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.

Cold Chillin’

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

Wedding

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

Turkey Day, etc.

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