Check out that Pineapple!!

(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.