Easter on Vanuatu

By the time this gets posted, Easter will be a month old but I thought I would share my weekend. It was a good one.
Good Friday morning started in the garden. There were weeds to pull, but I was also really excited about planting the tomato and bell pepper seedlings that I started in February. Eight tomatoes and 4 peppers sprouted, survived my occasional underwatering, escaped the mice, and were tall enough to plant. I won’t declare success until I’ve actually harvested a tomato or pepper, but I am sure that 4 days after planting they were already bigger. Vanuatu has miracle soil, I think. Unfortunately, none of my carrot, dill, spring onion, or parsley seeds sprouted. Disappointing. Then a quick, cold shower (the only kind I’ve got) and into my island dress for church. I attend an Anglican church here on Ambae, at an Anglican seminary that is about 10 minutes walk from my house. It has been a new experience for me, all the form and liturgy of the Anglican service, but the more I hear some of the regular responses the more I appreciate them. We follow the same order of worship/liturgy each week except for the readings and the sermon. And the Lord’s Supper is celebrated each week. This weekend, they had a Good Friday service which started at noon. A different brother spoke about each of Jesus’s statements from the cross. After each reading and reflection was a prayer. We were there for about 3 hours, I think it intended to symbolize the length of time that darkness descended on Calvary.
[On a linguistic level, it’s really interesting to go to church there. Students come to the seminary from all over Vanuatu so most of the service is in Bislama, but many of the novices and brothers have English Bibles. So from one Sunday to the next, one reader to the next, the scripture changes from Bislama (01 reading, maybe) to English MV (NT reading) to another version in English (gospel reading). And the priests will often switch from Bislama to English during the message if there’s a word they need.]
On Friday afternoon, I started to empty out the kitchen in preparation for a serious scrubbing—ceiling to floor needs an application of soap. My plan was to remove all the food and dishes and then put out some rat poison before doing the soapy-rag-over-every-surface cleaning either Saturday or Monday. That way the mice couldn’t undo my hard work with one scamper over the shelves and dishes. However, both of the (open) stores here in Saratamata were out of poison. A lady who works at one of the stores suggested the sticky traps but when I asked for one of those, they were gone too. So I spent the rest of the afternoon working on a crafty project instead. Can’t say I was disappointed.
**update, the hardly-ever-open store was open yesterday (a week later) so I picked up a packet of poison. I put it out last night and my conscience has been kicking me ever since. Not sure I can go through with it. Did you know that some kinds of poison require 4-7 days before the mice die? I’m not sure I can live with that. My animal care ethics have really undergone some serious testing here in Vanuatu. Between the pitiful dogs who all need better care and the really aggravating mice who are eating through everything not made of metal, I’ve had to stamp down many of my compassionate impulses. If I don’t, I’ll be running a charity home for 30 odd village dogs and any mice who care to take up residence.
Saturday morning I did laundry, which always takes awhile, made a couple of trips to various stores for various things in between the rain showers, and finished the book I was reading. And in the afternoon, it was raining again so I felt perfectly free to stay inside and lounge about with my project.
Easter morning began very, very early. Church was scheduled to begin at 3:00 am. I still haven’t figured out why. We didn’t actually start on time (usual for Vanuatu but not so typical of Tumsisiro. The seminary services typically begin right on time.) When I arrived at 2:45, the novices were just gathering for a pre-service devotion. There were several people from Saratamata there already so we went into church for the devotion and then came back out to prepare for the service. We started with a fire, which the priest blessed. (Why?—I have a lot of questions about the Anglican service/tradition, things where I don’t understand the purpose or the history or the symbolism. Maybe I’ll post that list as another blog and someone out there who has some knowledge about the Anglican Church can fill me in.) Then we were all given candles and we processed into the church. (I considered the possibility that the early start was for the candlelit procession but it was dark enough for that at 5 or 5:30 too.) There were several reading and prayer cycles again, similar to Friday’s service, but after the special Easter things, we started the regular Sunday liturgy. (The sun rose while we were in church so I thought maybe this was a sunrise service? But we didn’t actually watch the sun rise; it just got light while we were in church.) So church lasted about 3 hours again.
Afterwards, the novices and brothers invited everyone to stay for tea so my host mother and I stayed. It took about an hour for them to prepare the food (crackers and bread and fruit) and drinks but nobody seemed to notice. The novices sang several songs for us while we were eating and that was wonderful.
They always sing in several parts and with great enthusiasm. I was really disappointed that I hadn’t brought my camera. I would have recorded a song or two. Maybe next time.
I got home at about 9 am and took a short nap. After that Mai and I spent the day with my host family. We scratched bananas for lap lap, which takes a while to bake, and then had rice and fried fish for lunch. After lunch one of my brothers shot a wild pig so they butchered and cooked the pig for supper. Yum. It was a good supper on Sunday, though mine was to-go. I usually walk back to Saratamata in the late afternoon while it is still light out. That way no one needs to walk me home. So my host mama wrapped up two pieces of lap lap (one kumala and one banana) with a fried fish left from lunch, some pig, and a chicken wing in a couple of leaves and tied it with the stem and I ate it later that night. That much protein is pretty unusual but is always welcome.
Monday was a rainy day again so I baked a lemon cake (the chocolate cake mix here is really terrible but the lemon is quite good) and worked on my project and went to the beach to talk to my parents (the cell tower on Ambae is not working at the moment so I have to walk down to the beach where I can get reception from the tower on Pentecost) and gave Mai a bath (which she did not enjoy) and washed the rugs and basically puttered about all day. It was a lovely weekend. Rainy and a little cooler (winter is approaching) and slow but with a few necessary chores to add a sense of purpose. © I hope that all of you had a blessed and refreshing weekend too.

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!

UPDATE - written 27 ab 2009, posted 3.12.09

Hello, everyone! I'm sorry it has been so long since my last update. Technically speaking, it should have been another month before I was able to post anything new, but my parents have offered to type in a more regular update as long as I'm willing to write it and mail it home. So hopefully we'll get into a monthly-ish pattern. I do have access to a computer here but it's most useful for saving pictures, playing computer games and music, and watching movies. Internet access is . . . . limited. Right now the landline phones are down again - I think out of 7 weeks that I've lived in Saratamata, we've had phones for about 10 days. When we do have phone lines, the access is dial up and anyway the office stresses "official work" on the internet rather than personal use so I'm dependent on regular mail for communication these days. I do have a cell phone I can use to call home and call the PC office and talk with other volunteers so I'm not totally cut off, but my communication techniques are limited to those available, say 20 years ago. I will be back in Port Vila for a week or so with the rest of my group at the end of March for a Peace Corps meeting/training session. I'll try to put up some pictures that week.

It's funny how quickly life begins to feel "everyday" even though so many parts are truly extraordinary. Sometimes, when thinking about writing letters, I find myself thinking, "There's nothing new to write about, nothing to tell." Ridiculous. Even the routine things like house work and my community and my job are different from, or at least I have to do them differently than, in the U.S. So I thought I would spend some time describing a few of the "normal, everyday' elements of my days here in Vanuatu.

Sleeping under my mosquito net - I use the possessive here on purpose; I am quite attached to my mosquito net at this point. It is a high, filmy white canopy stretched out over my bed and it represents sanctuary and rest. Not just because it's where I sleep, but because it protects me from all the scary, itchy, scratchy things that lurk in the night - mosquitoes, of course, but also cockroaches, mice, beetles, and various moths and small insects that swarm around flashlights and kerosene lanterns. It is such a pleasure to climb under the net for a nap or for the night and escape from all the creepy crawlies in the rest of the house. (The first time something finds its way INSIDE my shelter, I will be devastated, but so far so good.) Yes, it can be tiresome to fasten and unfasten and refasten on those nights when I have to get up three times to tell the dogs to be quiet or to investigate a mouse-like noise in the kitchen or to shut the windows because the rain is blowing in but the irritation is a small consideration next to the peace of mind it brings.

The dogs - I have gone from a pet-less household in the states to leading a pack of Vanuatu dogs. Mai is the one I lay claim to and take responsibility for, but my yard has been home to 2 of her siblings, her mother, and another big red dog that has lived there for quite a while. I was also caring for another volunteer's dog for a few weeks so that brought the total to 6. Everyday, everywhere I went, 3-6 dogs milling around. I'm sure it provided a lot of amusement for my neighbors. For a while I considered scouring the neighborhood for any other dogs that needed a home and forming a pack I could rent out to run wild pigs, but no need. Things are looking up. First, my temporary boarder, Stew, went back to his owner. Then, I ran mommy dog off. So, for the past few weeks, I've been down to 4 dogs (Mai, 2 puppies, and the big red one) who follow me everywhere. As of yesterday, I'm back to two. One of my co-workers took the littlest puppy and another volunteer took the other puppy yesterday. Relief.

Training Mai - In addition to the usual commands of "sit," "stay," "down," and "NO!" our training regime includes necessary commands like "stay out of the office," "stay out of the store," and "no chasing/killing/eating the neighborhood chickens." During working hours, the businesses here just prop their doors open so there's nothing keeping Mai outside except her interest in avoiding my discipline. Of course, she quickly figured out how to stay just out of reach as I chase her back toward the door so now she spends a lot of time tied up. She's still young though, close to 6 months old would be my guess, so we're going to keep working on that. More serious is the chicken-thing since she's killing my neighbors' dinner. But I refuse to give up . . . . at least not yet. The last time she actually killed the chicken she was chasing was about 2 weeks ago and then she didn't eat it so we're making progress, I think. That particular chicken was laid outside the provincial government office where I was attending a workshop, her attempt to pacify me since I wouldn't let her in the building, and it was witnessed by quite a few of the senior government officials as we left for lunch. So embarrassing. I couldn't even pretend it had been another dog because Mai was sitting right next to it with a feather hanging out of her mouth.

Trips to the store - Gone are the days when ice cream topped the grocery list (it's available sometimes but no freezer to keep it in), when cold cereal was my back up dinner plan (only powdered milk here), or when any kind of salad was a possibility (too few vegetables). These days a typical shopping list is a loaf of bread (and I'm so thankful I can get it), two cans of cheap tuna for the dog, two cans of decent tuna for me (or, if the store has eggs, one can of tuna and 2 eggs), an onion, some chips or crackers, and one maintenance item like peanut butter or sugar or oil or rice. I usually go to the store every two or three days and the list doesn't change. Seasoning options include salt, soy sauce, and curry powder, I can usually pick up an onion and sometimes there are garlic cloves. There is also a market that usually sells the local produce like island cabbage or some other form of greens, manioc, taro and sweet potato, and a wide variety of bananas. Occasionally I can get a cucumber or pineapple. Those are exciting days.

It's a 1-2 minute walk to any of the three stores or the market, but it's a little tricky. One of the stores is hardly open at all. Another is owned by Seventh Day Adventists so the store is not open on Saturdays. And the store with the biggest selection of things is closed after about 5 pm on weekdays, Saturday afternoon, and all day Sunday.

So no Mojo burrito for lunch and Thai food for dinner one day, with barbecue for lunch and spaghetti for dinner the next. It's aelan kakae (island food, including greens, bananas, and lots of kinds of root crops) or something on bread three meals a day. Fortunately, I like aelan kakae but I do dream about food from home, usually salads for some reason. One night I enjoyed three different salads in one dream - I was attending a lunch meeting where you could choose which salad you wanted: a beautiful fruit salad with watermelon and grapes and cantaloupe, a very colorful lettuce salad with lots of toppings, or pasta salad with chicken and a creamy dill dressing, but I chose all three. Couldn't taste them of course but I still enjoyed that dream. I miss salad. And cheese, I miss cheese.

I've never been much of a chef so, when I actually cooked, I ate a fairly unimaginative diet in the U.S. too. Sometimes, though, I think if I WAS some kind of a chef, I'd eat better here. And then I realize you can only combine the same 6 ingredients in so many ways. Even Emeril or Rachael Ray or Julia Childs or that blond guy who picks up women in the grocery store and cooks dinner for their families would find it difficult to be inventive here after the first few weeks.

The sounds - here on Ambae you can always hear the outdoors. There's no air conditioning and the windows and doors are always open so, even over the sound of three or four people typing and talking on the phone at work, I can still hear the crickets and birds and wind and rain. I love it. I can also hear the roosters at 4:30 am and the dogs barking in the middle of the night and the cows lowing (at my host family's house, not in Saratamata) but it's still wonderful. I have grown accustomed to the peace - and subconsciously attuned to the generator, which is housed just across from my house. My brain notices when it come on (POWER!), the slightly different sound it makes before the lights go off, and the quiet that comes when the generator turns off.

The quiet is magnified (is that possible?) because one of my neighbors usually takes advantage of the power to play music on his very nice (=loud) stereo so that we can all enjoy it. One night it was the same song over and over again for two hours. I think he must have hit the "repeat" button and then wandered over to chat at someone else's house. Another night we enjoyed the same song about a dozen times; Kenny Loggins of all people. (Tina, I think of you every time that happens. :))

So there's a sampling of my Peace Corps experience. Hopefully, my next update will include some stories about teaching here in Vanuatu! I begin to co-teach class 7 (the kids are 12-14) at the local school on Monday. Just one unit, or approximately two weeks, but it will be a great chance to learn about the students here and what kinds of activities are interesting to them. Kinds here tend to be quite shy and quiet so it will be a challenge to draw them out. Just another new adventure.

Thanks again to all of you who have written letters/emails or sent packages. (Mom and Dad are printing out messages sent to my gmail account - rachel.meiste@gmail.com - and sending them to me by regular mail since the Peace Corps address - volunteer@peacecorps.vu.gov is proving less than reliable.) I REALLY ENJOY hearing your news from home.

Jeannette reminds me to update my wish list. I'll do it on the side panel in March, but for the moment . . . I am still enjoying all of the things currently on the list. You may feel unimaginative if you send drink mixes or Oreos or Chex Mix or cross word puzzles (which can be printed off the internet) or whatever, but I am actually using them up so don't feel that you need to think of something new.

--letters all by themselves are wonderful

--any of the things on the list already are wonderful

--small games that are easy to explain (Go Fish was a big hit, but I couldn't figure out how to explain Gin Rummy if that gives you an idea), maybe travel sized type things

--a Frisbee

--toys for Mai (she's tired of the empty peanut butter jar and the dish rag I tied in a knot)

--boxes of macaroni and cheese

--recipes for sweet potato casserole, bread, pancakes, chips, etc., etc.

--basic recipes using potatoes (I will substitute manior)

-- recipes using cooked spinach (I will substitute island cabbage)

(pasta is only available as Ramen noodles or from Vila so if you have a recipe that uses

spinach some other way, that would be great

--a bread pudding recipe would be stupendous!

(My access to ingredients is pretty limited so if it's more sophisticated or exotic than cinamon or yeast, I'll probably have to wait until I go to Vila to find it)

--and I'm still hoping for some constellation information for the southern hemisphere

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, it's official. We are no longer trainees, we have the certificate to prove it. This is my group, in our matching aelan shirts and dresses at the swearing-in ceremony. This was my Thanksgiving celebration.

During our first few weeks of training, this was a common sight. We had a lot of our classses underneath a giant mango tree, sort of a community meeting place. Unfortunately for our sense of security, it was mango season and we were constantly being bonbarded by mangoes. They are really heavy when falling from 25 feet above. We did really enjoy the fresh mangoes, though!

This is a picture of my host sister, Gloria, a distant cousin and his mom, Sala and Leman, and my other host sister in the background, Juliet. While my host family was busy caring for a grandmother who became seriously ill, Leman and Sala came to stay and take care of me. Leman is married to one of the chief's sons, Joe, who would be a first cousin to me. Got that?

This is a sample of our daily lunch buffet. The mamas would cook and bring down our lunch each day so we had a lot of choices. The greenish dishes are made with aelan kabis (island cabbage) which I guess is kind of like turnip greens. There are also pancakes and fried plantains. The sauce pans contain various soups with chicken wings or beef and usually ramen style noodles. We also had rice with every lunch. It has become a staple for Mangaliliu and for a lot of Vanuatu, though there is a local-foods movement here that is trying to bring back the manioc and taro as the staple foods.

I find this amazing, every day. The waters here are so beautiful that I find myself taking lots and lots of ocean pictures just because each day seems more beautiful than the last. These two pictures are from a trip to Hat Island that we took to visit the grave of Chief Roi Mata, a Vanuatu cultural hero. After arriving on the island and paying our respects to the chief, a number of our papas and brothers went fishing for our lunch. You can see a few of the trainees and papas or brothers roasting the fish over the fire.

My host papa has one brother and three sisters. This picture includes two of the sisters and the sister-in-law. The two trainees pictured are considered cousins. We went down to my family's bungalow, built by some of my cousin-brothers as a guest "cottage," for a picnic and swimming on our last two weekends in Mangaliliu.

This is the dinner for our swearing-in ceremony. I love the decorations here; the people make such wonderful use of the palm fronds and flowers that grow. It was a great party!

Saying goodbye to our host families and the rest of the village. This sort of "receiving line" is pretty typical. We have one every Sunday after church too, featuring whoever is a guest that day--new visitors or people who have returned from a trip or a visiting elder. This is only a small portion of the full line of people.

And now we are in Port Vila for a week or so, buying supplies and preparing for departure to our permanent sites. Three of us left today, another 5 leave tomorrow and the rest of the group will go on Friday and Saturday. It's kind of strange actually. In my traveling experience, when you return to the place you started, it's to catch a flight back home. But this time, it's to prepare for the long part of my stay. It has been hard for me to wrap my head around the idea but arriving in Saratamata on Thursday instead of the states will help the concept to sink in. :)

I will try to get back here to the internet cafe one more time to post some pictures of Saratamata and my host family there. I've got to meet some other volunteers at the local "Wal-mart" and pick up the rest of my supplies.

Miss you!

Saratamata and back in the training village

We are in Port Vila for the day, visiting the teacher’s college and the provincial education office for Shefa province and . . . . . visiting the internet café.

Everyone is back from wokabaot now and it was comical to see how happy we all were to be back and see all of our group again. I had mixed feelings coming back, as we all did. I was looking forward to the comfort of being somewhere familiar again, back with my host family in the training village. And it was great to hear about everyone else’s wokabaot experiences. But when I got back to the training village I remembered how noisy it is. Well, relatively noisy. There are lots of barking dogs and crying children at my house in the training village. My new host family doesn’t have barking dogs or crying children. All they have is one extremely rowdy rooster who thinks dawn comes at 3:30 am. And my new host family is great. It’s just hard to go to a place that is all new and kind of start over again.

Once again, I have a really flas (fancy) set up. My host family in the training village is probably the most sophisticated--cement house, flush toilet, inside shower, tile floors, generator, etc. My new host family isn’t that well to do, but they also have a cement house with SCREENS in the windows! Screens! They have lots of fruit and nut trees in the yard and they grow most of their own food--manioc, taro, plantains, coconuts, cabbage, and various frruits that are in season. I have 2 new sisters (one of which lives on Santo with her husband) and 4 new brothers, ages 9 - 22. I’ll try to put up a picture. My host mama knows how to weave the mats and baskets that are so common here so I’m hoping to learn that skill from her. I also have room next to my house for a garden so I’m hoping to get some help with that too while I stay with my host family.

The village where my host family lives is about 20 minutes from the provincial education office in Saratamata and from the house that will be mine eventually. I will live with my host family for the first month at least and then move to Saratamata sometime in January. Both villages are really nice, quite small with grass and trees and nice people. Saratamata also has 4 food stalls (cheap food!) and 4 stores including an ice cream store! And I thought joining the Peace Corps meant deprivation. J Still no hot water so that solar shower the ladies from CCS sent will come in handy! And even though I will have electricity for a part of every day, I won’t have internet access except REALLY SLOW dial-up so I’m not sure how often I will get to update the blog. I will still receive the emails you send to volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov because the office will send them on but I’ll probably be writing more letters or asking Mom and Dad to post updates for me. And since I will have electricity, those of you who asked about sending movies and music can send away!

So we are back in the training village and actually getting some really helpful training. Kath, you would have laughed to see me today and yesterday. In our sessions yesterday, we made letter identification cards and sight word identification cards so we could test kids when the school year begins again. (Summer vacation here is in December and January.) And today, we colored alphabet cards. We also learned how to make our own books so we could do it for fun or teach the local teachers how to do it so they can write books in the local languages for their classrooms. We’ve also learned how to bake in the all-purpose sauce pans that we use here in Vanuatu and we learned how to use the assessment tools that we made. The best session was a Bislama lesson when our teacher tried to figure out how to translate things like “learner-centered instruction” and “differentiated instruction.” Each of those took about 4 lines of notebook paper to explain.

My Bislama took some pretty good strides forward this week, maybe because I had to use it more. I’ve started picking up the “tune” of Bislama and I don’t have to think as long to translate what I want to say. I was able to talk to my host sister tonight and I understood her. I had trouble understanding her before, I think, because her European language is French rather than English. But then I had to ask my Uncle Savi to slow down and start again when he talked to me right after that. Small steps, I guess.

I guess that’s it for today. I know I write this every time, but I am so grateful to those of you who are writing and emailing and sending packages. I love to hear about what is going on in your lives, the little things as much as the big things. I will post an alternative mailing address for the provincial office in Saratamata but you can use the PMB 9097 address too. The Peace Corps will forward any mail that arrives in Port Vila on to me.

Until next time . . . . .

Wokabaot

Sorry about that last update--I’m not sure what happened.

Here is the latest. . . . .

Placements were announced on Wednesday and I will be going to Ambae (island) and working in the provincial capital of Saratamata. I will be replacing a volunteer who is currently working for the provincial education office and my job description includes teacher observation and coaching, leading workshops, coordinating communication between the provincial education officers and the volunteers, and who knows what else. I am hoping to be able to do some team teaching in the local primary school and to do some curriculum work as well. There’s really no way of knowing exactly what to expect until I get there. The nice thing is that the current volunteer already has some projects going and has made some suggestions about things that need to be done so I feel like I have a head start.

On Saturday, I will leave for my wokabaot to Saratamata and I will be there for a full week before coming back to the training village for three final weeks of technical training. The visit to site is kind of an introduction for me as well as a last check to make sure everything is in order, like housing arrangements. From the information I have received, Saratamata is important as the provincial capital and it has electricity and running water and stores but its population is just over 100 people. It’s hard for me to envision the modern/urban elements with so few people. Most of the people who live there are government workers or nurses or store owners or the like.

Today was a busy day in the training village. We began with a quick debrief about our school visits from the day before; our group visited 5 different places in groups of 2 or 3. It was our second trip to schools where we were able to spend the day observing, and sometimes teaching. It has been really helpful to see the challenges the teachers of Vanuatu face and strategies they use for teaching first hand. Then a short Bislama session where we had to write and tell a story in Bislama and then a trip to the garden. We headed for a garden that has been planted on a slope and talked about strategies for reducing erosion and how to follow the contours of the land when planting and which trees are good for what uses--straight sticks, quick growers, nitrogen sources, invasive species, etc. The last part of the day was spent prepping a village house for a cyclone. We cut coconut palm fronds for the traditional houses (they help hold the roof down) and found concrete bricks and sandbags for the metal roofs. Good practice since it’s cyclone season here from November to April.

We also had a really interesting session with a woman who is working with one of the villages to write down their alphabet. The lower classes at the primary schools are supposed to be taught in the local language, but only some of the villages have that language in print. Janet is working with one of the villages that doesn’t have their language written down yet. She has been working on an alphabet book (A is for apple) for the local language and it was so interesting to hear about the process. She also had some great tips and advice for planning and selecting topics for teacher workshops. Kath, I’ll be calling or emailing for help soon!

The kids here are really amazing. Many of them learn two languages right at the start--the language from their mother’s village and the language from their father’s village. Sometimes they just learn Bislama and sometimes their parents are from the same village so they only learn the one language to start. But there is so little printed material in any of these languages that learning to read is a challenge. Most of their knowledge is obtained aurally. Then, when they get to second or third grade, their classes are taught in either English or French. And when they get a little older, they take the other language as a foreign language. It’s no wonder that literacy skills are low when the kids are learning several languages without learning to be competent and confident readers in their first language. I continue to be amazed by the kids and teachers here. They accomplish so much with so little in the way of resources.

Several people have asked in emails how my Bislama is coming along. I had a couple of low weeks and discouraging sessions with trainers when I was told that my grammar is good but my vocabulary needs a lot of work. I gradually came to realize that, yes, my vocabulary is smaller than it should be, but that is more easily remedied than bad grammar. So, I do not despair. I talked with the class 4 students at the school on Wednesday. They asked me to talk in Bislama rather than English and I seemed to be communicating with them fairly effectively. I took that as a positive sign. Basically, I have been cheating a bit with my Bislama when I talk to English-speakers like my trainers. For example, one trainer asked me, as part of my test, to describe my house in Florida. I used the term “family room” because I knew my trainer would understand it when I should have taken the time to explain what a family room is. That is not a phrase or concept that is readily understood in Vanuatu. So here’s a little sample of Bislama. (I should probably ask one of my trainers to look it over and make sure it’s acceptable but you guys won’t know the difference anyway. :) )

Las Sundei naet, mitrifala trainee i bin mekem piza blong ol host famly blong mitrifala. Lefou (LAY-fow) (aka Katie) wetem Turtong (aka Sandy) wetem mi (Lairipu lay-rrrri-poo --my kastom name which means “woman farmer“) bin pem ol ingrediens long Port Vila long Satadei. Mitrifala i bin pem floao mo yist mo tomato mo capsicum mo salami mo jis blong mekem siks piza. Mitrifala i bin kuk ol piza long oven blong bred mo hemi bigfala oven. Olgeta 6 piza fitim insaed long oven long sem taem. Ol host famly blong mitrifala oli laekem piza blong mitrifala tumas. Olgeta oli askem mitrifala mekem piza bekagen nara taem.

Translation: “Last Sunday night, three of us trainees made pizza for our host families. Katie, Sandy, and I bought the ingredients in Port Vila on Saturday. We bought flour, yeast, tomatoes, peppers, salami, and cheese to make 6 pizzas. We cooked the pizzas in the bread oven and it’s a big oven. All 6 pizzas fit inside at one time. Our host families really liked the pizza. They asked us to make it again another time.”

There is a lot of English in Bislama. The challenge is the limited vocabulary. It makes a language that was developed TO BE functional, really inconvenient to use.

The pizza part is a true story and here’s another one. One morning before I left for school, there was a great uproar of dogs in the backyard. I went back there to get some hot water from the kitchen and discovered that several of the chief’s pigs (I learned they were his pigs later) had escaped from their pen and the dogs were trying to herd/corral them for the chief. I think the dogs got a little carried away (there must have been 5 or 6 of them chasing the pig) because several of them bit into various parts of the pig, supposedly to hang on to it and not just because their primitive selves got the better of them. (I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt here.) Anyway, the dogs were barking and growling and yelping and charging through the grass after the pigs that were snorting and squealing and charging through the grass, all of them being chased by two men with sticks who were yelling and shouting at the pigs and dogs, and there were several mamas in the kitchen watching the chaos and shouting encouragements and directions and laughing at the men and the dogs and the pigs. And then, as the roiling mass of animals passed by my host father’s pig pen, one of the bigger pigs inside the fence decided to enter the fray. It used one of the other pigs in the pen as a ramp and leaped over the fence to get at the dogs. And the mamas started laughing even harder and the men shouted louder and now there were two big pigs instead of one big pig and it was a wild couple of minutes.

I'm sorry there are no pictures this time. I tried to upload a couple and in 15 minutes, none of my pictures has appeared. I don't have any more time today. I'll try again another day.

Many thanks to those of you who have been emailing and sending packages. It makes a huge difference to be able to hear what is going on in your lives and not feel so cut off! Miss you all. I'll write again when I get the chance--not sure when that will be!

Life in PST

Me in my "aelan dres," a gift from my host parents. This is my host mother, Anies.

Two weeks in our training village have flown by. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon, quite anxious to meet our host families and get a first look at the village. And our first action was to walk back out of the village so we could be properly welcomed. The boys in the village had planned a traditional welcome and, as we walked back into the village, they stormed out of the bushes dressed in custom camouflage (bushes and twigs wrapped around their bodies) and brandishing sticks. It was a bit unnerving actually. After terrifying us properly, they led us to meet the chief. Our host mamas formed a receiving line and we all got bussed on both cheeks and a lei without knowing which mother belonged to which trainee.
The village itself is mostly corrugated metal houses or cinderblock homes with corrugated roofs. There are about 30 compounds and 260 people. My host family has been wonderful. My host father, Sael, is quite the entrepreneur. He owns a tour bus, a taxi, a stereo system that he rents out for parties, and is building a tourist bungalow on the beach nearby. We have electricity at night by generator and water in the house. He is working on an indoor bathroom, complete with flush toilet, but it isn’t finished yet.
My mama, Anies, has been really patient with me as I practice my Bislama. It takes me 2 minutes to figure out how to phrase my idea and several false starts to actually get it out. However, I understand most of what is said to me so that’s progress. What is need is a lot of written practice to get the words and rhythms into my head. Bislama is, in many ways, a very simple language. The vocabulary is fairly limited and many words have English roots or they’re exactly the same. The sentence structure is straightforward though it takes some getting used to. There are no possessives in Bislama. You have to say “the house that belongs to me” anytime you want to say “my.” “Haos blong me hemi naransaed long solwater.” It can make for some very long sentences!
I have three host brothers and sisters: Juliette is 13 and attends French school. She is quite bright and hopes to pass her examinations next year to get into secondary school. Places in secondary schools in Vanuatu are very limited so the 8th class year is known as the “push out” because many students don’t score well enough on their examinations to earn a place. Gloria is 8 and also attends French school, but in the village, and Micah is 4 and has a mind of his own. He will go to English school beginning in January.
It is hard to explain how quickly the extraordinary becomes routine but after two weeks, I am taking some things for granted. I still don’t like using the “smal haos” but I’m used to the food and walking everywhere and dodging the mangoes that are falling from the trees and sitting on the ground or hard benches (not many cushions around) and brushing my teeth at the outdoor spigot and waving the flies off of my dinner and the dogs and the chickens and the pigs and . . . . .
Actually, our village is pretty spiffy. I think every compound has a water tap so no hauling water. Lots of families have generators. There’s a wide variety of food available because the families have gardens, we’re right near the ocean for fishing, and the capital city is close by for any extras. During the first week of November, we will go on “wokabaot” to visit our permanent sites. It will be another transition, I think, to an even simpler way of living. It all depends . . . . Actually, it sounds like some of us may end up in slightly more developed areas because we’ll be working with provincial directors and not just with individual schools. The head honchos at Peace Corps haven’t told anyone their sites but we’re supposed to find out next week.
We have classes every week day--Bislama lessons first, then sessions on the education system in Vanuatu, presentations by people in the education ministry here, presentations about Vanuatu’s economy and areas for growth, sessions on how to write lesson plans J , disucssions with current volunteers about secondary projects, presentations about what to do in case of cyclone . . . volcanic eruption . . . . landslide . . . . bush fire . . . . etc, etc, etc. The best classes though are the practical ones. Yesterday, we learned how to make mango jam and coconut jam. We also spent one afternoon building fires, scraping and squeezing coconut for the cream, killing chickens, and making “simboro,” a traditional dish made from manioc.
I am getting more excited and more nervous about my permanent site--how will I be received (sometimes the village doesn’t know you’re coming!), whether it will be easy to find projects or whether I will have to invent them, what my village will be like. We visited two schools today and have talked with a variety of people who could offer us some insight on what the future might hold. The challenges sound enormous but there is also so much potential for growth and improvement.

I've got to sign off--time to head for the office and the bus ride back to the training village. I'll try to get more pictures on next time. Check again in two weeks!