swam around and jumped off some rocks into the pools.
The hike out was not nearly as bad although to say I was not scared most of the time would be a lie. I thought man I have got to show this to the crew when they come out, but then I realized Hulsey would need to do some laundry when we got to the bottom. Half way up the cliff we stopped and drank green coconuts. They call these tusker coconuts, because they are almost carbonated. They squirt when you open them and bubble as they go down. They are my favorite coconut on a hot day.
Once back to the village I packed up my gear and headed out with my tawi Rexson who was going to show me a shortcut to get over to Jungle Oasis to see Jackie. He walked me about two hours through the bush before we got to the main road. Once I was on the main road I thanked him for his guide services and I went on my way. It took about 5 hours to get to Jungle Oasis. I was so happy to be there and could not wait to see the look on Jackie’s face. Well that would have to wait because apparently they took off that morning to go back to the west side of Tanna! So I turned around and started walking home. Thank god they packed up those Naora for me, because that was the only food I had. I am also lucky that rexson gave me small water bottle.
Walking through the Mt Yasur ash plains I felt like I was deserted in the Mojave Desert. As far as the eye can see it is only volcanic ash fields. My water was empty and I was thirsty, not a good combination. I finally passed a truck that I waved down to get a ride. The problem is he was only going about 100 yards before turning off on a side road. I still asked if he would drive me that far as I needed a break. From where he dropped me off it was only about 100 yards to a hospital clinic who I knew had water. So I had a pikinini run and fill my bottle up. I drank the first bottle in one go and went back for more.
I met some nice people on the way. They all got big goofy grins on there face when I greeted them with dawit lanaeyu., which is good night I their local language. They could not believe how far I had walked or that I was trying to head back home. As I was just about to crest the snake hill, (called snake hill because it is so steep the road has to zigzag back and forth like a snake) a truck was heading my way. Usually you stand at the side of the road and try to wave them down. Not today though! I was not taking any chances. I stood in the middle of the road till he stopped and then told him where I was going.
They got me to the half road near my house which is only about a 45 minute walk to village. I had walked a straight 8 hours with pretty much no breaks. I was beat!!! My phone finally came into village and I was happy to hear some voicemails from various people. I gave a call up to Tongoa and storied with Bridget for a while. It was nice to be able to download the days events with someone in English.
As I walked passed the Nakamal my brother peter tsk tsk tsk’ed me and gave the sign for a shell. So I walked in a grabbed a shell. Not having but 24 ounces of water to drink over an eight hour hike, that shell of kava hit me like a ton of brick. I sat down next to a fire and next thing I knew I was passed out. I tried to fight it, but the my tired body and the warmth of the fire just put me out. I woke up to my brother handing me another shell. I stayed awake for a while linger but then decided to end it all and go home. I had some hot tanna soup with the family and then called it a night. I was out cold!
Friday Night Dance off
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Friday night we met up with Charlie and Nancy from group 19A. We went down to a small beach near the Waterfront restaurant. Charlie and Nancy put together a small picnic of cheese and crackers, and tapanade. They also brought some glasses to pour the Provenance 2004 Merlot in to (tank yu tumas bak bakagen Aunt Diane!!) We sat there enjoying the wine and company until we headed over to the Waterfront for dinner. The Waterfront is one of my favorite places to go in Port Vila. They always have dinner music and it is open aired with a Natangora roof. So you are covered but still feel like you are out side and the fact that it is right next to the marina doesn’t hurt.
I decided that it was such a nice night that I would go all out and get the beef fillet. Mmmm,,,, was it good!!! Of course the conversation was free flowing and enlightening. Charlie and Nancy are such amazing people. After we ate and finished our last dinner drink, Charlie suggested we move into the bar area and maybe do little dancing. While I am not sure what there exact ages are I believe they are in there early fifties but dance and have fun like they are twenty.
I love the music here because it is fun stuff to dance too, olsem Carlos Santana and evri samting olsem. Well Bridget and I had been swinging to any song we could and getting a lot of complements from some people. There was another couple in there ripping it up as well. There style was much more structured then ours. Next thing I know me and Bridget are walking off the dance floor to catch our breaths and wipe the dripping sweat off our faces when the owner jumps up and grabs the microphone and sings out, “Okay folks! We are going to have a dance off here tonight with these two couples!”” As he is saying this he is pointing to us and the other couple.
It turns out that the other couple teaches various Latin dance classes, olsem the Salsa and tango. Well we got out there and gave it our all and the crowd called it a tie. So the owner bought us all Margaritas!!! After the dance I went over to say thank you to the owner and give him a hard time. He said “yeah, I know they are instructors and all, but they are just soo… well you guys are just so Free when you dance. You guys were so much better then them.” It was a nice compliment, but the other guys did have some cool moves. Afterwards we were storian with them and they said they want us to come to class so we can exchange some moves, because they did not know a lot of the swing moves we were doing.
Peace Corps has been such a crazy experience so far. I have my ups and I have my downs, but the one constant is that I am always amazed that right now, right here, this is my life, and I got to tell you it aint so bad!!!
Friday night we met up with Charlie and Nancy from group 19A. We went down to a small beach near the Waterfront restaurant. Charlie and Nancy put together a small picnic of cheese and crackers, and tapanade. They also brought some glasses to pour the Provenance 2004 Merlot in to (tank yu tumas bak bakagen Aunt Diane!!) We sat there enjoying the wine and company until we headed over to the Waterfront for dinner. The Waterfront is one of my favorite places to go in Port Vila. They always have dinner music and it is open aired with a Natangora roof. So you are covered but still feel like you are out side and the fact that it is right next to the marina doesn’t hurt.
I decided that it was such a nice night that I would go all out and get the beef fillet. Mmmm,,,, was it good!!! Of course the conversation was free flowing and enlightening. Charlie and Nancy are such amazing people. After we ate and finished our last dinner drink, Charlie suggested we move into the bar area and maybe do little dancing. While I am not sure what there exact ages are I believe they are in there early fifties but dance and have fun like they are twenty.
I love the music here because it is fun stuff to dance too, olsem Carlos Santana and evri samting olsem. Well Bridget and I had been swinging to any song we could and getting a lot of complements from some people. There was another couple in there ripping it up as well. There style was much more structured then ours. Next thing I know me and Bridget are walking off the dance floor to catch our breaths and wipe the dripping sweat off our faces when the owner jumps up and grabs the microphone and sings out, “Okay folks! We are going to have a dance off here tonight with these two couples!”” As he is saying this he is pointing to us and the other couple.
It turns out that the other couple teaches various Latin dance classes, olsem the Salsa and tango. Well we got out there and gave it our all and the crowd called it a tie. So the owner bought us all Margaritas!!! After the dance I went over to say thank you to the owner and give him a hard time. He said “yeah, I know they are instructors and all, but they are just soo… well you guys are just so Free when you dance. You guys were so much better then them.” It was a nice compliment, but the other guys did have some cool moves. Afterwards we were storian with them and they said they want us to come to class so we can exchange some moves, because they did not know a lot of the swing moves we were doing.
Peace Corps has been such a crazy experience so far. I have my ups and I have my downs, but the one constant is that I am always amazed that right now, right here, this is my life, and I got to tell you it aint so bad!!!
Santo
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Well we arrived in Santo at about 6pm on Friday night. We did not really know where to go, but my PCMO had recommended the Decos Stop hotel. BY my pis kops standards this place is flas we flas. It has a restaurant, bar, and a swimming pool that all looks over the harbor. We got settled into our room and then came out and sat by the pool drinking a tusker before going and eating dinner. The food was alright. It was way better then beachcombers in Efate. My dad ordered the creamy curry fish and I got the steak. It was a fat steak but had very little flavor to it. There were muscles on top so that was a nice surprise.
I think we both ended up asleep by 9pm. This morning we both got p and lounged around while eating the continental breakfast, which consisted of popo, pineapple, grapefruit, bread, and juice. Afta breakfast we slowly got ready to head to town. Not knowing what Luganville had to offer we just walked from one end to the other. It is noticeably smaller then Vila but still much larger then Lenakel.
We found a spot to swim by Unity Park and ended up storian with three tourists. One was an Aussie, the other from Toronto, and a girl from Dublin. We had a nice chat with them until the rain came and we decided it was time for lunch. We found the Ocean King Café just in time. As we sat down the sky unloaded and dumped rain for about an hour and a half. After eating our fish and chips we decided to wait out the rain by having another tusker. About the time we decided to go the rain cleared up and we were able to walk home.
On the way home we found Aquamarine dive shop. There is an ex-PCV that works as a dive master there so we got set up to dive the SS Coolidge tomorrow. I am pretty excited about this dive. I do not think the visibility will be that great due to the recent rain fall, but it will be nice to dive none the less. Now we are just back at the hotel resting until it is time to go get some kava.
Well it is almost lunch time on Sunday. We just finished our first dive on the SS Coolidge. The first dive was awesome. It felt so good to throw on the tanks and get in the water. This ship is huge. Saw some cool sea life in there. There are also the old 3” guns and gas masks down there. The history of the ship is pretty cool.
Man after diving the Coolidge twice I completely understand why Rob quit the PC to become a dive master here. What a life he has. He dives twice a day, six times a week! Yeah I could handle that.
On our second dive we dove with Dan. He took us down to the medical supply cabinet of the ship. This was very cool because we actually penetrated the ship. This was my second time doing a penetration dive, the first being on the wreck of the Rhone, in the BVI. This apparently was my dads first. It was incredible. You get to a certain hole in the ship and then you just begin letting your air out of your BC and just drop into the cargo hold area. The only problem with the dives is that you are at about 30 meters so your dive time is not very long. Oh well it was incredible. I think both me and my dad felt like little kids down there. You could actually pick up the old medicine bottles which still had the prescription drugs in them. These were the drugs that soldiers in Vanuatu were waiting for during WWII. The history of the ship is pretty incredible. A brief synopsis is that the captain was a civilian so the military never told him the top secret info that there were mines places in the harbor and that there was only one safe route. The captain was worried about attack so he just put the petal to the metal and rammed to mines before beaching the ship on the shores of Santo. It was a very orderly evacuation of about 5,000 soldiers. Then as the tide began to go out the ship fell on its side and rolled back into the harbor, where it still sits today. I believe there were only two fatalities on the whole blunder.
Later that night I went stayed out in the hotel dining area drinking a beer and talking with some fellow travelers. I spent most of the time talking with a German man named Wolfgang. We just storied about what I am doing here in Vanuatu and if there was any hope for this country.
The next day we were up early to go to the Millennium Cave. Wolfgang decided to come with us. It turned out to only be the three of us on the tour. This is one tour I did not mind paying top dollar for. There are so many things here that I feel I should not have to pay for because I live here. This was worth every penny. Our driver Jonathan picked us up from the hotel and then we headed into town to grab some bread for lunch.
The first store we went to had no bread. The second store I went to had no bread. The third store I went to had two loaves of bread so I grabbed them, but before I got to the counter Chinese man came and said that bread was not fresh. I thought maybe it was just baguette or something. The fourth store had no bread. Finally Jonathon decided we should just got to the baker. So we bought our bread straight from the bakery. To this moment I regret not buying bread to eat on the way out there. Because I only bought one loaf for me and one for my dad, I had to suffer the whole ride out there sitting next to fresh baked bread that smelled incredible!
The truck ride out there was about an hour or so. We parked close to small village where we found our guide. Jonathon and he walked us into the bush to find the cave. The hike in took about an hour and half. The olfalas did good. The running joke was it was only a half hour a way. On Tanna everything is “long we little bit,” but I guess on Santo everything is “only 30 minutes away.”
We had to climb down old bamboo ladders in some areas. It was pretty sketchy! When we arrived to the entrance of the cave I realized we had made the right decision. This thing was amazing! I do not have the vocabulary to even describe this thing. We had to bring flashlights because once inside the cave it is blacker than black! Not only are we hiking through a cave, it is a cave with a running river through it. At many times we were waist deep wading through the water. It took about an hour to get to the other side of the cave. The cave is about 30-60 feet high, depending on which part of the cave.
When we got to the other side we had lunch and swam in the stream. It was nice end to a great hike. Well it really was not the end because we had a two hour hike back out of there. When we got back to the bus we were all wiped out. I looked back and my dad was passed out in the bus. I rode up front and storied with Jonathon. When we got back to Luganville we dropped Wolfgang off at his hotel and then Jonathon, my dad, and myself all went to Nemos Nakamal. Jonathon parked his bus on the other side of the Nakamal because we did not want his friends to see his truck in front of the Nakamal. When I asked him why he said if they knew he was there they would come find him, knowing that he had been giving a tour that day, i.e.., he had fulap money! This is known as finding a sponsor. This is not like an AA sponsor. People come to the Nakamal with no money and look for a sponsor, someone to buy them a shell.
Well we arrived in Santo at about 6pm on Friday night. We did not really know where to go, but my PCMO had recommended the Decos Stop hotel. BY my pis kops standards this place is flas we flas. It has a restaurant, bar, and a swimming pool that all looks over the harbor. We got settled into our room and then came out and sat by the pool drinking a tusker before going and eating dinner. The food was alright. It was way better then beachcombers in Efate. My dad ordered the creamy curry fish and I got the steak. It was a fat steak but had very little flavor to it. There were muscles on top so that was a nice surprise.
I think we both ended up asleep by 9pm. This morning we both got p and lounged around while eating the continental breakfast, which consisted of popo, pineapple, grapefruit, bread, and juice. Afta breakfast we slowly got ready to head to town. Not knowing what Luganville had to offer we just walked from one end to the other. It is noticeably smaller then Vila but still much larger then Lenakel.
We found a spot to swim by Unity Park and ended up storian with three tourists. One was an Aussie, the other from Toronto, and a girl from Dublin. We had a nice chat with them until the rain came and we decided it was time for lunch. We found the Ocean King Café just in time. As we sat down the sky unloaded and dumped rain for about an hour and a half. After eating our fish and chips we decided to wait out the rain by having another tusker. About the time we decided to go the rain cleared up and we were able to walk home.
On the way home we found Aquamarine dive shop. There is an ex-PCV that works as a dive master there so we got set up to dive the SS Coolidge tomorrow. I am pretty excited about this dive. I do not think the visibility will be that great due to the recent rain fall, but it will be nice to dive none the less. Now we are just back at the hotel resting until it is time to go get some kava.
Well it is almost lunch time on Sunday. We just finished our first dive on the SS Coolidge. The first dive was awesome. It felt so good to throw on the tanks and get in the water. This ship is huge. Saw some cool sea life in there. There are also the old 3” guns and gas masks down there. The history of the ship is pretty cool.
Man after diving the Coolidge twice I completely understand why Rob quit the PC to become a dive master here. What a life he has. He dives twice a day, six times a week! Yeah I could handle that.
On our second dive we dove with Dan. He took us down to the medical supply cabinet of the ship. This was very cool because we actually penetrated the ship. This was my second time doing a penetration dive, the first being on the wreck of the Rhone, in the BVI. This apparently was my dads first. It was incredible. You get to a certain hole in the ship and then you just begin letting your air out of your BC and just drop into the cargo hold area. The only problem with the dives is that you are at about 30 meters so your dive time is not very long. Oh well it was incredible. I think both me and my dad felt like little kids down there. You could actually pick up the old medicine bottles which still had the prescription drugs in them. These were the drugs that soldiers in Vanuatu were waiting for during WWII. The history of the ship is pretty incredible. A brief synopsis is that the captain was a civilian so the military never told him the top secret info that there were mines places in the harbor and that there was only one safe route. The captain was worried about attack so he just put the petal to the metal and rammed to mines before beaching the ship on the shores of Santo. It was a very orderly evacuation of about 5,000 soldiers. Then as the tide began to go out the ship fell on its side and rolled back into the harbor, where it still sits today. I believe there were only two fatalities on the whole blunder.
Later that night I went stayed out in the hotel dining area drinking a beer and talking with some fellow travelers. I spent most of the time talking with a German man named Wolfgang. We just storied about what I am doing here in Vanuatu and if there was any hope for this country.
The next day we were up early to go to the Millennium Cave. Wolfgang decided to come with us. It turned out to only be the three of us on the tour. This is one tour I did not mind paying top dollar for. There are so many things here that I feel I should not have to pay for because I live here. This was worth every penny. Our driver Jonathan picked us up from the hotel and then we headed into town to grab some bread for lunch.
The first store we went to had no bread. The second store I went to had no bread. The third store I went to had two loaves of bread so I grabbed them, but before I got to the counter Chinese man came and said that bread was not fresh. I thought maybe it was just baguette or something. The fourth store had no bread. Finally Jonathon decided we should just got to the baker. So we bought our bread straight from the bakery. To this moment I regret not buying bread to eat on the way out there. Because I only bought one loaf for me and one for my dad, I had to suffer the whole ride out there sitting next to fresh baked bread that smelled incredible!
The truck ride out there was about an hour or so. We parked close to small village where we found our guide. Jonathon and he walked us into the bush to find the cave. The hike in took about an hour and half. The olfalas did good. The running joke was it was only a half hour a way. On Tanna everything is “long we little bit,” but I guess on Santo everything is “only 30 minutes away.”
We had to climb down old bamboo ladders in some areas. It was pretty sketchy! When we arrived to the entrance of the cave I realized we had made the right decision. This thing was amazing! I do not have the vocabulary to even describe this thing. We had to bring flashlights because once inside the cave it is blacker than black! Not only are we hiking through a cave, it is a cave with a running river through it. At many times we were waist deep wading through the water. It took about an hour to get to the other side of the cave. The cave is about 30-60 feet high, depending on which part of the cave.
When we got to the other side we had lunch and swam in the stream. It was nice end to a great hike. Well it really was not the end because we had a two hour hike back out of there. When we got back to the bus we were all wiped out. I looked back and my dad was passed out in the bus. I rode up front and storied with Jonathon. When we got back to Luganville we dropped Wolfgang off at his hotel and then Jonathon, my dad, and myself all went to Nemos Nakamal. Jonathon parked his bus on the other side of the Nakamal because we did not want his friends to see his truck in front of the Nakamal. When I asked him why he said if they knew he was there they would come find him, knowing that he had been giving a tour that day, i.e.., he had fulap money! This is known as finding a sponsor. This is not like an AA sponsor. People come to the Nakamal with no money and look for a sponsor, someone to buy them a shell.
Stret Papa In Vila
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The past three days have been filled with all sorts of adventures and thrills. I picked my dad up from the airport on Tuesday at 0930 in the AM. We then jumped into a bus and headed into town. I had booked a room for us at the Room with a View hotel. It is one of my favorite value hotels in Vila. The second floor has a veranda with breakfast tables and lounge chairs and a great view of Vila harbor. After we dropped his bags off, we walked down to the Nambawan café for some coffee. It is a great café that sits right on the harbor water.
We were both getting a little hungry so we decided to get some lunch. I gave him his choice of where he wanted to go. One of the choices being the Mamas market to eat like the locals eat. He thought that sounded great. I think he was a little surprised to see the tables covered with flies and the fish still to have all its bones in it. There was not even that many flies there. He will be in for a real shock when he sees how our kitchen floor looks in Lounotuan.
I figured we would hit the extreme ends of society in a short time so we headed over Irikki resort to grab some beers at the swim up bar. Every time I am there I have a hard time remembering this is Peace Corps. After a few hours at the pool we headed back to the hotel to shower and nap. It was coming up on taem blong yumi, (time for kava.) so we headed down to Shefa Nakamal for some Kava. I was impressed that he had two shells. It is too bad that the kava was weak so he did not feel any of the effects.
The next day we lounged around until we decided to go to the Mele Cascade Waterfalls. These are some of the most magnificent waterfalls I have ever seen. The best part is being able to swim in the different pools of water. I think we both had a great time. Of course when we were walking up the falls I thought it best to take our shoes off because of the mud. So we ditched out shoes, shirts, and sunglasses on the side of the trail. Well apparently in the two days he had been here he had not built up his island feet.
I guess it is a sign that my feet have grown accustomed to walking around dry leg, with out shoes. On the way back down he was tip toeing the entire way. When we got to the half way point where our shoes had been I noticed everything was gone. One of the security guys had picked them up and taken them down the road. This made for a very long walk for my dad as he delicately maneuvered down the rocky trail.
When we got to the enterance of the falls there were no buses to be found. I did not expect there to be one anyways. So we just started walking down the road. We came along a little store where these two French tourists were hanging out. I had actually met these girls a few nights before. We storied with them for a little bit and I storied with the shop owner. After a few minutes we decided to keep heading down road.
As we were walking a truck full of people started yelling Kaltao! Kaltao!, as they passed us. It was some kids from my training village heading back to mongaliliu. I think my dad got a kick out of me being recognized everywhere I went. Being a white guy in the middle of a Melanesian country I do not blend in very well.
When we got to the end of the road we could have grabbed a bus, but instead opted to walk along the beach for a while. We ended up by the ferry for Hideaway Island so we decided to head over and grab a beer. This was the first time I had been over there. It was very nice. We order a beer and then sat in some plastic lounge chairs and watched the sun set. The whole time talking about how “yes this is my life!” Not that my life is like that all the time, or for that matter hardly ever, but every once in a while it is my life and I love it!!
The past three days have been filled with all sorts of adventures and thrills. I picked my dad up from the airport on Tuesday at 0930 in the AM. We then jumped into a bus and headed into town. I had booked a room for us at the Room with a View hotel. It is one of my favorite value hotels in Vila. The second floor has a veranda with breakfast tables and lounge chairs and a great view of Vila harbor. After we dropped his bags off, we walked down to the Nambawan café for some coffee. It is a great café that sits right on the harbor water.
We were both getting a little hungry so we decided to get some lunch. I gave him his choice of where he wanted to go. One of the choices being the Mamas market to eat like the locals eat. He thought that sounded great. I think he was a little surprised to see the tables covered with flies and the fish still to have all its bones in it. There was not even that many flies there. He will be in for a real shock when he sees how our kitchen floor looks in Lounotuan.
I figured we would hit the extreme ends of society in a short time so we headed over Irikki resort to grab some beers at the swim up bar. Every time I am there I have a hard time remembering this is Peace Corps. After a few hours at the pool we headed back to the hotel to shower and nap. It was coming up on taem blong yumi, (time for kava.) so we headed down to Shefa Nakamal for some Kava. I was impressed that he had two shells. It is too bad that the kava was weak so he did not feel any of the effects.
The next day we lounged around until we decided to go to the Mele Cascade Waterfalls. These are some of the most magnificent waterfalls I have ever seen. The best part is being able to swim in the different pools of water. I think we both had a great time. Of course when we were walking up the falls I thought it best to take our shoes off because of the mud. So we ditched out shoes, shirts, and sunglasses on the side of the trail. Well apparently in the two days he had been here he had not built up his island feet.
I guess it is a sign that my feet have grown accustomed to walking around dry leg, with out shoes. On the way back down he was tip toeing the entire way. When we got to the half way point where our shoes had been I noticed everything was gone. One of the security guys had picked them up and taken them down the road. This made for a very long walk for my dad as he delicately maneuvered down the rocky trail.
When we got to the enterance of the falls there were no buses to be found. I did not expect there to be one anyways. So we just started walking down the road. We came along a little store where these two French tourists were hanging out. I had actually met these girls a few nights before. We storied with them for a little bit and I storied with the shop owner. After a few minutes we decided to keep heading down road.
As we were walking a truck full of people started yelling Kaltao! Kaltao!, as they passed us. It was some kids from my training village heading back to mongaliliu. I think my dad got a kick out of me being recognized everywhere I went. Being a white guy in the middle of a Melanesian country I do not blend in very well.
When we got to the end of the road we could have grabbed a bus, but instead opted to walk along the beach for a while. We ended up by the ferry for Hideaway Island so we decided to head over and grab a beer. This was the first time I had been over there. It was very nice. We order a beer and then sat in some plastic lounge chairs and watched the sun set. The whole time talking about how “yes this is my life!” Not that my life is like that all the time, or for that matter hardly ever, but every once in a while it is my life and I love it!!
ALL VOL Conference
Where do I begin? I have been so busy lately that I have not had the time or opportunity to write out my thoughts and adventures, and let me tell you I have had a thousand of each! I have spent today recovering from a long All Vol Conference. I went to sleep some where near 2200 last night and did not get out of the shower this morning until close up 1100 am. Wow was that sleep well needed.
Starting last Sunday we checked into Irriki Resort on Irriki Island for our annual All Volunteer Conference, other wise known simply as All Vol. I want to be careful I my description of this event to not portray it nearly as a big party. But let me tell you, if you put 100 isolated volunteers together for 5 days at a 5 star resort, you better be prepared for a good time.
Sunday was a free day and we spent most of it settling into our rooms. Checking out the amenities such as the fridge, washer and dryer, soft mattresses, fold out couch, plasma flat screen television, and the Jacuzzi on the balcony. Many of these things may just seem like everyday things to many of you, but for us it is like hanging out at Hugh Heffner’s house, including the scantly dressed woman. Okay they are not really scantly dresses here, but when you are used to every woman that see wearing an unappealing island dress, a swim suit becomes seems very risqué.
That evening we met for dinner at the watermark restaurant and were served a buffet of Asian cuisine. NO BANANA LAPLAP!!! HURRAY!!! The food was delicious and of course we all ate way too much!! Hind sight being 20/20 and all I think if we had to redo it again we would of ate more!!! Afterwards we had a trivia night up above the swimming pool. Our group 20B got destroyed, right up until the point where we were disqualified. The trivia night was the first leg of the Kuran Kup contest. Us being destroyed on the first night did not get our hopes down for winning the contest though. We still had several more events to compete in. With that said we were not DQ’d from any other event, and we went in to each event with our heads up high even though we were destroyed in each and every event of the contest. I think it was rigged! We had fun though.
The majority of our day was spent in sessions and workshops. I had heard rumors about how the sessions were much like our pre-service training and should expect to be bored. After my third session I asked Bridget if she was enjoying her sessions and she agreed that the session were great! I love all of them besides one which just cold not keep my eyes open in. But the rest I found to be very informative and very inspiring. I hope I can hang on to this refreshed sense of purpose here. That in itself is one of the majority points of All Vol.
The fact of the matter is that Peace Corps Vanuatu is unique to any other Peace Corps country in the world. Even other countries in the South Pacific do not have to deal with the isolation factor like we do here. PNG, Fiji, Solomon’s are all similar in varying degrees of culture, but each of those country is a singular island. Vanuatu on the other hand is spread out over 83 islands. If I wanted to get up to visit my good friends Dennis and Sandra in the banks I am looking at a RT cost of close to 70,000 VT, or 700 US. While that may not seem that expensive to fly from one end of the country to the other, remember that this country is smaller then California. It is also very difficult to get there because the planes can not always land and to many places once you have flown to the nearest island with an airport you have to hire boat for close to hundred bucks.
My point being that every other Peace Corps country in the world has the opportunity to see the other volunteers on a regular basis. But here in VT if we did not have ALL VOL you could go your full two year service and never meet 75% of the Volunteers in the Country. With that said I feel so lucky to be a part of this organization. The people are what make it so special. I feel privileged to be a part of their team.
Being able to meet and storian with these guys helps put my frustrations in check. It seems to be a natural part of the process. The last night of the conference we had a Roast for our Country Director Kevin George. July will be his last month here as CD. We are all nervous about the new CD and are of course sad to lose KG. He has built this program to what it is today. I had so much fun and everyone I think laughed until there sides hurt.
I was lucky enough to start the evening with three of my favorite people here in Vanuatu. When my dad came out to Vanuatu he brought me two bottles of Provenance wine from St. Helena. (Thank you Aunt Diane!!!) Well I grabbed the bottle of 2005 Merlot and headed over to Dennis and Sandra Melo’s room with Bridget. The Melo’s had a room that looks directly over the harbor to the west. What could be better then a beautiful sunset shared over a great bottle of wine, while nibbling on some gourmet California Chocolate, with such amazing people.
Well as we poured the first round of wine I was shaken by the distinct BOOOOOOOOO sound made by our favorite little tourist boat. So as we drank the bottle of wine trying to share in the magical monet of the sunset a GIANT cruise shipped blocked our view of the setting sun. It had to make a wide turn so it actually blocked our beautiful view twice. But as we all say here, Ahhh Vanuatu! That is just the way things go here. I would not have traded a minute of time though.
So now I sit and recover from the 5 days of working hard and playing even harder. I will be here in Vila for a few more days as I have some smol work to do. I finally had a break through at site and am working on a project for the 5 Mama’s groups in my area. They want me to make a dvd of a life project for them. I am using it as a way to get some time with the Mamas and maybe open some new doors to work directly with them.
Starting last Sunday we checked into Irriki Resort on Irriki Island for our annual All Volunteer Conference, other wise known simply as All Vol. I want to be careful I my description of this event to not portray it nearly as a big party. But let me tell you, if you put 100 isolated volunteers together for 5 days at a 5 star resort, you better be prepared for a good time.
Sunday was a free day and we spent most of it settling into our rooms. Checking out the amenities such as the fridge, washer and dryer, soft mattresses, fold out couch, plasma flat screen television, and the Jacuzzi on the balcony. Many of these things may just seem like everyday things to many of you, but for us it is like hanging out at Hugh Heffner’s house, including the scantly dressed woman. Okay they are not really scantly dresses here, but when you are used to every woman that see wearing an unappealing island dress, a swim suit becomes seems very risqué.
That evening we met for dinner at the watermark restaurant and were served a buffet of Asian cuisine. NO BANANA LAPLAP!!! HURRAY!!! The food was delicious and of course we all ate way too much!! Hind sight being 20/20 and all I think if we had to redo it again we would of ate more!!! Afterwards we had a trivia night up above the swimming pool. Our group 20B got destroyed, right up until the point where we were disqualified. The trivia night was the first leg of the Kuran Kup contest. Us being destroyed on the first night did not get our hopes down for winning the contest though. We still had several more events to compete in. With that said we were not DQ’d from any other event, and we went in to each event with our heads up high even though we were destroyed in each and every event of the contest. I think it was rigged! We had fun though.
The majority of our day was spent in sessions and workshops. I had heard rumors about how the sessions were much like our pre-service training and should expect to be bored. After my third session I asked Bridget if she was enjoying her sessions and she agreed that the session were great! I love all of them besides one which just cold not keep my eyes open in. But the rest I found to be very informative and very inspiring. I hope I can hang on to this refreshed sense of purpose here. That in itself is one of the majority points of All Vol.
The fact of the matter is that Peace Corps Vanuatu is unique to any other Peace Corps country in the world. Even other countries in the South Pacific do not have to deal with the isolation factor like we do here. PNG, Fiji, Solomon’s are all similar in varying degrees of culture, but each of those country is a singular island. Vanuatu on the other hand is spread out over 83 islands. If I wanted to get up to visit my good friends Dennis and Sandra in the banks I am looking at a RT cost of close to 70,000 VT, or 700 US. While that may not seem that expensive to fly from one end of the country to the other, remember that this country is smaller then California. It is also very difficult to get there because the planes can not always land and to many places once you have flown to the nearest island with an airport you have to hire boat for close to hundred bucks.
My point being that every other Peace Corps country in the world has the opportunity to see the other volunteers on a regular basis. But here in VT if we did not have ALL VOL you could go your full two year service and never meet 75% of the Volunteers in the Country. With that said I feel so lucky to be a part of this organization. The people are what make it so special. I feel privileged to be a part of their team.
Being able to meet and storian with these guys helps put my frustrations in check. It seems to be a natural part of the process. The last night of the conference we had a Roast for our Country Director Kevin George. July will be his last month here as CD. We are all nervous about the new CD and are of course sad to lose KG. He has built this program to what it is today. I had so much fun and everyone I think laughed until there sides hurt.
I was lucky enough to start the evening with three of my favorite people here in Vanuatu. When my dad came out to Vanuatu he brought me two bottles of Provenance wine from St. Helena. (Thank you Aunt Diane!!!) Well I grabbed the bottle of 2005 Merlot and headed over to Dennis and Sandra Melo’s room with Bridget. The Melo’s had a room that looks directly over the harbor to the west. What could be better then a beautiful sunset shared over a great bottle of wine, while nibbling on some gourmet California Chocolate, with such amazing people.
Well as we poured the first round of wine I was shaken by the distinct BOOOOOOOOO sound made by our favorite little tourist boat. So as we drank the bottle of wine trying to share in the magical monet of the sunset a GIANT cruise shipped blocked our view of the setting sun. It had to make a wide turn so it actually blocked our beautiful view twice. But as we all say here, Ahhh Vanuatu! That is just the way things go here. I would not have traded a minute of time though.
So now I sit and recover from the 5 days of working hard and playing even harder. I will be here in Vila for a few more days as I have some smol work to do. I finally had a break through at site and am working on a project for the 5 Mama’s groups in my area. They want me to make a dvd of a life project for them. I am using it as a way to get some time with the Mamas and maybe open some new doors to work directly with them.
ALL VOL Conference
Where do I begin? I have been so busy lately that I have not had the time or opportunity to write out my thoughts and adventures, and let me tell you I have had a thousand of each! I have spent today recovering from a long All Vol Conference. I went to sleep some where near 2200 last night and did not get out of the shower this morning until close up 1100 am. Wow was that sleep well needed.
Starting last Sunday we checked into Irriki Resort on Irriki Island for our annual All Volunteer Conference, other wise known simply as All Vol. I want to be careful I my description of this event to not portray it nearly as a big party. But let me tell you, if you put 100 isolated volunteers together for 5 days at a 5 star resort, you better be prepared for a good time.
Sunday was a free day and we spent most of it settling into our rooms. Checking out the amenities such as the fridge, washer and dryer, soft mattresses, fold out couch, plasma flat screen television, and the Jacuzzi on the balcony. Many of these things may just seem like everyday things to many of you, but for us it is like hanging out at Hugh Heffner’s house, including the scantly dressed woman. Okay they are not really scantly dresses here, but when you are used to every woman that see wearing an unappealing island dress, a swim suit becomes seems very risqué.
That evening we met for dinner at the watermark restaurant and were served a buffet of Asian cuisine. NO BANANA LAPLAP!!! HURRAY!!! The food was delicious and of course we all ate way too much!! Hind sight being 20/20 and all I think if we had to redo it again we would of ate more!!! Afterwards we had a trivia night up above the swimming pool. Our group 20B got destroyed, right up until the point where we were disqualified. The trivia night was the first leg of the Kuran Kup contest. Us being destroyed on the first night did not get our hopes down for winning the contest though. We still had several more events to compete in. With that said we were not DQ’d from any other event, and we went in to each event with our heads up high even though we were destroyed in each and every event of the contest. I think it was rigged! We had fun though.
The majority of our day was spent in sessions and workshops. I had heard rumors about how the sessions were much like our pre-service training and should expect to be bored. After my third session I asked Bridget if she was enjoying her sessions and she agreed that the session were great! I love all of them besides one which just cold not keep my eyes open in. But the rest I found to be very informative and very inspiring. I hope I can hang on to this refreshed sense of purpose here. That in itself is one of the majority points of All Vol.
The fact of the matter is that Peace Corps Vanuatu is unique to any other Peace Corps country in the world. Even other countries in the South Pacific do not have to deal with the isolation factor like we do here. PNG, Fiji, Solomon’s are all similar in varying degrees of culture, but each of those country is a singular island. Vanuatu on the other hand is spread out over 83 islands. If I wanted to get up to visit my good friends Dennis and Sandra in the banks I am looking at a RT cost of close to 70,000 VT, or 700 US. While that may not seem that expensive to fly from one end of the country to the other, remember that this country is smaller then California. It is also very difficult to get there because the planes can not always land and to many places once you have flown to the nearest island with an airport you have to hire boat for close to hundred bucks.
My point being that every other Peace Corps country in the world has the opportunity to see the other volunteers on a regular basis. But here in VT if we did not have ALL VOL you could go your full two year service and never meet 75% of the Volunteers in the Country. With that said I feel so lucky to be a part of this organization. The people are what make it so special. I feel privileged to be a part of their team.
Being able to meet and storian with these guys helps put my frustrations in check. It seems to be a natural part of the process. The last night of the conference we had a Roast for our Country Director Kevin George. July will be his last month here as CD. We are all nervous about the new CD and are of course sad to lose KG. He has built this program to what it is today. I had so much fun and everyone I think laughed until there sides hurt.
I was lucky enough to start the evening with three of my favorite people here in Vanuatu. When my dad came out to Vanuatu he brought me two bottles of Provenance wine from St. Helena. (Thank you Aunt Diane!!!) Well I grabbed the bottle of 2005 Merlot and headed over to Dennis and Sandra Melo’s room with Bridget. The Melo’s had a room that looks directly over the harbor to the west. What could be better then a beautiful sunset shared over a great bottle of wine, while nibbling on some gourmet California Chocolate, with such amazing people.
Well as we poured the first round of wine I was shaken by the distinct BOOOOOOOOO sound made by our favorite little tourist boat. So as we drank the bottle of wine trying to share in the magical monet of the sunset a GIANT cruise shipped blocked our view of the setting sun. It had to make a wide turn so it actually blocked our beautiful view twice. But as we all say here, Ahhh Vanuatu! That is just the way things go here. I would not have traded a minute of time though.
So now I sit and recover from the 5 days of working hard and playing even harder. I will be here in Vila for a few more days as I have some smol work to do. I finally had a break through at site and am working on a project for the 5 Mama’s groups in my area. They want me to make a dvd of a life project for them. I am using it as a way to get some time with the Mamas and maybe open some new doors to work directly with them.
Starting last Sunday we checked into Irriki Resort on Irriki Island for our annual All Volunteer Conference, other wise known simply as All Vol. I want to be careful I my description of this event to not portray it nearly as a big party. But let me tell you, if you put 100 isolated volunteers together for 5 days at a 5 star resort, you better be prepared for a good time.
Sunday was a free day and we spent most of it settling into our rooms. Checking out the amenities such as the fridge, washer and dryer, soft mattresses, fold out couch, plasma flat screen television, and the Jacuzzi on the balcony. Many of these things may just seem like everyday things to many of you, but for us it is like hanging out at Hugh Heffner’s house, including the scantly dressed woman. Okay they are not really scantly dresses here, but when you are used to every woman that see wearing an unappealing island dress, a swim suit becomes seems very risqué.
That evening we met for dinner at the watermark restaurant and were served a buffet of Asian cuisine. NO BANANA LAPLAP!!! HURRAY!!! The food was delicious and of course we all ate way too much!! Hind sight being 20/20 and all I think if we had to redo it again we would of ate more!!! Afterwards we had a trivia night up above the swimming pool. Our group 20B got destroyed, right up until the point where we were disqualified. The trivia night was the first leg of the Kuran Kup contest. Us being destroyed on the first night did not get our hopes down for winning the contest though. We still had several more events to compete in. With that said we were not DQ’d from any other event, and we went in to each event with our heads up high even though we were destroyed in each and every event of the contest. I think it was rigged! We had fun though.
The majority of our day was spent in sessions and workshops. I had heard rumors about how the sessions were much like our pre-service training and should expect to be bored. After my third session I asked Bridget if she was enjoying her sessions and she agreed that the session were great! I love all of them besides one which just cold not keep my eyes open in. But the rest I found to be very informative and very inspiring. I hope I can hang on to this refreshed sense of purpose here. That in itself is one of the majority points of All Vol.
The fact of the matter is that Peace Corps Vanuatu is unique to any other Peace Corps country in the world. Even other countries in the South Pacific do not have to deal with the isolation factor like we do here. PNG, Fiji, Solomon’s are all similar in varying degrees of culture, but each of those country is a singular island. Vanuatu on the other hand is spread out over 83 islands. If I wanted to get up to visit my good friends Dennis and Sandra in the banks I am looking at a RT cost of close to 70,000 VT, or 700 US. While that may not seem that expensive to fly from one end of the country to the other, remember that this country is smaller then California. It is also very difficult to get there because the planes can not always land and to many places once you have flown to the nearest island with an airport you have to hire boat for close to hundred bucks.
My point being that every other Peace Corps country in the world has the opportunity to see the other volunteers on a regular basis. But here in VT if we did not have ALL VOL you could go your full two year service and never meet 75% of the Volunteers in the Country. With that said I feel so lucky to be a part of this organization. The people are what make it so special. I feel privileged to be a part of their team.
Being able to meet and storian with these guys helps put my frustrations in check. It seems to be a natural part of the process. The last night of the conference we had a Roast for our Country Director Kevin George. July will be his last month here as CD. We are all nervous about the new CD and are of course sad to lose KG. He has built this program to what it is today. I had so much fun and everyone I think laughed until there sides hurt.
I was lucky enough to start the evening with three of my favorite people here in Vanuatu. When my dad came out to Vanuatu he brought me two bottles of Provenance wine from St. Helena. (Thank you Aunt Diane!!!) Well I grabbed the bottle of 2005 Merlot and headed over to Dennis and Sandra Melo’s room with Bridget. The Melo’s had a room that looks directly over the harbor to the west. What could be better then a beautiful sunset shared over a great bottle of wine, while nibbling on some gourmet California Chocolate, with such amazing people.
Well as we poured the first round of wine I was shaken by the distinct BOOOOOOOOO sound made by our favorite little tourist boat. So as we drank the bottle of wine trying to share in the magical monet of the sunset a GIANT cruise shipped blocked our view of the setting sun. It had to make a wide turn so it actually blocked our beautiful view twice. But as we all say here, Ahhh Vanuatu! That is just the way things go here. I would not have traded a minute of time though.
So now I sit and recover from the 5 days of working hard and playing even harder. I will be here in Vila for a few more days as I have some smol work to do. I finally had a break through at site and am working on a project for the 5 Mama’s groups in my area. They want me to make a dvd of a life project for them. I am using it as a way to get some time with the Mamas and maybe open some new doors to work directly with them.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
From Wanem mi Stap long Vila
So I was sitting in my class room the other day when I got a phone call from Elin. Elin is from the island of Malekula, but had been in Vila for a week or so. She had called to let me know that she had received an email from my dad that my grandmother Flyr had passed away. She had already informed the Peace Corps medical staff who she transferred me to after talk with me for a few minutes. The Peace Corps staff was very helpful in calling my dad from their satellite phone so that he could call me back on my cell phone.
My dad called me a few minutes later and we got a chance to storian for a bit. Apparently my grandmother was watching Saturday morning cartoons and just dozed off to sleep. Not a bad way to go. Not to long ago I received a Christmas card from her. The only thing she had written on the inside was a J smiley face with an arrow pointing to it that said “That’s me.” It still makes me laugh when I look at it.
Well I decided that I did not just want to sit in Lounuotuan, so I told Pis Kops I wanted to come in so I can use some real communication devices to call home. The Pis kops nurse said she would have the country director call me. Well if I waited around for a call I would not get on a plane that day. I packed a small bag and said good bye to my village and then started hiking to the airport. I called Elin back and she was a big help by calling the airline and saving me a seat. About 2 hours into hiking a truck finally came by and I caught a ride into town to get money out of the bank and then headed straight to the airport.
Before the flight I met a guy who stopped me as I was walking by and said “So you are one of the famous Peace Corps Volunteers I keep hearing about.” I said I do not know so much as being famous but yes I am. Actually Peace Corps had an incredible name here. We are very well known for coming and living olsem (how) the Nivans live. Also, with our 3 months of training, we all speak really good Bislama. Although, I am realizing the better my Bislama gets the worse my English grammar becomes.
I had a good talk with him and actually ended up grabbing a shell of kava with him when we got to Vila. He has been here one month and has been just walking around. He said people kept confusing him for a Peace Corps Volunteer. I told him it was because he carried an aelan basket, had a beard, and smelled a little funny. He was a pretty interesting character and an amazing artist. He showed me his sketches of Tanna. They were pretty impressive. He did a great job of capturing the essence of Tanna.
Well our plane ride was exciting as always. We were on an 18 seat plane. One of the planes where the pilot literally turns around to tell you there is an emergency card in the seat pocket and how long the flight will be. There is no locked door protecting these guys from terrorist. There happens to be a Nivan girl in front of us who apparently really does not like flying. She kicked and screamed and balled the entire flight. That in its self is annoying, but I am used to pikinini crying when they wee the white man coming. So it was not big of a deal to me.
Now then because of her fit she also stunk up the place. As the Nivans would say, trousers hemi fulap, (She crapped her self.) It was so bad I could see it coming out the bottom of her diaper. I felt bad for the mama who was trying to control her. She had her hands full. Literally. It was a very welcome relief for that door to open and get some fresh air.
Once back to the peace corps office I hooked up with a bunch of 20B people. For various reasons there was 1/3 of our group here in Vila. We all went out for dinner and had a great time sharing stories and crazy tales of our sites. They are such amazing people. Group 20 B is the best group ever in Vanuatu. We get along so well. We all write letters to each other often and stay in touch more then any other volunteers do.
I was sitting on the beach in Lenakel the other day and opened up a package from Evelyn who was in Vila for a workshop. Inside the package was 4 tuskers and a note saying hey thought it was time for me to settle up on that bet. She may have once bet me a 6 pack of tusker that the next card I was about to turn over was NOT going to be her card. 6 Tuskers later, she does not bet on card tricks with me anymore. J
Well it was Elins last night and her flight back to Malekula was for 0645 in the morning so we decided we just all needed to stay up all night. Elin finally made her flight back and the rest of the day has been spent working with peace corps staff. I will be making some random calls home so if you get a cal from an unknown number it may be me!
Dawet lanaeyu
My dad called me a few minutes later and we got a chance to storian for a bit. Apparently my grandmother was watching Saturday morning cartoons and just dozed off to sleep. Not a bad way to go. Not to long ago I received a Christmas card from her. The only thing she had written on the inside was a J smiley face with an arrow pointing to it that said “That’s me.” It still makes me laugh when I look at it.
Well I decided that I did not just want to sit in Lounuotuan, so I told Pis Kops I wanted to come in so I can use some real communication devices to call home. The Pis kops nurse said she would have the country director call me. Well if I waited around for a call I would not get on a plane that day. I packed a small bag and said good bye to my village and then started hiking to the airport. I called Elin back and she was a big help by calling the airline and saving me a seat. About 2 hours into hiking a truck finally came by and I caught a ride into town to get money out of the bank and then headed straight to the airport.
Before the flight I met a guy who stopped me as I was walking by and said “So you are one of the famous Peace Corps Volunteers I keep hearing about.” I said I do not know so much as being famous but yes I am. Actually Peace Corps had an incredible name here. We are very well known for coming and living olsem (how) the Nivans live. Also, with our 3 months of training, we all speak really good Bislama. Although, I am realizing the better my Bislama gets the worse my English grammar becomes.
I had a good talk with him and actually ended up grabbing a shell of kava with him when we got to Vila. He has been here one month and has been just walking around. He said people kept confusing him for a Peace Corps Volunteer. I told him it was because he carried an aelan basket, had a beard, and smelled a little funny. He was a pretty interesting character and an amazing artist. He showed me his sketches of Tanna. They were pretty impressive. He did a great job of capturing the essence of Tanna.
Well our plane ride was exciting as always. We were on an 18 seat plane. One of the planes where the pilot literally turns around to tell you there is an emergency card in the seat pocket and how long the flight will be. There is no locked door protecting these guys from terrorist. There happens to be a Nivan girl in front of us who apparently really does not like flying. She kicked and screamed and balled the entire flight. That in its self is annoying, but I am used to pikinini crying when they wee the white man coming. So it was not big of a deal to me.
Now then because of her fit she also stunk up the place. As the Nivans would say, trousers hemi fulap, (She crapped her self.) It was so bad I could see it coming out the bottom of her diaper. I felt bad for the mama who was trying to control her. She had her hands full. Literally. It was a very welcome relief for that door to open and get some fresh air.
Once back to the peace corps office I hooked up with a bunch of 20B people. For various reasons there was 1/3 of our group here in Vila. We all went out for dinner and had a great time sharing stories and crazy tales of our sites. They are such amazing people. Group 20 B is the best group ever in Vanuatu. We get along so well. We all write letters to each other often and stay in touch more then any other volunteers do.
I was sitting on the beach in Lenakel the other day and opened up a package from Evelyn who was in Vila for a workshop. Inside the package was 4 tuskers and a note saying hey thought it was time for me to settle up on that bet. She may have once bet me a 6 pack of tusker that the next card I was about to turn over was NOT going to be her card. 6 Tuskers later, she does not bet on card tricks with me anymore. J
Well it was Elins last night and her flight back to Malekula was for 0645 in the morning so we decided we just all needed to stay up all night. Elin finally made her flight back and the rest of the day has been spent working with peace corps staff. I will be making some random calls home so if you get a cal from an unknown number it may be me!
Dawet lanaeyu
Best day in Tanna
Best day in Tanna!
So at one point this afternoon I thought to myself, wow this has been a great day. It started off with me waking up to either Mt. Yasur’s stomach growling or an earthquake. Hemi semak. It shook my house and my bed. It must have been a big one as it lasted a long time. I went back to bed and did not wake up again until nature started calling my name around 0730. I got up and started cleaning my house.
I do not think the person before me ever cleaned this place, so I went through and rearranged my bed and got rid of some stuff that I feel I do not need. I turned my bed around and moved my radio/desk. At one point some Mamas came over to see why half of my house was sitting out front. They then notice the condition of my floor and became distressed over the condition and lack of response to my earlier requests to the men to get me Bamboo to fix it. So apparently we are having a work day on Saturday to rebuild my home. I will move into the office of the school while we finish the repairs. Not only are we rebuilding the floor, but we are putting a new roof on as well.
Next thing I knew it was time for kakae. I had one brother walk over with a box and ask if I had some oil. He said he would cook something special for me if I had some. Well special is right. Now before I tell you what I ate I will just warn a few of you to turn away and skip these next few lines; I know I am going to get some flack from a few of you. So we fried up some meat and ate some small rice. It is probably one of the best meats I have ever had. It is too bad it is not on any menus back home, (Maybe McDonald’s, but who knows.) So what was it? Well first off it was the heart, which even before from eating cow heart, I know it is one of the best roasts you will ever have. The heart is the most active muscles in the body. Now then I must clarify that when I said that this was the best meat I have ever eaten before, that I was so hungry I could eat a horse, literally. It was so good I ended up have it at the Nakamal for navanu (wash out) and then again for dinner. Everyone here agrees hos hemi stap auntop. Hemia namba wan from se taem we wan man emi kakae wan samting mit blong hem no stap long tut blong yu. (Horse is the top. It is Number 1, because when you eat it the meat does not get stuck on your teeth.)
After lunch I went with Lucas to go find some green coconuts. He climbed up a coconut tree pretty close up to my house. Then he tossed down about 8 coconuts. We cracked some open with our bush knifes and chugged them down. These guys are so amazing with their bush knives. It is like an extension of their arm. Mothers in the states would flip out at how young the babies are that hold small bush knives. Everyone must have bush knife save (Know how) in order to function around here. I practiced cutting out a green coconuts with out breaking the actual coconut. I was not very successful so we had to eat a few more. I have a long way to go to be as save as these guys.
As we were walking back, Lucas said he needed to exercise because he was so full. So I pulled out the Frisbee and taught a few people how to throw. They are picking it up pretty quick. I am hoping that I will be able to teach them Ultimate Frisbee. After some Frisbee we kicked around a soccer ball for a while. Then it was time for them to teach me a game. We played Ponget which is like lawn bowling. I say that with out really knowing what lawn bowling is.
We each have three steel balls about 1 pound each. One person then throws a little ball about 15 feet away. In our case the little ball was a nut from a tree. You then take turns tossing your steel balls as close to the little ball as possible, you take turns like you would in shuffle board. It was pretty fun. These guys are intense. They have great aim, too.
While we were playing, I had an uncle come over and ask if I would go karem wan samting long makem wan plei plei blong mi. Other words he wanted me to go grab my juggling clubs and give them a show. I have been doing this a lot lately, but that’s okay. It is a good excuse to practice some. When I came back I also brought some sunflower seeds (Thank you so much for sending them.) I then had to teach them how to eat them. They were all amazed that I could fill my cheek up with them and eat one at a time. I told them they had to learn to eat one at a time first.
After our sunflower-seed-eating-lesson Lucas and I walked to his garden and pulled some Kava. Once back in the Nakamal we I ended up drinking two shells back to back. I have never been so drunk on Kava in my life. I had to lay down. This is not a bad ting. After laying down I try and meditate for a while. When I walked to the bathroom ( a hole hiding behind some bushes,) I could hardly walk. Even right now I can feel the effects of the kava and it is now 0100. I had some horse again for dinner. Man that was good stuff. I want to make a sandwich out of it tomorrow. Some fresh aelen bred and then some mustard. Mmmmm… That sounds great.
So this was the first day that through out the entire day I kept thinking, “wow this has been a really good day. I have a few more since then and I hope their frequency increases. I am sure that they will. Everyone says that the first six months are the hardest part. Most people go home with in their first six months. Now that skul (school) is going I am staying pretty busy. Now I have lesson plans to prepare and then classes to teach. This helps take up a lot of time. It is all about filling up time.
Before I had said that I was not going to buy a bicycle because I felt it was flas we flas (flashy.) Well I think I have changed my mind on this. I live in this absolutely incredible paradise and I might as well enjoy it as much as possible. Also, with a mt. bike I can cover some serious ground and see more of the island. This would make me more effective in reaching some of the coffee farmers. And most importantly, this place seems made for mt. bikes. I saw a Man Tanna riding one the other day so at least I am not the first person with one. I will look into this when I am in Vila.
So at one point this afternoon I thought to myself, wow this has been a great day. It started off with me waking up to either Mt. Yasur’s stomach growling or an earthquake. Hemi semak. It shook my house and my bed. It must have been a big one as it lasted a long time. I went back to bed and did not wake up again until nature started calling my name around 0730. I got up and started cleaning my house.
I do not think the person before me ever cleaned this place, so I went through and rearranged my bed and got rid of some stuff that I feel I do not need. I turned my bed around and moved my radio/desk. At one point some Mamas came over to see why half of my house was sitting out front. They then notice the condition of my floor and became distressed over the condition and lack of response to my earlier requests to the men to get me Bamboo to fix it. So apparently we are having a work day on Saturday to rebuild my home. I will move into the office of the school while we finish the repairs. Not only are we rebuilding the floor, but we are putting a new roof on as well.
Next thing I knew it was time for kakae. I had one brother walk over with a box and ask if I had some oil. He said he would cook something special for me if I had some. Well special is right. Now before I tell you what I ate I will just warn a few of you to turn away and skip these next few lines; I know I am going to get some flack from a few of you. So we fried up some meat and ate some small rice. It is probably one of the best meats I have ever had. It is too bad it is not on any menus back home, (Maybe McDonald’s, but who knows.) So what was it? Well first off it was the heart, which even before from eating cow heart, I know it is one of the best roasts you will ever have. The heart is the most active muscles in the body. Now then I must clarify that when I said that this was the best meat I have ever eaten before, that I was so hungry I could eat a horse, literally. It was so good I ended up have it at the Nakamal for navanu (wash out) and then again for dinner. Everyone here agrees hos hemi stap auntop. Hemia namba wan from se taem we wan man emi kakae wan samting mit blong hem no stap long tut blong yu. (Horse is the top. It is Number 1, because when you eat it the meat does not get stuck on your teeth.)
After lunch I went with Lucas to go find some green coconuts. He climbed up a coconut tree pretty close up to my house. Then he tossed down about 8 coconuts. We cracked some open with our bush knifes and chugged them down. These guys are so amazing with their bush knives. It is like an extension of their arm. Mothers in the states would flip out at how young the babies are that hold small bush knives. Everyone must have bush knife save (Know how) in order to function around here. I practiced cutting out a green coconuts with out breaking the actual coconut. I was not very successful so we had to eat a few more. I have a long way to go to be as save as these guys.
As we were walking back, Lucas said he needed to exercise because he was so full. So I pulled out the Frisbee and taught a few people how to throw. They are picking it up pretty quick. I am hoping that I will be able to teach them Ultimate Frisbee. After some Frisbee we kicked around a soccer ball for a while. Then it was time for them to teach me a game. We played Ponget which is like lawn bowling. I say that with out really knowing what lawn bowling is.
We each have three steel balls about 1 pound each. One person then throws a little ball about 15 feet away. In our case the little ball was a nut from a tree. You then take turns tossing your steel balls as close to the little ball as possible, you take turns like you would in shuffle board. It was pretty fun. These guys are intense. They have great aim, too.
While we were playing, I had an uncle come over and ask if I would go karem wan samting long makem wan plei plei blong mi. Other words he wanted me to go grab my juggling clubs and give them a show. I have been doing this a lot lately, but that’s okay. It is a good excuse to practice some. When I came back I also brought some sunflower seeds (Thank you so much for sending them.) I then had to teach them how to eat them. They were all amazed that I could fill my cheek up with them and eat one at a time. I told them they had to learn to eat one at a time first.
After our sunflower-seed-eating-lesson Lucas and I walked to his garden and pulled some Kava. Once back in the Nakamal we I ended up drinking two shells back to back. I have never been so drunk on Kava in my life. I had to lay down. This is not a bad ting. After laying down I try and meditate for a while. When I walked to the bathroom ( a hole hiding behind some bushes,) I could hardly walk. Even right now I can feel the effects of the kava and it is now 0100. I had some horse again for dinner. Man that was good stuff. I want to make a sandwich out of it tomorrow. Some fresh aelen bred and then some mustard. Mmmmm… That sounds great.
So this was the first day that through out the entire day I kept thinking, “wow this has been a really good day. I have a few more since then and I hope their frequency increases. I am sure that they will. Everyone says that the first six months are the hardest part. Most people go home with in their first six months. Now that skul (school) is going I am staying pretty busy. Now I have lesson plans to prepare and then classes to teach. This helps take up a lot of time. It is all about filling up time.
Before I had said that I was not going to buy a bicycle because I felt it was flas we flas (flashy.) Well I think I have changed my mind on this. I live in this absolutely incredible paradise and I might as well enjoy it as much as possible. Also, with a mt. bike I can cover some serious ground and see more of the island. This would make me more effective in reaching some of the coffee farmers. And most importantly, this place seems made for mt. bikes. I saw a Man Tanna riding one the other day so at least I am not the first person with one. I will look into this when I am in Vila.
All-You-Can-Eat-Pizza
I am sitting down here by the white beach bungalows where the Tanna Coffee Factory and Brett’s house is located. It is about a 30 minute walk from Lenakel. I came down here on Friday where I have been hanging out with the other volunteers. We came down to have a big all you can eat pizza night at the Leniae Palms resort. (It is just some bungalows not a club med.) Apparently a few of the volunteers did this last night and crawled away in pain because there was so much food.
Well we have all been very excited for this. We talked about it all day and planned out our other meals accordingly. We all wanted to make sure we were hungry enough to devour some pizza. Well they are a little slow bring out the pizza, but when they finally bring out the first two trays of pizza we all become very quiet and just begin devouring the pizza. There was chicken pizza, beef pizza, vegetarian, and my personal favorite the lobster pizza. With 7 people and only two trays of pizza they were gone with in 5 minutes. As we sat there waiting for more to come Ann the owner of the bungalows says hey Peace Corps I think we should give a hand to the guy that make this possible, the cooks, who are sitting at a table next to us.
I turn to Sultan and say, shouldn’t they be in the back making more pizza? Well finally after sitting for a while we ask one of the Nivans when more pizza was coming out. He said that that was all of it. Instantly we all got very irritated. We all felt deceived. The bungalow there is hit or miss. We had actually already been making plans for next month’s pizza night there, but after our disappointing experience last night we are going to move our business down the road.
It isn’t like we did not get enough to eat. After eating three scoops of ice cream I was pretty stuffed. It is just the fact that they should have told us up front that they were not doing all you can eat anymore. The owner is kind of sketchy at times. One theory is that they lost money last time so they put a limit on it. We all would of paid more if it meant being able to eat till we wanted to puke.
Well we have all been very excited for this. We talked about it all day and planned out our other meals accordingly. We all wanted to make sure we were hungry enough to devour some pizza. Well they are a little slow bring out the pizza, but when they finally bring out the first two trays of pizza we all become very quiet and just begin devouring the pizza. There was chicken pizza, beef pizza, vegetarian, and my personal favorite the lobster pizza. With 7 people and only two trays of pizza they were gone with in 5 minutes. As we sat there waiting for more to come Ann the owner of the bungalows says hey Peace Corps I think we should give a hand to the guy that make this possible, the cooks, who are sitting at a table next to us.
I turn to Sultan and say, shouldn’t they be in the back making more pizza? Well finally after sitting for a while we ask one of the Nivans when more pizza was coming out. He said that that was all of it. Instantly we all got very irritated. We all felt deceived. The bungalow there is hit or miss. We had actually already been making plans for next month’s pizza night there, but after our disappointing experience last night we are going to move our business down the road.
It isn’t like we did not get enough to eat. After eating three scoops of ice cream I was pretty stuffed. It is just the fact that they should have told us up front that they were not doing all you can eat anymore. The owner is kind of sketchy at times. One theory is that they lost money last time so they put a limit on it. We all would of paid more if it meant being able to eat till we wanted to puke.
Oh what a night!
Wow what a night this has been. It is 0333 on Wednesday morning. I have been awake for a while. I actually went to bed fairly early last night. I had gone to the Nakamal at about 1800 had one shell and then took a spel. Well for my Navanu I ate cooked banana with avoka, man it was tasty.
For some reason I felt a little bit off. I only drank one shell and went home before 1930. I walked straight back to my hut and shut my door. Usually after the Nakamal I go eat with Namke and his family, but tonight I just did not feel like it. That should have been my first sign something was not right. I just wanted to climb in bed and go to sleep. I started reading Catch-22 and read about 25 pages before I gave up and just gave into sleep. I looked at my watch and it was only a little past 2000.
All night long my mouth seemed to be super dry. I did not want to get up and walk across the house (ten feet away) to get some water. Well finally at one point and I am not sure what time it was, I could not take it anymore. I got up and poured me a glass of water from my water jug. I drank the whole glass in two gulps, but then I started to feel really funny. I had the strong and quickly approaching sensation that I was going to puke.
I opened my door so I could get outside to the bushes to troat, puke. This is when everything went dark very quickly. I am not sure if I completely blacked out or what, because I feel like I felt the whole thing happen. The old bamboo close to my door snapped scratching up my leg pretty good. Meanwhile, I fall forward and slam into the ground in front of my house. I just lay there, thinking wow I do not feel like I have to puke anymore.
This was not one of those; oh I fell so get up. I am pretty sure I blacked out, because when I was on the ground I did not want to move. I still felt funny. I had my headlamp on, so I reached up and turned that off, so that I could just lay there in the dark on the cool wet ground. Luckily I had missed a log with my head about 5 inches. I had a log there because I am going to finish my deck tomorrow, depending on how I feel that is. I pulled the log a little closer to use it as a pillow. I then just laid there thinking, wow this is not good.
I finally pulled myself up, after about ten minutes and tried wiping the dirt off of me. This was pointless. Luckily I had fallen asleep with a t-shirt on so I pulled that off and climbed back in bed. When I got into bed I was shivering. I am in the middle of the hot season in the south pacific, there is only one reason you get the shivers and that is when you are sick. I then started thinking man when is the last time I took my malaria prophylaxis. I am still in the window of coverage so I do not think it is malaria. I also feel a lot better now.
I think I will be replacing my entire floor soon. Well, I am going to try and go back to sleep for another four hours. Dowit Lanaeyu (good night in local language.)
For some reason I felt a little bit off. I only drank one shell and went home before 1930. I walked straight back to my hut and shut my door. Usually after the Nakamal I go eat with Namke and his family, but tonight I just did not feel like it. That should have been my first sign something was not right. I just wanted to climb in bed and go to sleep. I started reading Catch-22 and read about 25 pages before I gave up and just gave into sleep. I looked at my watch and it was only a little past 2000.
All night long my mouth seemed to be super dry. I did not want to get up and walk across the house (ten feet away) to get some water. Well finally at one point and I am not sure what time it was, I could not take it anymore. I got up and poured me a glass of water from my water jug. I drank the whole glass in two gulps, but then I started to feel really funny. I had the strong and quickly approaching sensation that I was going to puke.
I opened my door so I could get outside to the bushes to troat, puke. This is when everything went dark very quickly. I am not sure if I completely blacked out or what, because I feel like I felt the whole thing happen. The old bamboo close to my door snapped scratching up my leg pretty good. Meanwhile, I fall forward and slam into the ground in front of my house. I just lay there, thinking wow I do not feel like I have to puke anymore.
This was not one of those; oh I fell so get up. I am pretty sure I blacked out, because when I was on the ground I did not want to move. I still felt funny. I had my headlamp on, so I reached up and turned that off, so that I could just lay there in the dark on the cool wet ground. Luckily I had missed a log with my head about 5 inches. I had a log there because I am going to finish my deck tomorrow, depending on how I feel that is. I pulled the log a little closer to use it as a pillow. I then just laid there thinking, wow this is not good.
I finally pulled myself up, after about ten minutes and tried wiping the dirt off of me. This was pointless. Luckily I had fallen asleep with a t-shirt on so I pulled that off and climbed back in bed. When I got into bed I was shivering. I am in the middle of the hot season in the south pacific, there is only one reason you get the shivers and that is when you are sick. I then started thinking man when is the last time I took my malaria prophylaxis. I am still in the window of coverage so I do not think it is malaria. I also feel a lot better now.
I think I will be replacing my entire floor soon. Well, I am going to try and go back to sleep for another four hours. Dowit Lanaeyu (good night in local language.)
Lonosunen
The day after we hiked Yasur we were both pretty beat. We decided that we would head down to the hot springs, but when we found out we would have to pay a thousand vatu each we decided against it. We had lunch at the bungalow and paid them what little money we had. I actually had another 1,000 VT but thought we should have at least something for an emergency fund, so I held on to that.
We then headed down the beach in search of the next village of Lonosunen. It was better then an hour walk across a rocky shear cliff. There was more then one moment when I was a little worried about out path. We finally made it to the beach in front of there village and drained of energy. We jumped in the water after talking to a few locals. They said we could either sleep on the beach or better yet come on top to their village and sleep up there.
We stayed in this village for two nights with out any money. It turns out that the family we ended up staying with there abu is the papa of my host brothers wife. Abu is grandpa. The first night they actually put us in a bungalow, but the next day said it was no good that we had to eat up top and then walk down back to the bungalow so they put us up in an extra house. They fed us at every meal and were really nice to storian with.
On Monday morning I woke up to some one crying at about 0300. When I say woke up I mean I was awake because I was tossing and turning all night, due to a sun burn I had acquired earlier in the day. It turns out the crying was not going to stop before we left. This is due to having a ded in the village. At some point in the night an elderly man passed away. They call this having a ded (dead.) When they have a ded they all wail for hours on end. Usually at least one person is wailing at all times.
Well Noa and I took off at about 0600 heading back to middle bush. We said are good byes and thank you to our hosts and then headed on our way. They said the road was pretty flat on the way to the main road. I am not sure what they meant by flat. I guess they mean there were not a lot of pot holes, because by no means would Noa or I consider that road flat. We were both exhausted from the four previous days of hiking and this road just seemed to keep going up. After every corner you could here us mumble g-r-e-a-t, more hill.
When we finally made it to the main road we could hear trucks coming. The very first truck to pull over was the guy who took us out to south Tanna to begin with. Well he said he would give us a deal and only charge us 1,000VT for the both of us. I told him that because he charged us tourist prices on the way out here we had no money left and would just walk. This is not entirely true. I had the 1,000VT but I wanted to shame him a little bit. So the next truck that came by we waved down and jumped in the back.
So someone asked me in a letter, “what do I you miss most from home.” They had guessed driving. I was thinking about this when I was standing in the back of the pick up flying down the road with the air cooling my sweaty face. I am not sure what I miss most from home, but I know when I go home the thing I am going to miss most, is riding in the back of pick ups every where I go. It was always one of my favorite things as a kid before the laws were changed. Every time I am in the back of one here I feel like a kid again. Of course it is a little more dangerous riding in the back of a pick up here. I have gone full airborne and landed two feet back on some ones lap. I would not be surprised if one day I write home saying, so I feel out the back of a pick up. One thing for sure I am building some strong hand and arm muscles from holding to the railing for my life.
As we came up to Middle Bush Noa was ready to get back to his village. I had the truck drop him off on the shortest half road to our area. I gave him some small directions even though he had been down the road once before. I continued on down to Lenakel to hang out get a decent meal and check my mail. Well when I got back to my village I asked if they saw Noa. They told me he came through around half past ten. I thought what? How could that be? They told me he got lost and ended up down in some village about 45 minutes south of me. Crazy kid.
I mean while went down and wrote some letters in front of the post office. Check my mail and headed down to the mama’s market. I ran into Matt who lives about an hour forty five away from me. We sat and I told him of our adventures over the weekend. We then headed down to Leniae Palms for lunch. I had a hamburger with grilled onions, a fruit plate with pineapple, po-po, and passion fruit, and of course followed it all up with a big scoop of mint chip ice cream on a cone.
As I walked up the road back to my village I had passed the man in the truck who I had shamed earlier and I gave him a wave and I continued up the road. As I walked up behind the truck I was going to ask for a ride. But when I saw it was him I thought no, I am not giving him another 100Vt to take me to my half road. So I just started walking. The rule is if you wave a truck down it is 100VT, but if they stop and pick you up it is free. Well just before the big hill that I was dreading walking up because I was exhausted and it was 1330, the hottest part of the day. The same man pulled up and softly said find a place in the back. I am pretty sure he is trying to make up for me shaming him. Shame here is a big thing. When ever some one does something that is rubbish fashion you usually respond with something like you have no shame? Well anyways I jumped in the back and felt a sigh of relief as the truck drudged up the big hill.
I had them drop me off at the market that has a half road to my place. There was another truck there and a guy from a neighboring village was in the back so he told me to jump in. I can tell that the longer I am here and the more people get to know me, the less I will have to walk with out someone picking me up. I have made my own rule that I am not going to wave trucks down. If they stop then right on, I will take the ride. But I am not going to wave them down. It is not the 100VT that keeps me from doing this. I just like walking and I certainly can use the exercise.
Well it is 0921 on Tuesday morning February 12, 2008 and I get to teach my first business class in 40 minutes. Last night they told me they changed it so that I am teaching two hours before lunch and two hours after. I told them that this is no good. For one they just can not make decisions regarding me with out my consent. And secondly I do not have a second class planned out yet. So we will see what happens today. I am very nervous about this as I still do not feel my Bislama is that great. Any one that you asked will argue with that. I am very functional and can talk with anyone about just about anything, but I guess it is just my nature that I want it to be perfect. I was explaining my worries to Matt and he reassured me that no matter how bad it is it will be great on Vanuatu standards. Back home if I was doing a presentation or leading a training workshop it would always be a great session. But here talking in a second language I am worried about how things will go. I guess we will see in 30 minutes.
We then headed down the beach in search of the next village of Lonosunen. It was better then an hour walk across a rocky shear cliff. There was more then one moment when I was a little worried about out path. We finally made it to the beach in front of there village and drained of energy. We jumped in the water after talking to a few locals. They said we could either sleep on the beach or better yet come on top to their village and sleep up there.
We stayed in this village for two nights with out any money. It turns out that the family we ended up staying with there abu is the papa of my host brothers wife. Abu is grandpa. The first night they actually put us in a bungalow, but the next day said it was no good that we had to eat up top and then walk down back to the bungalow so they put us up in an extra house. They fed us at every meal and were really nice to storian with.
On Monday morning I woke up to some one crying at about 0300. When I say woke up I mean I was awake because I was tossing and turning all night, due to a sun burn I had acquired earlier in the day. It turns out the crying was not going to stop before we left. This is due to having a ded in the village. At some point in the night an elderly man passed away. They call this having a ded (dead.) When they have a ded they all wail for hours on end. Usually at least one person is wailing at all times.
Well Noa and I took off at about 0600 heading back to middle bush. We said are good byes and thank you to our hosts and then headed on our way. They said the road was pretty flat on the way to the main road. I am not sure what they meant by flat. I guess they mean there were not a lot of pot holes, because by no means would Noa or I consider that road flat. We were both exhausted from the four previous days of hiking and this road just seemed to keep going up. After every corner you could here us mumble g-r-e-a-t, more hill.
When we finally made it to the main road we could hear trucks coming. The very first truck to pull over was the guy who took us out to south Tanna to begin with. Well he said he would give us a deal and only charge us 1,000VT for the both of us. I told him that because he charged us tourist prices on the way out here we had no money left and would just walk. This is not entirely true. I had the 1,000VT but I wanted to shame him a little bit. So the next truck that came by we waved down and jumped in the back.
So someone asked me in a letter, “what do I you miss most from home.” They had guessed driving. I was thinking about this when I was standing in the back of the pick up flying down the road with the air cooling my sweaty face. I am not sure what I miss most from home, but I know when I go home the thing I am going to miss most, is riding in the back of pick ups every where I go. It was always one of my favorite things as a kid before the laws were changed. Every time I am in the back of one here I feel like a kid again. Of course it is a little more dangerous riding in the back of a pick up here. I have gone full airborne and landed two feet back on some ones lap. I would not be surprised if one day I write home saying, so I feel out the back of a pick up. One thing for sure I am building some strong hand and arm muscles from holding to the railing for my life.
As we came up to Middle Bush Noa was ready to get back to his village. I had the truck drop him off on the shortest half road to our area. I gave him some small directions even though he had been down the road once before. I continued on down to Lenakel to hang out get a decent meal and check my mail. Well when I got back to my village I asked if they saw Noa. They told me he came through around half past ten. I thought what? How could that be? They told me he got lost and ended up down in some village about 45 minutes south of me. Crazy kid.
I mean while went down and wrote some letters in front of the post office. Check my mail and headed down to the mama’s market. I ran into Matt who lives about an hour forty five away from me. We sat and I told him of our adventures over the weekend. We then headed down to Leniae Palms for lunch. I had a hamburger with grilled onions, a fruit plate with pineapple, po-po, and passion fruit, and of course followed it all up with a big scoop of mint chip ice cream on a cone.
As I walked up the road back to my village I had passed the man in the truck who I had shamed earlier and I gave him a wave and I continued up the road. As I walked up behind the truck I was going to ask for a ride. But when I saw it was him I thought no, I am not giving him another 100Vt to take me to my half road. So I just started walking. The rule is if you wave a truck down it is 100VT, but if they stop and pick you up it is free. Well just before the big hill that I was dreading walking up because I was exhausted and it was 1330, the hottest part of the day. The same man pulled up and softly said find a place in the back. I am pretty sure he is trying to make up for me shaming him. Shame here is a big thing. When ever some one does something that is rubbish fashion you usually respond with something like you have no shame? Well anyways I jumped in the back and felt a sigh of relief as the truck drudged up the big hill.
I had them drop me off at the market that has a half road to my place. There was another truck there and a guy from a neighboring village was in the back so he told me to jump in. I can tell that the longer I am here and the more people get to know me, the less I will have to walk with out someone picking me up. I have made my own rule that I am not going to wave trucks down. If they stop then right on, I will take the ride. But I am not going to wave them down. It is not the 100VT that keeps me from doing this. I just like walking and I certainly can use the exercise.
Well it is 0921 on Tuesday morning February 12, 2008 and I get to teach my first business class in 40 minutes. Last night they told me they changed it so that I am teaching two hours before lunch and two hours after. I told them that this is no good. For one they just can not make decisions regarding me with out my consent. And secondly I do not have a second class planned out yet. So we will see what happens today. I am very nervous about this as I still do not feel my Bislama is that great. Any one that you asked will argue with that. I am very functional and can talk with anyone about just about anything, but I guess it is just my nature that I want it to be perfect. I was explaining my worries to Matt and he reassured me that no matter how bad it is it will be great on Vanuatu standards. Back home if I was doing a presentation or leading a training workshop it would always be a great session. But here talking in a second language I am worried about how things will go. I guess we will see in 30 minutes.
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