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!