Cold Chillin’

(written Dec. 24)
Its Christmas Eve here (I’m able to write blogs in advance again as we scored a few donated laptops from the MPA project) and I’ve been back on my island for about a week now having come back from the wedding. Vanuatu is now totally in taem blong spel mode now which means that this last week has seemed like at least two. During taem blong spel people pretty much just chill out and don’t do a damn thing. I had heard many rumors of this and had tried to plan accordingly. I set out over the last few months to clear the only futbol field that has, over the last five years, been re-consumed by the unrelenting jaws of the jungle. The plan was simple and made sense: If we clear the field (one or two day’s work tops) we can have sports games and events during the holidays, especially nice as many youth come back from the boarding schools to be home for the holidays. All appropriate avenues to make this bush clearing program a success were made: meetings with the chiefs, meetings with village committees, rallying interested individuals.
A date was set by them (Very important! Never set dates here on your own), but unfortunately nobody showed up on the day in September to clear the field. I wasn’t deterred and tried repeatedly to get the issue brought up again in meetings and random conversations. In the end of November I asked the chiefs in a last plea to try to set a date before taem blong spel to clear the field so that during the one month of down time we would have something to do (and I could maintain my sanity). So a date was set in the beginning of December to clear the field, and this was the last chance before we moved into our month of nothingness starting in mid-December.
So the day came and I was pleasantly surprised to see about twenty people helping me clear the bush. We worked for about an hour and then someone’s cell phone rang. It was a guy from Vila saying that a group of people who rated tourism projects like restaurant critics do restaurants were on their way to the island now. Last year Pele had won “Best Day Tour in Vanuatu” and such an honor means dollar signs for the project and community. So… understandably everyone immediately quit work on the field and in a frenzy (for Ni-Vanuatu) went to work on the tourist area. Everyone knew how much I wanted to do the clearing and tried comforting me with the false promise that we would work on it again in the afternoon. They knew as well as I that this was not going to happen and didn’t, but at least they saw I was letdown. Maybe we’ll get rocking on it sometime in February?
With no sports area there really isn’t a whole lot do. Work really ceases here as people struggle to even get out to their gardens. I’ll sit down on the beach and storion with people gathered, but at a certain point conversation tends to run dry. You find yourself repeating stories or news or questions just to keep things rolling along. Another taem blong spel favorite activity is endless hours of “Seven Lock”, a card game that is equivalent to Uno in complexity and strategy. They love it and refuse to play it without gambling. Its usually about 10 cents a round and usually the demographic make-up consists of equal numbers of children and adults. I’ve played a couple times with marginal success, but I enjoy more watching them play as the shit talking and epithets used are amusing. One time I asked them if they knew any other games and they acknowledged that they knew a couple. “Rummy?” “Yeah, we know rummy.” I was excited, a new game! So we played a few rounds after which I realized they were just humoring me and were itching to get back to “Seven Lock.”
Other than conversation and card games I have been “killing books”, a phrase I borrowed from a volunteer who had just come into town from a remote place in Tanna, and thus had plenty of downtime to slaughter books left and right. I think I’m at a book and a half per day during spel time. Usually it takes me about a week to get through a book here as I reserve reading for evenings and Sunday. It’s good though, when else in your life are you going to have this much time to read and not get distracted by other things? Also you start to explore more with your reading tastes like for instance, I had never read Vonnegut before, but devoured Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five in a couple of days. I dig the dark satire style of his books and will have to look for some more in the Peace Corps library. I just read a book called The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen that made me think a lot about my family as it focuses on a mother trying to get her dysfunctional family home for one last Christmas. It also made me glad my family isn’t nearly that fucked up, but at the same time I think it really hits home how many families operate and roles we play within them.
Right now I’m working through a travel book about Kirabati, "Sex Lives of Cannibals", that describes some funny stuff that also tends to go down in Vanuatu. The author, Troost, also wrote one about Vanuatu, "Getting Stoned with Savages", which, before I came to Vanuatu, I thought was really good, but now have realized he exaggerates a little much and some his comments about Ni-Vanuatu are demeaning.
There are only a couple people on my island that read books (many are literate but could care less), and I was caught off-guard yesterday when, after I told my Papa I was retreating to the house to read, he said he was going to do the same. “I didn’t know you read books.” “Yep, sure do,” smiled, and walked away. I have no idea what kind of stuff he reads and I am curious to find out.
During spel time there’s also some DVD watching to be had. Some Pele natives who are now Vila residents (urban flight) come back to the island during the spel carrying flashy new DVDs and generators. Yesterday I conveniently showed up at my neighbor’s house as I heard the tell-tale sound of the generator firing up. I sat through a couple hours of a Vila primary school talent show video in hopes that a film was to follow. Indeed it did, as his son put in White Chicks where the Wayans brothers as FBI agents undercover dress up as white valley girls. Pretty stupid and offensive to both races at times, but I was amazed how much I laughed through it. Doesn’t take much when you’re starving for entertainment.
I think after New Years I’m going to go into town for a few days to feel like I am doing something and get my open water SCUBA certification done. Not a whole lot of Christmas-y stuff going down here yet. The Christmas program is to start this afternoon with music (not Christmas music) and food. The whole Christmas spirit has been damped a little by a series of three deaths in two days on the island. At least one was attributed to black magic. Speaking of black magic, my host brother, Noel, is unsure if he is going to come to the island for Christmas due to a large sore on his face evidently caused by him drinking a glass of something that an enemy had poisoned with black magic during the wedding reception. He is currently undergoing leaf treatment from a Vila kleva (medicine man) and this may take a few days.
That’s about it. By the time you guys read this it will be after the Holidays so I hope you had a good one and do tell funny or juicy stories. I already told you I need some good entertainment.

Wedding

(written December 16) Pictures of the wedding click this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorps20a/sets/72157603567373408/
So its Sunday here and I'm just waiting for the truck full of people from my village to come pick me up at the Peace Corps office and head back to Pele. Its been a really good week of wedding celebration here in Vila. As I blogged about before I came to town for my brother Noel's wedding. I arrived on Monday after waiting at the wharf at Emua for about 6 hours for the transport to pick us, close to half my village and me, up. It worked out alright though because I went into Emua and visited my family and some friends in the training village. During this waiting period I was also the go-to guy as I was the only one there holding a cell phone and therefore the communication link between my Papa and my brother in town trying to figure out transportation woes. Went through a little money on that one but I rejected my Papa's offer to pay for phone credit as I was sure they would be feeding me all week. We eventually caught a ride and loaded people, pig, mats, hordes of bananas, cassava, and various food and gift items onto the truck. We arrived in Vila and proceeded a little ways out of town to Erakor where a family member had a house on about an acre of land, suitable to the week worth of preparation and celebration.
On Monday night my brother, his fiancee, me, and the other witness (groomsman), Charly were to go talk to the pastor briefly to get the scoop on what the ceremony would be like and what our roles were. It was already 7pm at this point, we were ready for a shell, and were tired from the days events. The five of us show up to meet the pastor in the church and he gives us all a two-page handout with various Bible quotations on it. He then goes through the first section with great long winded detail and when he finishes the section a half an hour later I look down at the paper only to realize there is still a page and three quarters left. Shit we're never going to get out of here! So he proceeds to talk about Genesis readings, man's superiority over women, how you should marry before having kids (knowing full well that Noel and Jenny have a little girl), how a woman should not work after being married (knowing full well that Jenny has a great job and it would be stupid for her to give it up), and other topics. Then he moves into how nature and animals are for man's use only. Then he moves to talk about creation: Bislama translated, "There some people that claim science for this issue that we came from animals. (baffled look) I don't know what they think, that we came from monkeys or a moose or something like that (more baffled look)." Moose?! Where the hell do you get moose from? I had to really restrain myself from not laughing out loud when he said "moose." I mean I see the connection: we both have antlers and forage on grass-like things, but it seems an odd choice for a guy that hails from the South Pacific. Besides the moose phenomenon I was struggling not to fall asleep, and I knew this wasn't an option like normal church service where you can just slip in the back and zone out. I looked over at Noel and Jenny who both had there heads down and was comforted in that I wasn't the only one with waning attention here. In fact when later talking to Noel I found out that he didn't just have his head down. He fell asleep! How about that? Five people there for this session and Noel nods off. Classic.
So the pastor finally wraps up the service and asks if either of the to-be-wed have any questions. Noel says "no" but Jenny, looking a little confused asks, "I thought we came here tonight to find out our vows and rehearsal stuff." The pastor replies, "No. Your witness (bride's maid) didn't come so we can't fill out the paperwork and we'll have to meet again to do that." Holy Shit! Well I'm glad we accomplished nothing here tonight. Later Noel asked me what I thought of the service. I said, "It was good, but..." Before I could finish Noel said "He talks a little too much, huh?" Me, "A little (Damn right too much!)." Later in the night I was sitting in on some of the older guys and my Papa talking about plans for the wedding and one of them had suggested that they account for a long ceremony because the pastor tends to talk a lot. I let out a laugh which prompted Noel to point at me, calling me out, and we both had a good laugh.
During the first couple days I was able to get some work done at the PC office during the day and then rejoined the marriage party at night. The first couple days were mostly organizing things and starting to butcher pigs and cows. During the evenings we just sat around and drank kava. On Wednesday much more people showed up and the marriage atmosphere was in full effect. I was going to take a break on kava that day as the first couple of days were petty heavy, but as I was finishing some work in the PC office in the early evening the phone rang. It was a volunteer at a nearby nakamal saying the nakamal was holding a Christmas party and giving away free kava. So I took a two shell spell and observed how quiet a party can be if its held at a nakamal. Its amazing how many people can be gathered yet the tone is virtually silent. That night there were plans for the wedding party to dance until the morning. I on the other hand was pretty tired and opted to go to sleep early (around midnight). The sleeping arrangements for weddings usually consists of covered areas or rooms with Pandanas leaf mats laid out across the floor. You just choose a spot, lay down, and sleep. The first two nights there weren't many people at the wedding yet so there was a lot of room to sleep. On Tuesday night my eldest brother Rex, rolled up in a mat like a pig-in-a-blanket, was startled by a huge crab crawling on him. Rex, having heard the story of a mama encountering a nasty centipede the night before and thinking this was what was on him, freaked out only to be told to basically shut the hell up by some teenagers in the room! I was only a few feet away but slept through the whole thing as I tend to do. Once when I was in high school, I slept through an incident where my brother had a horrible nightmare, and in a sleepwalk terror-trance starting throwing large pieces of furniture (desk, bookshelf, chairs) at the wall. Everyone else in my family woke up instantly, and once the situation calmed they wondered where I was. Hibernating as usual.
On Wednesday night the wedding party tripled in size and because I went to sleep early there was a lot of room in the area I chose to sleep in. When I awoke on Thursday morning I found myself blocked in by at least 30 bodies in the room with not a single piece of open floor showing. I went back to sleep and was awoken by a small boy (about4) bumping into my head. He had rolled off his spot and collided heads with me on my pillow. He was still asleep and I attempted to roll him back to his spot but he woke up mid-roll and started wailing which then woke up his mom and she carried him out of the room. I felt bad for waking the two of them up and I was now fully awake so I decided to start my day. I then proceeded to go to the next room to grab my toothbrush as I hadn't brushed my teeth the night before and had a nasty taste in my mouth. Here too the place was locked in with bodies and I started my obstacle course through the sleeping children to grab my backpack. Some close calls, almost stepping on a couple of them but I made it through the sleeping children unscathed.
Thursday morning we (the witnesses, bride, groom , and pastor) sat down to go over the vow and role stuff. It was all very vague and the only thing I gained from it was that I was to hold the rings and stand up when they called the witnesses. When I had asked more than two questions I felt that I was already asking too much. Its hard sometimes when its a meaningful ceremony for us non-ni-Vanuatu to understand the "don't worry, you'll figure it out" approach. The pastor had asked Noel if they'd decided on a time for the ceremony? "Yes, 8 o'clock am." The pastor replied with bugged out eyes, "Wow, don't you think that's a little early?!" He knew as I think we all did there was no way in hell that the ceremony was going to start at 8. Island time! But that was the time they decided on and so it was to be.
On Thursday afternoon we headed to the Vanuatu Chief's nakamal for the payment of the bride ceremony. Here people from my family had set up stacks of mats, some kava, root crops (taro, yam, mantioc), and a huge pig to give to the bride's family from Emae. Some speeches were given from the groom's side and then a representative from the bride's family inspected the bounty by circling it. Then he beat the loot with a branch and proceeded to go agro throwing things about as per kastom blong Man-Emae. When he finished he gave a speech accepting the goods and then a bunch of Man-Emae carried off the goods while chanting loudly in their local language. It was all very cool and the best bride price acceptance I'd seen yet. I was kind of sorry I didn't get video of it on the camera.
Friday - Wedding Day:
I awoke early sleeping at Noel's house this time as it is right across the street from the church. At around 7:30 I was showered and just waiting for the other witness and Noel to get back from grabbing the bow ties across town. We were to wear black suits with a bow tie, kind of a close-to-tux thing. I hadn't dressed yet as I was sure they'd be late and it was hot as hell. It was around 8:30 when one of the first relatives arrived. She having lived in Vila and holding a good job, was fairly punctual and asked us what the hell we were doing? Me and one of my cousins were watching "The Terminator" (part of a 14-in-one DVD all-Arnold Chinese rip-off I picked up, pretty damn cool actually) and weren't dressed yet. I explained from my relaxed position on the floor in a wife-beater and shorts the situation at hand. At around 9:30 Noel and Charly arrived and we got dressed for the show. No bow ties, just some nasty looking neckties that they had procured. Noel said he was going to take the solid black one (the only nice one) and Charly and I could choose between the loud turquoise paisley tie, the 70s solid brown tie, or the 50s slim brown and black tie. I wasted no time to swoop the all-brown tie as it was the lesser of three evils. Noel changed his mind and wanted the turquoise one (the worst looking one in my mind). Then I tied the ties for everyone because nobody else knew how. When Charly handed me the black tie I realized something "Charly, this is a little kid's tie." He used the 50s tie and we were well on our way. I scored my coat and pants from Rex who is a bit taller than me but has about 60 lbs on me. With a belt I got by and even so I was looking pretty good for a Vanuatu wedding. I've seen some pretty funny shit when it comes to grooms and their witnesses in Vanuatu: suits that never fit (way too big or small), crazy 80s style ruffled pink shirts, you name it!
At around 10:30 the bride arrived and the ceremony started. It was pretty Western with some small differences. I got up when I was supposed to and held out the pillow for the rings. It was about a two hour ceremony and I was sweating bullets in the suit as a thunderstorm roared outside. A few times thunder roared in at perfect Godly cues. I was impressed by that. After the ceremony all the people in the wedding shook hands with the guests and it was great to see the people from my village and family's faces and expressions when I shook hands with them. Everyone was all grins and prideful. I felt like my acceptance into their life really went up a little right there.
After the shaking of the hands there was a very short reception in the next building where we chowed on some cake and punch. Afterward we headed out to the car train (well decorated with balloons and ribbons). They had me sit shotgun in the lead car with Noel, Jenny, and their daughter Larisa in the back. The ~12 car train was the longest I'd see in Vila yet (usually around 3 or 4) and we honked our way through town for about a half hour and I continued to boil in my suit. When we would pass on-lookers they would wave and on some of their faces I would then see a look of surprise like "Hey, there's a white dude in the front of that car." It was pretty cool and I was able to put my heat misery aside for the enjoyment of the event. We dropped Jenny and Larisa off at the place where the bride's side had been rallying for the week and drove back to Erakor. There we switched out of the suits (Thank God!), put on matching island shirts, and guzzled some Tusker beer. My brother didn't bring my homebrew to the party because I suspect he didn't want to share it. He and a couple of the guys tried a few of the beers two days before and were pretty stoked on them. I'd have to say too for my first batch (a bitter) its pretty damn good. I've got some stout that will be ready in about a week. At about 1pm we had the ceremony where the bride's family comes and puts the woman in her new home and gives mats to villagers of the man for looking out for the woman in the future. I, myself, was given a mat as well. The closing of this ceremony is sad as the family and villagers of the bride weep profusely while they say goodbye to the bride. Following the ceremony the bride's side departed and we drank and ate until about 6pm when we left for the reception.
The reception was held at the Chief's Nakamal which is where the paramount chiefs in Vanuatu meet twice a year. Pretty flashy for Vanuatu and was invite-only (also not common for weddings). I was surprised how cheap it was to rent out the place. Its the size of a warehouse and with security its only about $130 (its not rude to ask such things in Vanuatu). This too started a few hours late and I bought my papa and his friends beer at the nearby nalamal while we were waiting for the festivities to start. Once the party started the 150 or so guests were treated to great food, and spiked fruit punch. Everybody including myself danced to string band music until about midnight or 1 and had a great time. We then loaded into buses and headed back to Erakor. On the way back Noel and friends, drunk as hell, sang church songs in local language like we might sing drunken pop songs. When we got back to the fort I was beat from a full day's worth of stuff and decided to crash. Most of the gang on the other hand partied until the sun came up. I awoke in the morning needing a shower, and starting to search for a way to get back to my brother's house where my stuff was. Plenty of the guys were still drunk and tried to get me to drink nasty vodka at 8 in the morning. My counterpoint grabbed me, bear hugged me, and gave me the "I love you man" speech. He tried to guilt trip me about not drinking the vodka and I explained to him how I needed to check on a grant's funding going through that day and if I'm plastered that's not possible and that's no good for the MPA. He was undeterred. A minute later he was off in the corner puking his guts out. A few minutes later I saw one of my brothers, Henry, drunk as well, and inquired as to how half of his body was covered in blood and mud. "Oh (casually), I passed out and slept in the muddy area where they've been slaughtering the pigs and cows all week." People mingled around and continued to drink and that was about the end of the ceremony.
Other news...
Dom and I survived a visit from the previous volunteer a week ago. Lot of stuff here but not good to go into in a public forum but a grant that Dom and I opposed was pushed through the committee and we made an agreement with the previous volunteer for him to stop meddling with the project. We took a strong stance and didn't hold back on our dismay of his actions so the future....don't know. We shall see.
I gave the first toktok on the Universe Blong Yumi and it went really well. About 40 people attended the Stars and Planets lecture and said they liked the material. I also used a planets and stars DVD I scored off the previous volunteer to back-up some of things I was teaching. The only thing was there were a couple guys, who had gone on to higher levels of school, that looked bored. I apologized for the dumbed down presentation to the two guys afterward, but explained why. They said they liked the toktok, learned a few new things, and suggested using them to help teach in the next lectures. "Great! Let's do it."
That's about it guys. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and be safe!

Turkey Day, etc.

Well, just thought I'd blog here really quick before I'm out of the V-Town today. I came in for the Thanksgiving Day celebration here that was actually held on Saturday. We, about 8 volunteers and I, went to a local park and played a couple games of football in the afternoon before the feast. It was a blast. The first team I was on lost, but the second one won. Tons of fun, picked up a few nice raspberries from a couple dives (all part of the fun!). Definitely added to the festive nature of the day. For dinner a bunch of volunteers, PC staff, some random Americans, and some Mormons were attendance for the feast. It was held at The Saloon which I blogged about last time (an American run bar). We chowed on turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy. By the way as some of you might know I hate stuffing, but for the last couple of years during Thanksgiving I've tried it again to see if I still hate it only to be affirmed in my disgust for this side dish. Yet, this year I tried it and thought it was pretty good. Don't know why it was, but I think it was the way it was prepared. It was a little different than other stuffing I've had and I couldn't tell you how.
Anyway, all food was drained down with tasty microbrew available at the joint. The atmosphere was great too as they put out a bunch of tables, had candle light, live music (sometimes cheesy), etc. Also it was the first time they opened up the feast to people's Ni-Van sign. others and Ni-Van staff, which was really cool. Kevin, our country director, got up and gave a nice speech in the middle of the meal. Dessert was homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream. All and all a rough deal huh? We all left, food babies firmly in place, and passed out at our various spots within town. It was a pretty nice way to celebrate the holiday while still in-country.
Lets see...what else has been going on? A couple weeks ago I went to a World Cup Qualifier game in Vila between Vanuatu and New Zealand. The stakes were high because if Vanuatu were to win this game and win or draw on the rematch in NZ they would go on to the next match to actually make it to the Cup (as far as I understand anyway. I heard many accounts on what the game meant. What I do know for sure is that Vanuatu had booted the Solomons in the first round in the South Pacific Games.). The game was held on a really humid, really hot day and admission was only about $5 US. We sat on the grass on the 18-yard line and had an excellent view of the game. The stadium was pretty packed in, with a great majority of the crowd being Ni-Vanuatu. Most people sat on the grass as there was very little grandstand to speak of. The game was underway after a good round of cheering and air horn blowing during the short opening ceremony. NZ was controlling the game as the Vanuatu team had trouble maintaining possession. Probably a result of being a newly-formed team and not feeling the team cohesion. Just a week before, the Vanuatu team held a scrimmage to trim their 45+ man roster to about 24. The NZ team also had quite the height advantage so balls in the air usually went to them. The NZ keeper was a beast, at about 6'6" and the chances of getting balls past him didn't look good. The Vanuatu keeper on the other hand was probably more like 5'10". NZ had some good shots on goal with a few good saves by the Ni-van keeper. Vanuatu had a couple nice fast breaks (the limit of their offense) with their short, speedy right striker who was defended by a guy about 6'4". About half way through the first half Vanuatu's right striker got a great break, was on-sides, and a one-on-one with the NZ keeper insued. A quick chip over the keeper's premature dive (coming out of the goal) scored a goal and Vanuatu had struck first. The crowd erupted and continued to cheer for a good couple minutes. The NZ team looked whiplashed as I think they expected to just come in and dominate. At the half Vanuatu was up 1-0 but we were all weary of them holding the lead as NZ was getting some good tries at goal. A couple minutes before the half the NZ team got a shot off inside the 18 which the keeper dove to the right, deflected the ball back out, only to welcome another shot, closer now, that the keeper dove to the left and deflected. Then, in inhuman speed the keeper sprang up to deflect the 8 yard shot that followed up and over the crossbar. It was amazing how quickly he was able to get up and block the successive shots. When he deflected the shot over the crossbar the crowd roared. I jumped up in excitement only to land on a British volunteer's bag. Luckily nothing was breakable and he was very understanding.
During the next half Vanuatu was able to control the ball a little better, but NZ was able to squeeze in a goal in about the 55th minute (result of a poorly cleared ball up the middle right to a NZ midfielder). The NZ defenders were also learning how to defend the wily Vanuatu right striker, they boxed him out. In about the 80th minute the Vanuatu goal keeper was injured by a great dive he made to break up a NZ corner kick. His replacement was a taller, more livid keeper who couldn't keep his ass in the box. He was all over the place! Reminded me a little of a saying I once heard about a keeper I replaced, "He's like a field player running around with little gloves on." Well in about the 87th minute the keeper committed too early on a corner kick (his defenders were in great position to clear the ball) and left the goal wide open for NZ to score, take the lead, and win the game.
Oh well...what you gonna do right? It was one hell of a game though and I felt very privileged to be there and root for Vanuatu. The weird part of the whole ordeal was that a good portion of the Ni-Van crowd cheered for the NZ team at the end (and this wasn't good sportsmanship cheering). Apparently, as I was told later many people here are fairweather fans and I was given examples off how people flip-flopped between teams during the'06 Cup. But, to change allegiances and root against your own nation is something different altogether. I don't get it, but i olsem nomo. Vanuatu went on to lose 4-1 in NZ and so the World Cup qualification dream is on hold until after the 2010 Cup. I don't know if the first Vanuatu keeper was back for the second game as I was at site when it aired. I'll try to score some pictures a couple friends took during the match and upload them later.
Other stuff going on... I'm starting kind-of a lecture series on my island that will occur every Saturday afternoon talking about various science things: planets, tides, currents, weather, volcanoes, basic biology stuff, global warming, etc. The name of it is Universe Blong Yumi! (Our Universe). The idea came to me when I was paging through an Earth Science textbook in the MPA office. I was already planning to start giving a science class every week at the local primary school once the new school year starts in January. Then I thought about how many times adults had asked me various science questions. You see, most adults haven't continued school past class 6, and science isn't really taught until class 7 or 8. The people I've talked to about the science series are enthusiastic and seem to think its a good idea, and I really am pushing it as an informal, non-school-like, fun toktok (lecture) with questions greatly encouraged. the first toktok will be on Saturday and deals with the planets and stars. The PC country director also offered use of his personal telescope in the future. Also, I have a British volunteer friend who has a friend that is a producer for the BBC, and I hope to use that channel to try and get some cool science/nature DVDs donated for this thing and later for use in the school and MPA stuff. Going to also try to get the MPA to sell kava (something they do anyway) after the toktoks in order to raise funds, and is a big reason the lectures will be on Saturdays. Have to let you guys know how it goes when I get back in town for my host brother's wedding in a few weeks.
Speaking of which I am to be a groomsman in my host brother, Noel's wedding out here. When I came in for the soccer match I was also trying on my other brother's suit as I will be in a suit and bow tie for the affair. This is a huge honor as there are just two groomsman and I am one of them. When I was asked I first was shocked and then told my Papa who asked me for Noel, "Shouldn't a guy that's known him his whole life be in this spot." He said "no" and explained that Noel really wanted me to be in this role. I really couldn't say no as it was a well thought through decision by Noel and I almost thought by denying it it would be an insult. My eyes were welling up as I accepted and I really, then more than ever before, felt apart of the family. Its hard to describe how honored and accepted I felt.
So December 14th I will be the guy that holds the ring (here its a groomsman and not a small child just in case any of you are wondering if I got duped) and the other groomsman is my cousin, and will be the official signing witness. As a wedding gift I'm giving a case of my homebrew beer that will be ready by the wedding, and one of a few other things I haven't decided on yet. Don't worry, I will make sure there will be plenty of pictures taken. Noel is a great guy and a good friend too so I'm really glad to be in the wedding. He lives in Vila and I crash at his place whenever in town. When we go out for kava he refuses to let me pay and I have to be really sneaky in order to buy him shells. He's got a daughter with his fiancee (very common here to have kid or kids before being married) who is about 8 and her name is Larisa (thought you might get a kick out of that one Lar). His wife and I haven't had much interaction, but she seems like a very nice woman. By the way they're both about late 20s/early 30s in age in case you guys were wondering.
So...some really cool stuff going on and plenty to come but I must go now as the transport will be here any minute. Bye for now guys and Happy Holidays!

So this horse walks into a bar right...

(written 10/28)

The pictures are Rob & Gleny's Kranke Sale and the last one is a villager voting in a Needs Assessment activity during one of our workshops.
...No its not a joke this actually happened today. We were watching game 3 of the World Series today and a lady walks a horse through the bar. This bar is actually a good find that we figured out a few weeks ago. It’s a hokey Western saloon that a couple Americans own complete with such priceless junk like mounted jackalopes, King Kong, talking deer heads, Statues of Elvis and the Blues Brothers, etc. But, they make decent microbrews which is nowhere else to be found in Vanuatu. Your other option is Tusker, the national beer that really isn't that good at all. This saloon also has a projected screen and satellite so we can watch baseball or football. In fact the first game that we watched was the pivotal Brewers vs. Padres game where in an ironic twist Tony Gwynn's kid got the hit that made the difference in the Brewers win over the Padres, consequently sending the Padres to their one game playoff with the Rockies and a Padres denial of a playoff berth. I missed the entire playoffs (including the Padres/Rockies playoff) and have only watched game 2 and 3 of the Series, which have been pretty long and boring at times. I am pretty ashamed that the Cubs got swept and supposedly played like shit. Better not to see that mess! It doesn't feel like the end of October here as it is getting a little hotter, a different world from people bundled up in 39 degree weather at Coors Field (about 82 and sunny).
Its been quite a while since the last time I blogged, a little over two months in fact. Sorry my trips into Vila lately have been very busy and as I emailed before, I now do not have a computer. My hard drive crashed and they are about $200 dollars just for the hard drive. So basically emailing and computer access is limited and sometimes you have to fight for a computer. But part of my lack of contact I'll have to admit is slacking on it and I apologize for that. I was just talking to a friend yesterday how we now have hit the point where this place just feels like home and so writing about it and what goes on here just doesn't seem that interesting anymore. Not to say that weird things don't occur or that a lot of this isn't interesting to someone outside Vanuatu, but Vanuatu is now my life and it doesn't feel as novel at times. Although, I will say I love it here and take plenty of moments to step back and think how lucky I am to be doing my Peace Corps service on a tropical island working with Ni-Vanuatu who are some of the friendliest people on Earth. I will try to write or blog when I can guys, but I also need some more motivation like more emails from you all giving me shit for not writing you. I like those.
Anyway enough of that, here's what's been going on lately. A few weeks ago we, the Nguna-Pele volunteers wrapped up our workshops. Two of the five canceled, and we will probably give them some time in November or December to reschedule. Scheduling anything here is a pain in the ass and very frustrating. Like the chief that canceled one of the workshops two days before his village was to host the workshop. We (Vols) sat inside the Council of Chiefs meeting two months prior and he was the first Chief to chose one of the proposed dates for our workshop series. A month after that and a month before the workshops started we sent out correspondence telling each host village to contact the two or three other villages in their area that were to attend the workshop based in the host village. Well, this guy calls two days before their workshop and says that he chose the date, brought it back to the village, and they didn't agree with it. Fine, but usually this type of news is better told when it happened: two damn months ago. Then, he has the nerve to get lippy and tell us that this is our fault and that this happened as it is our program. Have to tell you the guy is a piece of work and we all had to restrain ourselves from cussing him out. We put the rescheduling of his villages workshop inside the last council of Chiefs meeting a couple weeks ago and I was not able to attend. However, I did see the chief at the boat wharf the following day and asked him when he thought might be good to try and work this again. He didn't know yet but said they would figure it out soon. So I say "O.K., just let us know this time if the village doesn't approve so we don't have a situation like last time." He responds "We did tell you." Me, "Don't you think two days is a little short on time?" He says no and goes off on how this is our program again. Guy is amazing I tell you. I made an excuse that I had to leave as I am sure he knew that I was not happy with him and the conversation was far from constructive.
The real shitty part is that the four villages that his workshop was to include are the ones we, the MPA, have been trying to establish some sort of contact and relationship with as they (the 4 villages) have continually pissed off correspondence the MPA has tried to make with them in the last couple years. We saw this workshop as a good way to show them some benefits that come out of the MPA and what joining the organization actually means. Oh well…
One of the workshops that did go ahead very nearly failed. The week before it was to happen we went over to the host village to make sure everything was ready to go. We went to go look for the chief and were soon sent on a wild goose chase within the village with varying accounts of his last whereabouts. We finally found the village chairman who admitted that no planning for the workshop had been done, but not to worry. So we left the village feeling that the workshop was sure to fail, grumbling a bit as we had two workshops cancel already. Ronneth, Rob and Gleny's Ni-Van counterpart, came with us to try and talk with the chief and stayed behind talking with a few villagers at one point during our chief search. Well, turns out the chief shows up where Ronneth's at, doesn't know Ronneth came with us, and proceeds to tell him that he is hiding from us as he knows he has not done the preparation for the workshop and doesn't want to face us. Pretty unbelievable but after going back and talking with the chief later in the week, the workshop was able to occur.
Overall, the workshops went really well and many of the participants enjoyed learning some new stuff about community assessments with action plans and some conservation stuff. Here's a few highlights. Dom and I got Giardia someplace at the second workshop on my island (Someone's water source or cooking water was probably a little fouled up). It sucked, I felt like someone punched me in the stomach for about a week and a half and I was farting all over the place (pretty stinky too). Dom had some of that mixed with some other sickness that she is still fighting. Gleny got a 103 fever during the workshop, and thought she had malaria based on her symptoms and took the crazy "Shit! I've Got Malaria Medicine". One of the side effects of the medicine was a constant ringing in her ears. Fantastic stuff eh?
In other workshop news…during a break in one of the workshops I sat in the sun and took my shirt off using my shirt as a pillow. Well, unknowing to me the shirt acquired stickers (you know those pain in the ass flat ones that you get on your socks) and the bell rang for the workshop to resume. I discover the hundreds of stickers on the shirt and don't have time to pull them all off before my talk is to begin. So I give my half hour plus talk shirtless during the workshop. Not exactly taboo or anything, just not usually done here. Got some good laughs from the crowd anyway.
In another talk that I gave, shirt on this time, on the roles of a volunteer I was interrupted by a participant in the back of the room mid-sentence, who stood up and said, "I just want you all here to give a round of applause for the great president of the US, George Bush, for without him we would not have Peace Corps, and we owe much debt and thanks to him for all he has done to help us through sending all these volunteers here" (loosely translated from Bislama). This loud comment was immediately followed by a thunder of clapping of the participants. I guess my reaction, as described by Gleny later was, sort of the "What the hell was that?" type look. Pretty unavoidable and I looked over to the three volunteers seated to my left trying their best to not fully erupt in laughter. I wasn't about to let W, whose recent, large foreign aid budget slashes are well known, get full credit for the Peace Corps. Not on my watch buddy! So before I resumed my talk I explained how W may have some small influence on the Peace Corps but the program is really more dictated by the US legislative body and Peace Corps itself and if we're going to give a round of an applause for a President on this matter we really should also give one to JFK who had a big hand in starting the Peace Corps. Basically this remark was my way of balancing not offending the man who championed W and the my personal moral dilemma of my disagreement with the first comment and the possible perpetuation of this image of W as this Peace Corps guru that may have spread if I didn't comment on it. Who knows it probably is spreading anyway. Don't worry Georgey, they still love you in Vanuatu!! They clapped harder for you than JFK! I think a lot of you probably know how I really wanted to respond to the man's comment, and I'll let your imagination run with that one.
Other things in the workshops...During a break, Gleny somehow got into an artificial insemination conversation with some of the mamas and I heard they were amazed by this technology (understandably so) and I just enjoyed hearing Gleny explaining the process in Bislama.
During the workshop on Pele, my village of Piliura was a shit talking free-for-all where men and women blasted each other’s comments regularly. For instance, one woman made a comment about mariculture which was pretty valid only to be met with “Kiaman” (liar!) from the peanut gallery. That’s just kinda how my village is, never shy to throw some garbage talk your way and they, men and women, are also pretty dirty. In fact, I have heard the term “Dirty Pele” on more than a few occasions. Most times I enjoy it as it is a very loose way of talking to people reminding me of bullshitting with friends back home, but there are times, such as this workshop, where it can be counterproductive.
We’ll probably have a little over 20 workshops and awareness that we, the MPA Staff, Dom, and I, will be giving in the next year. So more beat-your-head-on-the-wall frustration in scheduling, and more weird workshop occurrences to come. We are actually in Vila working on estimates for the new grant that is about to hit any day now.
The baseball/youth sports project hasn’t really seen any new developments. Javier has been doing some trainings in North Efate. I’m still trying to get my island to clear the old field so there is a place to play A sport on the island. No replies yet on the equipment donation front and we’re still waiting from a reply from the Asia-Pacific Little League Commissioner and will probably have to start bugging him. We will probably apply for the MLB Baseball Tomorrow Fund at some point but are trying to be tactful about it so as to get the most out of it, meaning we want to see what we can get going grassroots first. The hope is that we can establish a couple leagues and then have a strong case for a good chunk of change to really get things going, Including the possibility of field construction. Well have to wait and see... If you guys know of anyone who might be able to give a hand in equipment donation (little leagues, people with too much money, people wanting a community service project, etc.) let them know about the project and the email is vanuatubaseball@gmail.com.
We have gotten full support from Kevin George, the Vanuatu Peace Corps Country Director, for the baseball project as he is a big baseball fan. He has been playing baseball with local kids (mixed boys and girls) on Sundays for the last five years. Javi and I joined him yesterday and some of those kids can play! Rose, ~12 yrs old, had the best cut out there and she is one of a few that have been playing for four or five years. It felt good just to put a glove on (first time in over 6 months) and the kids have a great time out there. The afternoon baseball was followed with popsicles brought by Kevin and he gave Javi and me a ride to the outdoor theater where we joined some friends for a screening of “Willow.” Still laughed my ass off near the end of he movie when Berglekat gets shit on by a bird.
Village life has been pretty good. I feel very settled in at this point. Just planted the seeds in my garden about a week ago and then two days later a tropical depression rolled on through and may have very well killed many of the seeds planted with the over-abundance of water. I went to a fundraiser out in Dom’s village right after they were planted and came back surprised that the whole garden fence wasn’t knocked over from the high winds. Also my green beans are growing quite well, but that’s about it at this point. Fingers are crossed for some more sprouts.
You guys may or may have not heard we had a Peace Corps Volunteer from Vanuatu die a few weeks ago in a freak accident on Erromango. John Roberts, who my group met briefly during training, was killed by a fallen tree branch while trimming branches at his Rural Training Center. Apparently there was a guy in the tree cutting the top branches, and John and a Ni-Van villager were out of what they thought was harm’s way, then the branch fell awkwardly, hit another bigger branch, turned direction, sling shotted, came down and killed John and the villager almost instantly. We, the Nguna-Pele Vols, were unable to go to the memorial service near Vila because one of our workshops was going on. We were all taken back a step from the death and it’s especially tragic because the guy only had a couple months left before his service was finished. I can’t imagine how his family must have felt and his village as your village really treats you like family and probably felt guilt over his death and the man that died with him. I just want you all to know that I try to be as safe as I can out here and I thought about you guys a lot when the death happened.
In other news Rob and Gleny are officially out of Nguna now. Their service time finished and they had their last meals and kava with the village last week. Dom and I are definitely sad to see them go as we shared some good times in the last few months. We are also very grateful for their help with bringing us up to speed with the project and sharing great insight on a lot of things about Vanuatu in general.
Before they left they had a sale for people on Nguna in order to sell most of what they had and weren’t taking back to the US. It was insane! They had to set a time for the sale to be officially open to be fair, and before Gleny even dropped her arm to commence the sale, a flood of about 40 men and women poured into the dining hall grabbing what they could. Within two minutes everything but a few small items was accounted for. Two men apparently were fighting over a hammock draped on a rafter. Each man had a hold of one side of the hammock in a tug-of –war match until Rob jumped in to prevent the hammock from ripping. I got a few nice pictures of the insanity, but uploading is a pain in the ass without my laptop and containing the program I used to reduce the picture file sizes. I got out of the sale with a guitar for about 30 bucks and feel if I slack on playing it as I have before I can sell it for the same price later.
Rob and Gleny are both grad school bound as they head back to the US and best of luck to them. Its going to be a little quieter in the Nguna-Pele area these days and we will be missing Rob’s stories and Gleny’s ability to toss out comments every once in a while that get you doubled over laughing. Dom and I cheers-ed a shell a kava not long ago during one of their farewell celebrations: “You and me now tackling this beast. Here comes the fun!” and down the hatch the green, earthy liquid went.
I went and visited Leimas, my host mama from Emua, about a week ago and saw her baby girl, now two months old, and she is very cute and healthy looking. They have now named her Carolyn, the name of one of her aunts. My mama and I had a very pleasant conversation for a couple hours catching up on things. By the way Mom, I gave her the soaps you sent her, and Lari I gave the “Hoot” t-shirt to Kalmara, the kid with the biggest smile ever. It was a little sad going back to Emua as they have just had another unexpected death a few weeks ago. Robert, my uncle and one of the nicest guys in the village, died at the age of around 45 or 50, due to liver and kidney complications. Clemens, another very nice man, died of organ failure two months before. People in Emua are, on the surface, who they were before but you can pick up on the general depressed mood hanging with everyone in the village. I plan on getting back to Emua in a couple weeks for the 30-day observance of the dead for Robert. He also passed while our workshop was going on. I believe a day or two before John did. Its been a rough bout lately.
(written 10/29)
The holidays are creeping up here and it doesn’t really feel like it as there’s no chilly air...only getting hotter. Some of us are going to a Thanksgiving Feast at the Saloon. Should be turkey, football (probably celebrate on Friday and pre-record the games as they will be aired in the very early morning hours so we can watch them during the day while we imbibe on good beer and wine. Speaking of sports, I think I will find out later today that the Rockies have indeed gotten swept by Red Sox, looks like its going that way anyway. Don’t know what I’m going to do for Christmas yet. There’s some talk of a bunch of people getting together here to feast, and my host family on Pele also really wants me stay there and celebrate with them. I’m going to miss the roast duck, goose, and spetzel from home and of course hanging with the Dallmann Christmas Craziness (always a good time when you have seven different, strong personalities tugging at one another!!). Evan, build a nice sled jump this year and I want some pictures with everyone eating it in the snow.
Going to head back to the island tomorrow. I’m in town celebrating Javier and Jen’s birthday mixed with some MPA work. To celebrate the birthdays we, about 20 volunteers, took a booze cruise in Port Vila Harbor on a Pirate Ship. We all dressed up in Halloween attire and I went as a obnoxious Australian tourist equipped with a nasty Neon green jacket, no shirt, blue sweat pants, fanny pack, stupid hat, huge sunglasses and the ugly teeth Lari sent me a few months ago. Pretty damn hideous if I do say so myself. I was able to get the attire at a second hand shop for about five bucks. I think Dom might upload some pictures onto our groups Flickr site (www.flickr.com/peacecorps20a/photos). We rounded up the night dancing at a Vila night club were I was told to put my Jacket back on because they have a dress code policy. This was pretty funny because the jacket by far cramps the style of the place over no shirt at all but O.K. dude have it your way. It was good to celebrate my favorite holiday even if we are in Vanuatu and we (volunteers) were the only one’s dressed up. From what I’ve heard Aussies and Kiwis don’t really get up for Halloween.
Well I think its about time for lunch as I have purged the last two months goings-on here and need to get up from the computer. I am sure I missed a lot of things but hey, i olsem nomo.
(written 10/30)
Happy almost Halloween everybody!! I stayed in Vila an extra day to wrap up a few things and get some overdue Hep. A&B shots taken care of. Don't have much more to add other than the Rockies were pretty close to avoiding the sweep, shot to deep left center on the wall...no sorry, SWEEP. What you gonna do right? That's what happens when you're team is red hot and you have to sit for 8 days. I've written all of these blogs (dated)over the last three days because for some reason the only page that wouldn't load up is the blog posting one so...I just kept adding to it. O.K. I think that's all I've got. Until next time...

Settling In

(written August 19)
The pictures are my new and improved kitchen, my immediate, Piliura family [Back row left to right is Kalvau (my brother), Ruben (cousin), and Naomi (Kalvau’s wife). Center row is Papa, Davis (Kalvau’s son), Greg (my deaf cousin), Momma, and Timothy (my counterpart’s kid that snuck into the picture). The front row is Kalvau’s daughters Neri and Gladys], and the last picture is of my counterpart Charlie and his family [Charlie’s youngest boy is Rexson and is only a year old. Then there’s Timothy who you’ll recognize from the last picture, and the older boy is a cousin named Kaltang. The towel wrapped around his head is very commonly worn like that when people are sick. I guess its supposed to help with the mumps somehow and they use it for everyday colds too. When Jared, Peace Corps Volunteer, got the mumps during training we all told him he should use the towel. He was not amused. The woman in the picture is Charlie’s wife, Sepora. The dog is the previous volunteer’s dog, Pakoa (shark in local language), and he’s an awesome dog when he's not barking in the middle of the night.]
The last couple weeks have been just living out the village life. There was about a week and a half that consisted of community days where the village went out to brush each other’s gardens. Basically, clearing bush to be burned and used for the next crop. I took part in this as we all went to town with our “bush knives” or machetes. Definitely a lot of work but it was pretty fun as well. One time during this week we took a break as there was a big ceremony observing the one-month point of a death in a neighboring village. They even killed a couple sea turtles for the occasion. Something I wouldn’t have done but it is custom for certain very special ceremonies and I think they kill about two a year. The killed sea turtles were on the menu and I really couldn’t decline as I have eaten any other cooked animal they brought to me before. So yes, I ate green sea turtle, and yes I was filled with guilt for eating one of the very things I am working to protect out here. My rationale being that the turtles were already dead, someone’s going to eat them, and I didn’t want to offend my hosts. Have to say it tasted good (like gamey chicken but better) and I don’t think I’ll ever eat it again.
Well, the day after our turtle feast, which included many other types of meat and side dishes, we went to work brushing gardens again. The sound in the field we were clearing was that of a bunch of ducks quacking or a horde of vocalizing California barking spiders (Arachnis flatulensa). That’s right, just about everyone, including myself, were ripping ass constantly expressing our content with yesterday’s meal. I don’t think I’ve ever heard and seen anything like it before. To top it off everyone was farting at the same pitch. Very impressive! Talk about coming together as a community… I really do get a good kick out of farts and I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of it. For instance one memory just came to mind of an incident during a college class in a lecture hall seating about 200 people. During a lull in the lecture someone squeezed out a fart that echoed throughout the room. Well this distinguished group of higher education hopefuls turned into ten-year-olds in a split second as just about everyone was laughing loudly. Farting is funny. Go with it.
One of the gardens we brushed was my own future garden and I’m pretty excited about getting that going. Should have space for a few herbs, tomatoes, onions, green beans, chili peppers (plenty), and carrots. This week I also spun my local fishing rod, a wine bottle with fishing line wrapped around the barrel and a hook at the end. In order to cast this technological masterpiece one swings the end piece (about a meter) of the line attached the hook around like a cowboy with his lasso and casts the line. The bottle is held, upside down, in the other hand to let the line out. I’ve been working at my casting this week and made some marked improvement. As Kalo put it, “Seth you’ve achieved what a Ni-Van does at 6 years of age, Congratulations.” Followed by a necessary “Fuck You” from me. We both had a good laugh at that one.
To get bait you either grab small sand crabs or hermit crabs or you use a similar fishing device with a beer bottle and a large treble hook to snag sardines as they come close to shore in large schools. These guys catch some pretty damn big fish on these hand lines. Obed, from the shore, caught an 80-pound trevally on a hand line. Don’t think I’ll achieve that feat but I’m looking forward to getting into some out here. Have to send some pictures. Yesterday, Alec dragged from the bush my canoe that he’s working for me. Its about 6 feet long and will have an outrigger attached to it when all is said and done. Figure I should be able to burn a lot of downtime here fishing.
I also found out last week that we receive all four Vila radio stations clear as a bell. I’m going into town tomorrow to try to hunt down a cheap radio. They run the BBC World News at 7 each day. Right about the time I’m drinking my cup of coffee in the morning. Perfect! Speaking of coffee, we built the tables in my kitchen this week and cooking has become much more enjoyable. They are a perfect height, a problem I have even in the States. We joked how if a short volunteer replaces me they’ll have to build a step stool like the one Pat Seyjack of Wheel of Fortune uses to satisfy his Napoleon complex while greeting contestants. Haven’t noticed? Take a look the next time you watch the Wheel. I’ve already been experimenting with some of the locally available produce and melding it with Western spices. Made a damn good pumpkin soup a week ago and some tasty banana cinnamon pancakes the other day. A previous volunteer made a great cookbook geared towards using what is locally available, and the cookbooks were printed and distributed to each trainee during training. The author went to Poway High, graduated the same year as me, and I actually met him once through a cross-country friend of mine. Hats off to you Taylor for all the hard work!
Yesterday I met with the conservation committee for the village I stay in, Piliura, to try and hash out a plan to resolve a dispute my village has with the Nguna-Pele MPA. Turns out both bodies want income generated off of a tourist sponsor-a-turtle and tag him program. The MPA wants my village to sign the newly-drafted MPA agreement, but my village opposed signing a few months ago as the agreement had a clause sending all income from turtle tagging to the MPA. The tourist program is only run by Piliura, and they feel they have all rights to the tourists and their money. The MPA on the other hand, is broke, looking for income generation, and knows that the MPA name is used for the Piliura turtle tagging certificate and that MPA equipment is used for the tagging. Both sides have been very stubborn and engaged in very circular arguments during the two meetings held previous to my arrival in Pele. Well, after a lot of discussion with my village and the village conservation council, I got them to hash out a realistic proposal containing the amount of money going to the MPA and Piliura etc., the reasons why Piliura wants the given percentage of money, and what Pilura plans to do with the money earned.
Both sides have pretty valid points and I’m hoping they can come to an agreement during the MPA meeting on the 29th. Its definitely in my best interest for this to happen as I am an MPA volunteer, but my host village, because of the MPA base location, is Piliura. Its like Conflict Mediation 101 over here, and I’ve had to very careful to not take a side here while still pushing for something to be decided on.
During the conservation committee meeting we also talked of future initiatives the village wants to go ahead with including making a physical boundary of the conservation area (using buoys), a mariculture workshop, and the committee’s plan to generate income by selling kava. The latter being a good plan as Piliura does not make kava and there seems to be a good demand for it. I also told them of the incentive for people to drink when they knew the money was going to a good cause. “Get drunk and save the Earth!” Shit, you could even market it to overnight tourists once the two bungalows are built. In fact, the volunteers on Nguna have already used this to generate some small income for the MPA. I’m guessing that’s where the Piliura guys got the idea from.
I’m headed to Vila tomorrow a little earlier than the month interval period I gave myself to go because there’s a Cubs-Cards game (at Wrigley) on satellite. Two weeks ago, when I was in town, there was a scheduling change so no baseball was to be watched. In fact, one time they switched out the game for PBR bull riding. The Ni-Van waiter laughed his ass off at the site of some idiot riding a huge bull, but we weren’t to amused that baseball got bumped. So I’m hoping I get to watch a game this time as it may be the last time I’ll get to see the Cubbies this season.
There’s a business side to the trip too…I’m printing out the Bislama directions I made up for OTL and Beach Volleyball as I hope to get cranking on those soon. They also want me to grab the official sand soccer rules as they want to start a league for that too. I’m also going to pass on a disc I made of Vanuatu birdcalls pulled off a great internet site the last time I was in town (http://www.postiveearth.com if anyone’s interested, it may have a .vu at the end. I forget).

(written August 20)

Got to watch the Cubs game today but it was rained out after the third inning. Figures huh? I got to watch a little of the Little League World Series during the rain delay. Some kid from Curasau put on a 15K performance blowing the ball by the Saudi team. The Saudi team had a few really nice defensive plays, though. During the game I noticed a Ni-Van watching the game too and explained to him what the Series was all about. He turns out to be a guy from the Ministry of Youth and Sports and asked if Vanuatu had a team. "Not yet," I explained and he seemed really enthused about starting a youth baseball league and wants me and Javier, the other baseball-crazy volunteer, to drop by the office to talk about it. So I'll have to call Javier and get the wheels turning on that one. Still need to check with MLB to see if there are any grant or donation opportunities similar to what is done in the Caribbean to kick start youth baseball.

Bummed about the Cubs game but at least I got to see a few innings and networked with a provincial employee about youth baseball. Back to work. Plenty to get done today.

Celebrations

(written August 2, 2007)

The first two pictures are from a fantastic sunset in Utanlangi. The next one is next is making bunya (pig roasted on red hot lava rocks for about a day) during the Mere wedding ceremony. There were about 4 of these lava rock beds each about 5ft wide. The last picture is Dom with Abel Dick.

So I just got back form Nguna the other day and had a great week-long visit to the island. The first couple days I was up in Mere for a wedding celebration. A lot of it was pretty normal wedding stuff but there were some highlights: While Dom and I were chilling waiting for the next event to happen the day before the ceremony we met an elderly man who struck up a conversation with us. He gave us his life history in a long, drawn out story with almost every other year of his life stated and what happened during that year. Exhausting, but I couldn’t get over what this guy was sporting. He is the first old Ni-Van I’ve seen actually wearing old person clothes. Most elderly here just wear what everyone else does, old shirts and shorts with flip-flops or island dresses on the mamas. But, this guy was wearing baby blue, polyester bell-bottoms, a collared shirt, and white Keds. He looked to me like an old Cuban guy. Naturally, I had to get a picture and realized what a great find it was when, after the picture was taken, he told us his name: Abel Dick. How about that one! That ranks right up there with Dick Butkiss. After he had left Dom and I both revealed our similar strategies of not looking at one another in order to abstain from laughing out loud after hearing the name. Yes, I know we have juvenile senses of humor and guess what? I don’t care what you think.

During the ceremony everyone’s attention was thwarted from the event when one guy was being hauled away with a big gash in his head. We later found out that he had fallen on a bottle but he was alright as we saw him at Independence Day with a rag on his head. Some of the youth and young men (18&up) like to get rip shit wasted during wedding celebrations of home brew (fermented fruit and yeast). In fact, Dominique’s counter part, Tatu, a fairly professional, normal villager, caused a minor scene at the cake cutting ceremony. We, the Peace Corps guys (me, Dom, Rob & Gleny), were invited guests at the cake cutting and thus were seated in the dining hall with about 40 other family members. All of a sudden Tatu stumbles into the room and nearly knocks down an entire table of food. About a half hour later, the eating is done and some people have started dancing to the string band music. Well, Tatu comes back in and starts dancing doing this funny ass shaking thing and grabs us all one by one to dance with him. The whole thing was very funny and Tatu managed to break a glass, probably with his ass, before the dancing is over.

After the wedding the four of us went down to Rob & Gleny’s house via a mountain goat-like trail where we all were sliding all over the place. This is part of the celebration as the bride was from Mere and now she was being brought down to the groom’s village, her new home. There was to be a lafet (party) and more food. We entered the party dancing to string band music and the mamas in front of us were splashing baby powder on newly arrived people’s necks. This powdering is very common here during ceremonies. When our turn came we got doused with powder as usual, but one mama inadvertently shot me directly in the eye with powder. All I saw was a big shot of white in one eye a split second before it happened. I left for a few minutes to flush out my eye and rejoined the festivities. The party went on until the sun came up, but we fell off around 10 as only a handful of really drunk Ni-Van yangfala were left. Rob had been looking for Jerry, his host-family brother to score some homebrew, but we couldn’t find him. When we were about to go to sleep Rob said that he had found him and I should take a look. Jerry was passed out not even a foot outside the barbed wire fence that surrounds Rob’s house. We both talked of his fortune of not passing out actually on the fence. I woke up at around 5 in the morning to hear the music still bumping. By the way Ni-Vans take first prize for use of the repeat button. You’ll hear the same song in one night at least ten times at any event, and usually it’s one of three songs that are popular nationwide for the month. Anyway, I wake up and decide I’m hungry and then decide to walk down to the lafet to see if any food is left. There’s about four guys passed out around the community hall including one guy that was fading and a mentally ill man (harmless) roaming about and mumbling shit. One guy was passed out right in front of the speakers and the sound that was coming out of the speakers was so loud I couldn’t hear the sane guy talking to me a foot away. I don’t know how a person can sleep like that! Dude, at least crawl a few feet away. Turns out they’ve got some laplap and pig. I chow down, story for a few minutes, and head back to the house to sleep.

The next morning we hitch a truck ride to the farthest village on Nguna, Untanlangi, for the Independence Day celebration. If we were to hike it would take at least a few hours up and down some nice size hills. We arrive at the village only to find the partially nuts guy that was partying until 6 in the morning already there. That guy set out at about 8, probably still drunk, and marched his ass without any water or anything up and down some gnarly hills and was chilling, smiling, and fully awake when we arrived. Man is a champion! This guy, Homeboy, as we affectionately referred to him as, was a source of our and many other’s entertainment for the 3-day celebration. I know what you’re thinking how mean …yatty yattah, but people here do care well for people that are mentally ill or disabled as they are fed and looked after well by the community. They just happen to be around the village rather than in some home or insane ward like we know it in the States. There’s also a kid that’s about 20 years old in my village that likes to talk to trees and the sea. His main verbal communications are a sound like a motorcycle starting up (da da da doe) followed by a few winding cat sounds (rearrww rearww). But back to Homeboy… this guy seems fairly normal until he opens his mouth and spouts some nonsensical off-topic thing at you. I think he’s got a cocktail of bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia. Although, most of the time he seems to be on the positive end of the spectrum, wearing a big grin, and enjoying life.

So Homeboy is wearing the same socks that he was wearing two days ago when we first arrived. And he’s wearing flip-flops, making the white socks become very brown over time. Although he doesn’t change his socks, everyday he comes up with a new outfit somehow, always layered and amusing selections. When he greets you he gives you a thumbs up, smiles, clicks his tongue, and shifts his head from side to side like a greasy used car salesman. Just watching his actions from a far was interesting for us. He repeatedly re-organized benches, danced his ass off for the entire celebration, and many times left people with which he had just interacted with a “What the hell?!” bewildered look.

On the day of the actual celebration the Peace Corps crew were again invited guests and as such were requested to sit on stage with chiefs and other important people. They would call your name, hang a salu salu (like a Hawaiian lei), and you go on stage. Well, when a forester, who was not present was called, Homeboy decided someone had called his name, got a salu salu, and joined us on stage sitting right next to me. I guess the people decided to just go with it. What the hell right? We sat down and I admired his attire: new outfit same socks, now 5 days worn, dark brown, and ripped in a few places. Man, just take the socks off! Its at least 80 degrees outside. When it came time to hand out a few books that had the words for the Vanuatu National Anthem, Homeboy decided to help pass some out. When he went to sit down he missed his mark and sat right on my lap. I politely moved him over, he apologized, and it took every bit of energy I had not to laugh.

Later in the day they were giving away the second hand clothes that weren’t sold in the first few days of the festival. Homeboy decided to indulge and came out with an outfit with a Gilligan hat, women’s nightgown, over his already-layered clothes. Then he got on stage, grabbed what looked like a purse, and danced for about 5 minutes.

Other than some interesting things viewed by Homeboy, the food was great and cheap too. About $1.50 a plate for such things like steak, omelets (had to special order), and chicken wings; all served with rice and other side dishes. There was also a really impressive sunset one day, and I got a chance to snap a few pictures. The kava there was also of good quality and we indulged in the spirit of celebration, sometimes with an ice cold Tusker, a novel thing in village life where there is no refrigeration.

There weren’t any flashy things like fireworks but the celebration lasted three days and a lot of activities were going on. I won a match of petangue and lost a close teams game after. We didn’t get into the volleyball tourney because we were an hour late for registration. We watched the final match though, and I think the Pele teams played at a little higher level. By the way, when I got back to Pele I found out that the Piliura team won the championship for the Pele Island celebration. Always good to hear. Some of the guys seem pretty receptive to the beach doubles tournament idea, so I’ll have to work on that one.

After the celebration the four of us (volunteers) headed back to Mere to Plan out the workshop. We’re going to hold seven 3-day workshops during September and October throughout the Nguna-Pele community (~16 villages). I’m pretty excited about it as it also really benefits Dom and me because we’ll have Rob and Gleny (seasoned workshop veterans) working on it with us, and we’ll get to meet a lot of people in the community. Cranking away on material for the workshop is part of the reason I’m going to Vila this weekend. Also need some more supplies, and catch a couple baseball games. I’ll try to email a bit if I get time on Sunday.

Volleyball

(written Sunday, July 22)

The pictures are: a view of Piliura from the top of the hill, Morris tossing a patangue ball in the tourney and the Eagles in the volleyball semi-finals.

On Thursday some people strung up the volleyball net again and some people came out that are usually too busy to play. The level of play intensified quite a bit and we even had one guy ref-ing with a whistle. We, a mix of women and men, were diving, spiking, blocking, etc., and I had a blast. With this new level of play they now were digging out of the net, which greatly satisfied me. Many Ni-Vans are short but there are definitely some tall people and if you’re tall here you know how to play volleyball.

After we played I told them my idea of getting a tournament going and they said there was already to be a 6 on 6 competition in the neighboring village on Saturday and we should form a few teams and join. We agreed we’d practice the next day and form the teams. Well the next day it rained all day so no practice and team forming. That night I spread the word that we would meet after breakfast in the morning and get the teams together. I went to the next village to drink a couple shells of kava and proceeded to get pretty stoned on just two shells. Not my intention, as I was only trying to catch a small buzz but the kava was strong.

The next morning I awoke with a hangover but was dedicated to play and met with a few people and went to Launamoa to go register our teams, now two: one men’s and one women’s. The competition was part of a big fundraiser for the string band and included petangue competition (like bocce), various carnival-type games, volleyball, and food and kava for sale. Fundraisers are very common here. There’s usually at least one a week for things like school fees, aid posts, string band, and really any community-based cause. Most are just some Mama’s cooking some food and selling it, but there are some bigger ones too. This fundraiser was well organized and even had music and announcements coming from a sound system.

Kalo and I signed up the teams (about $3 entry fee/team) and we waited for the tournament to begin. The men’s team name was the Piliura Bears after a joke I told a few days before about a bear and a hunter. I got in a round of petangue with Laonamoa’s chief and another guy before the people started playing for keeps, and I actually won. After about a couple hours of watching patangue and chilling our men’s team had three players and we had one woman for the women’s team. Not looking so good. But, as luck would have it we got enough people from our village to show up and we, the men’s team, started the match.

The court was grass with lines, complete with attack line, made with sand. The first two games were to be rally scored to 25 and the third game, if necessary would be played side-out style to 15. The rules were laid out officially by the whistle-equipped ref, a flip-flop toss for serve (no coin needed), and we were on our way. It was a good match and we took it to the third game but lost by a couple points. When we lost our guys immediately blamed it on the smaller court size used in Launamoa. I told them that was a not good excuse and explained that we played well. Nothing to be ashamed of.

The M.C. announced over the loudspeaker the result of our match and that there was still another opening for another team to join to make the full six teams for the tourney, or… a team could play again if they lost. This seemed to be an indirect hint as we were the only team as of yet that had played and lost. So… new life! We entered the tourney again and our first match was with the “Piliura Girls”, who now also miraculously had enough players. They gave us a run for our money. We had the advantage of height and power, but they had better passing and common sense including not always trying to kill the ball. Sounds like differences between men’s and women’s volleyball or basketball in the States huh? We ended up winning by a few points in the third game and went on. I definitely made a point of telling the mamas what a good match they had made it as it was true and they were really good.

The next match we played we won in two games, although they were close and advanced to the championship game. We were to play “The Eagles”(a name I think they chose because they love playing “Hotel California” out here), and I got a chance to look at their team in the semis. This team, consisting of athletic guys from Launamoa, looked pretty tough. In fact, they are the team in the picture. Its them in the semis with one of their players hitting into a block.

As we were to begin the match there was a new seriousness present as some of the players were pep talking about smart play. We were close to a tie in the first game when Watson, one of our best players went down. He hurt his arm falling on one of the plays and was out for the game. They grabbed some 12yr old boy from the sidelines to fill his spot and we all were a little worried about our chances. We lost the first game, but someone picked up a different guy, Sam, as a sub for the rest of the match. Sam filled the shoes of Watson quite well, almost like Watson never left. We took the second game in a nail-biter. All around good play: people were getting good kills, well-timed dinks, excellent blocks, and digs coming out of nowhere. In the last game we got on top early, capitalizing on their mistakes and won the tourney. We shook hands with the other team and thanked them for a good match and walked away with smiles and a new air of pride.

Our prize was a lemon pound cake and it was good. The following morning, one of the villagers, who didn’t attend the event, asked me how we did. When I told him we won he first called me a kiaman (liar) and then was pretty excited for us. They have another tournament in about a week for Independence (July 30 here) and they want me to play with them, but I’ll be in Nguna for their celebration. But, the guy who asked how we did is about as tall as me and a good player so I told him to play for me. Nguna, too, has a tourney for Independence so I might join a team if they need a player. Dom out on Nguna made All-State California for volleyball during high school. Maybe try to convince her to play too.

Overall, it was the best day I’ve had in Vanuatu yet and I’ve had some good ones so far. I played four good matches of volleyball, hung out all day in a cool BBQ-like atmosphere, and our village walked away victorious. Only thing I could of used was a beer or two at the end. Instead I took down a shell, not the same but it’ll work.

Other stuff going on…I won’t get out to Vila to catch the Cubs game as I had hoped. I’m going to help Dom with some stuff her village is doing, setting-up their conservation area. Mere, her village, is part of the Nguna-Pele MPA so seeing as there’s not much work for me here as of yet, and a member village needs help I’m going. Part of he trip over there too is celebrating Independence with Dom, Rob, and Gleny on the 30^th. After, the three of them and I are going to work on planning a village-by-village workshop that will go to all the 16 villages on Nguna and Pele. We’ll be tring to look at conservation needs of villages and how those fit with goals of the MPA, and also helping these communities identify their already-existent human resources.

Other than that I’ve just been meeting people and players in the Pele community and talking about all types of things, conservation and everything else under the sun. I was asked to be a guest speaker for Childen’s Day this Tuesday, a Pele community event. The speech is to be on children's rights, so I whipped a speech out in Bislama the other day. Have to remember to write next week how it went. I focused on rights to health, education, safety, choice, and clean environment. Although right to swing around a machete should be in there too. There are no qualms about little kids playing with knives here. Small kids use machetes or “bush knives” as they’re called here and are pretty handy with them. That’s all for now…