(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...
...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...
