Feast or Famine

You wait three months for an update and then two appear within two weeks. Sorry for the irregularity, but I've got to take advantage of the technology I can get. I'm in Vila for about 10 days and wanted to take the opportunity to post some pictures of my site.

So here's the grand tour of my new life in Saratamata. These are pictures of my new house--cement walls and floors, 4 rooms with an indoor shower and toilet, screens in the windows, and furniture. It doesn't get much better than this. The small square thing to the right of the house is my rainwater storage tank. That's where I get my drinking/cooking water.

The indoor picture is of my dining room and kitchen. There are lots of windows and lots of light. The only thing not pictured is the mouse that has built a nest in the small wall with the window and the ants that are EVERYWHERE!

This is my favorite restaurant in Saratamata. No black bean burritos, but they do usually offer a choice between two meals--chicken wings in a sauce or minced beef in a sauce or an omelet on top of sauce, always served with rice and some island food like lap lap or boiled taro.

Underneath is a picture of my walk to school. It takes about 20 minutes to reach the local school and this is what the trip looks like. The only difference is that some parts are shady because different kinds of trees have grown up and over the path. About 20 kids walk this each day to go to school.

Our New Year's Day celebration included a trip to the garden antap to escape the heat and flies. Two of my host brothers are facing the camera, the other boy is a cousin of sorts, and the woman in front is my brother's fiance. They are beating roasted breadfruit with sticks dipped in coconut milk. A great treat here, though I will admit that I prefer the breadfruit just roasted. Yum.

To the left is the nakamal (or gathering place) that my extended family built in the middle of their village. We had Christmas dinner here and it was quite a large group of people. Almost all of the decorations were plants and flowers that they had cut and tied to the posts and beams, supplemented by a few balloons. It was very festive. My boss (and aunt-by-marriage) is on the right.

Here's a picture of my strait (immediate) host family with a few cousins thrown in for good measure. My host papa is on the left, then a cousin, then my host mama behind and my sister in front. A cousin (attending the Anglican seminary on the island) behind and two more brothers on the end.

And below is a picture of their house. Very flas. They too have screens and cement floors and walls and a generator which they use for watching movies and music videos.

Something that I find really cool is that their land is covered with fruit and nut trees. They grow almost everything they eat and a lot of it is right around the house.
A new house is going up to the left of the family

house--a custom house for one of my brothers.
They were working on the inside walls when I left and still need to harvest the bamboo for the
outside walls but the roof and floor were finished.

And introducing Mai. This was taken either at the end of January or the beginning of February. She has at least doubled in size. I can still lift her but she doesn't fit in my lap anymore.

She survived the flight to Vila though she did escape her cardboard box during one leg of the journey. She gave the cargo guy quite a shock.

She has been to the vet this week and is now de-ticked, de-fleaed, de -wormed, and de-feminized. It's a whole new world. I picked her up yesterday night so she could spend the weekend with me and she has been quite a hit with the other volunteers in my group. Everyone tells me how sweet she is and I have to admit that I agree.

In Saratamata, I attend an Anglican church.

Originally, my host family and I attended a small church in their village but the roof is a mess and now we all go to the seminary. It's a short walk, church begins at 7:00 am, and it's usually quite full because all of the seminary students are in attendance. The service is in Bislama because the students come from all over Vanuatu and the singing is incredible. I think one of the first classes the novices attend is the choral element of the service because they sing in 3 or 4 parts. Lovely.

Just below is a picture of the harbor. This is about a 30 minute walk from my house but I don't usually get the view because that requires a 30 minute walk UP rather than AROUND.

These two pictures are of my host family's garden antap and then of my fledgling garden behind the house. Just for contrast. The plants you see along the "path" are manioc plants and they're about shoulder high.

My plants are island cabbage, newly planted. I meant to take another picture right before I left because the view has changed a little. It is a now a large verdant cluster of bushes just waiting to be harvested. And my tomato and pepper plants are ready to go into the ground too. Very exciting.

And that's the tour. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Come back anytime; we're always open.

My plan is to write another update and send it home. That will take about 3 weeks so there should be a new update at the end of April. My parents and I are trying to work out a system so that the updates are a little more evenly spaced.

Thanks to all of you for keeping in touch. I always enjoy your letters and hearing the news from home.

Miss you!