More Goings On

Written December 20, 2008

So it’s official now. Taem blong spel has officially begun with the year closing ceremony of the MPA that took place a couple days ago. I still have some work to do here and there, but mostly I don’t have to do a damn thing. I’ve just been hanging out with the village, swimming, and reading. It’s been really nice.
As part of the spel program my village has been hosting a group from a church in Vila to do a combined service, video, and health toktok every night. They’ve been at it for the last couple weeks, and have set-up camp at my host papa’s house. I haven’t really been involved with it previously because I was in Vila to plan the camp, entertaining guests during the camp, and then back in Vila for a couple days to see friends. Well, now that I’ve come back to the island I don’t really have an excuse not to go. It’s also hard to avoid as pretty much my whole village has been going and they are nice and loud with their amplified speakers. The first two nights back I didn’t go, but told myself that I would go to at least one service/ show.
Yesterday afternoon they said the health topic was to be marijuana so I decided this was the day to go. Marijuana lectures in Vanuatu are usually entertaining as they are akin to Reefer Madness-like explanations prevalent in the US in the 1920s and 30s of what the wacky weed does to you. One volunteer once explained that he sat through a marijuana lecture in his village where they said that a woman in Papua New Guinea had gotten stoned and baked her child. Hmmm… Now I’ve heard this happening before, but usually it’s associated with drugs like LSD or crack. Many people in Vanuatu are also convinced that marijuana makes people violent and commit crimes or it’ll just plain make you nuts. One time while riding in a bus in Vila two men, the driver of the bus and the guy sitting shotgun, pointed out a guy walking crooked down the street, swatting at the air, and laughing hysterically. Now, many people might assume this person has a serious mental affliction like paranoid schizophrenia or something. No. Not these two guys. They both proclaimed, “Marijuana” in chorus followed by a shaking of their heads. I, sitting close to the front, was baffled at this reasoning and asked the two guys if they really think marijuana did that to that guy. I got a response of something like, “Of course, I’ve seen many like him that marijuana has ruined there life like that. That stuff makes you go crazy!” I resolved to shut up and not try and fight that battle.
Now, I realize that marijuana is a problem in Vanuatu, and especially in Vila where large groups of boys roam the streets and just smoke all day. But, it can’t be ignored that there aren’t enough jobs or good youth activities to involve these guys. And yes it probably kills their motivation, and doesn’t help the problem of disenfranchised youth, but I feel too often marijuana is used as scapegoat for the reason these youth wander aimlessly. Why would you overuse a drug like marijuana if you had cool activities to do, a good job, or other things to eat up your time?
Anyway, so I went to see some more inflated stories on the wacky weed. No crazy baby baking stories. Just some really suspect ad hoc reasoning of crime rates going up in Vila due to marijuana use. Then the speaker went on to say how it makes you crazy and violent. What was strange too was that he didn’t open the forum for questions afterward. I’ve found that most adult Ni-Vans are very curious about this drug, and love to ask questions and discuss it. That could have been the best part.
Later in the evening, after the whole show was done I was talking to a member of the church about yesterday’s big Vila prison break. This is about the 6th or 7th break of the year, but this was a big one. A bunch of prisoners lit fire to the prison, requiring the police, to have to open the cell doors (as to not burn prisoners alive), and then with doors open about 60 prisoners made a run for it holding knives and big metal pipes they had hidden away. Not a good situation, and some police officers were stabbed in the process. Well anyway, the guy I was talking to said that these guys, being high on marijuana, are what caused the incident, and previous prison breaks. Some might think that inmates high on marijuana might actually keep them from, well, doing anything at all except staring at the wall. Oh well.
Once the health discussion was done it was time for the religion discussion. The preacher giving it had a power point discussion about the beginning of Christianity, its subsequent fall during the Dark Ages, and then its lift back up from enlightened thinkers. The Dark Ages part was pretty gnarly with four or five slides about how Christians were tortured by other people during that time. It was all in English so he read that first, and then translated some of it to Bislama. One of the slides said something like, “They stabbed their eyes and pulled the eyes out of their sockets!” Gruesome yes, but humorous when he misread the slide (in a serious appalled manner), “They stabbed their eyes and pulled off their socks!” Not the socks!! I’m glad I didn’t have anybody else there that noticed it too so I wouldn’t have a reason to laugh at something like that. I could have lost my socks. Wait I don’t wear socks.
He then went on to tell of the evils of the Mark of the Beast. Throughout the show this Beast was a current theme with some fiery lion continually popping up. The Beast, he was convinced was in the form of a religious sect that the maternal side of my family subscribes too. Now, I myself can’t say I’ve ever really been a follower of my maternal family’s religion, but I felt insulted as half of my extended family is in his eyes, “The Beast,” and that’s just not a nice thing to say about someone.
Sorry if this part on religious event seems like a cheek. I don’t mean it to be that way, and I try to go to religious events the community are involved in, but humor helps me sometimes get through long events that usually aren't that engaging to me. Also, I try to be as open as I can to different religions, but it is hard sometimes not to wince, as someone who doesn’t to subscribe to any church, when churches bash each other.
Today I think I’ll take a light day of reading, typing letters, playing BINGO, and maybe some fishing in the evening. It’s pretty appropriate when you think about how damn hot and humid it is. Oh, and yes I said BINGO. Instead of 7 Lock this year the craze is a modified game of BINGO where instead of using the letters there’s just numbers that go up to 90, and you have to get a horizontal straight of numbers to win. There are horizontal rows on your cardboard card with five numbers per row. Every card is 10 cents per round, and many people have anywhere from 2-4 cards going per round. I usually just play one as I’m more interested in just playing. I’ve won the jackpot of two dollars once so far. I like it more than 7 Lock as I feel I am not at an unfair advantage to the mama card sharks like I was in 7 Lock.
Well I hope you all are having a good holiday break. I think I’m going to do Christmas in the village again this year, although Christmas Eve I’m going to try to get into town to hang out with some friends, eat good food, and watch a couple Christmas movies we have on DVD. For New Years a few people are planning to come out to my island for some revelry, but nothing too crazy. Mainly counting down the days until New Zealand! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!

Spel Time

Written December 19, 2008

I’m not going to lie. It’s been a while since I last wrote one of these. No point in lying as all you have to do is look at the last date of an entry and the date of this one to see that it’s been a while. Have I been lazy? Not particularly. Too busy? Not enough to not have time to write. Nothing to write about? Its Vanuatu, there’s always something interesting going on. What then? I guess I’ve really been inspired over the last few months to do what I need to do and let go of the rest as per the upcoming season: Taem blong spel or “do nothing for two months.” Therefore, blogging fell through the cracks. I apologize. Although, in my defense I’ve located other Vanuatu volunteers who have come down with the incommunicado sickness. I won’t name them, but they exist.
Last year as taem blong spel was approaching I was dreading it. I had only been out at site for a few months, didn’t have much work to do, was still trying to integrate into my community, and now it was time to do absolutely nothing. It was tough. I spent a lot of my time trying to make something from nothing. I would try to start-up conversations with people, but that was a bit of a wash as there’s not much to talk about when nobody’s really doing anything. I tried to get into the 7 Lock games that villagers were playing religiously. Basically, this is a card game that is much like Uno, but for every hand you have to toss in 10 cents, and the winner takes the pot. Now, you would think that there’s not much strategy in a game that resembles Uno, but somehow a couple Mama’s were straight sharks and seemed to always have a nice pile of change beside them.
I played here and there, but me winning seemed like something worthy of celebration as people were shocked with “Way to go white man” looks. So I gave up on my 7 Lock career for financial and pride reasons. Only problem was that this activity consumed everybody. Those that weren’t playing it were watching it. So I became a spectator. This, however, gets a little old after a while as an Uno-type game doesn’t quite captivate like a suspenseful game of poker might.
I would usually watch as much card games as I could take, and then go bury my nose in a book. I killed a lot of books last December and January. I would read until I felt I’d need a break, crawl out of my hammock, and watch more 7 Lock with very limited socializing. Once I felt recharged enough by human interaction it was back to the books again. That was life for a couple months with some spicing up here and there from activities like swimming and drinking kava.
So how does one look forward to this type of thing? Easy: live in Vanuatu for a year and a half. I guess I’ve gotten pretty used to the speed of life here and now it’s the time of year to relax. This may be an occupational hazard when I return to the US. Though, there are reasons besides becoming more like the people that surround me that have made me itch for relax time. My projects have made me a lot more busy than last year, and although we may work a lot less here than we do in the US, the frustrations and obstacles on the job seem to more than balance out the feeling of needing a break. Another reason I feel more welcoming to spel is that I have been here for a long time now, and feel I can fill my time a lot better (with what sometimes I do not know). The last and final reason, and most important one is… I won’t be here for half the spel. Vacation baby! I get to peace out of this sultry stagnate place for 3 weeks in January and go to New Zealand. This in the back of my mind helps a great deal.
In the last few months there hasn’t been anything too eventful that I can remember. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with the MPA (workshops, meetings, etc.). Javi and I have been doing stuff for the sports project like planning next year’s events and discussing and working grants we will apply for. Another one of my brothers got married recently which involved drunk dancing in the middle of the road and one brother punching the other one. Good times. In fact, the latter happened while we were waiting at the wharf for a boat to go back to Pele. I was talking to a tour operator about the MPA when she added, “By the way what’s going on here? When we pulled up to the wharf people were fighting.” I answered, “No its just a wedding they’re not fighting.” Her: “Yes they were. I saw punches.” I was surprised. “Really!?” When I finished the conversation I went over to one of the guys from my village to find out what happened. I asked who was fighting. He replied, “Tufala brother blong yu.” Turns out my oldest brother punched a younger brother than my brother-in-law came to the younger brother’s defense and got punched as well. I found them all a little ways down the road laughing together, a couple with marks on their faces. “Nice one guys!”
Last week we held an environment day camp for the two islands I work with. About 8 Peace Corps volunteers turned out to pitch in and it was hard to tell if we, the volunteers, or the campers had a better time. We played a lot of games with environmental education mixed into them, there were art crafts, and snorkeling time with a snorkeling scavenger hunt in the end. About 35 kids from the two islands showed up which was a pretty good turn out for this time of year. We focused on the kids that were years 4-6 in school.
The kids especially enjoyed the games, and there were a couple games that volunteers made up on the fly that were a hit as well. For one of the crafts we did a trash-to-treasure activity where kids made Christmas ornaments out of beer cans. When we were planning this a few days before the camp I realized that rounding up that many cans from the island could be hard as many people flatten the cans or burn them in their trash piles. So we downed a case of beer a couple days before the craft activities so we could have enough cans. Yes, we produced trash, but it’s the concept that’s important here. The cans were even green and red, festive for the holidays. When drinking that night to produce the “trash” we liked to remind ourselves, “It’s for the kids.”
The camp went very smoothly, and it really helped to have a lot of volunteers to work it so some people could do behind-the-scenes stuff as other volunteers were doing activities with the kids. We also had a couple MPA staff help out, and they both did an excellent job as well. A beauty part of the camp was that it was a day camp so every night we did not have to worry about the kids or baby-sit. Instead we retired to my house on Pele (the camp was on Nguna), hung out, and made really good food. Then the next day the MPA boat would take us back to the camp.
The plan is to keep doing variations of the camp and at different volunteers’ sites so the camp keeps getting better. It also is a great way to see someone else’s site and hangout with friends in the evening. Javier summed it up well one night when he said how lucky we were to be doing something that’s meaningful in a beautiful place, having fun doing it, and then coming back to hang out with good friends when we’re done for the day.
Sorry I don’t really have pictures of the camp. My battery died early on, but a lot of other volunteers have good pictures, and I’ll post those when I get them.

Late Sept. Entries

Written 9/12:

So today marked a great day for my service. It was the first day of baseball on Pele islands newly cleared field! It’s about time! I got some of the Pele youth together and shagged balls until we got enough for two squads. I set the word out that I would be having the training a couple days prior and did a little ground pounding to do so. I tried my best to encourage the girls to come, but not one showed up on the training day (have to work on that one, and I think some will start coming in time). Once we had about 16 kids I explained the rules and showed them a couple clips from The Rookie to give them a better picture of the game.

At this point my arm was already a little tired from pitching for about an hour to the few kids that had showed up on time. I divided the kids up and we started a game in the lone, newly cleared Pele playing field. I was the all-time pitcher and had to really throw hard for a about half the guys or they would just teeing off every time. These guys really are pretty natural when it comes to both hitting and throwing. There were some great shots up the middle, opposite field, and a few downright bombs. We used a rubber ball as we don’t have gloves yet on Pele, and that made it a little hard for people to catch at times (it was pretty bouncy). The bat was something I carved the day before with a machete, and I'd have to say I did a pretty good job for my first attempt.

They picked up the game great, and a couple of the kids were even holding up on fly balls. This is a very hard concept to get through. We only played a few innings as it was starting to get dark, but it was a good game that ended 15-14 with a walk-off double. The true highlight of the game was when Ismael nearly killed a chicken. You see, chickens in villages here, roam free, and usually have ownership marked by what toe the family cuts off or tying a color of calico cloth to the wing. Well, Ismael hit a shot to dead center, and scored an in-the-park homer. After the commotion of the big score I was readying to throw to the next batter when I noticed that everyone was staring into the outfield. “What?” I asked. One boy said, “Ismael killed a chicken.” I asked in a unbelieving manner, “You mean with that last hit?!” “Yup.” Sure enough a few smaller kids that were watching the game walked over to hoist the half-grown, now dead chicken off the field. (We later found out it survived and was just very stunned). It was hard not to laugh at the incident so we did, but I still felt bad for who ever that chicken belonged to (that’s food for somebody).

The game attracted a lot of interest from adults in my village, and we had a good crowd by the end of the game. All of the kids that played had a great time and wanted to play again the following day. I had to decline though as I was headed across the water for the Ekipe vs. Vila rubber match the following day. We do have it set up though so that every Friday we’ll play, and try to work in more days as it goes along. I don’t think I could have played the next day anyway as my shoulder was aching from pitching for hours.

(Couple pics from the Pele game. Check out Lester"s (the catcher) way of improvising without a cup. I had no idea he was doing this until I saw the top picture later. Click on the picture to see Lester's facial expression, very funny. The bottom pic gives a good view of what the field looks out onto. Nice scenery for a ballpark, huh?)

Its pretty cool to be actually playing on Pele now in the true sandlot. The field is a big beach so that will make things interesting as play progresses here.

That night I had dinner with my host family, and we started talking about sports after we finished eating. My mama said that she was once a great javelin thrower! I had no idea that they even did that here! At any rate I don’t think they do anymore, and that it was a sport promoted during colonial times. She said she had a few trophies for it, but they went missing a while ago. She then started saying how she had played baseball before when she was younger. “No you didn’t!” my papa exclaimed. “You’re thinking of cricket.” No, she was adamant that she had played and described how they ran the bases and had a round bat. He still didn’t believe her. I then asked her if they used to peg baserunners and she said yes. “O.K.,” I replied. “I think you guys were playing Rounders.” I’ve heard a few other older people tell me they played baseball before only to tease out the same solution. Rounders for those of you that don’t know is the childhood game that a lot of British people play, and it is the foundation of which modern day baseball is formed. From what I understand Rounders is also played with a bat and ball, but a soft ball that is pegged at people to get the outs. In this game bases are also used as a player “rounds” the bases, and that’s where the confusion, lumping these two games as one in the same, comes. It seems that in some older British colonial schools they used to teach Rounders. Of course, not baseball, as that might compete with Britain’s love for cricket.

Written 9/13:

The Big Game II (actually III, but I was on Ambae when II went on)

(Team Vila and Team Ekipe)

So on this day it was to be the rubber match between the Ekipe Black Ants and the Port Vila Independence. Ekipe had won one in Vila and Vila had won one in Ekipe. The final for The Efate Cup was set to be in Paunganisiu (North Efate) on neutral ground. I arrived in the morning (its very near where the boats from Pele land when going to Efate) to set up the field. A guy that I met a few months ago when trying to start something like NEPSSA had volunteered to mow the huge field for us a few days before the game. When I arrived I found the huge field mowed and that he had gained the services of a tractor to grab pieces of wood for a floor of the already existent stage. Javi had asked that if I had time that I use sand from the nearby beach to make foul lines as they did so in the last game and it worked well. Thanks to the tractor I was able to grab a bunch of sand, and some local kids and I went to work on the lines. When we were done we had a surplus of sand so I put in a batter’s box and on-deck circles.

For bases we use white burlap-like, 20kg rice bags filled about a quarter with sand. The remainder of the rice bag is folded under the part that’s full of sand for a square, base-like appearance. They actually work quite well, and these bags can usually be found pretty easily in villages. We can’t take credit for the idea though as Kevin had pioneered this one long before Javi and I arrived. I brought 5 bags from Pele with the intention of starting to use one lesser-filled bag as a pitcher’s mound. I had used it on Pele and it helped with consistency of pitches when knowing where you threw from the last time.

(View of The Paunganisiu Ballfield)

The Vila team arrived first with Kevin, Jeremiah, and Krissy (Javi’s wife). I enjoyed hitting fly balls to them as they were warming up. One kid that had just started playing ball a couple weeks ago with the Vila team was making some excellent snags. The Ekipe team arrived with Javi and Carol, the new Ekipe volunteer, and they in turn started warming up. Also in attendance were a couple PC volunteers from North Efate, Sara and Nicole, and a few men and children from Paunganisiu. We had hoped for a better crowd, but weren’t able to get any supporters from Vila or Ekipe to come as they had to settle on buses that barely fit the teams. We had also hoped that a lot of North Efate community members would come look too, and had gotten the word out and were told some would come. The only ones that did were a handful of people that trickled in during the game. That was alright though as the game was good.

Mark Bethel, the community chairman, guy that mowed the field, and MC, kicked off the game with a prayer and some salu salu hanging for the two coaches, the two umpires (Jeremiah and myself), and a couple other PC volunteers. He then gave the floor to the Chief of Paunganisiu to open the field for baseball play. Ekipe won the bat toss and hand on top of the bat and chose to be the home team. We then lined the kids up on their respective foul lines and had Mark Bethel lead us in the Vanuatu National Anthem.

(The teams aligned on the foul lines for the National Anthem)

Jeremiah and I had a little chat to discuss calls, and I was glad he was home plate umpire as I wanted to watch the game more and concentrate less on pitching counts. He also umped for a while in the States which is nice and gave me some good insight on best ways to make calls and position yourself when working a two man crew. Strangely, we had both showed up wearing green shirts and grey shorts for the occasion. “I guess we’ve got a uniform,” I joked as I pointed out our similar attire. We had a good laugh and he yelled out a “Play Ball!”

Vila struck first with a couple well-manufactured runs in the 1^st. Ekipe squeezed in a run in the bottom of the first, and held Vila scoreless in the top of the 2^nd, aided well by a fantastic catch by their female second baseman. She faded back on a pop over her head, got to the ball just in time, and ended up doing a somersault as her momentum carried her onward, all the while holding her glove above the ground, and onto the ball. Pretty impressive! Sometimes as an ump you really like pumping the fist for a good put out. That play was one one of them, and the crowd erupted in cheer for the great play.

After the good display of defense, Ekipe then opened ‘er up in the bottom half of the inning, trumping Vila’s goose egg in the top of the inning with a rally that had scored 6 runs by the end of it. Another 6 run rally was repeated the following inning leaving the score at the end of three: 13 to 2. Vila was letting the game slide due to some bad fielding mistakes like not getting in front of the ball, confusing tag and force plays, and throwing the ball away. There actually weren’t too many bombs by Ekipe. They just kept hitting. Vila on the other hand was having trouble getting their offense going and were leaving runners stranded as batters were striking out during inopportune times (a couple times with their bat on the shoulder).

(Ekipe getting something started)

Jeremiah was cracking me up with his enthusiasm as he went along, calling strike three on kids on both squads with a booming, “Heeeee Raeeeeek Threeee!”. I don’t think he was being too harsh though. Although, some kids did look at him like, “Where did this guy come from?” Awesome! It was cool to just see him having fun with it and getting into the game. He also stood in there like a rock as he caught a couple foul tips off the noggin. “You all right?!” Someone would exclaim. “Nah I’m good. 2 and 2,” as he squatted back down for the next pitch.

(Runner's safe at second while pitcher looks on)

In the 4^th Vila’s slugger jacked one to left center, but they only picked up a run on the dinger as no runners were on. In the bottom of the 4^th Vila played good defense and held Ekipe scoreless. The 5^th allowed a couple runs on both sides, and included a great snag by Godwin, Ekipe’s center fielder, to save a couple runs. Vila got something nice started in the 6^th, rallying and scoring five hits, determined to turn this into a game again. Ekipe put in a couple runs again in the bottom of the 6^th sending Vila into do-or-die mode, trailing Ekipe by eight runs, as they started the 7^th and final inning. Ekipe put them down in short order and won the game 17-9.

After the game the kids shook hands and the MC had Kevin present Ekipe’s captain with The Cup (actually a silver plastic and wood cup trophy). Javi and I thought it a little harsh to have the losing coach present the trophy, but Kevin did it well, and the MC was the guy the guy calling the shots.

(Kevin presents trophy to Ekipe captain)

Popsicles were then given to all, accepted nicely on such a hot, muggy day.

(Umps enjoying popsicles after a hard day's work in the heat)

The MC then gave a toktok to the kids and told them and us that baseball is welcome here anytime, and he knows this will not be the last time it will be played here. He then turned to the kids and said, “And you guys will some day be the coaches for your kids and carry on this great game so that one day Vanuatu will have its first national baseball team.”

It was a great quote and definitely at the heart of what we, Javi and I and now Jeremiah too, are trying to do here. We have no illusions of having internationally competitive teams ready here as we close our service. We merely want to try to spark the fire so that sometime baseball may take off here. Furthermore, we are trying to introduce these new sports, but even more so we're aiming to show organizations like NEPSSA how to organize leagues, and tournaments, and how to keep a sports organization running well.

I rounded out the day with a couple shells of kava in nearby Emua. I brought a cigar (thanks Dad) with me and smoked alongside David and his Sherlock Holmes pipe. He’s a real nice old guy from Emua, and the only guy in Vanuatu that I know of that smokes pipe tobacco. I then lucked out and caught a boat back to Pele as I was sure I’d have to stay the next day in Emua. I like Emua, but that probably would mean me going to a long church service. Phew! That was close.

Written 9/13:

Ronneth, MPA staff member, stormed into my house today with his shoes on (no no here) as I lay reading in my hammock and barked, “What did you tell those villages down the way about the mooring?” Ronneth is kind of an intense dude, and people that don’t know him actually think he’s pissed off at them. I know better. I replied laughing, “I told them to come pick up the materials as they finally actually volunteered to do it (meaning work the cement for the mooring.” We’ve been waiting a couple months for these two villages to get their act together and work their mooring anchors as the rest of the villages have. In the last MPA meeting we finally relented and decided to send a staff member, Ronneth, in to work the damn things so we can stay not too far behind with the grant schedule. Well in the time between the meeting and when Ronneth was set to work the moorings one of the chiefs, when talking to me one day, said he was ready to work the mooring. “Cool,” I thought, “We’ll save some money on salary this way as they will volunteer for volunteer work.” I told him to have someone come see me, and I’d tell them how to work it. A couple days later he sent a teenage kid to seek out advice on how to make the thing. I, surprised that they were actually moving on this thing, told the kid to come back the next day and I’d have the materials ready for him. He never came back.

Then Ronneth had to go to that village anyway to prey for a sick person, and decided he’d talk to the chief who then said I told them to work the mooring. That’s where Ronneth got confused and thought I was changing things around. As Ronneth stood there I explained, “No I only told them to come do it because I actually thought they might come volunteer for volunteer work, but they failed me again. I should have known better.” We both had a laugh. I then told Ronneth that he should still work the thing, but hopefully someone from the village will help him out. I then told him if I’m free that day I’ll walk down there with him in case he doesn’t get anyone to help him, and we’ll both work the damn things as we swear loudly at the lazy villages. He liked that plan and departed for Nguna content that the plan is still in order. He’s pretty regimental; definitely armed services material if he grew up in the US. One day, a while ago, when he was wearing some shades we commented how his facial expression and shade combo gave him a Terminator air. “But,” I explained to Rob and Dom he’s got to have an “Hasta La Vista Baby!” saying too. We settled on “Mal Bong Bitch!” (Good morning asshole!). It’s been a Nguna Pele volunteer inside joke ever since. Of course now I have to email it (to Rob and Glenis) or reserve for times when I see Dom in Vila.

Election Day

Written Sept. 2, Vanuatu National Election Day:

(Pictures from top to bottom are: Pele Island polling station (the primary school); The inside of the polling station showing the privacy booth and the yellow booklets are the rip off candidate papers; Villagers getting an awareness from election official; Villagers checking out the election awareness posters; An election awareness poster; Barry posing for me with his election registration card)


For the last few months conversations in the village and nakamals has been buzzing incessantly about… The Election. Ni-Vanuatu, in general, are already very interested in politics so you can imagine how as the election got closer this topic took over all other things. The election is to elect members of Vanuatu Parliament, set up based off the British Westminster system. The Prime Minister, the head of state, is voted on by the Parliament and PM then chooses half of the country’s Ministers like Ministers of Trade, Education, Lands, Health, and so on… The second place party gets the Deputy PM job, and he chooses half the ministers as they have a coalition government system. The two main parties decide who gets to elect what Ministers, I believe, based on their interests.
The Vanuatu President is more of a figurehead, but he does have some powers such as veto of legislation. He is voted in by the members of Parliament and the six Presidents representing each of the Vanuatu provinces. There are 52 seats in Vanuatu Parliament, 10 of which belong to Efate and the near shore islands of Lelepa, Moso, Nguna, Pele, and Emao. The Vila municipality has 6 seats and rural areas in Efate and nearshore areas are lumped into one district that has 4 seats.
This last statement has been the basis of most political conversation on North Efate and offshore islands in the months leading up to the election. Many people from North Efate and the nearshore islands believe that they should have at least their own seat in Parliament. Why? Politicians from South Efate continually win the four seats that leave people in the North and nearshore islands feeling they are either underrepresented or not represented at all. Basically they say that all Man South come in with their thick pocketbooks, campaign, win the votes, and make their only trips to the region during election time. South Efate politicians are much more unified and experienced in the Vanuatu political game, and people from the North continually vote for them. So there is a big push for all Man North and nearshore islands to for vote North candidates. The problem is that there is very little unity for politicians in the North region. Nguna alone has at least 5 candidates with another 6 or candidates on mainland North Efate. On North Efate two brothers are running for two different parties! From what I’ve heard the South candidates have condensed their candidates to about 5 or 6 big ones that are set to take it.
This lack of party unity in the North is not unique to this region as Vanuatu has at least 20 something parties and many independent candidates in this election alone. People often ask me if the US has that many parties. My reply is usually something like, “Yes, and more, but there are just a handful of parties that actually win seats in elections as these are the parties with the sway, unity, and money to make it happen.” Vanuatu parties, few before Independence, split into smaller factions as disagreements arose not long after Vanuatu was free from colonial rule. Many people I talk to seem confused over what one party actually stands for over another. Something not unique to Vanuatu, but party platforms seem murkier here.
Many people in my village and area have been very interested with the upcoming US election as well and love hearing about our political system and voting system. I was just describing the electoral college to a few people yesterday. They all keep referring to Obama as “The US’s next president.” I usually say something like, “Not yet, and McCain will be no easy competitor, but I hope you’re right.” I had to tell many people at many times that Obama and Clinton weren’t in a Presidential race, but one for the Dem. Party ticket, and then describe the primary election system. I’ve got my absentee app. handed in so hopefully that goes through well and I’ll be able to vote in November. Although, it doesn’t look my President vote will mean much as it usually doesn’t being registered in California. I should set up residence in Florida or Ohio.
There is no absentee voting in Vanuatu. If you are out of the country or unavailable to vote at your station you can vote by proxy. You have to send in an application, and then you appoint a friend or family member to vote for you.
But anyway back to the North Efate Parliament seat issue. In the last election in 2004 politicians from the South swept the Efate Rural district with three of them from the village of Ifira (lot of money and power in that village of about 1000 people) and one from the village of Mele (biggest village in Vanuatu at ~2000+ people). If you were to base districting for Efate Rural on population numbers alone for North vs. South, North and nearshore islands would be entitled to at least one of those four seats. Another item that angers some people from the North is lumping some of these villages in the South as rural areas. Most of these big villages in the South: Ifira, Pango, Mele, etc. are attached to the Vila power grid, are right off the sealed road, and not more than 15 minutes drive from the heart of Port Vila. Some might even call these places suburbs. Now compare this with even the closest (to Vila) North and nearshore villages and you’ll find villages that have no grid power, dirt roads, and around a 40 minute drive to Vila. Islands like Emao, Nguna, and Pele take at least 2hrs. to get to Vila via a boat to dirt road drive transfer.
Now, I haven’t gotten too wrapped up in this issue, hearing mostly one side of the argument, and not being a citizen of this nation, but it’s hard not to see the validity in some of Man North’s points. Although, it seems as long as people from the North continue to vote for South candidates and/or dividing their votes among too many North candidates this South dominance in rural affairs and districting is likely to continue. When I ask people if they think a Man North will grab a seat in this election they don’t seem to have hopeful reactions. One of the guys running from the North is a guy that is very interested in sports development on North Efate and helped Javi and me with a little guidance on the N. Efate sports project. I’d vote for him on that issue alone, but I am very biased on this issue.
So in the couple weeks leading up to today there were countless rally campaigns cycling through Nguna and Pele. Basically, a candidate and his team would get driven by boat or truck or both to the village, and embark on about an hour or two of rallying with a megaphone or “hailer” as they’re called here. The whole thing is pretty annoying in my mind as it makes these villages shut down and wait for these people to come (usually way late) and greet them well with salu salus and small ceremonies. I have some vol friends in Vila who were being kept up at night by cars driving by, bellowing out "Vote for so and so..." things over loud speakers.
I really had my nerves tested one day as we, MPA staff and I, were set to hold a workshop in a village on Nguna and were given this day to work with the village months in advance. One of our staff members is the chairman of that village council, yet started a leave of absence from his chairman post a couple weeks ago as he will be running for an Area Counselor position in the SHEFA Province November elections. Before he left he told the guy that he was handing the power over to that this MPA workshop was set to go and to make sure the rally campaigns don’t interfere with it. So what happened? The day we arrived in the village to give the workshop we found out that the village had scheduled three rally campaigns to come. So the village kept saying we were going to start and then another campaign came.
When the campaigns came I refused to listen to them as I pretty pissed. Ronneth, another staff member came up to me as I was reading a book not far outside the rally activity in somewhat a motion of open defiance. He asked why I wasn’t listening to the rally. I told a partial truth, “I’m not voting, and I never watch these things for candidates in the US. Most of them are saying the same noise. Debates and looking at that candidates history and legislation voting record is where its at.” He nodded and then I asked why he wasn’t watching the rally. He shook his head, laughing and muttered, “I’m sick of these campaigns.” One of my favorite viewpoints on the whole rally thing has come from a friend of mine in my village. I saw Alec (a guy in his early thirties) wearing a new shirt that one of the political parties gave him and asked him about it. He said he had gotten the shirt from a recent rally, and I asked him if he supported the party. Alec, “No. When the man gave me this shirt I immediately told him thank you for the shirt but don’t you think that has bought my vote (roughly from Bislama).” Awesome!! I like that kind of straightforwardness.
Back to the MPA workshop: At least we got to work in the second day’s activities, the household survey giving training, to a slot in that evening. The next day we did the first day’s activities yet got a meager turnout for something that was supposed to include most of the village. I hope that least the survey results will be good.
One thing I like about Vanuatu’s campaign policy is the two or three day moratorium on campaigning before the election. It’s been nice for some space between rallies and the election. Today I woke up and went down to the polling station before it opened to snap a few shots before it opened. I also wanted to be there as the core group of people would be arriving in the early morning.
Their actual polling set-up is not that different then our own with a little less technology. Voters are given some tips from the polling officer and posters posted outside. They then show their voting card to an official inside. The card has no photo ID yet has official stamps of verification that this person is a registered voter. The voter than grabs a booklet that has rip-out pieces that feature candidate names and the candidate’s picture (so you can truly vote on a candidate’s looks). Sori long olgeta we pija blong yufala i no gud tumas. The voter does this ripping and putting the four candidates’ slips in an envelope behind a curtain (to the left of the blackboard in the picture). The voter then comes out, gives all the unused slips to the vote official, and the envelope of voted-for candidates goes in the locked wooden box on the table. You’ll see in the outside picture of the school the policeman sitting down on the right. Each polling station supposedly has one to keep order and such. I heard the officials and police vote the day before as many of them are from areas different from the post they are manning. They are also the only people working today as today is a National Holiday.
So one last thing on vote registration. About two months ago I saw an article in the paper put out by the voting board listing about 60 people from Vila that had tried to register as residents of a village in Nguna. Yes, they are originally from that village, but voting is based on residence. So I got to thinking how do they sort this out and what potential is there of stacking Vila residents into the rural elections to push it one way or another. I guess the local area counselor is responsible for looking through the list and saying who lives there and who doesn’t. This can’t be an easy task to sort out as just the Nguna & Pele district has over 1000 people. That means they have to know all of these people and if these people actually live there as there are no mail or tax record-type stuff to back this up. The people I talked to seem to think he or she does know all of this. OK but I’m skeptical, and what if the counselor has a favorite candidate of his in mind?
By the time I actually post this I should know who won the elections. Results usually take a couple days here. I’ll try to update this with some results.

**Update: Man South swept the election again and people aren't surprised. The current talk is who will be the next PM? The old PM is one of about 6 that are rumored to take it.

late. aug. blog

This writing I made on the last day of August. I’m a little out of it today as I caught some 1-day flu yesterday that really kicked my ass. I haven’t gotten sick that often in Vanuatu, but when I have it sucks. You can’t just lay on the couch, watch TV, and eat chicken soup. Nope, it’s not that easy. Although I did watch "Into the Wild" last night on a villager’s TV/DVD set-up. I think it bored them to tears but I enjoyed the film, especially because it took the focus off of the screaming headache I had at the time.
So hmm… what’s been going on lately? In the end of July to early August Liz’s mom and dad were visiting Vanuatu so I got a chance to meet her parents and hang out with Liz for a good period of time in and out of Vila, which was very nice. I had a great time hanging out with her parents as well and seeing some things near and in Vila that I hadn’t seen as I always thought of them as tourist things. It’s kind of like living in an area and not doing some of the things available there until someone comes from out of town and visits and then you tell yourself, “Hey, this is actually pretty cool.” We went to the Vanuatu Cultural Center which I hadn’t been too since I first arrived, and enjoyed a richer experience after now knowing Vanuatu culture quite a bit better. We also went to the Cascade Falls which I always thought was a tourist trap, but saw that the fee was well worth it, and the falls were beautiful.
Liz’s parents and she also came out to my island for a few days, and I enjoyed a small vacation on my own island: paddling kayaks around, drinking good wine, snorkeling, hanging out, and climbing the Nguna volcano. I think I put my last hike to the volcano in an older blog, but if I didn’t check out Javi’s blog (link on right side of page). We went to the top from the better trailhead/ village this time, and the view was great. Virginia, Liz’s mom, snapped a great shot of me pointing to Pele from the top (Sorry I only have the photo copy and not the digital one where I could share it here).

(Nice sunset we saw on Pele)

One of the nights I arranged it so we could have a pig roasted for the 4 of us in my village. Liz’s parents were staying in a bungalow about a 15 minute walk away. The pig feast was delicious and fairly cheap for the immense amount of food that came with it. The food that Kalta, the guy who cooks for the bungalow, was very good too as Liz and I sampled a couple things from her parents’ dinner one night. Kalta worked on an oil tanker barge for about twenty years as a cook for the executive crew members, and it shows. He said he even went through the Panama Canal once. I did his food shopping for him in Vila as I was going in anyway to meet up with the gang before they came out to Pele. When I was going through the grocery list with him before I left he started going through condiments, “Mustard, Oil, … Oh, You don’t need to get mayonnaise.” “Why’s that?” I asked. He grinned and said, “I make my own mayonnaise.” Well alright then, I thought, This guy can cook I guess and takes pride in it.
Anyway, I had a really good time hanging with the Millar gang, and am very thankful for all the pampering of wine, food, lodging, and such that Bill and Virginia provided us with. Stuff like that keeps you going sometimes. I also still have a little gin that was leftover that I have been rationing since they left. Its almost gone though.

(Liz's parents enjoying a shell of kava after the sun has set in Pele)

So its officially parents’ season right now in Vanuatu. Every time I came into Vila over the last couple months I saw at least two groups of volunteers’ parents in town. I set up three groups, including Liz’s parents, to go go to the Bungalows on Pele. Matt, from my group, and his mom came out a few days after the Millars left and I joined him and his mom for one of Kalta’s dinners. I’m going to try to get a poster made to put up in the Peace Corps office highlighting Nguna and Pele, their accomadation, activities, rates, and travel logistics. It’s a great place for visitors to come and get the island/village experience and not have to go too far from Vila. Its also what many visitors to the Pacific are looking for: white sand beaches, beautiful reefs, cool island walks/views, etc. I’m also trying to work with a guy, from Pele, who is the Vanuatu Director of Trade (very high title and sway) to coordinate tourism on the two islands and advertise it as well. We were supposed to meet a week ago, but I couldn’t get a hold of him, and now he is in Switzerland for a few months or more. Hopefully, I can find some time to work on the coordination part, and really have it motion once he gets back. He seems very interested in doing something like this, and actually approached me about doing it. We shall see how it pans out.
There is a lot of potential on the two islands. They just need to come together and work together. Otherwise, outside developers will probably have their way as big money tour operators and real estate firms will dangle cash in front of them. These groups do provide jobs and some benefit to the communities, but nothing like what is possible when locals run the show. And, there’s been a couple cases on the two islands of locals running tourist projects well.
On the work front the new approach to the MPA workshops is going well. I’m really glad to actually start this thing as I have been working on it for a while. I was really impressed with how well the last two villages carried out the household surveys looking at resource use and resource priorities in the village. Basically, the new approach uses a village to village format where we are trying as an end result for each village to draft well thought out conservation management plans. The basic format is this: Villages are visited for two days where the first day we carry out assessment activities looking at village conservation history, resource allocation via zoning, and a problem tree exercise taking the biggest conservation problems/ issues, and deriving the root reasons for these problems. The second day we, MPA staff and I, teach a handful of village volunteers how to carry out the resource household surveys, tell them what houses to visit, how to approach them, and then give them a week to carry out the surveys. We, the MPA, then come back soon after the surveys are finished and present the findings of the assessments, survey and exercises, so that the village starts to get a beginning picture of their conservation priorities. From there the village chooses, based on their priorities, a handful of awareness from the 20 or so the MPA has given in the past, and sets a date for the MPA to come back again and give the awareness.

(We spend a lot of time waiting. Here are pics of staff waiting for over an hour will villages are late to arrive. Island time.)

Once the village has done these steps they then set up the date for a management plan workshop. However, the village must show how they are ready to actually move forward with this so that this workshop is not given and then a long period of time passes before starting the writing of the plan is undertaken, and much of the workshop info. Is forgotten. The management plan workshop will mainly deal with showing the village the different tools of management that are possible (i.e. zoning, seasonal closures, size limits, bag limits, fines, etc.) and then showing them what the steps are to set these things in place as well as who must be a part of all of this.
So far, two villages of the 14 who will receive this program have undergone the assessment phase, and we are about to get the results out to these villages. The results of the surveys involve Microsoft Excel program work so I have to work it at this point. Yet, I will be training staff how to use the program and I have tried to make it as simple as possible. We have four staff members and two of them are already capable to carry out the assessment and survey training activities. The hope is that villages will all be at different stages in the game and activities in the scheme will be going on at different times and at the pace that individual villages are ready for.
We’ve got about 10 more of the assessment workshops to do before the end of November and there should be some awareness going on as well in the middle of all that so we should be pretty busy. Mixed in there too are normal MPA work stuff like school environment awareness, MPA meetings, and reef surveys.
The MPA taxi boat income generator is working well too, although the driver had gotten a stern talking to from the MPA Manager based on some of his habits. The MPA is about to send the manager to a week long conference in Fiji dealing with management of an MPA. One of our staff members, Ronneth, is just coming back from a conference in Australia. Also, Kalpat, the manager, will be going to another management conference in Barcelona, Spain in the end of September. He will also be representing the MPA for a contest we won called the Equator Prize. We were nominated by the previous volunteer last year for this with the premise being how your area or organization alleviates poverty through conservation work. Well, we won the first stage becoming a finalist representing Vanuatu as one of the 25 countries chosen from the pool of 300 equatorial countries possible. Each of these areas or organizations representing there country has won $5000 already, and Kalpat will be giving a speech to around 1,000 delegates as part of a judging to see who wins it all and gets an additional $15,000. We, staff, me, MPA board members, old volunteer, are currently working on ideas for the speech. Even if we lose it’s a great opportunity for the MPA and Kalpat.
All of these conferences, accommodation, and travel have been provided by international organizations that work with the MPA.
In other good MPA news the previous volunteer helped us secure funding for a materials grant to get some much-needed equipment for us including: a new laptop for Kalpat, a printer, a digital light projector, snorkeling gear, and wetsuits. I’m especially excited for the new laptop and printer as Kalpat’s current ones are pretty shaky and my laptop is old and the battery no longer works. I’m also pretty jazzed about the projector which will make some of these workshops more effective, easier, and cheaper (saving money on paper and markers). The wetsuits are pretty huge too as you may not think you need them in the South Pacific, but spending three hours in the water for a reef survey can make you pretty chilly.
So that’s what’s going on with the MPA stuff. On to the sports project. Two weeks ago was the official launching of NEPSSA, the North Efate sports org. that Javi and I helped create, and a great three-day tournament that followed. It was the first time in North Efate history where so many primary schools came together for one tournament for multiple sports. Javi and I sat in on meetings for the planning of the thing giving small pieces of advice and helped with logistics such as trying to find sponsors, correspondence, and other random things. We also got them to put a exposition game for each one of the sports we are trying to promote (Ultimate Frisbee, Baseball, and Beach Volleyball),one on every day.

(Parade that led off the NEPSSA launching and games)

The tournament went along pretty smoothly, and it was nice that the NEPSSA teachers and other school teachers ran the show so Javi and I didn’t have to worry about that. There were some things we saw that could have been handled better and hope to give some insight into that during future NEPSSA meetings. The events were athletics (track events, mostly short sprints with about a mile race and a relay), volleyball, soccer, futsal (a soccer game but the field is much smaller, and boardball (this one hard to explain, kinda like basketball but no dribbling and no actual baskets, sort of ridiculous).

(Javi presenting a medal duiring awards ceremony (top) and another pic of award ceremony)

The soccer for the year 5&6 and 7&8 divisions was especially fun to watch as there were some good teams. Soccer, in Vanuatu, as in most countries, is by far the most popular sport, and it is reflected in both the interest shown and skill level of players. The sprint events were pretty cool too as the year 5&6 and 7&8 ran for 80m and 100m respectively.

(Year 7&8 Boys Sprint (top) and 7&8 Girls Sprint (bottom))

There were some pretty fast kids too. My nephew, Davis, won all of his heats and the final race for the year 5&6 gold medal. All Man-Pele were very proud as Pele’s school, Tangovauwia, is substantially smaller than most of the other bigger schools, and pulls talent from a much smaller pool than some of the bigger schools that were raking in the medals for the team sports. I, too, was very proud of him as I’d seen him training not long after I started my training for the relay, and I know that the win meant a lot to him.

(Davis running, getting medal, and pele kids showing it off)

During the tournement soccer was just boys and the volleyball just girls. Breaking out of this pattern will very difficult. Although, I have seen some girls soccer games at celebrations before. Unfortunately though, the crowd doesn’t take it too seriously. The best way to get the boys playing volleyball is through beach volleyball, and there are a couple of mens teams in Vanuatu. Both baseball and Ultimate Frisbee are going to be both sexes playing together and that’s what the crowd saw during the exhibitions.
The Ultimate exhibition went really well although I thought the Ekipe team was going to kill the Manua team as they got started with something like a 6-0 lead. The score evened out a little later and Ekipe ended up winning. Javi refed the game and I had Joe the headmaster at Ekipe school do a little commentary on the mic while the game was going so the crowd knew what was going on.

(Ekipe player, Godwin, about to huck Frisbee to teamate)

The baseball game was originally supposed to be the rubber match of the Ekipe vs. Vila games but that will be delayed until the 6th of September. Instead two Ekipe teams squared off. There was some talk before the game amongst Ekipe players that this game didn’t mean anything and Javi got wind of it and called the teams together. He explained the importance of this game and how we’re showcasing the sport. His talk was followed by an Ekipe church elder telling them they better shape up and play well.
So before the game I gave an intro. over the mic. to the crowd including some basic rules of baseball and the layout of the field. Javi pitched to both teams for the first few innings and for the fourth and last inning had a couple kids pitch. Jeremiah, our new recruit to the baseball/ sports project umpired the game. He umped for years back in the US and I was glad to just watch the game this time. I was on the mic. throughout the game explaining what was going on and turning their attention to big plays and scores. In the last inning I told the crowd I was going to switch to English and give them a play-by-play. This was really fun and incited some laughter from the crowd when I threw a little color commentary in there as well.
The people I asked said they really enjoyed both new sports and asked more questions about them. Thank you to any possible blog readers like Hannah, Ruth, and others who have been contributing immensely on the home front end of this project. And it is with your help that the tourney crowd got to see baseball with gloves, real balls, and bats. We tried to get them to wear the helmets too, but they were a little too new and foreign for the kids to take them in at this stage.
So coming back a little bit Jeremiah, our new partner on the project, came from the new group that swore in at the end of June. One of the goals of the sports project is to continually find interested volunteers from new groups so that the project will continue well into the future. In fact, Javi and I gave a sports development section to this last group while they were in training to show how you can work with sports development and find interested members to join our project. Hopefully they will slot us in for the next two groups during their training so we can try to get as many people involved as possible before we’re out in May.
Another big boom for the project has been Javi’s recent move to Vila. He and Krissy knew they were going to serve their second year in Vila from the get-go and recently said a sad goodbye to Ekipe Village. Now that Javi is in Vila he has a lot more access to working with government and school sports organizations as well as coordinating international efforts. This has been difficult for us in the past as Javi and I would get into Vila about once every three weeks and almost always with a laundry list of stuff to do for our primary projects and other stuff. Jeremiah’s post is also in Vila which is very helpful for the project and for him and Javi to work together.
But, back to the exhibition stuff. We wrote to the Vanuatu Beach Volleyball Assoc. to ask if they wanted to do an exhibition game or two for the tournament as a “What the hell, let’s ask them even if they probably don’t have time.” thing and they surprised us with agreeing to come out. The original tournament was supposed be held in the village of Paunganisiu where an area of sand for playing ball on was just a few minutes walk from the playing fields. Well, a death happened in the village and Paunganisiu canceled so the tournament was moved to Manua School, about a 15 minute walk down the road. The problem was that Manua school lacked a sandy area so that the volleyball demo was set to be held in Paunganisiu yet. Sigal, the chairman of NEPSSA and main man of the tourney told Javi and me where the spot was and that some guys would help us dig it up soon.
Well…Javi and I soon decided these volunteer digging guys were not going to come as the guys Sigal was thinking of were busy watching sports events, as they should be. We grabbed a couple shovels and headed down the road. We started digging up the hard-pack dirt for the area and had only made progress on a strip of the court when a couple guys from the village helped and offered their services. Even with their help, we only dug up two thirds of the court over a period of a couple of hours. Exhausted and blistered we retired to the village nakamal where Javi and I each bought a round of beers for ourselves and our selfless volunteers. The next morning Jeremiah arrived, and the three of us set out to finish the job as the volleyball guys would be coming soon. We finished digging up the ground and garden raked it to get it level. I think we did a hell of a job. As we were walking down the road to go back to the tourney the volleyball guys showed up with a full bus.
I decided to stay behind and help them set up and I also wanted to watch a little play if I could, and maybe play myself.
As we were setting up the court, the director of their program told me that one of the women that won gold in last month’s Oceania tournament was there and pointed her out. I congratulated her and felt good that they thought enough to send one of their best players to the expo. There were a few guys and few girls including the gold medalist that came and they started warming up playing Three’s and I was hoping they would ask me to join in. After a while one team grabbed another player and then they invited me in. I had a blast playing a few games with the group. I hadn’t played good volleyball in a long time, and it was pretty awesome to get good sets, and be able to go for big blocks. I had a really good stuff on one of the guys in one game. I was also seeing a good level of play complete with good passing, great digs, and some impressive kills here and there. Afterward I thanked them for the good play and set off the tourney to wrangle up some lunch.
The basic schedule of the tourney included breaks in all play so that the expo games could take place. This went great the first two days, and drew a big crowd (at least 600 or so people) to both the baseball and Ultimate expos. However, on the third day they made the decision to keep play rolling while the volleyball expo went ahead due to time constraints. A bad decision, I think, as the court was already at least a 15 minute walk away and many kids that weren’t actually playing in the games were required to cheer for their schools. At least Javi and I got another transport truck full of interested kids and parents to join the one that drove down to the court. I am also thankful that a handful of teachers came as well as they were really our target audience for the expos (more on that later).
The expo went well with both women and men playing a Two’s match. You could see the women’s match had better passing and better fundamentals and some of the women in the crowd were pretty impressed. In fact, a woman from my island is very interested in it now as a result of seeing them play. The men’s game was good too, showing the men and boys there that men too play volleyball in Vanuatu and play hard. I think a couple of the male players liked the Boom! of the game too much though as they hit into the net too much on spikes and jump serves. You gotta get up to hit down!

(Instruction by one of the volleyball guys (top). Women playing (bottom))

The director of Vanuatu Beach Volleyball then invited the kids to play in a drill called “King of the Court,” which was a big hit. He then presented NEPSSA with a volleyball net and a bunch of balls. He also said that next year they will invite a couple of North Efate kids to go to a beach volleyball tournament with their organization in New Caledonia. Good stuff!

(William, Volleyball director, posing with the kids, teachers, and players)
After the volleyball demo I want back to the tourney to watch a couple really good soccer finals and an impressive volleyball final for the year 7&8 girls. A couple of those girls were really spanking the ball. In the soccer games I saw bicycle kicks, great bending corners, and impressive jukes and ball handling. FIFA has just announced that Vanuatu has won the seat for the Pacific for an extensive national soccer development program that I think is supposed to go on for around twenty years from the time they start. Pretty cool huh? I would love to see a Vanuatu World Cup team in my lifetime.
After the games they started giving out the final medals. A few games were set to go into the next day as it got dark before they could get them in. They decided to give out the medals for the decided events and close the games that night with the few games still set to go the next day. I had to leave after a few medal presentations as the Pele boat carrying those that weren’t staying overnight was leaving for the night, and I had an MPA workshop the next day on Nguna.
One of the big outcomes Javi and I hope come from the tourney is that a bunch of teachers will sign up for our coaching/ first aid workshop either in Oct. or Nov. Yesterday I was working on the Bislama rules for beach volleyball before the flu took a hold of me and shut me down. I already churned out the Bislama baseball rules, but am going to revise it to include some coaching stuff and drills. We’ll make the coaching/ drills as part of the beach volleyball and Ultimate rules as well. If we can get teachers refing and coaching these sports it would mean big things for the project.
One of the things that Javi and I are going to suggest at some of the upcoming NEPSSA meetings is the formation of divisions and sports seasons. The tournament was great, but long and taxing on especially the parents that stayed at the school looking after, and cooking for the kids. We’re thinking of suggesting sports seasons so that kids can concentrate more on some sports during set times of the year like US schools. This would also create smaller tournaments as a result of fewer sports taking place at one time. We think this will be especially needed when year 7&8 teachers introduce the three new sports in the coming year, something NEPSSA has already pledged to do. The divisions too would be nice so that there can be a divisional tournament or playoff before the North Efate playoff. This would decrease the cost of transport quite a bit, and heighten the meaningfulness of the North Efate tourney. We are also hoping that we can work with South Efate’s equivalent of NEPSSA to have a winner’s tournament for all of Efate and possibly a couple North Efate vs. South Efate All-Star matches.
Javi and I both had a laugh a week ago as we agreed that both our secondary projects, the sports thing, is moving a lot faster than our primary projects. It would be great for someone to have this as their primary project in the future, but Peace Corps says there’s no organization able to fund the housing for such a volunteer. I tend to think there’s ways we could work it. We just need to find that way and go for it.
So that’s more or less what’s been going on in the work scene which pretty much is the life scene in Peace Corps as their aren’t real clear cut borders between life and work here.
I’m liking what I see in the Cubs this year as they make the push for the playoffs and beyond. I had to tell my girlfriend the other day that a visit out to her area in mid to late October is something I won’t be able to do because if they do make it I have to be able to come to Vila and watch it. I think I followed up with something like, “I know that sounds horrible but this could be big and the Cubs are more than baseball to me.” She was very understanding, thankfully.
I think instead I’m going to try and visit in early Oct. because there also happens to be a big group getting together on nearby Maewo, deemed Vanuatu’s most beautiful island, complete with awesome waterfalls all over the place. That way I should only miss the division series which I’ve never liked near as much as the league championship series and World Series. Who are my picks? Tampa Bay vs. Chicago, although I would love to see the White Sox take the pennant and have an El series.
I’m also pretty excited about my New Zealand ticket I just bought a few weeks ago as Liz and I are headed to NZ for about three weeks in January. Buying the ticket was good for me as I’m now in you-have-to-save mode for the trip. I’ve been paging through a New Zealand travel book and am thinking I want to spend most of my time on the South island. I called Liz the other day who said she’s been checking out a Lonely Planet guide and said she’s determined to see, “Penguins and wine.” Cool, two things on my list along with glacier, Fiordland, kayak, and albatross. I am pretty excited to get out of Vanuatu for a bit, and especially in a time where it’s hot as hell and there is absolutely nothing going on. January last year was the only time in Vanuatu that I felt I was cracking up and killed a multitude of books in the monotony that was taem blong spel.
I’m finding that I have less and less free time as my service goes along which is good because I’m busy, but it also means I’ve had less time to just sit down like today and write a blog or write a letter. I was in and out of Vila so much in late July/ early Aug. that I’ve been enjoying being back home on Pele. I’m really going to try to limit Vila trips as much as possible in the coming months (with the exception of the Series), mainly to save cash, but also I’m realizing my service is winding down, and flying by.
This week I attacked my garden again that fell victim to a tropical storm, too much sunlight, and neglect last year. The only plants that made were the basil and green peppers. Most got taken out before they started with the storm. I’ve still got plenty of seeds though, and the motivation to get it going again. So now I’m planting before the big storms have a chance, and I built a shelter from leftover food stall wood from the July 30th celebration in order to limit the intense sunlight that the garden gets. I’m also forming a loose garden care partnership with my host family so that when I’m gone doing MPA and sports stuff they’ll help take care of it in return for nursery plantings and vegetables later on. Hope that should combat some of the neglect part.
Well that’s about all for now. Its getting dark and hard to see the keyboard.

Aug. Blog

Its about right smack dab in the middle of August as I’m writing this and I think its at least been a month since the last entry. I think the last thing I blogged about was the trip to Ambae. After Ambae it was lull time with work as the country kind of slows down in the coming weeks before Independence Day on the 30th of July.
I had a school awareness and a couple meetings and was relieved when the Oceanswatch group came to do their scuba training on Nguna and Pele. Otherwise it probably would have been a week of pure nothingness. They came out and trained a guy from Nguna and a couple guys from Efate and another nearby island, Lelepa, to scuba dive. It was good to talk to this group too to find out how our MPA and their org. can help each other in the future. Basically, they are a non-profit org. that consists of yachties interested in marine conservation. They are a relatively new organization and their trip to Vanuatu and following trip to Papua New Guinea serves as their first run in on-the-ground work in developing nations.
They sailed here from Australia, and visited multiple islands in the North while Katie Thomson, the Vanuatu National Reef Check Coordinator and Peace Corps Vol, joined them. There they did some conservation work and trained some villages on how to do Reef Check. Once they finished their work in Malakula they switched crews (first crew flying out of the country and new ones flying in) and headed to Vila. A week later they came ashore on Pele to start the training. We were supposed to train two more guys from Nguna and Pele respectively, but both backed out last minute. This, the MPA and I were not too happy about as this was a great chance for them to get trained in a skill that could benefit the community and the training, free for them, is usually fairly expensive and thus prohibitive for most Ni-Vanuatu. Furthermore, them flaking last minute denied someone else from their islands from this chance.
The training went well and Ronneth, the guy from Nguna was certified and even started working on the Advanced Diver certificate. I was running around a bit getting logistics worked out, and was a little bummed as I could not dive due to an ear condition I’ve had for the last couple of months. Basically, I have what is called barotrauma which sounds worse than it is, but just means pressure messing up my ears a bit. On a dive a couple months ago I thought I cleared the pressure in my ears, but upon surfacing found out this what not the case. Day to day there is nothing wrong with me it just means I can’t dive for a couple months. A good old waiting game that hopefully should be finished this month or next. But, it meant I couldn’t dive on the reefs in my backyard, something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Oh well…
At least I had running as a means to distract me from not being able to even skin dive.
I got back into training mode and was running every morning again for the last couple of weeks before the upcoming Independence Round Island Relay race. We had formed a Peace Corps team of 5 men and 5 women (a person for each of the ten legs of the race). I had been running regularly for the few weeks before Ambae, but didn’t run for about 2 and a half weeks while on Ambae. I was getting exercise with the 42 km hikes and such but that probably was negated with the drinking, and breaking my kava stop I had going on for a few weeks prior. So after Ambae I stopped the kava again. About a week before the race I went for a 15km run on hilly terrain and was doing sub-7 minute mile splits. I was glad I did it as before that my confidence was low in completing my 11.6km leg in good fashion.
Following the Oceanswatch visit/ training I came into Vila for the Relay set on the 26th. We had a meeting the day before and were all set to go with Peace Corps truck support and all. James Bong, a Peace Corps staff, member was to drive the truck and said he’d pick me up at about 4:30 in the morning at Dom’s house. The next morning I woke up to my phone going off at about 4. It was James saying he was waiting out front. I told him to wait a sec as I had to at least brush my teeth and throw in my contacts before I rushed out the door. I was greeted by a lively James who had woken up at about 3 and had the coolers and mattress already in the truck (for comfort he said) and had affixed a large Peace Corps flag to the rear of the truck cab. Wow! I told him, Man, yu taf tumas. Yu yes! Basically, “You’re Awesome!”
We went and grabbed the rest of the racers at the Peace Corps office and set out for the start at the Post Office. Jasmine, our first team member to run, started at about 5 in the morning for her 13km leg. The faster teams started at 6. Basically they didn’t want too many teams finishing after dark so some started at 5. It was still dark as Jasmine was starting the race and we even saw one of the other racers wearing a headlamp as she ran. In order to support our runners we would drive ahead in the truck and cheer our runners on at about every km or so, and also doled out water to our teammates. Our team support during Jasmine’s leg was a little slack as we were all half-awake. Jasmine’s section ended with a grueling uphill that lasted for about a mile.
A few km before the end of each leg we would drive to the exchange area so the next runner, me in this case, could warm up. As I was stretching a huge downpour started soaking me head to toe so that I decided to ditch my t-shirt, and run “naked” as Ni-Vans later called it. About a minute before I was to start I realized my soccer shorts were on backwards (back facing front). I guess that happens when you dress yourself unexpectedly at 4 in the morning. Anyway, I dipped out of the crowd a bit to change my shorts around and gave a couple mamas a good hoot as I put my shorts right.
I started my race in the pouring rain and it continued to rain for about a quarter of my race. I don’t mind running or playing sports in the rain, in fact, in some cases I like it more. Makes you feel tougher. Although, I was a little concerned as far as footing went as now the dirt road was wet, muddy in some areas, and I was running the “hill section” of the relay. I’d have to say I felt pretty good about my race. I averaged about 6:40 mile splits on some pretty damn tough hills, the likes of which I had never raced on before. One hill, about a 3km killer, damn near had me hyperventilating as I peaked it, and almost choked on the water I took from a teammate soon after.
The down hills are what really killed me as some were so steep it was hard to control my speed going down them, and they were wet. I made it down all of them without eating it or sliding, but there were some parts I was a little scared of. I rounded one corner towards the end and saw my exchange point which I though was at least a km or two away and put the kick on, but thinking to myself that I wished I would have known I could do it earlier as I saved enough energy for a little more, damn. I handed off to Liz and she started her leg, a fairly flat 14km section. Although, there was a good hill or two and one killer known as Sweat Hill, for obvious reasons. There is no shade on this hill and it’s pretty steep.

(Me running "naked")

As I got back in the truck Jasmine was very happy to have another finished runner in the truck because when she got in she was energized (runner’s high) and was disappointed with her perceived lack of enthusiasm she saw in the rest of the team (who had not run yet). I’d have to say I felt a lot better and relaxed after I ran and was glad that I did one of the first sections.
Liz was going about a pretty good clip during her race and tackled the Sweat Hill. Near the end of her leg the 6AM starting speedsters caught her, and I felt for her. I would have been pretty demoralized if a group of runners sped past me out of nowhere. There were about 5 teams in the hunt for the win with one team well out in front. These guys were pretty impressive. They had professional race jerseys and everything yet preferred to run barefoot. I asked the coach of the lead team why they ran barefoot if obviously they’re not hurting for sponsorship cash. His answer, “They don’t want to get blisters on the tops of their feet from their shoes rubbing.” Ni-Vanuatu have some of the best foot calluses known to man, built up over a lifetime of wearing no shoes or worn out flip-flops, just not on the tops of their feet.
Liz’s mom was in the truck with us all well as she was visiting from the US, and did a great job of cheering us on and taking pictures. It was also not a short time to be riding in the back of a pick-up, about 9 hours. The slow groups had a staggered start so that no matter what the 6th leg runner started his leg at 10:00 in the morning. Our second half of the group had another Peace Corps truck and got to sleep in a little more, but also were running in the hottest part of the day. I didn’t realize it until Jasmine pointed it out in the morning too that our first 6 runners were all couples. Jasmine & Troy, Javi & Krissy, and Liz and myself. Altogether there were 10 racers: 5 men and 5 women for our mixed team and the last four runners in order were: Jeremiah, Gwen, Nealy, and Ben.

(Liz getting some water during her leg)

(Me, Jasmine, and race official looking on as Liz whips off soggy shoes after race)

As Liz was finishing we had one more group we hadn’t passed that was catchable, Team Tequila, and then we saw Team Tequila’s next runner, a short, fairly large runner. We then told Troy that if he didn’t catch them he was walking home. Liz finished up her leg and handed off to Troy who started off running with an mp3 player with classic rock tracks we thought were a little mellow for racing, but to each their own. He ditched the mp3 player eventually and caught and passed Team Tequila (lucky for him) and passed another team as well.

(Troy finishing and Krissy starting)


Krissy, living near the start of her race so as not needing to be in truck, was there too meet us at Troy’s finish. She ran a good leg too as her dog, Oreo, trailed behind. For both Krissy and Troy’s sections the sun was pretty intense and Troy looked a little overheated after he finished. After our group finished our legs we watched Jeremiah and Gwen run for a bit, and decided to call it a day as we were all very tired and the second-half runners had their own cheering section. After cleaning up a bit, we retired to a Vila bar for some cold beers, and ran out of the bar at one point to cheer on Ben running towards the finish.

(Meeting of the minds after Krissy's leg)


All in all the race was a lot of fun and I’d like to do it again next year, but my contract ends in late May. Although, I have been thinking about extending for a couple months if I could get a job doing bird tech work in NZ during their spring (Sept.-Nov.). Our team finished 4th out of 8 in the Mixed Team division. A couple days before the race a guy in my village said he saw that we were in the White Man Division. No, this was not a joke, he actually believed there to be such a division and that we were in it. And, having lived here long enough and seen some of the things that go on I half believed him. Outside of our actual division we placed around 18th out of the total 30 teams. Not bad, and most of us did better than we, as individuals, thought we would do.

[Peace Corps Truck with Runners, Linda (PC staff), and Liz's mom (cheering behind truck)]

Written late August:

One thing I forgot to talk about in the last blog entry was the 30th of July Celebration in my village. Every year the location of the celebration changes venue on Pele. Last year it was in the village of Launamoa, and I didn’t attend as I joined friends for the Nguna celebration in Utanlangi Village. So this year seeing as the celebration was in my village and I missed Pele’s last year, I decided to attend. I was shooting back and forth from Vila at this time as I had some work to do and was visiting Liz and her mom. I came back the day before the actual 30th celebration and hung out with a bunch of Man Pele and Man Nguna from villages close to Pele.
The celebration had already been going on for a couple days prior, but not a whole lot was missed. Basically during the day there’s loud music (repeated or beaten to death Pacific R&B songs) and some sports matches in soccer and volleyball. Set up throughout the area are multiple stalls that sell food, baked goods, and kava at night. At night there’s kava and music and more storion. Many 30th of July celebrations include alcohol as well, but I found out when arrived on the 29th that the chief, my papa, had put a block on alcohol for the celebration in order to maintain order. Understandable, but I was looking to drink a bit. This is a celebration after all, and kava you can have everyday in the village. Not to mention that kava isn’t really a catalyst for fun and dancing and such.
So on the 29th I drank some kava at night and ate at the stalls, disturbed a bit by the loud music and bright lights, neither of which you like on kava. I’d have to say though for such a small island they did a bang-up job for the celebration. They actually cleared the football field entirely. Hooray, sports can happen on Pele! They also got a friend from Vila, an electrician, to rig up high powered lights around the field for night time. It was bright enough for nighttime sports play had not all the available players retired to the nakamal at sundown for a few coconut shells of earthy sedative. They also rigged up some big speakers to bump tunes and make announcements.
On the 30th I woke up thinking that I wasn’t too wild about doing the same thing again that night for Independence Day. If there was someone drinking something other than kava I was going to find them. During the day they had the official flag raising ceremony which is held at all Independence celebrations throughout the country on this day. At every ceremony there’s at least speeches, long prayers, and well, flag raising of course.
At ours the celebration began with members of the Vanuatu equivalent of Boy and Girl Scouts (called Seventh Day Adventist Scouts as the SDA is the only church that has a scout program) marching, drumming, and leading a group of invited guests, including myself, into the celebration area and to our seats.

(Scouts marching into event area and my papa getting his salu salu)

We, invited guests, were then invited to come and receive our salu salus (leis), and were given a speech from my papa and a prominent member of the community, former politician, and my neighbor, Mr. Tom Kalorip. My papa’s speech was fairly normal for such an occasion, but Tom’s speech was really good. He started out by highlighting the achievements the community had made over the last year: taking ownership of a day tour project, improvements in the management of the school, etc. He also thanked me personally for the developments I was helping the communities on Nguna and Pele achieve. I was caught off guard as I had never been thanked publicly for the work I’ve done with the exception of the formality of thanking facilitators at the end of workshops and such. This was different: this was out of the blue and in front of my whole island, some of Nguna, and a few prominent figures from Vila. Furthermore this type of thing doesn’t really happen to volunteers here as far as I know. It meant a lot to me.
Tom’s second half of his speech focused on what is going wrong with the community or what needs to be improved: the lack of community cohesiveness, laziness, disrespect for authority figures, disparity between talk of development and action towards it. These are all things people realize, but sometimes people are afraid to call it out especially in detail as Tom did that day. People like him are good to have around to tell it like it is. I’ve actually storied with him a couple times about things that I see as problems because I know if there is anyone to light a fire under people’s asses, it’s him.
As he was concluding his speech he then said he would quote Abraham Lincoln, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Huh? Then I heard the loud voice of a well educated Man Pele (who resides in Vila) say in English, “Oh that’s the biggest lie, That’s JFK that said that!” I turned around to him and said “Shh (smiling), I know. Don’t spoil him. We’ll tell him later.”
Later on in the day I thanked him for the good compliment he gave me, and told him I really liked the speech. “One thing though, JFK, said that quote. Great quote though.” He seemed a little embarrassed but I explained to him that it was a honest mistake and I knew that he knew that. Mainly I told him so that he might not misuse it in another bigger forum with not such a complacent crowd.
After the speeches they raised the flag to the Vanuatu National Anthem and said a long prayer. The scouts then put on a marching display that I was pretty impressed with: things like half steps and they were pretty coordinated throughout the show. The scout leader did do some interesting hand movements as he marched akin to speedwalkers in the Olympics. But, maybe that’s how they do it here. Every country has their own style. Hey, look no further than North Korea: that high kick marching has to take some energy out of you!

(Scouts marching away)

Later in the afternoon I ventured to the corner of the village to find the two people breaking the drinking ban were my two brothers who live in Vila (one of whom I was the groomsman for his wedding last year). Figures right, the only breakers of the tabu are the chief’s sons themselves. Some things in this world are universal! I had planned to leave the next day, but got wind that my brothers had hired a taxi to take them back to Vila that night. Well, I was excited at the thought of not drinking kava in no-good conditions again and jumped in the boat and then taxi to Vila with them. Before we departed for Vila, on Efate now, we went the opposite direction a ways to get a couple beers, and they wanted a couple shells. Its legal or accepted to drink as a passenger in a vehicle here. So we grabbed the beers, headed down the road aways, and they wanted to stop in Emua, my training host village, for another shell. I was already into my second and last beer and decided I’d go into the village and see if I could conjure up another beer or two for the long road to Vila. So I went into the village to be greeted by the whole village in their celebration and asked a few people if they had any beer as I was about hit the road. No, they blocked it there too. Well, I had to go to get back to the taxi. I yelled out a “Happy Independence yufala!” to the village and was returned with a “Happy Independence Seth!” loud and in unison from at least 200 people. It was awesome and I was out. I met my brothers outside the taxi to them smiling at me. “What?” I asked. Noel explained, “No, we were just saying that God sent you down to be our brother.” “Why’s that?” I asked in a manner of where is this going? He and Rex (my other brother) laughed and said, “Because you make rubbish fashion just like we do.” Basically, I like to party as they do. We had a good laugh and jumped in the taxi. Later I met up with some Peace Corps friends for a continuation of the festivities.