Seth in Vanuatu

Last Blog?

2009-07-25T15:46:00.004+11:00

(Pig roasting for my las kakae ceremony)

(Me and Alec with small Noel and Johnny during my las kakae ceremony)

Ok, so I realize it’s been a while since the last time I wrote a blog. I apologize for that, but I have been pretty busy of late with all the ending of service stuff here, and during my free time on the island I was unable to type. My computer’s keyboard bit the dust a couple months ago, a really common ailment in Vanuatu. But, anyway, here I am writing what may be my last blog entry in Vanuatu. As of yesterday, I am officially not a Peace Corps Volunteer anymore. Kinda crazy. I had a good exit interview with our country director and that was it, finis nao (done).
But, to rewind a bit it’s been a great last couple of months for me out here. Time flew by as I slowly wound down my service. In late May, Hannah, my older sister came out to visit, my first and only visitor from the US. She more than made up for the rest of you slouches that didn’t make it. We had a great time just catching up and I was very excited to show her what my life is like out here. I try to do my best to give you guys a window into what life is like here, but you never can really know until you see it. Especially, in a place like Vanuatu where, even after living here for over two years, some things still seem to weird or crazy to be true. Example you ask? Sure, about a week ago a guy in the city of Luganville (Santo Island) was killed by another guy who is a native of Paama Island, but his large extended family (over 60 families) has resided in Luganville for some time. Well, this guy that got killed was axed in the back of the head over some dispute, and his brain popped out the backside. Gruesome, yes, and not the normal way people kill one another. But the strange part of the story is what followed. During the week following the event all of the man-Paama extended family got together in near-riot form and demanded that the three men involved in the homicide be released from the jail.
OK, so this is “only in Vanuatu” part: A few houses were burned down in further events that spurred the intervention of the local Santo chiefs and these chiefs ultimately decided that all of this Paama extended family (all 60 or so of them) have been causing too much trouble in Luganville over the years, and now they need to leave and go back to Paama. They revised the decision to say that only the unemployed members of this family had to now leave. No court decision, just, “You guys are out now.” So maybe this hasn’t set in for you as the reader yet so I’ll try to make an analogy.
So, a large extended family from say rural Kansas moves to Chicago staring in 1990. They set up their roots, babies are born there, and these babies become young men and women that only know the city life. You get the picture. Then, one day a member of this Kansas family kills a man from Chicago as part of a larger tense issue where native Chicagoans and these Kansans have been having some clashes. The mayor of Chicago and the Chicago aldermen (district leaders) then come together and kick out all the Kansans than are currently unemployed. No due process of law. You out!
Well, you may read this and think No fair!, but that is how things work here, and the truth is that the analogy I gave only gets you so far because things are just so different in Vanuatu. Land tenure in Vanuatu is mostly held by the local chiefs of the area in question, and in this case, even though Luganville is a municipality, it is still housed on ground leased from indigenous people from Santo. As such, these chiefs from Santo have the right and the support of the national government to remove these people that they deem to be troublemakers. And, furthermore this decision seems to be almost unanimously agreed upon (based on all the ni-Vanuatu I’ve talked to about this issue, including a guy from Paama). So there you have it, even though I’ve been here for a couple years and learned a lot about Vanuatu culture, I can still be very shocked by events like this. Stuff like this just doesn’t happen in the US or in other words just aren’t part of my culture. I still remember a short talk our former country director told us one time where he more or less outlined the way you view your knowledge of a foreign culture throughout the time you are living in that foreign culture. Basically it’s this: After about a year or so you think you know everything about these people that you have been living with. You know their language, you know how to get around, get things done, etc. Then, somewhere down the road someone from this foreign culture does something that you cannot explain; you have NO idea the basis for their actions. It hits you! You may have learned a lot about this foreign culture that you have been integrating into, but there is SO much you do not know and will never know. Because, quite simply, it’s not your culture. In essence, the longer you stay in a place with a culture foreign to your own, the more you realize how little there is you actually do know.
Now, you may be thinking, Seth, you sound pretty jaded and defeated there. It may seem that way, but I’m feeling pretty good about my last two years of service. Yes, there’s much I do not know about Vanuatu, but I’m fine with that, and I actually enjoy that. You guys probably wouldn’t want to read my blog if I was just going through my life events in the US. I don’t consider myself a boring person, but let’s face it; you guys know American culture. Reading about events happening in the US would be, well it would be… The News, and there are much better and qualified people to distribute that information to you.
I really enjoyed taking pieces of my last two years of life and throwing it out there with things like “A rat ate my brother’s shorts while he was wearing them. Bam! whaddya think of that one?” It’s pretty cool, and I will really miss this place and all the cool stories that surround it.
As you can imagine the last few months have been a pretty reflective time for me. You start to ask yourself: what did I accomplish? What has been great? What has been really bad? Am I glad I did this thing? And, I have to say there have definitely been some rough patches or hard times in my service. Work stuff: meetings and workshops got cancelled all over the place, feelings that the project may be doomed no matter how much effort you put into it, failed projects, impossible to work with colleagues, and so on. Then there is the personal challenges that can drive you almost nuts: loneliness, homesickness, gut parasites, oppressive weather, boredom, etc.
But, all that being said on the negative end, there have been so many great things here. I can very definitely say going into the Peace Corps was worth it and I’m so glad I did it. I was taken in by a family and a village, I learned so much about life in a developing country and I also learned a lot about what it is really important in life. During all of this I got some great experience working in international development and conservation. And, the best part is that I had a good deal of fun in the process.
Speaking of fun I guess I should go back a step and give a quick wrap a good last month or so out at sight seeing as I haven’t done so yet. During June and early July I was able to wrap up my projects pretty well. Regarding the MPA project, I have been slowly handing over things to the MPA staff and committee over my last two years. They are going to have a little rough road ahead without a volunteer, but I sincerely think they know what they need to do and will be able to persevere. I had a really good last meeting and closing ceremony with the MPA committee where I gave a speech about how there now lay a rough road ahead for them, but that I believe they have the skills to get it done. They, the MPA, may still try to get a business volunteer out there in Nguna or Pele to work with local business owners and local tour operators. But, the MPA realizes that such a volunteer would only work with them in small amounts, kind of an as-needed basis. I like the idea as I feel a little support here and there won’t compromise the organization’s road to self-ownership of the project.
Well anyway, I had some really good talks with some of the main guys I worked with over the last two years, including Kalpat, the manager the project. On one of my last days working with the MPA I handed over to Kalpat all the files and materials we had worked on. This moment was the actual “I’m done” time for me as I felt like, “Ok, here’s everything we worked on. The project’s entirely in your guys’ hands now.” It went very smoothly. I feel pretty fortunate to have had that closure on the project as a good amount of volunteers do not get to experience that. Sometimes a lot of things are left hanging due to circumstances outside your control.
The sports project has also been closing up well. There is a lot to be done yet and a good deal that the teachers running the project have to work on, but they’re doing it. Javi and I would like to have a volunteer working with the sports project, but it doesn’t really seem that will happen any time soon. Peace Corps, unfortunately, does not have sports development as one of its bigger objectives at present, and as such won’t place a volunteer solely for that purpose. Though, Jeremiah will still be trying to recruit volunteers to take the project on as a secondary project.
In any case, six youth teams are playing good baseball with kids pitching, batting, and fielding exceptionally. We just had our first baseball playoff that involved six teams, and there is a good deal of interest for the sport coming from both kids playing and adults supporting the game. The kids who are too young to play are itching to start, and now have the advantage of watching their older brothers and sisters play a game that was totally foreign to Vanuatu about two years ago.
Girls are playing along side boys in the first co-ed youth sport in Vanuatu, and these boys are realizing just how good these girls are. In the last tournament one girl from the newly-formed Manua team took the mound and was fooling some members of the 2 year-old Ekipe team with change-ups when she had never been coached on using such a technique. Bottom line: these kids are good and we may see a strong Vanuatu Little League team in the coming decade.
But, even more important than the baseball stuff has been just working with the North Efate teachers on sports development and the organization of sports events. These teachers have come along way and their support both among fellow teachers and parents in the community is growing. There’s still a good deal of kinks in the system, but they are slowly working them out.
So the transition from doing my thing to finishing my service with the MPA and sports project went well. During June and July and while things were coming to a close I also set aside a good deal of time too to just storion and spend some quality time with my village and host family. I ate with a lot of different families in the village, played with the kids, drank kava with the guys, laughed with the mamas, and just tried to take it all in. There were times when it was sad and times when I would just look these people and know that I love them and they really love me.
The last day before I left the village I had my last kakae or leaving ceremony with my village. Before it started I was once again treated to a beautiful South Pacific sunset at the end of a perfect day. The village decorated their meeting hall and roasted a pig for the occasion.
(Me with the chairman of the village, Edward)

(my papa giving me a war spear, oh, and I'm not graying, they hit you with baby powder during any ceremony)
Great farewell speeches were given from people in tears, and I too was pretty choked up and in tears when I gave my address to the village thanking them for the kindness and love they’ve shown me and letting them know how much I love them. It was very sad but such a special time to be with my village before I was out. The ceremony closed and then the fun began. We all, men, women, and children, danced and partied until 2am in one great last hurrah with Piliura village.

(My village dancing at the party)
The greatest part: there were no injuries and no damaged property, both common in ni-Vanuatu parties where alcohol is involved. Good times had by all.
The next morning they saw me off on the boat, and I waived farewell to the best village ever. I looked out through teary eyes at the sandy shore I just left behind and realized this was the end of one of the most exciting times of my life. Many good things lay ahead, but I will never forget my amazing adventure in Vanuatu.
So here I am, one of my last days in Vila, about to venture to the North of Vanuatu for three weeks on a trip that will take me to Ambae, Santo (things have calmed down there), and Maewo. I am no longer a volunteer, just man-America now. No work to think about, just going to see the woman I love and walk around the islands for a bit before I head back home. I’ll see you guys soon…

Sports Workshop

2009-06-05T11:35:00.006+11:00

(Workshop participants with their new baseball gear)
I’m just getting back to Pele here after a great workshop that Javi and I put on in North Efate. As I wrote in a blog a few weeks ago, the workshop was a combination of training in Sports, First Aid, and Adolescent Reproductive Health directed at primary and middle school teachers in North Efate. We had been planning this workshop for some time, and just in the last couple months got the funding to do it. It looked as if we were all set to go about a week before the workshop, but then we got sent on somewhat of a roller coaster ride when dealing with the logistics of the workshop.
First, we found out that the budget that had been previously approved by the donor was now going to have to take a significant pay cut. So we tweaked a few things, and hoped a couple other things would line up to make it work. Then the organization that was going to do our First Aid training told us that they could no longer do the training. We found another guy to do it, but he couldn’t officially certify the participants, but could train them. We were all set to go with this option then the original organization called and said they could do it. Javi was set to call the unofficial trainer and tell him we no longer needed him to train when the certifying organization called again and cancelled. After this back and forth fiasco we finally went with the unofficial trainer, Johnson, and were set to go on that.
The workshop was to be held at Onesua College, a boarding high school in North Efate, and this was arranged by one of the higher ups with the Ministry of Education. The Ministry also chipped in for transportation which really helped with the budgeting. In line with the pre-workshop fiasco, we also found out a week before the workshop that the Ministry had a North Efate primary school headmasters’ workshop set at Onesua on the same dates. They double booked and didn’t tell us. Ugh! We were counting on some of these headmasters to come to our workshop too! This was resolved a few days before the workshop, though, when the headmasters’ workshop was cancelled due to a lack of funds from the Ministry.
So with these shaky things somewhat holding I set out for Vila on Thursday, a few days before the workshop, to do last minute stuff with Javi. We had planned to work in the Peace Corps office making phone calls and revising our workshop materials and packets and then printing them off. When we got to the Peace Corps office we found that the computers weren’t working, we had no internet, and the phones were down as they were in the process of moving. We also got the news that Friday was a public holiday and the Peace Corps office would be closed. We had only Thursday and Friday (the only days the Peace Corps office is now open) to get all of this done so it was a little hectic. Somehow we worked it, and were given a stroke of luck in that a few Peace Corps staff had to come in on the Friday holiday to work on some stuff. Friday evening we were just finishing printing the last of the packets as Rodney, a PC staff member, was closing down. Phew! We just made it. I then joined a couple volunteers on our way to a fundraiser my village’s stringband was putting on in a neighborhood nearby. I relaxed, had a couple shells of kava, and did some stringband dancing.
Saturday Javi and I decided to take a break from the craziness and headed out with a bunch of volunteers to an awesome river spot just outside of Vila. It was a welcome relief, and the place was beautiful. There were waterfalls running down into clear pools and caves roofed with stalactites. There was also a rope swing that dumped you out into a pool that made for a lot of fun as well.

(A couple shots of the waterfalls)
(A stereotypical Peace Corps trekking picture. Can you imagine it on a brochure?)
On Sunday we got picked up by the Ministry of Education truck and picked up teachers as we headed up the East side of Efate. Each of the the 16 primary schools (11 Basic Schools: class 1-6, and 5 Center Schools: class 1-8) were to send one male teacher and one female teacher. Most teachers were to arrive today with a few coming early Monday morning.
Once we arrived at Onesua they showed us to the dorms we would be staying at. All Vanuatu schools were on two weeks holiday so they put us up in the girls’ dorms with men and women workshop participants in separate buildings. It kind of felt like a middle school summer camp as we entered our dorms and magazine cut outs from gossip magazines were posted on the walls. This “camp” feeling was only intensified once all of these teachers got together and gossiped into the wee hours of the night. Lights off was at 9:30 but many teachers continued with their pillow talk, much to the annoyance of Javi, who has trouble falling asleep as it is. I was able to sleep easily enough and I had my headphones to ease the process.
Poor Javi was also plagued by another disturbance near his bed. The guy that slept right near his was one of the most flatulent people I’ve ever met. This guy was ripping off farts left and right and loud ones at that. He was also the appointed class clown of the group and had Javi’s and my vote for Dirty Old Man of the Year. The latter award given for his foul mouth and toothy, shady smile as he tried to flirt with the younger women teachers. On one of the nights this guy ripped one off and Javi, fed up, said something like, “Jesus man!” To which the guy pulled him aside and said in a serious tone, “Javi, I know you want baseball development to go ahead in Vanuatu, but if you really want it to take off you’re going to have to deal with my farts.” And followed with the toothy grin. This guy had me laughing my ass off for the whole workshop.
On the first day of the workshop, Monday, we had the remainder of the participants show up with a total of 30 participants in attendance. We were more than happy with this number as we had expected around 20 (people tend to not show up to workshops). The last 4 or so participants were late to show up and they were all from where my site is at, the Nguna and Pele area. Before they arrived, and after the workshop had already started, the ZCA (like a school superintendent) turned to me, knowing I was from there, and asked where my Nguna and Pele guys were at. I told him I didn’t know, and that they had said they were going to go. He grunted and then asked me for their cell phone numbers. I gave the numbers to him, he dialed the Pele Headmaster’s number and said to me as the phone was ringing, “The students are on holiday but this is not a holiday for teachers. This is why I’m here today. I’m seeing who did not come to this. Those that don’t are going to get docked pay.” He then turned his attention to the phone as someone picked up the line, “Hello! Willie…” I gulped. I like these teachers from Nguna and Pele and I probably wouldn’t have given out the numbers if I knew he was calling them to give them a good ass chewing. Willie or Marias as I know him is a good friend of mine in the village too. Yikes! I was redeemed though when the ZCA hung up the phone and said that the truck had just picked them up. I later apologized to Marias for giving out his number and told him I wouldn’t have done it if knew the ZCA’s agenda. Marias laughed and said it didn’t matter. As far as I know nobody got docked pay for not attending, but there was one school, Ekipe, the village where Javi and Krissy were at before moving to Vila, that was surprisingly a no show. We still don’t know why.
Before we started the session on the first day we did an icebreaker activity. These may seem corny to you as readers, but they absolutely love them here in Vanuatu. Javi led them in the pirate ship game where he yelled out one of four activities and people had to hurry to get into a group number (1, 2, 3, or 4 people) that corresponded to the activity and then making the activity. For instance, “mess hall” was where a group of four had to stand shoulder to shoulder in a circle, heads down, and fake chowing on food with both hands. If they failed to get into a group of the size needed and make the activity within a short time they moved to the side to join the others who lost already in a chorus of “Yo ho ho, a pirate’s life for me” with a rum jug swilling arm motion. Lots of fun and good laughs for all.
(Groups of 3 doing the “Land Ho,” two people making the crow’s nest, and one looking out to shore)
(The losers singing “Yo Ho Ho”)
The first session was on adolescent health and Joe, Javi’s Ni-Vanuatu counterpart at the Ministry of Health, facilitated and gave a great presentation touching on key issues adolescent health issues in Vanuatu like teenage pregnancy.
(Here’s Joe giving his presentation to the teachers.)
After lunch Javi and I did our first training on how to teach, coach, and ump baseball. We did a short overview in the classroom and then went out to the field. The teachers picked it up pretty quickly and Javi and I have gotten pretty good at teaching the game over he last two years. We also had the aid of our Bislama baseball rules guide, complete with diagrams and pictures, that we were able to distribute to all the teachers. Once out on the field, we gave some more instruction and started playing a game.
There were some good hits and defensive plays. One young woman slid into home having never seen a baseball game and doing so before we even instructed on it! It was cool to see coaching tips take hold so quickly too. One woman ran up a quick two strike count as she was trying too shyly to place the bat on the ball and missing. I pulled her aside after the 0-2 pitch and basically told her to trust her eye and let her hands do the work. She nodded, and then the next pitch she had a great level swing ripping the ball through the middle on a line drive that got her two bases.
After the game we showered up and had supper. By the way, all the food at the workshop was great and we were in heaven with getting heaping, beef stews and curry chicken plates for lunch and dinner. After dinner we showed a Brewers game, one of few a friend of Javi’s burned to DVD and sent to him. We had pre-screened the games before to find one with good elements of a game, and came up with one where it was suspenseful until the last pitch in the 9th Inning. The teachers had a good time watching it, and one particular teacher was really fired up about North Efate baseball after a day of baseball and watching the DVD. In his eyes, he said, he foresaw North Efate as possibly becoming the baseball hub of Vanuatu.
Apparently, this teacher had previously developed rugby in Ifira, his small island off of South Efate, by explaining to his fellow islanders that they would have a lot better shot being on a future national team for rugby than making the national team for soccer because nobody else played rugby at the time. Soccer is widespread in Vanuatu and the competition to play on the national team is high. Well, sure enough they developed rugby in Ifira, and now that there is a Vanuatu national team, half of them from Ifira.
His pitch to North Efate teachers was that if they do the same thing with baseball in North Efate they too will reign supreme at the national level for possible national adult and little league teams. It was an angle that we hadn’t used before to promote the sport, but Javi and I both really liked it. Basically, if North Efate works hard to develop baseball they will own baseball as badge of pride in Vanuatu. We really hope they take this idea and run with it.
On the second day of the workshop we started the day with another icebreaker, “Two truths and a lie” where each participant writes two factual statements and one false one, and then the others have to try to guess the false one. Some teachers were definitely better at hiding the lie than others. One guy, Simon, started one of his statements, “I was swimming one day and I saw a lion shark…” and was abruptly cut off by the peanut gallery. “Lion shark?!” they cried. “You mean a tiger shark!” And for the rest of the workshop people referred to Simon as Lion Shark. Sorry dude.
For the sessions held before lunch for this day and the next Johnson gave the Fist Aid sessions so Javi and I just relaxed and watched at times. He was kind of a monotone speaker that would have put us to sleep, but many Ni-Vanuatu are able to pull through. How? I do not know. It seemed the teachers got a lot out of it though, and it’s really good have at least a couple teachers at each school trained in First Aid. This is especially good for the all the teachers present who were all also in charge of sports activities at their schools, and with this short training could address some sports injuries quickly. Here’s some shots of the First Aid training:
(Teachers checking their pulses, probably after a long lecture)
(Women practicing the recovery position)
(“Lion Shark” Simon fake yelping in pain as teachers put him in a splint)
(Ailing teachers)
After lunch on the second day we had some more baseball training. This time we started out by teaching some coaching drills like long toss, pop flies, Fungo-ing the ball to the defense, etc. Then we played some more baseball. This time around we had some of the teachers ump which was pretty funny at times. Timothy, a teacher from Emao Island, knew the sport fairly well already so we started with him. I told him how you yell out “Play ball!” before play starts. So we were all set to go and then Timothy pulls his mask down and yells out, “OK, Play boy!” thinking this is what I had told him, and having no knowledge of what Playboy is. Too damn funny.
(Here’s a picture of them playing with Timothy umping. The girl batting here had, on the previous day, ripped a shot to left center, doubled on the play, and then later on another play slid into home.)
Another thing with the umping that had me laughing was when two women were huddled close in a line behind the plate, one umpire and one catcher, and they looked like a two-man bobsled team. They both were afraid of the ball so they ducked when the ball came in, and they both were wearing the same color shirt and same red helmet. It was like they were ducking down as they entered a turn. Here they are:
(Vanautu, we got a bobsled team!)
We closed out the day and then Timothy, the chairman of NEPSSA, the North Efate Primary Schools Sports Association that Javi and I have been working with a good deal, called a meeting for all the teachers present. NEPSSA was started last May and unfortunately, we haven’t had more than six teachers at any one meeting. We decided this was a good opportunity to discuss some issues with the organization, and that it was. Things got heated for a bit as some teachers, whose schools had never attended the meetings, told out their gripes with the organization on things like last year’s tournament prizes and other perceived organization failures. The meeting eventually cooled down and the rabble rousers soon realized that the reason that many of the failures happened was due to a lack of support and involvement from many of the schools, including theirs. Basically, too few individuals have had to carry an organization that depends on input and work from many. It was a great meeting, a turning point for the organization as many schools “woke up,” and we were glad the workshop was able to facilitate the process by bringing all of these sport teachers together to talk about this stuff.
At the end of the meeting the teachers also voted to have another day of baseball training. The original plan for the workshop was to have 2 full sessions of baseball and 1 session of Ultimate Frisbee training. However, after two days teachers decided that they needed another day of baseball as they were still unclear on some stuff. Better to know one sport well that to only half understand two. So on the third day after First Aid was finished we had some more baseball training and games. One of the teachers we had pitching was doing really well. This southpaw even inadvertently threw a couple breaking pitches.
On the morning of the fourth and last day of the workshop we had the last session of adolescent health led by Joe which, once again was really good. They talked about how to introduce topics like sex, STIs, and condom use in schools and in a society where talking about these things can be very taboo.
They also had a section on gender and gender roles which got a fiery debate going, men vs. women, and this was intensified as the activity divided them by sex on opposite sides of the room. They were asked to present what their perceived roles were of their gender and what roles of the opposite gender they could also take on. Joe did a great job facilitating though, and turned some of the heated comments into a constructive discussion on gender. My favorite part of the discussion was when the men and women were countering one another when discussing what gender roles their sex could also take on. One woman would yell out, “I can build houses!” only to have a man on the other side of the room counter, “You think I don’t know how to sew or weave baskets! I can weave baskets!” It was good to at least get some of these things out in the open in a nation where gender roles are very divided, yet are changing quickly as the nation itself is rapidly changing.
After Joe’s session and lunch Javi and I started our last sports session that dealt with sports challenges and opportunities in Vanuatu. We had the teachers outline what the challenges are to sports activities and development as well as what positive things sports (in and of themselves and current sport activity infrastructure) have going for them in Vanuatu. For one of the challenge topic presentations we had a group specifically focus on gender challenges in sport, and got some good discussion rolling with that. For example, one woman sports teacher outlined how even though she is very knowledgeable and interested in sports it can be hard for her to get her male students to respect her.
After the presentations on challenges and opportunities we moved on to talk about positive and negative pressure in sports that comes at children from teachers, parents, and peers. For this section we led a discussion on what these positive and negative pressures were, and then had the teachers act out scenarios involving these issues with short discussions afterwards. In the scenarios there was the overaggressive coach, abusive parents, teachers showing favoritism towards athletes, etc. The discussions and suggested resolutions for these problems were great, and most teachers were able to point to examples in real life where they had seen these things happen.
Throughout the workshop the discussions and interest we saw in the participants was really refreshing after doing so many workshops in villages in and around my site. This is not to say that there haven’t been great discussions and workshops out at site, but rather that these teachers, who are naturally leaders and well educated were able to produce great conversation and ideas on introduced topics. When doing workshops in the village these good ideas come out here and there, but many people are too shy to step out and say them as a few big-headed people in most villages seem to dominate discussion. Also, when good discussion or topics are raised in the village it usually takes some time, patience, and craftiness on the part of the facilitator to get these things to surface. In this sports workshop, we had barely gotten the topic described and you had hands flying all over the place with people eager to give their input. The participants, themselves, are a huge reason why the workshop went so well.
Before we closed the workshop on the last day we were able to pass out all the baseball equipment we had donated to us last year. We had been waiting for this workshop opportunity to give out the equipment so that all the schools knew how to us it first. The Center schools, schools that go up to class 8 (5 of them), were given most of the equipment as the focus group for baseball are kids class 6-8. We also didn’t have enough gloves, catchers gear, and helmets to give to every school and it just worked out that we had enough to outfit the Center schools. The other 11 Basic schools (class 1-6) were each given a couple bats and tennis balls. We really want the Basic schools to teach baseball as well, laying the foundation for class 3-6 students before they go to one of the five Central schools.
Many of the teachers have asked Javi and me to give additional sessions at their schools, and we are going to try our best to fit them in before he is out in June and me in July. Time is against us though, and we’re hoping that in September one of the PC volunteers put in the North Efate area will also be interested in baseball.
Thank you again Hannah and Ruth for all your hard work and all the equipment donors!
After the handing out of equipment we were set to make the official closing of the workshop, but this was kind of a mess. The closing of the workshop was supposed to be done by the ZCA or a member from the Ministry of Education, but neither were present. Also, the host representative, the Headmaster of Onesua, is usually supposed to give a speech but he was in Vila. Finally, the NEPSSA chairman was supposed to give a speech, but he was also not present. But, we did have the deputy Headmaster and the Secretary of NEPSSA present, both of whom really did not want to give the speeches, but did it anyway. So with some deliberation, Javi and I worked with a teacher to make a closing program and then the teacher put the program on the white board.
We were about to start the program then this teacher informed us that he had just accidentally written the program with a permanent marker instead of a white board one. So, with all the teachers waiting impatiently me, Javi, and this teacher set to work for about 15 minutes trying to scrub all the writing off the expensive white board, laughing at the silliness of this whole closing ceremony mess.
We finally gave our speeches for the closing, and the last one was to be made by a leader of the church as is custom in Vanuatu (all things are opened and closed with prayer). So, Paul, a participant at the workshop, recited a verse out of Romans, and then gave a small speech. In this speech he explained, “These two white men sitting before us have come to help us out and share information. And we are lucky that The Light came to us here in Vanuatu (coming of the missionaries) over a hundred years ago. If not, we probably would have eaten these two guys.” To which I turned to Javi and said, “Sorry friend,” and we all had a good laugh over it. The workshop closed and a bunch of us went out for kava to celebrate the end of a good week.
The next evening Javi and I went out for a few beers and pizza with some other volunteers and cheers-ed the completion of a great workshop. There were many times we thought the workshop wasn’t going to happen, but we did it and it went well.

April Blog

2009-06-05T11:26:00.003+11:00

(A couple cool April sunsets taken from my island)
Written April 27, 2009
So after the Pentecost trip I kind of dove face first back into work, as there was a lot of it to be done. This, while I caught some mutant form of Dengue fever that has been going around. I guess something like 30 volunteers have caught it in the last 2 months. It pretty much sucks as it saps your energy, you get feverish, and then when it’s done it gives you a full body rash for a couple days. Lot of fun. Looks like I’m almost out of the woods now though, as the rash is clearing up and my energy is coming back.
One of the cool things, work-wise, that just happened was our Village/ Beach/ Sea/ Forest clean-up campaign that we held a couple days ago. It was supposed to be every village (there’s 15 of them) on Nguna and Pele cleaning up their village areas (including surrounding forest and shoreline) on this day. The MPA is providing prizes for any villages that took part, and there are prizes for men and women as well as kids. There were about 5 villages that took part and we’re giving the other 10 a month to get their act together and do a clean up or their prizes will be forfeited to villages that carry out the clean up campaigns.
I was on-hand to watch my village do theirs, and they did a great job. They separated trash, broke down tin (to fit better in their landfill hole), and collected a good amount of trash from a wide area of the village's land. Another high note is that they said that the trash they collected was a lot less than what they collected in a similar campaign a few years ago. They said they may have even expended more effort to capture trash this year too, which is a nice sign in that they are not littering as much.
They divided in teams mostly dominated by women and children to pick up the trash. Some men assisted with the picking-up of trash while many others dug the big landfill hole, compacted trash, and organized things.
In the afternoon I lead some kids in snorkeling in the nearshore reef and grabbing some of the trash there too. Here’s some pictures from the event:
(some kids and mamas setting out to pick up trash)
(Davis grabbing a plastic bottle)
(Maninga tossing some trash and rocking a Bears jersey)
(People dropping off trash at the collection site)
(The reef clean-up kids)
So other stuff going on…
I’m pretty excited that the weather is changing here to my favorite time of year in Vanuatu (May- August) where the rain stops, the humidity drops substantially, the trade winds start blowing again, and the nights are cool. If Vanuatu were like this year round you might have to beg volunteers to leave. As it is I’m glad I get in almost another full cold season before I leave.
It looks like all is go for the sports training workshop next week and I’ll be in Vila in a couple days here polishing off the finishing touches with Javi.
It looks like our Conservation Management Plans that the MPA and I will be doing are shaping up nicely and I’m looking forward to those in mid-May and throughout June.
I’m super stoked that my sister Hannah is coming in less than a month here, and that we’ll be headed to Tanna for a little adventure for a few days.
In some bummer news it looks like I’m going to have to postpone my US road trip I wanted to make as low funds will be prohibiting that one. But not to worry friends and family, I’ll be seeing a lot of you at Todd’s wedding in August, and I’m still thinking of a road trip some time in the future to visit some of the rest of you guys. Looks like I may be spending some time in the East coast for a bit.
Some things are winding down and it’s nice to be spending some quality time with friends and my host family in the village as I know it will be a long while until I see these guys once I’m out of Pele in July. In the end of July I’m still hoping to run the round island relay again, and am gradually getting a team together again. Oh, speaking of sports, the baseball carnival in late March was a huge success. We got a lot of new faces to show up and the games went well. Also the Vila vs. Ekipe showdown reconvened this time with the kids pitching. It was great as some of these kids can really hurl the ball. I was glad that I had a mask on as I was definitely taking some foul balls of the body as umpire. Ekipe ended up winning, but it was a great game. Sorry, no pictures yet as someone was in charge of photography for the day, and we have yet to compile the pictures.
So that’s most of what’s going on. I hope you all have a great Cinco de Mayo celebration out there and be safe. I myself will not be reveling as I’ll be in workshop mode on North Efate (I know boo hoo). But, eat some fish tacos and drink some tasty margaritas for me!!

Pentecost Trip

2009-05-08T15:28:00.007+11:00

(Last jumper of nagol or land diving set to go)
(Pentecost Gang from left to right: upper row: Jeremiah, Carol, Laura, Alexia, Arthur, Jack, Liz, Tim. lower row: Lizzie, Bridgett, Chris, Me and Erica’s dog Sniper.)
(Chillin’ on the nagol hill)
Written April 27, 2009
Alright, so it’s taken me a little while to be able to sit down and write this, but I think it’s good to do a blog on the trip to Pentecost a group of of volunteers and I made in the beginning of April. Since I have gotten back from the trip (around mid April) I have been bogged down with work and am just now able to write this.
In the weeks before our trip to Pentecost we, Peace Corps volunteers, had various conferences, pertaining to our work areas, held in Vila we had to attend . I had a close of service conference and another conference about community development strategies where I was a bit bored because if you don’t know them now, after two years, it’s a bit late as we’re going back soon. But, because a lot of volunteers were in town we were able to rally a group of 12 volunteers, including me, to go on our Pentecost trip afterwards.
The Boat Ride:
In order to save money we decided to take a passenger boat, The Fresh Cargo, to the island rather than fly. This boat is supposed to be the new speedy (relatively) way to travel by boat as your other options are to go by cargo ship (not always the most fun from what I’ve heard). So on the evening of the 3rd, after running around and getting supplies for the week, we boarded the 60ft catamaran in Mele Bay, and headed out. But wait, we were to make a stop on the other end of Mele Bay first. We chugged to the other end of the bay for what reason we did not know, but you kind of go with the flow when you’re traveling in Vanuatu. When we got to the other end of the bay night was falling as we saw a small dinghy approaching us. Were we picking up more passengers? As the dinghy got closer we saw that the three men in the boat were not propelling the boat with oars, but with planks of wood. Too funny. And it turns out the dinghy was the dinghy that belonged to the boat, and we were picking it up first. Why it was on the other end of the bay, and why it was not picked up earlier when they were probably fueling up at the nearby fueling port? Well, see that would make too much sense.
Once the dinghy arrived it was hoisted, not by ropes, but by physically lifting atop the second story of the boat. The catamaran’s engine (there are two, but only one was working) fired up and we were ready to go … or not. Now the boat was stuck in the sand as the captain had brought us too far shore to receive the damn dinghy. So what next? call the tugboat? What tugboat? This is Vanuatu. Instead a 20ft fiberglass boat with a small outboard engine was called in for the job. So they threw a line to the small boat, attached it stern to stern and we watched atop the roof deck at the long drawn out process of David trying to pull Goliath off a sandbar. After about 20 minutes the we finally got some purchase off the sand and were on our way. We headed out of Mele Bay after over 3hrs. of fiasco and into the open night sea.
(Me with hands outstretched motioning towards the small boat trying to pull us off the sand and saying, “Only in Vanuatu!” as we all were laughing about the situation)
We, volunteers, assembled on the roof deck, fully prepared with playing cards, dominoes, Scrabble, and of course booze to make the games and conversation more lively. The sea was holding a light chop so we were having a good time for the first couple of hours. Then a squall rolled in and things got a little rough. During a game of dominoes one large swell threw the dominoes all over the place, and one of my dominoes was never to be found again, probably at the bottom of the sea now. The swells got larger and more intense as we were hanging on to ropes and coolers up top as security. Eventually, some of us decided it better to go below to the passenger seats. We assembled in a rag tag fashion trying to find places to sleep where we could. The seats weren’t that comfortable and sleep was a loose term as the swells were really kicking around the boat, and every time you would be about to nod off entirely a crew member would open the engine hatch (to check things) releasing a torrent of engine noise. I’m usually pretty good about not getting sea sick, but the thrashing of the boat was making my stomach cough up the occasional verp (vomit burp for those who are wondering).
I continued on like this for about 8 hours until I was aroused by some commotion behind me. The only other non- Ni-Vanuatu passenger, a French tourist, was asking me and a couple volunteers near me if we know how to deliver a baby. “Nope, no doctors or nurses out of the 12 of us.” A woman heading for Malekula apparently decided it would be a good idea to jump aboard a small boat when she was 9 months pregnant. She was now going into labor, but luckily her water hadn’t broken already. It became clear that the only person on our boat that had ever helped deliver a baby was an older man that had once delivered a baby in a village. I suggested that we see if we’ve got cell phone coverage, and call Brenda, our Peace Corps nurse. Bridgett, one of the PC volunteers, called her and got through. Brenda set us up with a bunch of instructions to make a makeshift delivery area in the galley, and we all set about collecting towels and whatever else was available.
I was cutting up strips of a sweatshirt for something that was needed and damn near lost my lunch when trying to focus on the sweatshirt in a heavily rocking boat. Bridgett and Chris were working with the woman, now surrounded by a tent-like form of clean towels and blankets, to help her out with breathing instructions and also helping her relax. Bridgett and Chris were the two we elected to help the older man with any delivering if necessary, as the galley was pretty small, and more people in the small space would have just confused things. It was a bit tense for a bit as we really were thinking the baby was going to be born on the boat, but eventually the woman’s contractions went down, and the captain agreed to put her at the closest clinic to us at that point, on Ambrym Island.
The woman, at first refused to go as she said told Bridgett and Chris that she trusted them and wanted to have the baby on the boat. To understand the woman’s seemingly crazy opinion on the subject you have to understand a couple things. First of all, people do not like visiting other islands for fear of black magic waged on them from other islanders. When you talk about delivering a baby, with all the possible complications, on a strange island, this black magic fear intensifies quite a bit. Now take Ambrym Island, known as the black magic center and capital of Vanuatu (many believe black magic originated here, and people train in sorcery here), and add that to an already existent fear of black magic and whammo! you’ve got some deep seated fear of delivering a baby there.
OK, now the second reason the woman probably wanted Chris and Bridgett to deliver the baby is that she probably truly did trust them in knowing how to deliver a baby. Even though you may explain that you have no idea of what you are doing, many Ni-Vanuatu will trust that you do just based on the fact that you are white, and have probably received a good education and so on. There is also a lot race inferiority that many Ni-Vanuatu feel and you see it when many talk about it in referring to things in “black man style” vs. “white man style.” Much of this is probably left over from colonial days, and is a very hard concept to refute now matter how much you try, and we try a lot.
So back to the story, Chris and Bridgett convinced the woman finally that the boat was not a safe place to have the baby, and we pulled onto shore in Ambrym just as light was coming into the morning, and a small fiberglass boat met us to take the woman to a local clinic. We later heard that the woman delivered a healthy baby boy in the clinic the next day. Needless to say, we were all glad to hear the news. I think we were also all very relieved that the woman didn’t have to deliver on the boat. Phew!
Pentecost Hooo:
A little later in the morning, now Saturday, we arrived on the shore of Pentecost. The boat couldn’t get too close too shore so we had to lower the dinghy which consisted of two guys throwing the dinghy off the roof and into the water. We all charted a pick-up truck and took a 15 minute ride to our base for the next week in Pangi. This is where we were set to watch the land diving on Monday morning. Once in Pangi, a Erica a PC volunteer’s site (she was to join us later as she was finishing up some stuff in Vila), we met the woman who was going to look after us, Edna. Edna was a very nice lady and very familiar to us as she had spent most of her life in a village on Efate that many of the volunteers there had their training in. We then set up our tent city in their camping area, and had a lazy day of swimming, and hanging out.
Me and the rest of the guys there were allowed to go have a look at the land diving tower they were constructing, now putting the finishing touches on. Women aren’t allowed to see the tower until the day of the ceremony, and they are never allowed to touch the tower. The custom of nagol (pronounced nan-goal, the “nan” like the pronunciation of Indian nan bread) or land diving is only done in southern Pentecost, and is thought to be where people got the idea of bungy jumping. There are only about three villages that do the nagol, and of those three only one still does the diving for custom reasons the other two do it for tourism only. The village where we were going to witness the nagol does it for tourism, but we decided to see it there as it would be a lot cheaper for us to piggy back on a cruise ship day than shell out a big chunk of money for us to see one in the custom village. The basic custom of the nagol (there’s a lot of information besides this) is that the young men jump to ensure a good yam harvest in the coming months.
The tower is built entirely of local materials: local wood for supports, cross beams, and platforms, local rope from vines and tree bark to fasten things, and vines as support lines going off to other nearby tree trunks. There are two types of towers that can be built. The first is a male tower, the kind they built where we saw the nagol. In this tower the tower is built with the tower bowing out from the platforms when you look at it in side profile. Jumpers from a male tower jump from a standing position.
The second type of tower, a female tower (we did not get the chance to see one of these) is built with no bowing out in a side profile and jumpers leave the tower from a squatting position and roll forward.
(picture of tower from front view)
(picture of tower with surrounding area)
(me with the tower to show size and the side profile of the “man” tower. You can see that the tower follows the vertical plane of the tree trunk second from the left of me, and gradually as it comes to the ground bows out more in the direction of the hill slope. You can also see a couple of the support vines well above my head).
After the relaxing day and tower visit we capped off the evening with a few shells of kava.
The next day, Sunday, we did some snorkeling which included trying to locate unsuccessfully, the dugong we saw just off shore. We then decided it would be a good idea to go to church out of respect for the community. We were hoping for a relatively short service but were treated to about three hours of worship. It was a little hard for most of us, and I’m used to the 45 minute speedy service on Pele. After church some of us walked down to the village wharf where they receive cruise boats for land diving. In that area there is a plaque that commemorates Queen Elizabeth’s visit in February of 1974. This visit has a small story associated with it as a young man died during the land diving presentation the village made for the queen. The common belief is that as the queen came at a time outside of land diving or nagol, as its called, season, the vines weren’t strong enough yet, and that’s why the vine snapped and the man died. The typical nagol season is from April until late May or early June.
(Queen Elizabeth’s visit plaque)
We continued walking for a while and Edna, our tour guide for the day took us to a fresh water river spot. The river wasn’t running that full so the best we could do was find a small pool about 4 feet deep to play in. But we had a blast in that small pool! We found vines to swing into the pool, we had water fights, and then Edna showed us some techniques she had picked up from the water music makers of Gaua Island. The woman that do this have traveled internationally to show off their stuff. I’ve seen video of it and it’s very impressive: it’s basically a symphony of water music that the women make entirely with hands and their bodies as they maneuver the water to make various pitches. So we learned a couple ways to make slaps and bass sounds with the water and wore ourselves out with both water slapping and laughter. The sun falling, we left our small river spot with ear to ear grins as if we were magically transformed back to being 8 years old at a fun water hole. What an awesome day that was!
Nagol (Land Diving) Day:
(Liz playing tour guide)
On the day that the nagol was set to go we relaxed about in the early morning and swam, and then readied ourselves for the onslaught of 2000+ tourists coming into the village of Pangi, whose population was around 200 people. Erica, had just gotten back from Vila the day before and she was going to run a booth to sell postcards to tourists as a fundraiser. We watched as the first few groups of tourists came through. The village had their racket down well with groups of children and women singing and dancing in different areas for donations and there were little booths to sell crafts and such. We, volunteers, opted to go to the nagol site so as to get a good sitting place to watch the dives.
We sat up on top of the hill as the villagers said we could, and tried not to grit our teeth too much as we watched some of the actions of a few tourists. There were idiots trying to climb the nagol tower (very taboo), another idiot trying to dance with the custom dancers during the ceremony (also not cool), one woman just started grabbing stacks from a downed shelter without asking, and just a general lack of cultural sensitivity in actions, manner, and dress. Now, I know we, as volunteers, have been here for a while so yes, we know better in some ways, but there are some really innate things we all know about going into another culture foreign from yours and stepping lightly. And it seems that some of these people were just plain brain-dead to this. The problem too, is that it is not really in Ni-Vanuatu culture to speak out directly to people about cultural mishaps they may be making so this stuff just goes on. We, the volunteers, did speak out in a couple instances where it was just ridiculous, but for the most part we tried to ignore a lot of the stuff. It was hard sometimes though.
In some ways it felt like we were at a concert or festival with swarms of people everywhere. Once the nagol started though and we could focus on the diving it was pretty amazing. There were 8 divers in all and each one jumped from a platform of successive height, starting at about 10ft going up to the last jumper at about 40ft. Before each jump and during the custom dancers would chant and dance atop the hill that held the tower.
(Here’s a picture of the custom dancers)
Each jumper has vines affixed to his ankles, and a man, standing lower on the tower, holds the vines in place so that they don’t get tangled before the jump. Before each jump the chanting gets louder and the boy or young man usually goes through a series of meditative and display motions before he jumps. One of the display-type moves involved waving the frayed vines that have been cut off as extra once the vines are secured to the feet, and sometimes a back arch or no hands display on the platform.
(a young man displaying with frayed vine ends held out)
When the boy or young man is set to jump the chanting gets a little louder then quieter when he is right about to jump. The jump is quick. It is more a fall forward than a jump and a well measured vine will make it so the young man grazes his head on the softened dirt below, then snap! the vines break a small piece of wood on the platform, perpendicular to the ropes, and designed to break in order to cushion the jerk a bit. But, the cushion is very little as you can see the whip force the vines put on the body. The person doesn’t bounce back as in bungee jumping, but rather gets jerked back towards the tower by about five feet. Then some other men help the young man to his feet, with a big applause from the crowd. The most impressive jump was the last one as that was the highest jump, and it appeared that the vines were best measured as the young man’s head did graze the ground then his shoulders grazed before he was jerked back to the tower.
(Here’s a picture of the last jumper displaying before he goes)
Injuries, as I found out later over kava, are not uncommon in doing this. Of the five men I was talking to later, four of them said they incurred serious injuries when they were younger. Injuries varied from ruptured spleens to broken backs and other big breaks. Thankfully, there were no injuries the day we watched, but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen. And the village does get a good amount of money from the tourists but I can guarantee you that’s not going to hazard pay for these jumpers.
All in all it was great to see a display of a very cool custom that these people from South Pentecost have probably been doing for at least a couple thousand years. Seeing the dives made me very glad I took part in the trip to go see this. After the dives we ventured down to see some custom dancing that the schoolchildren put on. Liz went and checked out them practicing the day before the cruise boat came and snapped this cool shot of a girl in her coconut husk hat:

(Here’s the kids dancing on the day of the event)
The dance was a lot of foot stamping in lines of children choreographed to move in and out of each other all while a man in custom dress (far right in picture) is keeping time with a wooden tam tam. It was cool to watch, especially when watching the bold colors that the dancers were wearing move in and out of the lines.
By about 1pm all the tourists were now in the water, and the quiet beach we had rested looked a little like Fourth of July in a San Diego beach so most of us found other things to do. Some went to go check out the amazing water taro gardens. Liz, Chris, and I all went down to a point down the way to go snorkel and check out a submerged propeller engine from a WWII fighter plane. It was cool to check out and we also saw the hull of a small ship that had been sunk there about 20 years ago. What really took us for a loop though came when we were walking out to the point and one of the local guys pointed out the inscription that Captain Cook had made in a boulder in the 1700s during his exploratory visits in the South Pacific (sorry no picture, but I’ll try to get the pic from Liz as she took it on her camera). How cool is that?
The following day we all hired a truck to take us to a village that had a large waterfall nearby. So for the better part of the day we hung out in the pools below a 150ft waterfall and jumped off nearby rocks into the pools. (The Waterfall)
In the afternoon we chilled out on a nearby beach, and then headed back to Pangi in the early evening. That night we made some good Indian food from some sauce packets we bought in Vila and later had a camp fire with S'mores and all.
Poinkros Village:
The next day we hired a boat to take us to Poinkros village in the far South of Pentecost. This village is also occupied by a Peace Corps volunteer, Lauren, but she too was still in Vila tying up work stuff. She said we could use her house to crash, and Erica had been there before and knew some of the villagers. There is no truck road to get there, and we heard that traveling along the walking trail is not a good idea with heavy packs. So we set out by sea, and Man! It was rough out there that day. We were just in a little fiberglass boat and there were definitely some white knuckle moments as some of the large swells really rocked the boat. Two hours later we made it to Poinkros in one piece, and greeted the villagers on the beach. We then charged uphill as the entire village is built on steep, rolling hills. This village layout owing to a big tsunami that hit them early in this decade and did a lot of damage to their previous village, centered more on flat land.
(Here’s a picture showing some of the terrain of Poinkros village)
After we got our tents set up in Lauren’s yard and had settled in, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset straight out of Tales from the South Pacific with purples and pinks and oranges mixed in a sky with swaying coconut trees and the rugged Pentecost coastline in the foreground and the profile of Ambrym a ways in the distance.
(The Poinkros sunset)
After taking in the great sunset some of us headed down to the nakamal for some kava. We, who went were treated to a really cool, different kava ceremony where they showed us how they used to use coral stone to grind the kava. Even the new style that they use, ramming the kava in a cylinder, is different than the meat grinders that they use on Efate and Pele so that was exciting to watch and take part in. And the way they served the kava was really cool too, as about 8 men would be working the kava, each on their own small table, and only one man would be the one that would make shells for you during the night. The kava was clean tasting and strong, the nakamal conversation was great, and we all sat back stoned and enjoying our new surrounds.
The following day some of us went down to the playing field to work off the kava from the night before. We borrowed a tennis ball from the school, and I asked a local guy, Moses, Lauren’s host papa, to help me find a good straight stick to use as a bat. We found one easily, tapered it a bit at the end for a handle, and then I taught some of the local guys how to play Over-The-Line, an old San Diego favorite that is like a 3 on 3 way of playing baseball. It wasn’t long before more guys showed up, and we had enough to play reduced squad baseball. They picked up the game quickly and we all had a great time playing ball for a couple hours.
We broke for lunch then set out to a nice river spot that heads out towards the gardens of Poinkros. To get there we took the bush route up and down hills for a while and over some creek crossings
(Here’s Bridgett and Erica (behind) crossing over a creek crossing that was a balance beam constructed by a coconut palm trunk)
After going through some cool garden areas we arrived at our river spot that had plenty of cool places to jump off ledges and into the fresh water pool. One of the local guys showed us how they use places like this to train for the nagol.
(Poinkros man demonstrating the nagol dive form)
After a nice day at the river we followed the river to its nearby mouth, meeting up with some mamas along the way. Moses explained that they had just come from a 3hrs walk in from their gardens and that this is pretty normal. You could see that this was indeed somewhat of a routine by looking at the mamas’ calf muscles. Damn! One of the mamas was straight ripped!
(A picture of the mamas walking over the estuary area where the river meets the sea)
(A picture of the river as seen from the beach)
That evening we had another round of good kava at the nakamal and hung out for a while at Lauren’s place before nodding off. The next morning we said our goodbyes to the great people of Poinkros and departed again by boat, but this time, thankfully, with much calmer seas.
Back in Pangi and the Water Taro Gardens:
When we got back to Pangi there was another cruise boat in for the nagol. I guess they get about 6 per year. We hung around the village, and then hatched the scheme to trade our money to tourists for beer at their tent near the wharf. The tourist boat sold beer and soda but only on the swipey card system for boat patrons. So we, cold beer starved volunteers, traded our vatu for Australian dollars at some of the donation booths and then traded Aus dollars for beer. The plan worked brilliantly and I even had a nice tourist buy me a beer.
Nearby, the string band was getting fired up so we, the volunteers, got our string bang boogey on, and tried to get villagers to dance, but could only get a few in on the action. Then we tried to get the tourists that were waiting in line to get on the ferry boats dancing. We had limited success, but some started dancing, and we were having a good time, and that’s what’s important.
That evening we were going to have a Mexican food night (once again we brought some supplies from Vila), and we made tacos from fresh fish and freshwater prawns caught that day. I was in heaven, and then Liz rolled out a cake she had made for me for my birthday and a bottle of Tequila, Oh My! My birthday was the next day, but we would be on the Fresh Cargo all day so the celebration was set for the night before. And what a great celebration too: good friends, Mexican food, tasty REAL cake, and a bottle of tequila. It was a great cap to an even greater trip.
The next morning Tim and I went to go check out the water gardens before we left. I had heard such adjectives as “majestic” being used by the volunteers who had seen them earlier in the week so I figured I had to fit them in for a peek. We walked for about ten minutes before we reached the gardens and they were truly amazing. The villagers have dammed up and diverted flows so the river flows slowly through the steppe-style, hydroponically grown taro. The steppes and dams are all built of smallish stones and the villagers say they have to reconstruct them after big flows or floods of the river. The benefit though, is no weeding as the water is always running and weeds cannot grow in the slowly moving water. The gardens are really big and the local engineering to make the gardens flow right is damn impressive (no pun intended).
(the river with the water taro steppes on either side)
(one of the dams for the garden)
As we were walking along local guys offered to show us how they harvest the water taro and use the stalk directly as the planting for the next crop.
(here’s the guys a few steppes up from where the shot was taken. It’s hard to see the stone wall steppes through the vegetation of the taro plants)
Going Home and Easter:
The same day that Tim and I checked out the water gardens, the gang that was left (most of us as some had dropped off earlier in the week and Liz was flying back to Ambae) boarded the Fresh Cargo after waiting over 10hrs for the damn thing (We were just about to give up on it when we saw it’s lights coming shore). The seas were even rougher than before and I got a weird fever in the middle of the trip and ended up emptying my lunch into the sea. The good news was I felt great after that. We endured another 13hr trip and made it back to Vila early Easter morning.
While on the boat we made a plan to have an Easter dinner at a PC volunteer, Evan’s house in Vila, and once we got ashore we arranged the particulars and bought the food so we could lounge poolside in the early afternoon at a local resort in order to get our energy back that the boat drained from us. That evening we had a great Easter dinner complete with an Easter egg piñata game at night.
So yeah, that’s about it. I realize that this is a pretty long blog this time but it was a fantastic trip and there was a lot to write about.

February and early March

2009-03-09T17:01:00.005+11:00

Just relaxing here on another lazy Sunday… Tomorrow I’ll be headed into Vila so I thought I might as well write a blog. Things have just been starting up again this month as committees and groups are coming back together for this year’s work. The MPA project is going slowly but surely and we are basically picking up where we left off last year: giving results of household surveys back to the villages and developing conservation management plans. We’re planning a big two-island village, forest, and shore clean-up that should take place on Earth Day in April. We’re also going to try to get some of the big environment-related NGOs in Vanuatu to come out to Nguna or Pele in June for a big World Environment Day festival of sorts. I’ll try to keep you guys posted on how those work out. Other than that we’re working on a bunch of other stuff from tourism development to setting up marker signs and bouys for land and sea conservation areas.
The sports project is also going along well. Right now Javi and I are working with teachers in North Efate and their sports organization, NEPSSA, to plan tournaments and activities for the year. The basic plan is to have divisional tournaments, a North Efate Tournament for the division finalists, and then a North vs. South Efate Finals including an all star game for soccer and volleyball. We’re hoping to have at least 4 baseball teams that are able to compete in the North Efate Tournament too, and maybe have a North vs, South Efate baseball championship when the soccer and volleyball finals are going on. A lot of this depends on the teachers and their involvement in the organizing of the tournaments and teams so we are hoping for the best. Maybe all of these will happen before I leave here too (I’m thinking around mid-August).
At the end of this month we, a bunch of volunteers and I, are planning on holding a baseball carnival in Vila to kind of showcase the sport. The idea for it came from Javi as we planned on having another Vila vs. Ekipe match anyway and he figured it would be good to include some carnival-type stuff with it. So we’re going to have some games for kids and youth that test your skill in throwing, catching, and batting with prizes for winners. Javi is working on getting the word out through local papers and radio and we are hoping for a good turnout. The basic thinking is to recruit a bunch of kids and youth from Vila to start playing through showing them some attributes of the game and then showing them an actual game later in the day. Whatever turnout we get, it should be pretty fun.
Another cool thing with the sports project is that we got the go ahead to do a big workshop that Javi and I have been trying to do since around July of last year. The workshop is set to happen in the beginning of May, and we will be giving it to a group of teachers in North Efate. It will be a week-long workshop where we train the teachers basic First Aid (directed towards sports injuries), train the teachers to teach Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH) in schools, and hold trainings on how to coach and referee baseball and Ultimate Frisbee. We will be working with the Vanuatu Red Cross to do the First Aid training and then we, Peace Corps Volunteers, will do the sports and ARH training. When we first were thinking of this workshop we just wanted to do sports training, but realized we would need to couple it with an activity like First Aid to get it the credibility it needs to go ahead. So very cool that we are going to be able to do this, and it should definitely help the popularity and organization for baseball and Ultimate. Going to be a bit of work, but should be a very worthwhile workshop.
So as I said earlier I’m thinking now that I’m going to depart Vanuatu in August. I was thinking of extending for a few months to close around December, but I’m starting to realize it’s time for me to go soon. Two years is a long time to spend away from family, friends, and your culture. I’m also ready to move on to something new. I have really loved my time here, and I will miss this place when I’m gone, but come the middle of this year I’ll be about ready to go back.
My close of service date is in the end of June, but I think I’m going to extend this for about a month so I can tie up some loose ends with projects, see out the sports tournaments, and maybe run in the Round Island Relay again in the end of July. I’m thinking of then, after I finish my service in late July, spending a couple weeks on Ambae followed by returning to the US. I was thinking of traveling or working in Australia or New Zealand for a couple months after I got done, but now I’m thinking I’m just going to go back. I guess money is probably my biggest reason for wanting to go straight back. I don’t have a lot of it and I’m going to need it to get going again in the US. I’d also like to get back to the US in summer so I don’t freeze my ass off and road tripping will not have to be done through snowstorms.
I guess, generally, I’m thinking of heading back and while making stops (definitely some longer ones with family) along the way work my way West across the country back to California. I’m thinking Cali would be a good place to transition to life America again. I guess once I get back it’s back to work where I can find it and starting down the road of grad school (studying for the GREs, checking out schools, etc.). Many things are uncertain yet, but I’m thinking August is when I’m going back, and the rest I’ll be working on in the next few months. I’ll let you guys know when I have more direction or details of where I’m going to try to stop in the US during the time I plan on road tripping.
A lot to think about and I am just trying to enjoy my time here before I leave, and get a few trips in within Vanuatu. In the beginning of next month a bunch of volunteers and I are planning on going to Pentecost Island to check out the land diving that happens every year at this time. This big event is where local men dive off high towers held only by vines, fastened at their ankles. They do it to ensure a good yam harvest, and it is where bungee jumping originated from (only this is much cooler and more dangerous than bungee jumping). I’m also going to be going to Tanna when my sister, Hannah, comes and visits where we’ll see the exploding volcano and some other cool custom stuff.
But, right now I’m just doing my thing in the village. Working, fishing when I can, and chilling out. Most things are pretty easy going and you get frustrated at others. Like today I grabbed my mouse only to find that a rat had chewed on the scroll wheel. Kind of strange, a rat chewed on my mouse! Ha Ha right? A guy from Pele that now lives in Vila came here, and left behind a weight bar and weights for me and some of the local guys to use. So I built a weight bench out of local wood and an existing sitting bench, and I use smaller weights with the bar to make it a curl bar. For the last month I’ve been able to lift which is nice as something to do and good exercise. Some of the local guys get a kick out of “training” too as they call it. I’m just hoping that the guy from Vila won’t try to reclaim it any time soon. If he does I’ll try to work out a deal to rent it at least until I’m out of here.

(This is a picture of my neighbor, oldfala Tom, flexing)
So as I was writing the last part this big boat, the “Fresh Cargo” just arrived on my island. This boat just started servicing Vanuatu with trips around to some islands in the country. From what I gather they also want to do a little near-Vila tourism packages too, and have chosen my island as a possible site. So today about 30 or so tourists just landed here as part of a trial to see how things go. There is already a day tour in place here, but I think my village isn’t used to getting this many tourists at one time (usually it’s between 4-15 tourists). Best of luck to them.

(This is a picture of the Fresh Cargo landing on Pele)
I think I’m going to walk down towards the boat in a little while just to ask the people that run the boat about charters as we, some volunteers and I, are trying to find out the cheapest way to get to Pentecost in April. The Fresh Cargo came up as a possible option so I think I’ll find out how much they charge.
Other stuff going on…Last Thursday was the national holiday of Chief’s Day so the village put on a ceremony to recognize all the hard work that chiefs do in the village. So my papa, the paramount chief, and Marias, a smaller chief were on hand to receive the ceremony. It started with a church service, then we had a ceremony in the farea or meeting hall, followed by a kava ceremony and food. Now, I believe I’ve blogged before about how drinking kava during the day is not always the best, but I’ll explain again here. When you drink kava you don’t like loud noises (like kids screaming) or bright light (like the sun) so kava is usually enjoyed in the evening. Furthermore, kava can make you pretty tired after a few hours after drinking if you drink during the day, you might as well write off your evening. This is somewhat akin to starting boozing in the morning and being totally useless by about 5pm. OK, so all that being said, one might wonder why someone would drink kava during the day. Well, usually it happens to be part of a ceremony so that the end of the ceremony ends in the custom of drinking kava together. During Chief’s Day such a ceremony took place with kava being served at around noon. Watson made the kava and he happened to make some stuff that kicked the ass of my whole village. I drank a couple shells and felt it “kick” and had to go lay down for a bit. Some people ended up puking, but all who drank were stoned as hell. Naturally we were all worthless come evening and some guys went to go drink again and tried to get me to go, but I had my fair share for the day.
(Here’s me before the kava started whooping me)
It was a good ceremony though, and at one point the chiefs asked me to take a picture with them and their wives so I did and got a couple good shots. I actually got my mama and papa to smile in a picture too by telling them a joke.
(A picture of my mama and papa)

(The other chief, Marias, and his wife Monique)
Not a whole lot new otherwise I think it’s about time for a swim as it’s pretty hot here. I’ll try to write a new blog soon.

The boat ride to town today

2009-02-03T14:58:00.003+11:00

Today I jumped on the boat this morning to head into Vila. The sea was a little rough, but nothing worse than I've been on before. I jumped on with a trip headed to a wedding in Vila so the boat was packed with people and things for the wedding (mats, bananas, root crops, etc.) For those of you that have forgotten or may have just started reading my blog, transport boats here are small (about 12 feet long) and are usually powered by small outboard engines (about 25hp. When I say packed I mean about 14 people condensed onto a small boat.
So I get on the boat and we're motoring away for a few minutes when suddenly one of the mamas screams. There is a small snake coming out of the bananas. In Vanuatu there are only two land snakes, neither of which are poisonous, including this small Pacific boa. Ni-Vanuatu, however, are deathly afraid of any snake or lizard. Ok, back to the story, soon all the mamas and a few men are yelling and screaming and running side to side in this small boat. I was probably the only one realizing that this was causing the boat to jerk violently from side to side. It was pure pandemonium. I was really scared that we were going to capsize so I stood up and started yelling for people to calm down and sit down. I put my body between the snake and them and explained to them that it would not bite them. They eventually stopped running about, but were still screaming.
With all the mamas jammed to the front of the boat (snake in back) we made for shore to put the snake in the bush. A local guy and myself got the snake out and we were on our way. The mamas had fun imitating me directing orders at them to "stap kwaet" (sit down, chill out) after the event, during our boat trip. I had a good laugh with the guy next to me as we described how close we all were from getting tossed into the drink. Some of the guys on the boat were being jerks too and throwing pieces of hose and sticks on women and yelling snake. I wasn't very amused. Just another fun transport ride in Vanuatu.
After the snake thing we were motoring for a while when I noticed a small pod of dolphins off the side of the boat. For the rest of the trip we were in the company of three spinner dolphins which was awesome! They were catching a free ride on our light wake.
So short blog here. Just wanted to relay my unusual boat trip this morning.

New Zealand

2009-02-03T13:29:00.009+11:00

(Milford Sound)
So I am just getting back to site here after being away for about three weeks. We landed in Vila only to be met with some typical January Vanuatu weather: hot, humid, and rainy. I decided to stay an extra day in Vila to be there for a volunteer’s last kava before he headed back to the US. Briz, the volunteer departing after five years of service, is somewhat of a Peace Corps Vanuatu institution so it will be strange to not see him on my occasional visits to Vila. It was my first time drinking kava in almost a month and I was kind of ready for a shell or two.
The next day I was headed back to Pele. As I was pulling up to shore I saw my house was still standing (always a good thing), and was greeted warmly by people in my village. People kept asking me how long I had been gone as if some large chunk of time had elapsed. I had a few people guess I had been gone two months, and upon me correcting them (3 weeks) they were shocked. It’s nice to be missed.
Not much has changed here and very little news. One shocker was meeting my counterpart on shore. He had shed about 60lbs in the last few weeks. He got really sick while I was gone, and just a couple days ago went to the hospital and found out he has malaria. He has the appropriate meds now and says he’s feeling better. Charley is a big guy so it was really scary seeing him looking gaunt and fairly thin.
Yesterday was my first full day back at home. I finished unpacking things, and storied with people in the village. It rained almost the full day, and people have been saying that it has been raining the whole time I was gone. Glad I left for a bit. Going on vacation during January was no accident as the rain and nothingness drove me nuts last year.
So about the trip… New Zealand was awesome! We started out our trip flying in to Auckland and were greeted by beautiful weather, San Diego style, sunny, mid to high 70s that seemed to follow us for almost the entire trip around New Zealand. I felt a little overwhelmed at first by being in an actual city again. I found myself reading billboards and signs aloud as there was so much to look at. Liz had already got this out of her system as she had just been in the US for a few weeks, but I was a little bit like a fish out of water. A trip to the grocery store was strange as I wasn’t used to seeing so many options. Liz found me staring at the cheese isle, and helped usher me along. You really forget how many options for things you have in the Western world. My caveman syndrome didn’t last too long, and after a day or two I was more or less right back in the swing of things.
Auckland was pretty cool city. Doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of character to it, but there were good things to look at and some good food. I got my good beer, Mexican food, and sushi fix within the day and a half we spent there before traveling to Christchurch. We stayed at a backpacker hostel set in a park that was a quick walk from downtown. The accommodation and general traveler network and info. is amazing in New Zealand. It’s pretty cheap to stay in the backpacker hostels, and they’re kept up well. For the most part we had a nice room with a good size bed for about $35 a night. We mixed the hostel stays with camping which helped save on funds too. A few times we camped at hostels where they have sites for about $10, and you still get the full use of the facilities.
(Auckland, View from near the aquarium)

(A penguin meeting at the aquarium)

(Liz and friend)
After seeing the sites for a day and going to the aquarium (pretty cool but a little pricey for what it is) we jumped on our flight to go to Christchurch. We spent about a day and a half in Christchurch checking out stuff. We rented bikes one day and pedaled around town. The university contributes a lot to the feel of the city, and I liked this city (albeit smaller) more than Auckland. There are also a lot of late 19th century British buildings in the city which gives it some character.

(The Cathedral in central Christchurch)

(Biking around town)

(The beach in Christchurch)
After a full day in Christchurch we rented a car that would be our travel mode for the next two weeks. Driving on the left side of the road was pretty weird at first, but came natural after a few driving sessions. The hardest thing when first driving was judging your placement on the road, remembering you still had half a car on your left as you’re used to being on the left when driving. Some things were weird the whole time though. Liz and I both hit the windshield wipers many times when trying to signal. The knobs were reversed. Another thing that never felt right was seeing a car coming in the oncoming lane from behind a blind curve. Many times it felt like they were coming at you.
We first drove about two hours outside Christchurch to the Banks Peninsula. We did some hiking near a town called Akora and saw some cool views of the Akora sound (fiord maybe?) and the sea on the other side of the ridge. Plenty of sheep greeted us along the trail as it wound through a sheep rancher’s private land.

(View of Akora from our hike)

(On the other side of the ridge is the sea, behind us)
(Sheep and more sheep)
The town of Akora reminded me of a little summer lake town in the US complete with small ice cream and craft shops along its main drag. We camped at a great site about a twenty minute drive outside Akora where a river mouth meets another sound. The campsite consisted mostly of Kiwi families on vacation, and we were a small presence with our lone backpacking tent compared to the compounds some of these guys set up for their long stays.

(Our small tent in a large campsite, Liz modeling)
The place had a small zipline for the kids which looked like fun, but there where tons of kids on it so we didn’t get a chance to go on it. We were saying how something like that would never be allowed in the US. Some kid would hurt him/herself and here comes the lawsuit. We did the zipline that night after a few beers and a bottle of wine. Pretty fun.
From Akora we drove North on Highway 1 through sheep ranches and farmland in route towards a town on the East coast called Kaikoura. Driving along the way before you hit the coast it reminded me of northern California foothills. The scenery was very brown and dry. A little different than California though in that mountain ranges in the background rose steeply and fiercely unlike a gradual transition to the Sierras or California coastal mountains. In Kaikoura we ate great seafood on the beach and checked out a seal colony. There wasn’t a ton of seals (about 10), but you could get pretty close to them.
(Eating seafood on the beach)

(Me and a seal, looks like I just clubbed it)
From Kaikora we headed into Marlborough, wine country. We got a great suggestion from some Peace Corps friends and stayed in a hostel called The Grapevine in the small city of Bleinhem. It was a really nice place set on a creek, and very close to a lot of wineries. There are wine tours by bike offered by an outfit in Bleinhem, and we were going to do this until our friends told us that the hostel also loaned bikes for really cheap and gives you a map of local wineries. We arrived at the hostel at about 10am and the woman who ran the place set us up with a couple bikes, some suggestions, a map, and said we should be able to hit about 3 or 4 wineries.
We pedaled out towards our first winery on a beautiful sunny day. We both drink more red wine than white, but we had heard that this region is really famous for their white wines. Our first stop showed us how really good a white wine could be. We were both used to mostly boring Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc we had tried before, but these wines were spicy and the wineries we visited were using things like passion fruit and other citrus fruits that gave a lot of the wines a great flavor.
At our second stop of the day we tasted some wine and decided to get a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and an appetizer platter while reclining in their outdoor beanbag chairs. Very nice indeed!

(Liz and the nice view from Wither Hills Winery)
(Lounging in beanbag chairs at Wither Hills)

(Liz and friend among the vineyards)

(Down in the cellar)
We continued along tasting good wine as we went, and enjoying the day as we pedaled slowly through vineyard countryside. At our seventh winery (3-4 hah!) we had to call it quits as it was 5pm and the wineries were closing. We got two bottles from that place, one a delicious pinot noir, and headed back towards the hostel. Here we met a strong headwind that came out of nowhere and gave us a good workout getting back. We arrived to the hostel and lay on the bed for a few minutes before attempting anything else. We then made a great seafood pasta dinner and drank it a good bottle of wine purchased earlier. I sat here with a full belly staring out at the creek thinking, “What a great day!.”
After Bleinhem we headed North again along a scenic drive that wrapped a little of the Marlborough Sounds and then we headed West to Nelson to meet a couple Peace Corps friends, Laura and Mckenzie, who had been traveling in New Zealand for about five weeks. We met them, and exchanged stories of our travels thus far. They had been hitchhiking across the South Island and had a few good tales. We found a place to camp, and then set out to go try a local brewery. I had already sampled more than a few microbrews at different places, and was game for some more. We tasted some beer and left with our two liter plastic bottles of the beers we liked. I had never seen this before, but a few breweries in New Zealand let you come with your own two liter bottle and for a discounted price fill it up right off the tap.
(Laura and Me trying good microbrews)
Later we all went out to meet an American the two girls had met earlier in their travels at yet another microbrewery (I was in beer heaven after two years drinking only one kind of beer). We went out to a few bars, and Laura and Liz did a little Karaoke. The next day we all hung out for a bit before we parted ways (they were headed the opposite direction we were), and Liz and I drove up to Abel Tasman National Park in the Northwest. We arrived at our campsite at around 5pm, which meant we still had about five hours of daylight left to explore and hang out on the nice beach. It would seriously not get dark in New Zealand until about 10pm. It was crazy. The campsite we were at was great, and it allowed you to be able to day hike one of the best parts of the Abel Tasman backpacking trail.
The next morning we got up and did a long day hike that took us up to a hill lookout and then dropped us onto the coastal track for a few hours on the way back to our campsite. The coastal trail was pretty amazing. You would skirt cliffs and be on top of ridge lines with gorgeous views of the teal water beaches below and then go through tunnel like parts with dense ferns and old growth trees. The trail dropped you out on the golden beaches from time to time, and at around lunch time we stopped on a good one. We ate, lounged on the beach for a while, swam, jumped off some rocks, and after a while headed on our way again.

(View from the coastal trail)

(A cool rock outcropping on the trail)
After Abel Tasman we made our longest drive of the trip (about 6hrs) down the West Coast to Franz Josef Glacier. Even a longer drive like this was so easy as there was so much to look at along the way. Along the way we stopped and checked out the Pancake Rocks, which is a really cool rock formation set on the coast.

(The Pancake Rocks)
The West Coast was much wetter than the East and everything was green on our trip down the coast. As we drove towards Franz Josef the scenery reminded me of the Highway 101 drive in the redwoods of California. Sorry if there is a lot of California analogies here, but there were many times I almost felt like I could be in California. We arrived at Franz Josef and camped at a backpacker place there. When we arrived we got the bad news that there probably wouldn’t be glacier guided hikes the next day as it had been raining. Boo.
At Franz Josef we woke up later in the morning as we had heard they wouldn’t let people on the glacier only to find out now they were. However, we wouldn’t be able to get on a hike until later in the day. We decided instead to make the hike out to look at the glacier (and not actually get on it) as we had other stuff we wanted to do and another night spent in Franz Josef would make us rush too much through some later stuff. We were able to get pretty close to both the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers on easy walks. It is pretty impressive to be in a temperate, rainy place and be right near a river of ice. Supposedly, Argentina is the only other place in the world where you can do this.

(Franz Josef Glacier)
From the glacier areas we headed South to Wanaka, a small mountain town, for a night before heading into Queenstown. We liked this place a lot and decided we would come here on our way back too. We arrived in Queenstown, “The adventure capital of the world,” in the morning, and Liz headed off to go bungy jumping while I went for a hike that overlooked the city, the lake it’s on, and the sharp peaks that surround the city. I was going to watch Liz make the plunge, but they wanted to charge me a lot just to go watch. So she had a great time jumping off the 4th tallest bungy in the world while I was relaxing atop a large hill with a spectacular 360° view of the place.
The next morning we both went whitewater rafting just outside Queenstown on the Shotover River. It was a good day to be on the river with overcast skies, and the views inside the canyon were really something. We also wound through areas laden with abandoned gold mining equipment which was interesting and not unlike, in some ways, being in the Coloma area in California. The rapids were a little weak, but then again I think I have forever spoiled myself on rafting after my couple trips down the North Fork of the Salmon River in northern California. Those rapids on the Salmon really got the blood flowing. There were a couple good rapids on the Shotover, and we also went through a tunnel only to be met, when exiting the tunnel, with a wave of water that rocked the boat and doused us (the best part of the trip).
After our rafting trip we drove South to the Fiordland. As we started getting closer to Milford Sound (misnamed, it’s really a fiord) sheer rock faces rose quickly from the scenery with countless waterfalls pouring down their sides. This area gets some astronomical amount of rain each year. As we were coming closer to the fiords the rain had stopped and misty clouds were hanging among the mountains. Before we entered the Homer Tunnel, a mile long hole blasted through a mountain, we pulled over to the side of the road to admire the steep cliffs and snow capped peaks.
When we got out of the car we noticed that the tourists pulled over next to us were out snapping shots of a large sized bird. This bird, an alpine parrot called the kea, was very friendly, and was following these people around. The tourists left, and then the keas started to follow us, jumping on our car and checking us out. They’re really cool looking birds: brown with a sharply decurved bill and green and orange colors on their flanks and the undersides of their wings that present themselves while the kea is in flight. We admired the birds for a bit, and decided it was time to go, and when we started towards the car one jumped on the roof and started poking his head inside the car. “Are these birds going to let us leave?” The kea got distracted and started pulling at the rubber around the windshield so we were able to get inside the car. He eventually flew off and we were able to start towards the tunnel.

(Our friend the kea)

(The kea on our car with a nice background behind)
Supposedly these birds are very intelligent and are a bit of a nuisance as they use their strong bills to tear up all kinds of things. In fact, one of Liz’s friends was biking through New Zealand a couple years ago and fell victim to these birds. He locked his bike up for the night only to return to find his tires eaten away. When he asked some locals they replied nonchalantly that the birds must have got it. Little bastards!
So we headed through the Homer Tunnel which was a little eerie as the lights in the tunnel were off as we were not going through the one lane tunnel during peak time. We only realized the tunnel had lights upon returning two days later. “Don’t you think the tunnel is a lot brighter than before?”

(The light at the end of the Homer Tunnel)
We set up our camp and went to get a peek at the Milford Sound. It was pretty foggy, but we could still see that this was a very special place.
The next morning we woke up early and were picked up to go on our guided kayak tour of the sound. As we were getting outfitted we learned the wrath of the sandfly. Those things suck (no pun intended). They bite into you for blood, and like to get in weird areas like the folds of your ears. Once we got on the water they weren’t bad though. There were five two-man kayaks all told and we were split into two groups, each with a guide. Our guide was really good and was full of interesting natural history info on the area.
Our first stop was to get really close to a big waterfall and feel the spray coming off of it. We then skirted around the sound checking out all kinds of stuff along the way. We saw a lot of fur seals continually rolling on their sides (supposed to aid in digestion). We got an unexpected glimpse at a Fiordland penguin which shocked the guide. He had just got done telling Liz and me that the penguins aren’t around this time of year after we had asked our chances of encountering one. He was shocked and said he hadn’t seen one in a few months. This little guy was very fat and having a hard time getting down the rocks into the water. It was so cool to see a penguin in the wild, and we got to watch little fatty for at least 10 minutes. Other things we saw were more birds, a wild bonsai tree, and a crazy fern that looks like a lobed-leaf plant.

(Our fat buddy)
By far the best part of the Milford kayaking was the beauty and serenity of the place. It had been raining before we started kayaking, but while we kayaked it was fairly clear with clouds hanging high on the peaks that wrapped the glacier-carved fiord. The water was very calm and glassy at times, and we had very little wind to contend with. Sometimes we’d paddle up to a rock face that shot up a couple thousand feet in the air and just look up. Amazing! We had a snack lunch in the middle of the sound (fiord), and as we were doing so the sun poked in a bit, and some of the clouds moved away that had obscured the tops of the surrounding mountains like Mitre Peak.

(Milford Sound)
On the way back in Liz and I half surfed a wake wave from a fishing boat coming to port. I say half because we caught the momentum of the wake, but weren’t entirely on the wave the whole time. After the kayak trip we returned to the lodge and had a lazy day as the rain was really coming down.
From the Milford area we headed back to Wanaka to stay a night in a nice backpacker hostel that overlooked the lake and town. We then went to go see a movie at the local theatre, which we tried to do the first time through Wanaka, but the show was sold out. This theatre was called Cinema Paradiso, the name taken from a great Italian indy film I really liked when I was younger.
(Cinema Paradiso!)
This theatre was really cool as all the seats in the small, one-theater building were couches, and there was even a gutted old 40s car that people could sit in. They also sold local beer, homemade ice cream, and many other great refreshments that made this theatre really stand out from the rest. The next day we set out early to return to Christchurch. Had we more time we would have explored the Southeast part of the South Island too in such places as the Catlains, the Otago Peninsula, and Dunedin, but we were short on days. As it was we saw a lot for two and a half weeks.
Our return to Christchurch in the afternoon coincided with the Busker Festival, a large gathering of street performers, so we checked it out. We went to a performance held in courtyard of the local university. For a couple bucks we saw a few hours of great comedic performances by unicyclists, jugglers, prop comedians, and acrobatics from a flexible, portable balance beam supported on the shoulders of two guys.
The following morning we flew back to Auckland and went to the Seafood Festival that was going on that day. There was some good food to be had, but the venue was a little small. Later that evening we had sushi again as it would be the last time in a while for us to get good sushi. The next morning we were back in Vanuatu. As we lined up in the residents’ line the string band was playing. We did a bit of string band dancing while in line, and one woman in front of us motioned that we were in the wrong line thinking we were tourists. We had a good laugh over that one. That lady must not get out much outside of Vila as she should know we were doing the appropriate ni-Vanuatu style string band dance.
That was our trip in a nutshell. There’s plenty of stuff I missed, but those were the highlights. I had a great time and I definitely will be back some day.
Hmm… so…. back in the village. I was going to pull some weeds in my overgrown garden this morning, but then my sister Hannah called and we had a good chat. She is about to buy her tickets to come see me in May and I’m very excited. It’ll be awesome to show her my village and some Vanuatu culture. We’re also planning on going down to Tanna (erupting volcano, plenty of culture, cargo cults), something I’ve been waiting to do until someone came to visit.

More Goings On

2008-12-24T08:41:00.001+11:00

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

2008-12-24T08:35:00.001+11:00

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

2008-09-20T16:45:00.007+11:00

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

2008-09-07T17:20:00.004+11:00

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

2008-09-07T16:27:00.006+11:00

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

2008-09-07T15:44:00.008+11:00

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.

Fourth Of July

2008-07-13T08:57:00.005+11:00

So I'm just getting back from my trip up to Ambae Island for a little vacation and Fourth of July celebration. The top picture is the 4th gang. This was actually an Ambae Volunteer picture, but Dom and I decided to poke our heads in it as a joke. The other picture is Tim and two guys from his village throwing up the USA. I started out my trip by flying to the East part of Ambae Island and meeting some friends in the provincial center of Saratamata. Its a pretty well developed place and our friend Steve, a UN volunteer, has a nice set up complete with fridge and generator (flashy items in Vanuatu). We drank, storied on, and ate at the local restaurant.
The following day I got on a truck to meet Liz, Alyssa (Peace Corps Vols), and Jen, a British volunteer in the North. Dominique and Tim stayed in Saratamata because the weather wasn't too nice. Our plan as to hike to the top of Manaro, Amabae's active volcano, and check out the crater lakes up there. After I met the girls in a village near the ocean, we hiked up a road that looked like a 3 mile long golf fairway to reach the last village on the way to the volcano.
When we reached the village there wasn't a person to be seen and we spent a while walking around the ghost town looking for signs of life and direction on which way to the bungalow. We eventually found a couple people that showed us to the bungalow and we relaxed a bit as they set up our room for the night. Evidently the whole village was down the hill at a 100 day observance of a death. I checked out some of the birds in the area as the area around the bungalow is well known for birding. I saw one new bird, a cardinal myzomela, a brilliant red bird, and heard a few birds that I hadn't heard before. The girls relaxed, having just made a big hike from the West of Ambae to the North a couple days before and were already well blistered and banged up. As night fell we arranged our guide for the next day, drank a little kava, ate, and nodded off.
The whole night it rained and we awoke to a soppy scenery around the bungalow. We were hopeful though as we could see some sunlight coming in and the rain had stopped. We ate breakfast, including hot sugar water (they were out of tea), grabbed the lunches a mama packed for us, and hit the trail.
The trail was cleared but nothing like what you would think of as a trail in the US. I think in the US we take for granted how nice our trails are maintained. You've got switchbacks and debris cleared and signs and devices to control water flow and erosion. Vanuatu: No gat. In Vanuatu trails are A to B. If you need to get to the top of the hill you don't zig zag. You shoot straight to the top. Also, in Vanuatu there are no such things as trails, only roads. Now there's all types of roads: Cement roads in Vila, Dirt truck roads, and then footpaths that are still called roads even if they sharply resemble goat trails. So we were on the latter road going to the top.
The road was muddy as all hell, and pretty steep. The weather didn't clear up and we got rained on for a good couple hours. After hiking for about 3 hours at a pretty good speed I asked our guide if we'd hit the halfway point yet as it seemed like we were making some serious progress. No not yet. I probably shouldn't have shared the news with the ladies as they were sure we had at least gotten half way so far. So we kept charging uphill for another 3 hours or so until we reached a crossroads where we could decide what crater lake we wanted to go to. We then proceeded to cross over countless steep drainages in an up and down rollercoaster ride for an hour and a half.
As we approached the area near the lake it got real quiet. There weren't any birds calling and the air was real calm and cool. According to Ambae custom when you die the god Takaro grants you permission to go to Manaro's Lake Vui and dance eternally. Supposedly you must have the road to Manaro tattooed on you so that Takaro will accept you into this afterlife of dancing on Manaro.
We started to smell the sulfur that comes out of the vent in the center of Lake Vui and arrived on the rim of the lake. Problem was that it was so foggy we couldn't see the lake below. The setting around the lake was pretty cool though as there were a bunch of burned trees along the ring of this lake. We ate lunch, laughed at our misfortune at not being able to see anything, and headed back. This picture is Jen, Alyssa, and Liz on the rim of the lake cold, tired, and slap happy.

The descent from the volcano took a good 5 hours and we were hiking by headlight for the last hour or so. towards the end we were finding it hard to pick up our feet but kept charging. Justin, our guide, was telling me custom stories on the way down. It was pretty cool until I hit a point later on the descent where I was too tired to keep up with the stories. Evidently, a couple years ago there were some people that had to be carried down ffrom the volcano because they flat out ran out of gas and couldn't move anymore.

We made it down to the village, paid our bill, and took turns taking pulls of whiskey from my flask. Steve, Dom, and Tim were waiting for us at the village with a truck they booked for us to go back to Saratamata. We arrived in Saratamata and enjoyed a couple cold beers and chicken wings and rice at the restaurant. All of us were walking a little funny, but I think Alyssa took the cake with her bowlegged cowboy walk.

We were supposed to leave the next day for Tim's village in the South, but the road was impassable by truck as the creeks flash flood during rainstorms. The next day we were clear to go and the 12 of us piled into the truck. We had to get out of the truck at the creek crossings as some were pretty hairy. Jackie, the oldest volunteer in Vanuatu at 72, was sitting shotgun in the truck with Justine's small dog Stu (short for stupid). Unfortunately for Jackie, Stu felt ill and puked all over her and the truck during the trip. Jackie took it quite well but said that she doesn't think the truck well ever smell good again.

We got to Tim's village in the South and entered an area of Ambae that is very different from the West or East. Most houses are made of local materials and they haven't received the development that other areas of the island have. In many ways they are looked upon as the backwoods portion of the island. But, at the same time their kastom is a lot stronger than other areas so it was really cool to check out and story with the locals.

Tim's whole village became a mud pit with all the rain so we spent most of our time either in Tim's big house (built by a Japanese aid agency many years ago) or down in the nakamal area. We were well entertained by the two puppies, Stu and Boiler (named for a sore he had on his neck when he was about a week old) tirelessly fighting in the house.

For the Fourth of July we paid for a cow and ate tons of beef for a couple days. For $10 each we split a cow among 12 people. Steve had brought his generator and speakers from Saratamata too so we enjoyed good food, plenty of liquor, and music for a great party. Tim's village made a ceremony for us in the evening and we all feasted with the village. This is a picture of us all lined up for the ceremony and our salu salus around our necks.

Once the ceremony was finished Steve put on Shrek 3 for the village via a projector on the outside wall of Tim's house. This I'm sure will give Steve god-like status and fables told about him for years to come.

On the days surrounding the 4th almost all of us got kastom tattoos as guys in Tim's village still know how to work them. Ambae is one of the only islands that used to tattoo as part of their kastom. Most people have the road to Manaro tattoo. Also, it used to be kastom to tattoo girls from head to toe when they were still babies. There are still a few very old women in a neighboring village that have such intricate tattoos. Everyone in our group got the "Road to Manaro" tattoo which looks like two dark lines, and we're all looking forward to the time where we'll be getting down with our bad selves on Manaro in the afterlife. This is a picture of Bob doing mine on my calf.

They use dye from a purple plant in the area mixed with ash and water. Then the "needle" is a thorn from an orange tree. They have to hold the thorn a certain way so that the thorn just barely goes into the skin, yet enough to get the ink in. Its kind of like a rhythmic motion that is a series of small pokes to form the line. It hurts but the pain isn't unbearable by any means.

Once the 4th Festivities were finished and we rested for a day Me, Tim, Liz, and Jen hiked from the South to Liz's village in the West. It was a pretty long hike (about42km) and there were some great views of the ocean and hills from steep cliffs and beautiful black sand beaches that we crossed. Tim's dog, Boiler, is a champion as the three-month dog walked the whole way and only had to be picked up three times for very brief rests. Tim fell and knocked his knee pretty well on a creek crossing which means dirty blong ear in local language (basically slippery as ear wax). He was holding the dog so he sacrificed the knee. Luckily it wasn't so bad he couldn't keep walking.

Once we got to Liz's village she treated us to mac&cheese her mom had sent her from home. A great treat after a long hike. The following day Tim and I taught the kids at Liz's school how to play kickball as Tim had been sent a real kickball from home. The kids loved it and we had a great time playing and teaching it. Tim, in his gimpy state, was not playing, but coaching/umping a few steps down the first base line from home plate. In a moment of pure intellect Tim was staring out into the field while a girl fouled off a ball directly into his crotch from a whole 3 feet away. He dropped to the ground and a good 100 or so adults and kids in the area were doubled over laughing at his expense. Some things like crotch shots are just universally funny.

We hung out in the well-developed West for a couple days and just relaxed. It was great. The West has a lot of money as many prominent politicians have come from that area. Its definitely a stark contrast from the South.

After a few days in the West, sadly it was time to go and I got on the plane to depart for Vila. It was a great vacation and a really cool, different way to celebrate the Fourth. I think I'm going to try to get back to Ambae again some time. Maybe camp up on Manaro for a couple of days and actually see the crater lakes.

This picture got put in out of order but its a towel Steve got at a Chinese store before coming out for the Fourth. Tim is proudly displaying it with some people from his village in the foreground.

The Big Game

2008-05-29T08:24:00.003+11:00

So I think where I was leaving off on my last blog was the inter-village baseball game that was held in the end of April. Well I’ll just say it went great. The team from Ekipe Village (Javi’s village) was trucked in to face the Vila team on Vila's turf and Ekipe brought about 30 fans with them. The day had started out with pretty crappy weather (a lot of rain) so we were wondering if we’d even get a game going.
Kevin George, our country director, has been playing with a few of the kids on the Vila team for about five years so there are definitely a few of those guys that could play pretty well. However, I still had my money on the Ekipe team as Javi has been playing with those kids quite a bit in the last six months. Also Javi plays with his team a couple times a week versus Kevin’s once a week. And, Ekipe has enough kids to play to field three teams so real games happen when they play.
The Ekipe team was the first to arrive on the scene and had already warmed up with Javi for a while when I got there. All of the team members had blue shirts on with a big “E” on the front. Most of the Ekipe team were about 12 years old and not really any big kids in the bunch. When the Vila team showed up the Ekipe team was a little terrified. Most of the kids were around 13 or 14 and there were a couple pretty big kids on the team. Javi tried to calm his team down and tell them to stop looking at how big they were. The Vila team had their own shirts as well that Kevin had printed for them. It looked like a real baseball game was ready to go. Kevin provided the gloves as he has enough for one team that he uses with his kids and the two teams shared gloves. I hijacked a ply board from the MPA to use as a score board and yes I returned it later.
I was umpiring the show and opened up with a little toktok on sportsmanship and safety along with some basic rules. The field was pretty sloppy from the earlier rain and I was a little worried about kids sliding all over the place and even more the old bat-slipping –out of –the-hands and into the crowd. Michael Jones, a volunteer in his 50s, came out to be the second base ump. He also provided harmonica music in between innings which was a great substitute for the not-possible melodic organ. Kevin was to pitch for his Vila team, and Javi was pitching for his Ekipe team. I belted out a “Play Ball” and we were on our way.
Ekipe was up first and managed to score two runs on a few well-placed hits. They didn’t hit hard but they ran fast and almost all of them could hit. Vila got in 3 runs in the bottom of the first as they had some kids that could really spank the ball. Also, I think the Ekipe team was a little rattled yet, playing such big kids. Ekipe countered with a 3-run second inning continuing with their small ball and capitalizing on some errors by Vila. Then Ekipe held Vila to just one run in the bottom of the second. I was pretty amazed by some of the know-how of the Ekipe team with things like outfielders always hitting second base on the throw to the infield.
The game had a little bit of a Little League atmosphere with parents giving instructions to their kids from the sidelines. Only difference was these parents really didn't know what type of advice to give as they didn't know much about the sport. Wait maybe that is like Little League hmmm..... Also both Javi and Kevin were getting into it and showing their disagreement with a few calls. At one point the ringer for Kevin's team got the last out in one inning but happened to be up first in the next inning. Whether accident or no it wasn't going to be allowed and I almost missed it. Javi was on to Kevin's tricks (or mistake?) though and pointed it out. I was making calls against both my boss and a good friend and their teams. Hard but fun at the same time. I will say that I didn't play favorites for either team as I really just wanted to see a good game.
The third inning proved to be an offensively productive inning for both sides as Ekipe scored 4 runs to Vila's 3. There was one kid on the Vila team that got in-the-park homers two out of the three times he was up in the game. In about the middle of the third inning we got a huge downpour and had to have a small rain delay. Unfortunately we didn't have any historic Cub moments to show during that time. During our rain delay we also had the men's rugby team, that was practicing nearby, move onto our field. Javi and I had to go out and make a compromise on field use once the rain had stopped.
Play started again and at the end of 4 we had a real nail biter on our hands: Ekipe 10 to Vila 9. Kevin, Javi, and I had a small conference to discuss how many more innings we were going to play as the sun was going down quickly and the rugby players were not keeping their end of the bargain in observing where they were supposed to stop. We agreed for one more inning as the score was pretty close and it would be a good place to stop.
In the top of the Fifth the small ball offense of Ekipe got it going again along with some assistance from a string of walks by Kevin. Ekipe managed in 3 runs to put them on top by 4. In the bottom of the fifth and Vila's last ups they got same base runners aboard and scored a run but then racked up 2 outs quickly. I was trying to get them into rally mode and there was a lot of cheering going on. The entire Ekipe cheering section was lined up on the third base line and I had to get them to take a few steps back, not wanting a loose bat to fly down the line.
Two outs, with runners on first and second a ball was hit to the shortstop who then threw to third. The third baseman put the tag on Brandon, Kevin's kid, before he reached third. Immediately the Ekipe cheering section rushed the field, but what people didn't see in the confusion was that the ball came out of the third baseman's glove after the tag. Brandon then walked off without touching third base so I had no call to make. The play was still live. With all those people rushing the field and not a single dissenter on what had happened I decided to let it go. I wasn't going to tell Brandon to get back on base too. That's his team's job. Then...suddenly I heard over my shoulder, "The ball came out! The ball came out!" This was Kevin shouting and I had to agree with him, dreading doing so with all of the Ekipe fans celebrating. I agreed the ball came out but said that Brandon still hadn't touched third. So Brandon went to third and I called him safe, explained what had happened, and probably made some Ekipe fans pretty mad but heh that's baseball.
So the next kid up as Brandon was now safe at third ran up a full count and was fouling pitches off left and right. Then Javi threw a belt-high strike that caught the corner of the plate, the batter didn't swing, and I had to pull the string. Ekipe won 13 to 10.
So how about that? I managed to probably piss off both teams in a matter of about 5 minutes. Calling a play back for one team and killing a two-out, possible game tying rally with a looking strike call. It definitely made me feel like an umpire though. Nobody loves you when you're umpiring. That's why all the umps eat and drink so much. No love and booze and excessive eating fills the void.
After the game all the kids shook hands and gave "Good Games" followed by a hot dog roast for all the players. We all had a really great time and I think the best quote of the day came from Kevin who said, "I've been waiting five years for this." Javi and I then joined a couple other volunteers for a couple beers at a local nakamal. A very good day indeed.
There are plans for a rematch to be held in Ekipe in about a month and I'll be sure to blog about that as well. Javi submitted a short story to the local paper and the game got published in it. I have yet to see the article but will have to see it soon. The inter-village game was a big step for our program and we were glad to see it go so well. We were also very proud to make it happen before Kevin's service as country director ends this July. He has helped us quite a bit with the project and is also very passionate about baseball.
That's about it for the game been pretty occupied with other stuff lately and I'm sorry these blogs have taken a while to get up. Hopefully a new one will follow this one soon.
By the way check out the side of my blog here as I added links to a couple other Peace Corps Vanuatu volunteers blogs that you should check out. Hopefully I'll add some more when I find out who else has blogs. See ya..............

Busy Busy

2008-05-26T16:57:00.004+11:00

(written in mid-April and tried to get the blog up a few weeks ago but this site doesn't like Vanuatu. I'll try to get a new blog up here in a couple days as I'll be in town)

So I realize its been a while since I’ve blogged and I apologize that I’ve not been communicating lately. Our solar regulator blew out and we had to fix our system, but we’re back in business now. I’ve been into Vila here and there, but have not had time to sit and write. Much easier to blog out at site. Can't tell you how glad I am to have power again. It makes work, communication easier and I can have music again! Phew!
Here’s some of the stuff that’s been going on:
Work
Hmm…where to start? Works been pretty busy lately. The MPA is giving a environmental awareness every couple of weeks so that has kept me busy finding material for them. Participation and community support has really been crap lately (last few months) so we have a meeting at the end of the month with all the chiefs and chairmen of all the Nguna and Pele villages to discuss these issues. We’ll see what happens. We’ve also been going back and forth trying to get the boat mooring stuff ( provided in the grant we're carrying out) squared away. When the grant was written about two years ago we had equipment more capable of carrying out the task of constructing yacht moorings. We finally opted to build moorings for local boats and dive boats. Much easier and more needed for conservation and tourism purposes than yacht moorings.
A lot of time is spent running around to different villages and reminding people to do things they know they should be doing. It can be very tiring at times and just reinforces how much this program is held together by volunteers at times. A couple weeks ago I hijacked some kids bike because I didn’t feel like walking to two nearby villages for the third time to tell them to write a simple letter to the MPA as this was now the deadline for the letters. I did ask the kid that was riding the bike in my village if I could use it even though I knew it belonged to some other kid in the village I was going to. So I pedaled my ass off down the road inviting laughs by passing villagers (you know giant white man on a little kids bike, pretty funny right?). I got to the last village, grabbed the letters, and started pedaling out of town and heard some kid in the distance yelling something. I thought, Probably the owner yelling. Not going to hang around to find out, I’m outta here!, and pedaled back to my village and returned the bike. It was the first time I rode a bike in over a year and it made me miss my bike and general ease of transport.
O.K. so if I didn’t have to make sure the activities in the grant were carried out I would not be running all over the place checking up on people and such, but without me doing these things they just wouldn’t get done at the speed the grant requires them to be done. I’ll be better off around the end of August when the grant is over with and I can get more into the programs and projects I want to do.
One thing I'd like to have more time to do is work on the Universe Blong Yumi that I started before but haven’t had time for lately. I am slowly cranking away at the library/ rechargeable battery project and we should be surveying households very soon to get a good idea of the scope and direction of the project. I’m also working on trying to get some kind of standardized Vanuatu bird and coconut crab surveys going (you know the type of thing I actually went to school for and am more passionate about than marine science). Also the individual village conservation management plans project has been on the back burner as of late too, but I would like that to change as I see them as very important. Last but not least I am trying to get a two island-wide waste management program including things like separating trash and composting going.
Reef Check, etc.
A couple of weeks ago the Nguna-Pele MPA hosted a Reef Check Workshop to teach locals how to carry out Reef Check, an international, standardized, and locally appropriate way of surveying reef ecosystem health. The workshop went very well and two Reef Check teams (one on Nguna and one on Pele) were formed. At the end of the workshop participants were given gifts by their workshop host families. You go up and shake hands with them and they give you a gift. Typical gifts that you receive are woven mats and baskets (what I got). Ismael from my village was given a live chicken! The guy just handed it to him and I had no idea that’s what happened as he was behind me in line and the chicken was very quiet. Once in a while the chicken would pipe up during the rest of the closing ceremony. Very funny to say the least.
Forming these Reef Check teams and carrying out these surveys is one of my projects here so it’s good to see it rolling along. Nguna’s team has already made one survey and Pele should make one this week. My hope is that even in the event of a future collapse of the MPA organization each island will still have reef surveying groups that are rather independent of the MPA. I guess that fail safe is in a lot of my projects as I am not hopeful for the future of the MPA. The two islands have trouble at times even coming together for chief and church session meetings. So when you take an organization that’s basis, conservation, is much lower priority than the afore mentioned groups and couple that with a history of over-dependence on volunteers and foreign aid, the outlook can be a little bleak.
My main goal here is to do as much with conservation without the work necessitating long-term MPA involvement. It can be tricky at times because I can’t outright quit working with the MPA as that would induce ill feeling towards me and I can’t separate myself from being a MPA volunteer in local people’s minds. Working more with villages to get them to conserve for themselves should really be what the MPA is about, and the MPA would be there to give small assistance or advice when obstacles are encountered. As it is now many villages rely too much on the MPA as a do-all agency and this just isn’t possible financially and more importantly human resource-wise.
So in short I try to help the MPA with organizational support (as it needs it) but my main focus is to get individual villages to take responsibility for their own conservation plight yet encourage villages to work together, although not necessarily through the MPA medium. This area (Nguna and Pele) has a lot of potential and knowledge for initiating conservation programs but they and I by association are fighting an uphill battle to make them happen as it was mostly paid staff and volunteers (MPA) that did these things previously.
My Birthday
In other news Dom moved to Vila about a month ago is enjoying her new job in Disaster Management. I think she’s glad she’s free of the MPA when she hears my new batch of gripes when I come in to Vila. For my birthday she threw a small party at her new house. We had a great time drinking homebrew, eating a delicious pot roast Dom made, and just chilling out with friends. It's something you don’t have a whole lot of opportunities to do in the Peace Corps and its nice when you do. We had a plan to go out to a night club later but we were all content just hanging out. One of the things I miss the most about home is that corner bar or pub where good friends gather. Here, even in Vila, there isn’t such a place that really has that feel. A few skeezy ex-pat bars and a few nightclubs is most of the scene. For the most part socializing in Vila is done in nakamals (kava bars), Vila vols’ houses, and the volunteer resource center.
While I’m on the topic of my birthday I want to thank you guys that sent packages. I now have two gloves and can play catch on the island (Thanks Uncle Rick! and Mom&Dad). I also now have a bunch of DVDs to watch at site (Thanks Uncle John). Lastly my theory of how well cigars would go with kava was right on the mark (Awesome Dad! Thanks). Let’s not forget plenty of other great things received like girl scout cookies, candy, 2008 baseball book, etc. Life is rough sometimes!
So my birthday marks about the 1 year mark in Vanuatu! A year ago on the 11th I was dropped off by my brother, sister, and brother-in-law in Los Angeles to begin my journey. Man, it seems like a long time ago. It was a great send-off last year as the day before I was dropped off we were drinking Dos Equis and smoking Cuban cigars on a sunny deck in Tijuana, Mexico. I get a lot of people here giving me shit about doing so the day before I was to report. They don’t understand. I guess you have to have lived in San Diego to realize its no big deal (the Tijuana police bribe money was in the sock).
New Volunteers
So my birthday was the one year mark, but what really made it feel like one year was greeting the new volunteers that came in on the 12th at the airport. That was us one year ago! I picked up some party noise blowers at the grocery store and distributed them to some current volunteers. So anyway we were loud and obnoxious the whole ride to the airport and at the airport. We all went up to the open air observation deck to greet and yell, honk at the new group getting off the plane. Dom and I climbed up on the railing which caught the eye of the country director. He looked at us and we shrugged our shoulders. He looked back the other way and a few seconds later, in his diplomatic tone, said, “You know guys they’re probably is a rule against that here.” We laughed and got down. “Probably” is the best way to put it. There may not be rules against such things even at the international airport. Gotta love this place.
So the new group seems to have some good people within it. Some of the guys from our group pledged that we’d be more open to the new volunteers than some old vols were to us when we came in. When we got here some acted like they were better than us based on experience in the country and had a very negative attitude on certain things. Total fraternity-type bullshit held over from years passed of circular old volunteer bully syndrome. Our thinking is, This is the Peace Corps: you are taking a huge step to be here in the first place, your nerves are splayed wide open emotional wreck-style, and the last thing you need is the cold shoulder. Yeah you get jaded after being here a while and newbies seem naive as they first come in, but that was you too a year, or two ago.
So we stayed upbeat and interested when asked different questions by incoming volunteers over the new group’s first kava. Over dinner that night Amanda from our group made the comment, “Wow you guys look so clean! (sincerely amazed) Your guys’ skin seems so soft looking and your bodies aren’t marked with scars.” Pretty funny and true as we all have some good scars, especially on the feet.
The next day we invited the new group to come out to Hideaway Island with us (Me, Dom, and Steve) as we were going diving anyway. It’s a good area to hang out and snorkel too so they did that while we went diving and then we hung out with them later. On the way back to town Steve even bought a few members of the new group, riding in our taxi, a round of beers at the Saloon.
So hitting the 1 year mark definitely makes you reflect a bit. What have I done so far and plan to do yet? What have I failed to do? What next after next year?
One of my big failed to dos is writing in the journal. I wrote in it a few times when I first got here, but I feel blogging is more fun. One draw back is I obviously don’t put some of more frustrating things of the job in here and there are some things not appropriate for a blog. But, I do email some of those at times and others I will fill your ears with next year. One thing I’ve been trying to do is write down little blurbs when funny or interesting things happen so I remember to blog about them or email them. Speaking of writing another failure is writing physical letters. I’ll try to get on that one, but I’ve never been great at that one. So sorry to any of you who aren’t feeling loved. Doesn’t mean I don’t love ya, just lazy that’s all. I know, what a jerk right?
I think I’ll leave out the what have I done so far and plan to do as that’s all over my blog entries and would be repetitious… boring.
What after Peace Corps? Hmm…. I’m thinking grad school and hopefully will start studying for the GREs soon. I would like to work for a little bit before I jump straight into school though. Kicking around a few ideas: grabbing a federal job with the vet’s preference we get, trying to get a seasonal wildlife job in New Zealand or PNG before I get back, working a wildlife tech job somewhere in Latin America, Alaska?, back to Chicago or some big city? Working on it guys…..
Baseball
So I missed watching opening day of baseball for the first time in a long time. Made me a little sad. Should be able, again, to watch some games via satellite when I’m in Vila though. Everybody’s picking the Cubs to win the Central again, but where does that get them with ferocious teams like Boston and Detroit out there. We’ll see…I think it should be an interesting season though.
This weekend I am umpiring the first ever inter-area baseball game in Vanuatu. Javier’s Ekipe team will be playing our country director, Kevin’s Vila team. I think the Vila team is in it for a spanking as Javier plays a lot with those Ekipe guys. They asked me to ump as they both feel they might show favoritism toward their team. Kevin even had shirts printed for his team. I called Javier today and gave him the head’s up on Kevin’s t-shirt thing so at least the Ekipe kids can try to all wear the same color and limit the intimidation factor. It should be really fun and there will be a barbecue following the game. I’ll try to have someone take some pictures for us.
This game should be the first of hopefully many to come and we plan on using it as publicity for the sport. We’re going to send the story and pictures to the local papers. We’re still looking for ways to get equipment shipped to us as we have found some donors. Got a couple new leads on piggy backing on American shipping containers though. Will let you guys know how that pans out. Also, the football field in my village is actually, yet slowly, being cleared so hopefully we’ll be playing ball soon. I’m also going to start teaching/playing ball at a nearby school at one of the Headmaster’s request. It’s a small field but its worth starting the teaching of the game.
Javier and I are also really excited about a new North Efate Primary Schools Sports Association (NEPSSA) that just started up recently pretty much independent of us and wants to work with us regarding trainings and tournaments. This is exactly the kind of outlet we have been looking for to boost our program. We also plan on working with the already existent South Efate equivalent (SEPSSA) and the Efate Secondary Schools Sports Assoc. (ESSSA). We are both trying to squeeze time in for the sports project when we can as it is both of our secondary projects and both of our primary projects are in full gear now. It helps to have two people working on it though and Javier and his wife Krissy will be moving to Vila in June so we will have a lot better access to a lot of organizations both in-country and outside with them being in Vila.
Killing Time
So for the last two months it has been raining like crazy. We had close to a month of nonstop rain (breaks here and there but it rained everyday). Kind of like Humboldt County but at least in Arcata you can go and do indoor type things. Here: No gat! People pretty much stay in their houses and hang out which is cool, but the new conversation material runs out very quickly. Especially when you know that you and the rest around you really haven’t been doing much of anything because its raining. I had a week where I successfully killed about 6 books. I read East of Eden for the first time and really liked it. Read Metamorphosis by Kafka for the first time. Interesting. One of my favorites so far though has been The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys by Chris Fuhrman. If you haven’t read this yet I highly recommend it. Its very funny and made me think quite a bit of the trouble my friends and I used to get into in around the middle school years. Reading Guns, Germs, and Steel now as I put it down when trying to read it a few years ago.. I think before I was in school and it too closely resembled a text book, but I’m really enjoying it now.
One of the nice things about Peace Corps is that friends discuss books a lot and trade them kind of like a big book club. Although there are some book hoarding bastards in the outer islands that form their own regional libraries. There’s good books out there that nobody’s reading. Why they don’t bring them into the PC library I don’t know? There are some good books that come in though and that is usually my first stop when I get into the PC Resource room. There is also a ton of crap congesting the shelves, and yes I’m sure some people read it so I’ll leave that to them.
Some vols and I have been talking about how nice it would be if some of the bigger publishers would donate classics to Peace Corps libraries around the world. Once in a while you encounter a classic that you’ve never read before and its cool to have the time to read it. Whatever education tract you were on growing up you only read a portion what are deemed classics. Most of us don’t have time in our busy Western lives to go back and read the one’s we missed. Although… In Peace Corps you have such an opportunity, yet the PC libraries are hodgepodge conglomerations of donated books and ones brought by volunteers. Probably be hard to get these donated as they’re going to volunteers rather than developing country nationals, but it would be nice.
Another source of entertainment that my village employs is DVD watching. The school headmaster in my village has a generator set-up and the MPA base also charges a small fee to use the solar power to watch movies. As the solar has been out its been mostly going over to the headmaster’s house for DVDs. My village (as well as many others I’ve been told) was hooked on a Filipino soap opera series and watched episode after episode of the stuff. I tried to watch it once and got up after about five minutes. I’d rather stare into empty space or read a book. I heard that Krissy, Javier’s wife though got into the soap series though, with the rational explanation, “What the hell else is there to do!”
Luckily My Uncle John’s sent DVDs came just in time. They were starting to watch the soap opera series another time through when I introduced some fresh titles. They loved the Bourne Identity trilogy and others have been hit and miss. People in my village really love action flicks and Steven Seagal movies are there favorites. They like them better than Arnold action flicks, go figure?
Other Random Happenings
I’ve changed anti-malarial medications recently. I was taken Larium, the most commonly used one in Vanuatu. The stuff was giving me crazy, vivid, life-like dreams here and there as it does to a lot of people. No big deal a few outrageous ones though like when I was hit by a car, approached my dead body, and woke up as I was shaking my listless dead body in the dream. It is also known to make some people less social and anxious. With me I think this happened gradually and I didn’t really notice it as much until I started talking to a few volunteers that had also switched from Larium to Doxycycline and realized that maybe I indeed having the same symptoms. I kept trucking on the Larium though thinking it was no big deal and maybe in my head.
Well about 2 months ago I had a crazy dream complete with over-sized babies crying in cribs over a floor of broken glass. During this dream I could tell it was a dream but couldn’t snap myself out of it. When I finally did manage to wake myself up after much effort I was laying awake scared, body was buzzing, and my mosquito net melted in green and blue swirls acid-style for a good ten minutes. Now my general thinking is that’s fine if I intended to have such effect taking a drug, but not when I wake up from sleep.
So that was turning point in my decision to switch to our other option, Doxycycline. Day to day I feel much more like myself than before and don’t have the thick medicine head thing the day after I take Doxy like Larium gave me. The only downside of Doxy is that you have to take it every day at around the same time so you have to be really on a schedule to make sure you don’t miss a dose. Also its supposed to make you more sun sensitive but it hasn’t really affected me that much. I’ve been pretty good so far and I know I’m not going back to Larium. Check out side effects of Larium on the internet, you’ll be a little surprised. I’m not a big fan.
On a lighter random happening note did you know there is a dog in Vanautu named George Bush? Sure is. I was storying with a woman from a village on Nguna the other day and she asked me if I knew that her dog was named George Bush? I couldn’t but help but let out a laugh but she was serious. When the twin towers fell their dog had two a few puppies. They named the brown dog George Bush and the black one Bin Laden. Well, Bush is still kicking, but Bin Laden was hit by a car a couple years ago near Vila. You know naming dogs after American Presidents and terrorists is a perfectly alright thing here. Thought some of you might get a kick out of that.
That's about it for now. I should blog again soon and include some details about the upcoming baseball game.

Check out that Pineapple!!

2008-02-21T15:52:00.005+11:00

(This is my counterpart with his pineapple that grew 9 Additional hands. He's having me put the picture in the local paper for him. Last year he said he had one with about 20 hands but didn't photograph it, and I believe him.)

Written Feb. 16

I think its been about a month and a half since I last wrote one of these. Trying to think what has happened during that time. Guess I’ll start with the beginning of the year. For New Years a couple friends of mine on Efate held a fundraiser party in their village. They were hoping for a good turnout but a lot of people flaked last minute. So it turns out just me and Jen, a friend on another offshore (Efate) island, showed up on New Years Eve to catch the transport. Jen and I ended up waiting a couple hours for the transport to Ekipe, Javier and Krissy’s village, in the sweltering sun at the Mama’s Market. When the transport finally arrived we were a little short on patience even though we both are pretty good at accepting island time these days.

We jumped into the stuffed bus and were happy to be on our way. Then the bus stopped at a Vila nakamal on the way out. The driver explaining that we were just going to stop for a bit. Jen and I exchanged defeated looks as we both have been on multiple hour long Vila errand runs en route to our respective islands and were preparing for a marathon. We got out of the bus and the driver introduced himself as one of Javier and Krissy’s host papas (married couples have a host family for each person). He then shot around the corner and returned with cold beers and offered one to us. Its amazing how much a cold beer on a hot day can serve as an attitude adjuster. Jen and I were now grinning and cheers-ing with the driver. After a short while, we were headed out of town and on our way. Then we stopped again, but this time we didn’t seem to care, beers in hand. At this pit stop the driver gave us another round of beers, leading us to believe that we can stop all day if there’s beer involved.

That turned out to be the last stop and about ten minutes into our journey two guys on the bus broke open a case a beer that we were sure was for festivities once they had arrived in the village. Wrong! Me, Jen, and a few guys polished off the case of beer on our hour drive up the East coast of Efate. Six beers deep, Jen and I exited the booze cruise in Ekipe, laughing at our good fortune and agreeing that it was the best transport trip ever. Krissy and Javi were a little worried as the bus was so late, but understood the tardiness as the bus patrons filed out and they quickly realized we a head start on them in celebrating the New Year.

Krissy and Javi led us to their abode and we switched gears to homebrew. A couple hours later, as we sat and carried on about all things under the Vanuatu sun, we heard shrieking cries coming form the next house over. It sounded like some one had died. We ran over to see two groups of people yelling at each other. All of a sudden one of Krissy and Javi’s host papa produced an axe and started charging towards their other host papa. Luckily, about four guys stopped him! Apparently the bus driver host papa, who never drinks but will drink on New Years as a special exception, got smashed and decided it would be a good idea to throw a huge stone at the other papa, reopening an underlying dispute between the two families. The stone missed the other papa but was thrown at him while he was sitting down with his family and it could have easily missed and hit one of the kids. So after the axe was brandished and relieved a couple beer bottles were broken out of frustration and the crowd dispersed. We went back to Krissy and Javi’s sharing our disbelief in what had just transpired so early in the night. The danger was over, but Krissy and Javier were scared about what the repercussions of the event as it involved their host families.

We agreed to stop talking about the insanity and carry on with our New Year’s partying. The village hosted the party in a huge gazebo-like structure built for tourists complete with sound system and and an industrial kitchen. We continued drinking and danced to string band music with the villagers.

At midnight we all hooted and hollered and a big contingent of reveling villagers started running towards the road so we followed. As we got to the road we were met with other villagers running down the road, some pulling large pieces of copper roofing behind them as noise makers (we later found out this is very normal for New Years). There were about thirty people running; women, men, and kids. So we ran and we ran and we ran and at some point I was thinking, “Damn this is fun, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep running, shit!” We reached the finale point of our run and yell craziness where I too, pretty drunk at this point, pulled copper down the street and lost my voice. It was definitely a New Years to remember.

For New Years Day Javi had planned some baseball games in the village. We started with a kids game of about under 13-year-olds and in the afternoon had a 15+ game. We both umped the first game and I jumped in the second game. My performance in the second game was less than satisfactory as I was in a bit of a haze from the night before. In a middle inning some fireballing 16 year old struck me out which just added to my shitty fielder’s choice hit earlier in the game. In the bottom of the sixth (the last inning) my team was down by one, man on first and second, and we had two outs. The same flame throwing kid was pitching as I went up to the plate (sandbag) thinking “I better wake up out of this coma now if I want to save face here.” I envisioned the Ekipe kids wandering why this guy, who was teaching this sport, was looking so sorry. As the ball left my bat and headed for the gap in left center I finally woke up. I hit a walk-off double and we won the game. Javi and I both agreed I was lucky as I was headed to the the Ekipe Hall of Shame before that.

Speaking of baseball, about a week ago Javi and I headed back to Emua as a follow up to the baseball workshop we ran during our volunteer training. We were really surprised to see that the kids had retained their knowledge of the game and we had to teach very little again. We had a good time teaching and umping even though it was hot as hell out. In other sports news…I met with the Vanuatu beach volleyball coordinator about two weeks ago and it sounds like she’s willing to give some good support in coach training and supplying balls. She had just got back from a tournament in Australia where a Vanuatu women’s team picked up the bronze in a very competitive bracket. My meeting with the coordinator was set up after talking to a guy on the council while watching the Superbowl, which consequently was one of the best Superbowl games I’ve watched in a long while and I’m glad the Pats didn’t get their perfect season, hah.

We have finally gotten out of taem blong spel here and I am very glad. My village seems very willing to clear the football field now so my sports program can go ahead. My counterpart and I are working on making a plan and awareness for the library project. The basic idea is to use a recently introduced environmental grant scheme to fund a library that’s income is generated from charging rechargeable batteries. Battery waste is a big environmental problem here and donors have shown an affinity for rechargeable battery projects in Vanuatu. The building would house both the charging station and the library (holding Pele’s already existent ~2000 books), and fees for charging batteries would fund upkeep and a stipend for the part time employee working the building. We’re thinking the building would be put right next to the primary school which is fairly central to the island’s 400+ residents. The school is also visited by a day tour about three times a week, and through the Headmaster’s “wish list” efforts has secured donations ranging from solar power to school books.

Another spin I’ve thought of putting on the project is to include a composting toilet on its grounds. I got the idea when talking with Naomi, a Pele woman, who lived in Kirabati for many years, about how she used her composting toilet for over ten years to make a good business selling vegetables grown from the compost. Kirabati has really poor soil so she made a killing. Vanuatu has rich soil but crop rotation or the use of compost isn’t utilized in favor of just leaving an area fallow for a few years. Also, very few people grow vegetables that actually take care in growing like tomatoes and green peppers, but there is a great demand for such vegetables as restaurant owners and expats go to the Vila Mama’s Market to buy produce at good prices. When I asked Naomi why she didn’t do the compost thing here she told of her lack of capital to build the toilet, and that her garden here is located too far away to do the intensive gardening she would need to do. Naomi has a head for business as she used to sell kava on the island, and I feel she could possibly run the library/battery station.

My idea is to use the plot of land that the community gives for the building and construct a fenced yard around it. Naomi would be able to use the land to grow vegetables using the compost, of which the proceeds would fund part of her salary for also working the library/battery station. She would also be able to work her garden during downtime from attending the station as visitors and patrons come. A vegetable garden surrounding the building would add to aesthetic beauty of the place, and would could be a good draw for tourists’ participation and donation to the project once its up and running. Another idea is to put a second composting toilet on the school grounds that the kids upkeep, learn about, and is a much better option than the pit toilet that they’ve got. We’re just collecting ideas right now so who knows what we actually come up with.

In other news…there’s a good possibly that my counterpart, Charly, will be going to New Zealand within the next month or so to pick apples for a year. It is a program that a few churches have set up here. The guy gets his pay from the work, more than he would for most jobs here and gives like a 15 or 20 percent cut to the church for organizing the venture. It seems more popular every month I’m here as I hear of a new so-and-so going over to NZ. Some of us volunteers have wondered after the church cut, and spending money on high priced New Zealand goods, both necessary (food) and unnecessary (stereos), if these guys actually come on top in this deal; the goal being to provide more money for their families. Probably not, but it can be argued that it is a chance to travel outside the country, one that few people have here.

I am just sad to see my counterpart, a very funny man who has a great knowledge and concern for the environment compared to his peers, will be departing. Although this departure isn’t shocking news as I had heard through toktok blong rod (the grapevine) a few months ago that Charly was entered in the apple picking lotto of sorts and was due up any time now. I think I’ve identified a couple good future counterparts on both islands.

Work with the MPA has been pretty busy lately as we have been trying to get things set up for this new grant. We’ve been working on fun things like budgets, running all over town meeting with people, and making purchases, which is a lot of the reason I have been incommunicado for the last six weeks. Some of the MPA stuff is really going in a positive direction as a panel laid out an action plan for the next couple years and there has been some good direction in strengthening the weak infrastructure of the organization. Some of the things that are just a given for any org. weren’t in play like a PLAN, ways of evaluating weaknesses and problems in the org., among many other things.

The hiring panel has just hired four staff to carry out a lot of the work (workshops and awarenesses) in the coming year that the grant provides funding for. Dom and I suggested that they hire two from Pele and two from Nguna so we each could work with them easily (don’t have to get on a boat, $). Well, even though me and other Pele committee members strongly encouraged qualified Pele villagers to apply, they didn’t. So all the employees are going to be on Nguna. Also, it is very likely that Dominique is getting reassigned to Vila within the next couple months as they want her to concentrate more on a disaster mitigation project that she took over from another volunteer. I’m happy for Dom, it sounds like a great project, and we’ve both said before that it really isn’t necessary for two volunteers to be working on this project. If she does go I’ll definitely be bummed to not have good company so close but I’m happy she has a chance to work on a project that is a breath of fresh air compared to this one. So anyway the point is all the staff are on Nguna and so is the manager of the project whereas I am on Pele. Just going to be more of a pain in the ass to work with everybody and more costly in transportation. If Dom’s move happens I thought about getting transferred to Nguna, but I like my village set-up way too much to move. And, maybe it will be good for me to be here as there aren’t any staff members here. Who knows? I’ll keep ya posted in the next couple of months.

I’m just wrapping up a nice lazy Sunday here. For my first few months in Vanuatu Sundays drove me nuts, everything is tabu except cooking, storying, church, and eating. I remember just being bored out of my skull. I now seem to fill the time easily going back and forth between reading and storying and writing an occasional to-be-sent email or blog. I enjoy that the full village comes together for close to the full day and does nothing but hang out and talk in the shade of large fruit trees that border our village with the sea. Today as I looked up from my book sitting amongst the villagers I took a pleasant scan of my surroundings: a few boys playing a game with a mosquito net, some older mamas having a hoot about something really funny, people laying about, more people laughing, some teenagers jamming out to string band music. I thought of a picnic, a big family picnic complete with generations of boys and girls and men and women that have known these people they are talking with for their whole life. And I also envisioned the boys playing the game growing up to be the men storying beside them, these men are true friends that know each other like no one else does. You start to the see the attachment people have to one another, to family, to community, to the place they call home, and it makes you wonder how far we in the western world have become detached from such things. Sure we have our moments of connection but life is very different for us. How many of us are still best friends with all of our childhood friends? How many of us can really call one place home?

I, for one, have enjoyed calling many places home and meeting new best friends along the way. It is who I am today, but I can’t help but wander what life would be like as a Ni-Vanuatu villager. Sure some of the close-knit community stuff would bite you in the ass like your village constantly reminding you of things you did in the past that you wish both you and they could forget. Or having a very limited scope of the world as seen through your village, but maybe that is a much more peaceful, relaxed scope. Well life is what it is for us living it and I’m never going to have that Ni-Vanuatu life and that’s fine because that’s not where I started and therefore not where I will end up. I do however, like getting tastes of such things as it makes me smile. At the same time, I say that my image is clouded by the image of development rolling through with its unyielding force and these connections starting to come loose as they enter “our” world. Better to think of the former, I say.

Well I think that’s all for today as the sun is setting and the mosquitos are getting nasty in the office as they always do about now. Anga moro ponisiko.

Cold Chillin’

2007-12-29T10:12:00.001+11:00

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

Wedding

2007-12-16T11:48:00.001+11:00

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

Turkey Day, etc.

2007-11-26T11:16:00.001+11:00

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

So this horse walks into a bar right...

2007-10-30T07:45:00.001+11:00

(written 10/28)

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

Settling In

2007-08-20T14:56:00.002+11:00

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

(written August 20)

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

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

Celebrations

2007-08-04T10:14:00.001+11:00

(written August 2, 2007)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Volleyball

2007-08-04T09:28:00.001+11:00

(written Sunday, July 22)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Out at Site

2007-08-04T09:15:00.002+11:00

The pictures are: my kitchen at this point (I’ve been using the the window sill as a table to prepare food), my office, the view out the window from the office, and my room now (check out the sawdust coverings and cool bag on the wall my mama had made for me)

By the way, you can view all the pictures in full size by clicking on the image.

(written July 16^th)

Well I’m just going to start out by saying I’m glad I brought my laptop here. Just so happened I lucked out and scored a site where I have access to solar power. I arrived at site about a week ago and was able to get all my supplies and myself there in one trip. On the way from Vila I stopped and visited my host family and had a good afternoon with them and my training village. My mama asked me why I hadn’t bought a stove and I explained that they were out. She produced an old stove of hers from the kitchen and we were both surprised it worked. Happiness points went way up with that one. Let the cooking begin!

Dom was along for the ride as well as she too was headed to site on Nguna. She was to crash in my village for a couple of days as there was a wedding in her village which pretty much means everyone’s enjoying the festivities too much to give her and her gear a ride to the top of the hill. So she chilled while I set up some stuff in my new home. First thing that was brought to my attention of the new home is that is infested with termites, common here with houses covered in bamboo, but this house particularly puts out a nice layer of sawdust from termites. I’ve had to cover some things with mats and such to keep the sawdust off. Eventually, I hope to wrap the walls with cheap cloth or calico as they call it here.

Its pretty fun to kind of look at your house and decide what improvements you want to make. The community and I are going to build some shelves and tables in the next few weeks for the kitchen. I can eat with my family whenever or cook whenever. It’s a very cool situation and I have promised my family I will cook for them on occasion as I have already done once so far.

The first night we arrived my host family at site brought Dom and me a pumpkin and it just so happened that there was a pumpkin curry recipe in one of the things the Peace Corps gave us. So we batched it up, using coconut milk we cut, scraped, and squeezed from well, coconuts, and it was delicious. We gave some to my host family, they loved it, and my mama insisted that I make it for some VSOs (a worldwide volunteer agency that I think is centered in the UK) that were going to come in a day or two.

On Wednesday we were all waiting around as Dom was waiting to go to site and the village and I were waiting for another batch of tourists to come visit and also waiting for the VSOs. About the time Dom was set to leave one of the mamas came screaming from the beach that a boat had capsized in the bay. And so the panic began. Apparently, the tourist boat loaded with about 12 people had flipped over in the middle of the bay. One of the boat drivers scrambled and I ran to get a couple life jackets from the house as I did not know if the boat had them or not. I threw the jackets on board and the first boat took off with a couple villagers. Dom was a firefighter at one point back in the States so she jumped in the next boat, which wouldn’t start for some time. I watched the scene from shore with the village with my binoculars. Both boats finally got there and everyone ended up being alright although some cell phones and cameras were destroyed. Apparently one of the plugs on the boat was fouled up and the boat took on too much water. The driver, recognizing the situation, got everyone off the boat and into life jackets, before the thing capsized.

Then the tourists, wet and in surprisingly good spirits, arrived on the island and tried to make the best of the situation. Meanwhile, people in the village were trying to communicate with the tourism operators in Vila about what to do next. A true mess and I couldn’t stop thinking about what this accident might mean for future tourism here.

A couple of hours later they managed to tow the upside down boat to shore and the hull was intact. The expensive 40hp engine probably is going to need some heavy work if it is to be revived at all after its salt water dunking. It was hard to believe a boat went down in that bay; its one of the calmest bays I’ve ever seen.

So Dom got out to site, supposedly the tourism shall commence once again in the next few days, and business as usual back in the village. The next day I awoke and soon after my counterpart told me that a man’s mother from the neighboring village had died last night. We were to go pay respect in a few hours, my first attendance of a funeral in Vanuatu. So our village collected and walked down the beach to the next village where we aggregated once again before entering the funeral place. We walked in, heads hung, and as soon as we got close everyone started weeping as if on cue. It was amazing. Just a minute before people were storying and even joking, but as soon as the collection of people already at the funeral were nearly reached by us there was a mass exodus of tears and emotion. From what I understand Ni-Vans don’t mourn like most in the rest of the world. There is a set period to mourn and then you supposedly go at life as normal. In this village it is five days where no work takes place and a day for surrounding villages. I’ve heard that some places in Vanuatu can be up to a month. Any prior meetings or obligations are canceled until after the mourning period.

But, back to the funeral…There is no casket or bag. The dead is simply covered with calico (I’m not sure how they bury people here, have to ask about that one) and people sit down and cry and wail continuously. This lasts I don’t know how long during the day because I got the cue that some of us were to leave after about a half hour, they were weeping when we got there, and when we left. It seems so physically and emotionally draining, and truly remarkable.

The VSOs arrived the next day and we spent the next few days hanging out some. They had to come to experience some village life, and it was a little unfortunate for them that most of the village was gone most of the days due to obligations with the village containing the recently deceased. There was a very nice couple from the UK, John and Hannah, as well as Frank, a doctor from Uganda. My host papa and mama were also hosting John and Hannah so we ate meals together and I helped translate, at times some Bislama, as they had only been in country for a couple of weeks. I did cook the curry for them and the family as mama had asked and it was a hit.

It was really nice to have some more people to story with as things are a little slow in the beginning of Peace Corps work. Turns out John is a cricket purist in many the ways I think of baseball, and we talked along parallel lines as to the degradation of our sports in our new, impatient society. I told John there are baseball games aired about three times a week in Vila and he seemed pretty excited to watch some baseball. Probably catch a baseball game in a bar the next time I’m in Vila, his and Hannah’s site for the next two years. By the way I’m going to try to plan my re-stock trips in Vila around good games that will be aired. The Phils and Cubs are set to play at Wrigley on the 31st, hope I can get to Vila for it. I guess another benefit of the close proximity to Vila is some interchange with people that hail from all over the world. Frank even looked at a nasty reef cut I have on my foot and gave some good suggestions.

Today I am just waiting for a guy from a neighboring village who said he needed help in writing an official letter. Its getting late in the day now and I think he’s going to be a no show. I olsem nomo (That’s how it goes). I’ll probably be meeting with some chiefs and MPA staff in the next few days just to do some more introduction formalities and talk a little about the state of things around here. Other than that I’ve been reading up on marine biology stuff and future workshops I hope to make here as well as storying a lot with the villagers. Before Dom left we were talking about how weird it is that we have this “Now what?” feeling. We’ve been anxious to get out to site, but now we’re here and its not like starting a new job for the first day where its kind of hectic. Just the opposite. The Peace Corps encourages you to take it really slow, for good reason, the first few months, and just figure out what’s going on in the community, how it functions, and who are the key players. So I’m just chilling and trying to figure out what I can…

Gearing Up

2007-07-08T10:33:00.003+11:00

(pictures: Margo's birthday at the hotel this week, sunset picture from my host village, me tagging a turtle duiring reef check week)

I'm just wrapping up a week in Vila here. Basically gearing up for site. Kind of like apartment shopping, getting all those household items. Pretty boring overall but I got a few good finds. I got a brewing kit off a volunteer who is about to leave. Even if you go to the source the cheapest you can buy a beer for in Vanuatu is about $1.75. So, many volunteers have begun to brew their own beer driving that cost down to about a quarter a beer. Plus, Tusker, the official beer of Vanuatu pretty much sucks, and you can brew stout, ginger beer, or lager here. There's no refrigeration but you'd be surprised how fast warm beer tastes good and stout isn't meant to be that cold anyway. I was also able to get some pasta and sauce at wholesale price thanks to a good tip from an older volunteer. The best find was a kilo of organic Arabica coffee for around $15 that we got ground for French presses. Something that Dom and I were told couldn't be done, hogwash!
We've also had some time to just chill out and decompress this week, which has been great. We had a fourth of July part a few days early because some were headed to site the next day. We scarfed on hot dogs, burgers, baked beans, potato salad, and good salsa and chips, awesome! I had the biggest food baby yet and couldn't do anything for a few hours. On the actual fourth we headed down to Jill's, an American restaurant run by a woman from San Diego, and I had the All-American breakfast. It hit the spot. I told someone today that I need to get out of this town before I get too comfortable. Even had delicious Indian curry the other night. Flas tumas.
By the way, I've put a few picures up on our group’s Flickr site that we all post to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorps20a/
We should all be posting to this from time to time.
My first few months at site will be mostly storying and finding out what the community wants, what's worked well, what hasn't, and what they're capable of. Basically, me, Rob, Glenis, and Dom will be going village to village in the 16 villages that are in Nguna and Pele holding small workshops demonstrating what the MPA can do if run properly and potential benefits received if that happens. We will also be trying to identify each community's marine resource management needs.
There will be plenty of other stuff going on too. Volunteers engage in plenty of work outside their primary project. When I was in training Javier, from my group, and I talked about getting baseball teaching going at our sites. Javier even made a workshop in Emua teaching the game that many of us helped facilitate. But upon arriving in Pele, I realized that there's no field nearly big enough to play on. But...they do have a decent size sand beach area that would be perfect for OTL. For those of you that don't know, Over-The-Line softball is a game that originated in San Diego, and basically is a 3 on 3 game of ball. And it is played without gloves, perfect for Vanuatu. In San Diego every year there is a big tournament on Fiesta Island and some teams take it very seriously. If you guys want more info. on the game go to: http://www.ombac.org/over_the_line/
The rules are an icon on the left side and there's all types of pictures and links. I already got a softball at one of the Chinese shops for a buck and I know I guy in Emua who carves a good bat out of one of the local trees. I'm also thinking of setting up a couple horseshoe pits. On my island they love petangue, a French game very similar to bocce. Horseshoes is right up that alley and they sell re-bar and horseshoes in town for fairly cheap. As opposed to a petangue set, which is about $90 and only one village on my island has a set. Another idea is setting up some beach volleyball doubles tournaments. Some men and women can really play here but the style of play here is always like court volleyball and they have some interesting rules: They use rally point, can kick the ball, a set over the net is legal, and they don't fish from the net (drives me nuts).
Last week the environment group went to Epi for a mariculture workshop. Many of our Ni-Van counterparts were also flown out for the workshop. My counterpart, Charlie, and I hung out and storied quite a bit at which point I found out we're going to get along great. Charlie is freaking hilarious and has an impressive understanding of marine biology. During the workshop we made fish and invertebrate harvest and management devices out of locally available materials. Some seemed to work more than others. One that I was impressed with was the octopus shelter: an old tire cut into 3 pieces, then each piece was laced together using the two sides that touch the rim or bead of the tire. After one side is sealed with any flat solid piece of material, and the device is weighed down in the water. An octopus then uses the structure for shelter, and is easily harvested by villagers. The alternative has been people taking an axe to their reef to harvest octopus. Which for obvious reasons is not good.
We also ran through life cycles of many of the marine species as well as talked about benefits and cautions of the market for these species. Proper management was stressed for these marine species, but at a community level and on an individual community to community basis. For example, a village in Efate will have different priorities and resources than say a Banks island in the North. Overall, the workshop went really well, but I've heard many times that many Ni-Vans go to these workshops, are enthused about it, and then go back to their villages and never do anything with the info. learned.
Hmm...what else has been going on? Having a cell phone has been kind of weird. I find myself checking the time and missed messages like I would in the States. Speaking of which, the rates the phone company gave me were wrong and its cheaper for me to still call from the internet cafe (~$1/min). I was told that www.speedypin.com
has the best rates for international calling cards though, and its cheaper and easier than Skyping.

That's probably all for now, getting hungry. See ya.

Vanuatu Nomo

2007-06-22T16:56:00.001+11:00

"Only in Vanuatu" is the translation of the title. I found a little time today to write a blog I'd been meaning to write on some strange and funny things that happen here. And seeing as I was already in the blogging mode today earlier I'll a keep on a rollin.
I should probably start with some walkabout stories that I was unable to get out until now as I've been incommunicado for a little while. For those of you that may have forgotten walkabout was our one week site visit we had four weeks ago before swearing in as volunteers, which was yesterday.
So I wrote a little about my walkabout visit but the best stories were not from my visit. Adam, from my group, was sent to West Santo, a trip that involves a 14 hour truck ride to the bush. In fact there was a village in West Santo that a few years ago was first discovered and had not had contact with anyone from the developed world. Adam pretty much lived the life of Mowgli for a few days: spearing eels, sleeping by the river, spearing a bull and carrying it a long way back to the village.
Tim went to South Ambae were he was greeted by the Ni-Van version of rednecks. They were a rough bunch and were convinced that when Tim arrived "South Ambae i kam antop." Which can mean as little as bringing a few solar panels in. He equated his visit to a trip to the real South, but Vanuatu style.
Julie went to Luganville, Vanuatu's second biggest city to work with the provincial government. Her counterpart/boss told her upon her arrival that he did not need her services. Julie then had to describe what she was bringing to the table. Who knew she'd have a job interview for her site visit? Harsh! Things are getting worked out now and it looks like she got the job. Ridiculous...Excuse me! Peace Corps! Volunteer!?
Matt went to South Tanna where he was greeted by a village of very short people and Matt is about 6'4" and built like a lineman. His best explanation for his village was "National Geographic." The women didn't wear shirts, and people get loaded on kava starting at about noon. The man that gave him his custom name while he was out there had lost vision in one of eyes after he tried to shoot a bird out of the air with an arrow and it came down and stabbed him in the eye. Damn! What are the odds of that happening?
Nate who also stayed in Tanna shared some similar bush stories with some additions. He was placed in a satellite village of 10 people where only 3 of them spoke Bislama. You can imagine conversation can run a little thin after a while. They told Nate that they had a plate for him to use and they produced some nasty, dirty plate. They then proceeded to wash the plate which entailed taking a big mouthful of water and hosing it down. O.K., all clean now!
Nate and I found out this week that our sites were actually supposed to be switched (I was supposed to go to Tanna and he Pele) and we both agreed that each project has its big downfalls that don't make us envy one another, him with the isolation factor and me with the rat's nest of a project that I have to untangle. We agreed that at All-Vol next year we'll see who's got it worse. There's plenty of other stories I have failed to write down here but these stuck out as some Vanuatu Nomo type things.
So...onward with Vanuatu and its charm. Two weeks ago in Vila there was a jailbreak where all the cons scaled the 6 foot non-barbed wire fence and proceeded to stone government buildings and property. Six hours later they all returned on their own accord content with their mischievous behavior. Apparently these jail break then afterward returning instances are fairly common. And, I also learned of the good convict chaperoned kava times. I guess some times good convicts accompany bad convicts so they can have kava in town. How this is decided and what warrants good vs. bad, I haven't a clue.
More...I've heard of a volunteer that lives in a site where he must light a fire to signal his boat transport to pick him up across the bay. Once on the island he can be found storying with a chief who has not lost his passion for playing with toy cars! I envisioned the Hanson brothers in "Slaphot" with this one. "They brought their fucking toys...Who are these guys?!"
And now for something completely different...Remember "Reefer Madness?" Of course you do. The prohibition-era scare movie where people smoke pot then go nuts and screw everything in sight. Well although most in America have moved past this, many Ni-Vans tend to think weed makes you crazy. Thank you so much missionaries! The church has got everyone scared as hell of it but there is a large part of the youth (16-25) that poo-poo it and burn down anyway. We were driving into town the other day when we passed an obviously wacked out guy on the side of the road. "Too much marijuana" the bus driver called out. "You think weed does that to you?" I innocently asked. To which one of our Ni-Van trainers explained, "Yes, if you smoke too much weed you go crazy" with every bit of sincerity he had. How about that? Well if a Peace Corps trainer, a well educated man, nonetheless, believes it then it must be true...
Cyclones (or hurricanes as you know it) are interesting topics around here. People don't really evacuate here. Where the hell would you go anyway? I heard one story a few weeks ago about a current volunteer that was riding out one about a year or two ago. Apparently he was huddled next to one of his tin walls in his house until the wind ripped that wall off. A process he repeated for the next two walls until they blew off. I think with one wall to go he decided to cut his losses and make a run for it sporting nothing but his boxers (I guess it hit in the morning?) He was met with his family as he dashed outside and was given a baby to hold as they ran through a coconut plantation mine field (coconuts dropping from wind).
Which brings up another danger in Vanuatu: The Old Coconut to the Dome. Coconut trees are very tall sometimes and coconuts are not light when they fall. In fact there's a story of a volunteer having a coconut fall down and the force of it raked off a good portion of her face. nasty! My host uncle was gathering up vegetables one day in the bush garden when a coconut decided to crack him over the head. I guess he woke up 20 minutes later and went to the hospital for a nice concussion. He's lucky he's not dead or a little slow. So maybe we should be issued coconut helmets when we arrive. We already stick out as white people already. Why not where obnoxiously big and colorful helmets? But seriously, I tend to know when I am or are not under a coconut tree as a result of these stories.
...Ni-Vans love the megaphone for any type of announcement. The guy from our host village that is in charge of the megaphone duties is missing his front teeth. So when announcements are made the sound is so akin to the adults in the "Peanuts" shorts that you tend to think that Charles Shultz had stayed a while in my village.
Well I'm running out of Vanuatu Nomo for now and I'm thirsty. I think its time for a cold Tusker, a shitty beer, but beer indeed. Until next time...