late. aug. blog

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

(Nice sunset we saw on Pele)

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

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

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

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

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

(Parade that led off the NEPSSA launching and games)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aug. Blog

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

(Me running "naked")

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

(Liz getting some water during her leg)

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

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

(Troy finishing and Krissy starting)


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

(Meeting of the minds after Krissy's leg)


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

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

Written late August:

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

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

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

(Scouts marching away)

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

Fourth Of July

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

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

(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!!

(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.