So it is Monday afternoon here in Port Vila and I am getting ready to head back to my village on Tanna. I am actually looking forward to getting back to the village life there. I have not done any reading while away from my hut, so it will be nice to get back and relax. Do not get me wrong I have enjoyed all my friends and all of the debauchery that has ensued. These past two weeks have been a little crazy. Brisbane was not that exciting. Well I take that back, I was only there for 72 hours so I did not have time to really se anything exciting there. I did et some good food and had some cold beers as well. I even found a little time to catch a movie. I went and saw American Gangster. I thought it was a great movie.
I ended my time in Brisbane on a bad note. As I was heading to the airport I had stopped a the Queenstown mall for once last look around. While there I thought I would take a picture of the people crossing the crosswalk near the mall. The reason is that on any given crossing there are more people crossing the street then the six surrounding villages have people living in my area of Tanna. Well as I wrap that up a young kid walks up and asks if he was in my photo, to which I reply I hope not because then the photo will be ruined. Well he gets in my face telling me it is against the law to take peoples photos and that I had to delete it or he was going to sue me. I just laughed and put my camera bag in my basket. Well he gets right in my face and I can tell he is super drunk. I start to get a little lippy and ask what are you twelve? Well I guess I was way off because he was very proud of the fact that he was indeed 14.
I decided to just walk away and go into the nearby starbucks and get some coffee. He continues to follow me and I just ignore him. Once inside Starbucks he starts making a huge scene and telling me he is calling the cops. To which I am just fine with. So he tells the lady at starbucks to call the cops and she does not. I try to encourage her to so we can end this situation. Well He finally gets on the phone and I guess calls the cop. While he is on the phone everyone in the store is asking what is going on and I kind of explain it. I do not know how this is going to work out because I am the foreigner in the group here.
Well once off the phone he tells me we have to walk to the police station to which I reply no you go get a cop and bring him here I am waiting for my coffee. He then grabbed my shirt which I was not okay with and I then not so nicely removed his hand and bent his elbow back and told him never to put his hand on me. (I may have used a few choice words in there too.) He then said or what or what? I am 14 what are you going to do. Well I did not know it at the time but all the guys who had been sitting at their tables were now standing behind me and one shouts out I am 16 I will kick “butt” right here. The kid finally left saying he was going to go get his friends and come back I told him I would be the guy sitting here drinking coffee and taking photos!
Earlier in the day I did get to hold a Koala so that was fun. They really are as soft as you would think they are. I also got to pet some kangaroos and see some flying foxes. I had taken a leisurely boat ride down the river to a Lone Pine Animal Sanctuary. It was fun, but I wish I had gone to the museums instead. I did have a nice conversation on the boat on the way back with a couple from California and their daughter. They had fulap questions about my experiences in Vanuatu. While explaining to them what I do and what I experience in the bush, I realized that I have grown accustom to many little things that any one in the western world would most likely freak out about.
One example is I was sitting at a pub in Brisbane. I was sitting on a bench near a railing. I noticed out of the corner of my eye a pretty big cockroach cruising the rail behind my head. It then crawled down on to the bench and made its way over to a group sitting on the other side. Well it was two girls and three guys sitting on the bench. However, you would of thought it was all 14 year old girls sitting there, because they all screamed so loud and jumped up off the bench like the thing was going to eat them.
I guess I did not freak out because it is not uncommon for me to come home at night, check my sheets before crawling in, and flicking away a cockroach or giant spider. Also, explaining the water situation was difficult. I kept telling them no my drinking water is 45 minutes away. Yes I really do carry a bucket of water 45 minutes in each direction just to be able to have fresh to drink and brush my teeth with.
I also told them about eating the green pigeon, i.e., the green parrot, that I ate the entire thing of, leg bones and all. Man I hope I do not come back crazy. I think all volunteers are a little crazy just for signing up, but I think after being in the bush for a while we become a little more crazy. Don’t think I need a straight jacket yet, but we will see after two years.
It was nice to get back into Vanuatu where people understand my now painful English grammar. The biggest one is that to say “yes” here we say uh uh, like the way we say no back home. So every time my dentist asked me a question that seemed to be an obvious yes answer I would answer uh uh, and he would look at me confused and then question my answer. I finally had to tell him that if I said uh uh I meant yes. We also say yes with just our eye brows. Kind of like doing the hey whats up eye brow head nod to your buddies, but here it is just the eye brows, your head does not move. Another catch phrase I love using here is No. It is a long dragged out nooo with kind of a uh at the end. Anytime someone’s asks you a question that you do not want to answer you say nooo.
It really annoys some of the Peace Corps girls in my group, because we never give straight answers any more. Noooo nomo.
On Friday night we had a BBQ at the Peace Corps Nurses house. She has the best house here. Nice swimming pool, with an amazing view of the Vila harbor. We BBQ steak, chicken and sausages, and Jane provided us with a lot salads and green beans and side dishes. At the BBQ I was talked into volunteering at the bar, where her daughter Erin works. It was Australian day so they wanted to have big event. I accepted after I was told I would get free drinks and BBQ and being that I would end up at rumors anyways, I might as well not pay for anything.
What a night that turned out to be. I am pretty sure they lost money on the bbq with me grilling and them supplying the Heineken. At one point I ended up behind the bar and playing DJ. The owner was a little drunk and for some reason thought I was the new “official” chef for moorings restaurant. At one point I was looking for Erin and could not find her. Turns out she was out taking care of the BBQ. I asked her why she did not grab me and she said that I was in the middle of entertaining the bar with a story and she figured if she dragged me away then she would be stuck entertaining them. Either way I guess I was working. I BBQ for a while then shut the grill off as there was no action. By the end of the night I was hungry and thought I would fire it up to make me a sausage. I ended up selling about 75 at that point. I was hard selling everyone who walked buy. They really were a good deal so it was easy. Only 100 vatu. I would tell people come on name one thing you can buy for a 100 vatu in Vila? Usually they would say man your right I’ll take 2!
I had a great time and I think Erin is glad that I helped out. I met a return volunteer from the Ukraine. I had a lot to explain when I told her I was a PCV. She could not figure out how my BBQ at an ex-pat bar could be considered Peace Corps work. It did not help that I told her I am here trying to promote Sausage as a sustainable meat source for Vila.
Well I need to check in at the airport in an hour so I am going to go grab once last meal at Jills Café and then head off to the airport. I miss everyone a lot and hope all is well, where ever you may be at this moment.
Take care and Lukem yufala,
Christopher
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Garden
Well I finally have done some work around my yard. I had a bunch of pineapple plants close to my house, but they have been buried by weeds and tall grass. So I went ahead and started doing some gardening around it. The tool of choice for everything here is the bushknife, or bigfala knife. I started clearing the surrounding bush and next thing I know I am surrounded by a bunch of pikinini who are now helping me clear the bush. No one asked them, they just came over and started helping. I thought about kids back home and wondered how many of them would do the same thing? Not very many is my guess. They would all be to busy playing their computer games. They helped me move the clippings to an area out in the bush. I thought I did a pretty good job of making it look good over there.
I guess my work inspired one of my brothers because the next morning he was over here with my name sake to help me build a garden. So we cleared out even more bush. After cleared out all of the bush with our bigfala knifes we then moved the clippings and branches back to an area that I am going to use as a compost pile. With what I have put there so far I have already a 5’ L x 5’ high pile of clippings. It is an instant compost pile.
My brother then went and cut down some yellow manioc from someone else’s garden and brought it back for use to plant. So seriously this is how we plant it. We take a tree, cut it into 1.5’ long stick and shove them in the ground. The soil here is so rich that it really does not take much to grow things here. I would like to keep adding to my garden. It would be nice to grow some tomatoes, onions, wild garlic, bananas, and other herbs. Right now I have yellow manioc, pineapple, papaya, a small mango tree, and avoca (avocado.) The avoca is just about in season so I am hoping to find some tomatoes and make some guacamole. Mmmm…. If that is the case then I am going to attempt to make some flour tortilla chips.
I had my first experience making tortillas back in Port Vila. A couple of us decided to make tacos for dinner. None of us had ever made tortillas before and did not have any directions, so it was a trial and error process. The first few we thought were awesome, but then as time went on I figured out the consistency of the flour and the timing on the skillet and then we had some phenomenal tortillas. It was mainly just Lizzie Wolf and me in the tiny kitchen of the formule hotel, trying to make these tortillas. It was probably one of the most fun nights I had in Vila. After they were all cooked up we made the meat and beans. Refried beans here are Sas Tumas! One can of refried beans was about $5-. We almost did not get them because of the price. I am so glad we did though. Hmmm…. Man I would love to be sitting around that table right now with all my peace corps friends eating homemade tacos, drinking cheap wine (when I mean cheap I mean the quality is cheap, but we still pay $10- a bottle for it, it makes 2 buck chuck seem like clos du bois.) I guess the thing I miss most is just the company.
Since I have gotten a cell phone I have been able to stay in some contact with a few other volunteers. I have been trying to get a hold of Bridget who is my aunt from Mongaliliu. Her phone has been down for a week and then yesterday I got a voicemail from her. Today I tried calling her and finally got though. I talked with her for about 30 seconds before the phone cut out. Even though I have a cell phone the service here sucks. They do not have enough lines for everyone so the network is always busy. Very annoying. I was lucky enough to talk to all the Kool Kids from Malekula on New Years Eve. That was very cool. I feel so lucky to know all of these amazing people.
I guess my work inspired one of my brothers because the next morning he was over here with my name sake to help me build a garden. So we cleared out even more bush. After cleared out all of the bush with our bigfala knifes we then moved the clippings and branches back to an area that I am going to use as a compost pile. With what I have put there so far I have already a 5’ L x 5’ high pile of clippings. It is an instant compost pile.
My brother then went and cut down some yellow manioc from someone else’s garden and brought it back for use to plant. So seriously this is how we plant it. We take a tree, cut it into 1.5’ long stick and shove them in the ground. The soil here is so rich that it really does not take much to grow things here. I would like to keep adding to my garden. It would be nice to grow some tomatoes, onions, wild garlic, bananas, and other herbs. Right now I have yellow manioc, pineapple, papaya, a small mango tree, and avoca (avocado.) The avoca is just about in season so I am hoping to find some tomatoes and make some guacamole. Mmmm…. If that is the case then I am going to attempt to make some flour tortilla chips.
I had my first experience making tortillas back in Port Vila. A couple of us decided to make tacos for dinner. None of us had ever made tortillas before and did not have any directions, so it was a trial and error process. The first few we thought were awesome, but then as time went on I figured out the consistency of the flour and the timing on the skillet and then we had some phenomenal tortillas. It was mainly just Lizzie Wolf and me in the tiny kitchen of the formule hotel, trying to make these tortillas. It was probably one of the most fun nights I had in Vila. After they were all cooked up we made the meat and beans. Refried beans here are Sas Tumas! One can of refried beans was about $5-. We almost did not get them because of the price. I am so glad we did though. Hmmm…. Man I would love to be sitting around that table right now with all my peace corps friends eating homemade tacos, drinking cheap wine (when I mean cheap I mean the quality is cheap, but we still pay $10- a bottle for it, it makes 2 buck chuck seem like clos du bois.) I guess the thing I miss most is just the company.
Since I have gotten a cell phone I have been able to stay in some contact with a few other volunteers. I have been trying to get a hold of Bridget who is my aunt from Mongaliliu. Her phone has been down for a week and then yesterday I got a voicemail from her. Today I tried calling her and finally got though. I talked with her for about 30 seconds before the phone cut out. Even though I have a cell phone the service here sucks. They do not have enough lines for everyone so the network is always busy. Very annoying. I was lucky enough to talk to all the Kool Kids from Malekula on New Years Eve. That was very cool. I feel so lucky to know all of these amazing people.
My walk down to lenakel
Well I was supposed to get up and got to White Sands with Namke, his wife, and papa blong Joseph, but it was raining and that kind of gave me an out. Namke was at my hut at about 0500 asking if I still wanted to go. I ended up going back to sleep until about 0900. I got up and did some reading. I am in the middle of The Search for Captain Zero. So far I have really been enjoying this book. I think my Dad will dig it too. I just finished part of the book where he ends up in this little surf town called Sayulita. Sayulita is where 9 other guys and I went for Jeff Hulseys Bachelor party. I think the mosquitoes were worse there then they are here.
I then ate some lunch with Sophia and we played the guitar and then some wild rounds of seven lock. Seven lock is one of everyone’s favorite games here. I think it I okay, but it does not leave much of a challenge. There is not a whole lot of thinking to it. I would rather play something like pinochle or canasta.
Well at about 1300 I headed down to Lenakel. Of course five minutes into my walk it began to pour down. I posted up under a tree for a bit, until it lightened up enough for me to push on. I had never walked this path down to Lenakel before. It is a very nice walk. It is flat almost the whole way with only a few rolling hills. At the very end it drops down pretty quick, so I imagine the first leg heading back would be a real lung burner. It took me exactly one hour and forty minutes to get from my house to the post office, even with stopping for the rain.
When I got down to the TVL store to buy a refill card for my mobile phone, I realized I left my pouch with my evri samting at my hut. Lame! I ended up buying a new phone as mine will not hold a charge. So hopefully this phone is okay. It was very cheap. Only 7,000VT and it came with 2,000VT worth of phone credit. The phones are all pay as you go. Tomorrow is Kranki sundei so if you put time on your phone you get double value. This will give me 4,000 VT worth of credit, plus another 4,000 from two other cards I have.
Well my whole purpose in coming down today was to house sit for Jessica. As it turns out there trip got cancelled due to a land dispute in Anewa. Anewa is a small island close to Tanna. Well we went the Nakamal last night and had a few shells before coming back to her house, cooking up some soup, and then watching ELF. Does not seem to matter how many times I watch that movie I still laugh the whole way through. “I like Smiling, Smiling is my favorite!” “Wow he is an angry little Elf.”
Well yesterday after going to get my new phone I headed over to the Bank/ Post Office to try and get some money out of my account. I had left my passbook in my little pouch up at my house, so I had to have the manager’s approval. I then went to the post office side but the post man was not there. I headed out side and he was sitting on the bench. I asked him if I had any samting inside and he pointed down to the bench where I had a stack of mail. It is pretty cool that he knows who we are and does not charge us for a post office box. He just holds our mail until we come in.
Well I was parched from my walk down with out any water, so I found a kol-kol grape drink that came in what looked like a soda can but was made out of plastic. I chugged it in about two gulps. With my thirst not quenched I went and bought a kol kol tusker and headed down to a little beach cove between the mama’s market and the wharf. I cracked open my beer and started reading my mail. As I was laughing out loud from stories from friends both here in country and those back home in the states, I thought about how not much in the world could compare to that moment in time.
Mail is such a wonderful thing. I do not think I could have been any happier then at that one moment in time. Laughing out loud I got a lot of looks from other locals enjoying the beach. It really made me miss everyone, both PCV’s and everyone at home. It is so nice to hear stories from home. I know to everyone at home they think oh well nothing new is happening here, but even just hearing about little stuff at home is a big deal here. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning getting every present I wanted.
I woke up this morning and found out that Jessicas new little puppy that I was to watch is very sick. It seems to have real hard time breathing, has thrown up everything in its stomach, and will not even lift its head for food. I suggested we cut up a piece of penicillin and give it to her. Hopefully it will make her better.
I am not sure what today will have in store for me. I think at some point I will head to Leniae Palms and get an ice cream cone or two. I need to make sure my dairy intake stays up so that when I go back into Vila and treat myself to a phat brownie Sunday from Jill’s, I do not get sick. It is very common for PCV’s to get sick when they come back into Vila; due to the fact that while at site there are no dairy products. Then you come back and eat cheese, milk, ice cream and everyone gets sick. I figure if I eat ice cream every week or two I should be able to keep enough dairy in my to keep me from getting sick in Vila.
I then ate some lunch with Sophia and we played the guitar and then some wild rounds of seven lock. Seven lock is one of everyone’s favorite games here. I think it I okay, but it does not leave much of a challenge. There is not a whole lot of thinking to it. I would rather play something like pinochle or canasta.
Well at about 1300 I headed down to Lenakel. Of course five minutes into my walk it began to pour down. I posted up under a tree for a bit, until it lightened up enough for me to push on. I had never walked this path down to Lenakel before. It is a very nice walk. It is flat almost the whole way with only a few rolling hills. At the very end it drops down pretty quick, so I imagine the first leg heading back would be a real lung burner. It took me exactly one hour and forty minutes to get from my house to the post office, even with stopping for the rain.
When I got down to the TVL store to buy a refill card for my mobile phone, I realized I left my pouch with my evri samting at my hut. Lame! I ended up buying a new phone as mine will not hold a charge. So hopefully this phone is okay. It was very cheap. Only 7,000VT and it came with 2,000VT worth of phone credit. The phones are all pay as you go. Tomorrow is Kranki sundei so if you put time on your phone you get double value. This will give me 4,000 VT worth of credit, plus another 4,000 from two other cards I have.
Well my whole purpose in coming down today was to house sit for Jessica. As it turns out there trip got cancelled due to a land dispute in Anewa. Anewa is a small island close to Tanna. Well we went the Nakamal last night and had a few shells before coming back to her house, cooking up some soup, and then watching ELF. Does not seem to matter how many times I watch that movie I still laugh the whole way through. “I like Smiling, Smiling is my favorite!” “Wow he is an angry little Elf.”
Well yesterday after going to get my new phone I headed over to the Bank/ Post Office to try and get some money out of my account. I had left my passbook in my little pouch up at my house, so I had to have the manager’s approval. I then went to the post office side but the post man was not there. I headed out side and he was sitting on the bench. I asked him if I had any samting inside and he pointed down to the bench where I had a stack of mail. It is pretty cool that he knows who we are and does not charge us for a post office box. He just holds our mail until we come in.
Well I was parched from my walk down with out any water, so I found a kol-kol grape drink that came in what looked like a soda can but was made out of plastic. I chugged it in about two gulps. With my thirst not quenched I went and bought a kol kol tusker and headed down to a little beach cove between the mama’s market and the wharf. I cracked open my beer and started reading my mail. As I was laughing out loud from stories from friends both here in country and those back home in the states, I thought about how not much in the world could compare to that moment in time.
Mail is such a wonderful thing. I do not think I could have been any happier then at that one moment in time. Laughing out loud I got a lot of looks from other locals enjoying the beach. It really made me miss everyone, both PCV’s and everyone at home. It is so nice to hear stories from home. I know to everyone at home they think oh well nothing new is happening here, but even just hearing about little stuff at home is a big deal here. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning getting every present I wanted.
I woke up this morning and found out that Jessicas new little puppy that I was to watch is very sick. It seems to have real hard time breathing, has thrown up everything in its stomach, and will not even lift its head for food. I suggested we cut up a piece of penicillin and give it to her. Hopefully it will make her better.
I am not sure what today will have in store for me. I think at some point I will head to Leniae Palms and get an ice cream cone or two. I need to make sure my dairy intake stays up so that when I go back into Vila and treat myself to a phat brownie Sunday from Jill’s, I do not get sick. It is very common for PCV’s to get sick when they come back into Vila; due to the fact that while at site there are no dairy products. Then you come back and eat cheese, milk, ice cream and everyone gets sick. I figure if I eat ice cream every week or two I should be able to keep enough dairy in my to keep me from getting sick in Vila.
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