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.