This is just the beginning..

Well it appears that I have survived my first turkey-less Thanksgiving, as well as training, and I’m afraid I have dug quite a hole for myself by not writing something sooner.  I have been in the city with internet for over a week now and have just one more day before I head out to my permanent home on the island.  In our last few weeks in Mangaliliu, the group ventured out to Eratoka island where I tried my hand at spear fishing and probably don’t need to tell most of you that I didn’t catch anything.  The fish were either too fast or too beautiful for me to actually kill but I still felt pretty baller just for trying. We also had to practice a small workshop with the school in the village as a training practicum which thank goodness is over, for better or worse.  It was a mixture of successes and mostly failures and a really great learning experience for how to better execute a toktok in the future.  But most importantly, we finally got our site assignments.

 Site announcement is always a big deal because each island of Vanuatu is so different that in a lot of ways your site sets the scene for your entire experience.  After my host volunteer visit, which was to a village that required two planes, an hour truck ride, and a two hour hike to get to, I was half expecting to end up in the middle of the bush on some really small remote island; and somehow had come to terms with it.  In the end it turns out I will be going to Epi, one of the bigger of the tiny islands where there are already two volunteers while a couple of my good friends are on the even tinier specks on the map.  

I am really happy with my placement, mainly because the World Health Organization has a malaria project going on there and they have asked me to help in a way monitor things from the village.  Cultural differences and misunderstandings can greatly delay the work of a lot of humanitarian organizations and the relevance of the project could really benefit from someone actually living in the community, who not only has a background in public health but can also bridge this cultural gap between the WHO and a rural village.  This is what I will do by making sure that malaria follow up at the health center is done properly so that the data can be used for case studies of the treatment.  Most health volunteers go to site and determine for themselves, often through survey, what the village needs then feel out the best way to go about making a project out of it.  I will be doing this as well but to go to site already needed for something that matches my background, I feel really lucky.  The project may only go until April which will make it kind of hectic with getting settled in but I plan to prove myself useful so they keep it going; plus there is a lot of malaria on the island.

In other news, I have gotten a little kitten who, after a serious of names, will be called Oreo and already has eaten a few rats and spiders, making her my new best friend.  I have not gotten completely comfortable with most of these creepy crawly things at night but on the other hand I don’t make a fool out of myself anymore by jumping up every time there is an earthquake.  The first one I felt was a Sunday afternoon while I was laying in bed and I jumped up and ran outside, thinking of course everyone else would be concerned with the fact that the earth was shaking with increasing intensity.  But no, I would soon realize this is completely normal here and everyone pretty much just laughed at me, which I am strangely not offended by. 

I have also officially become a Peace Corps volunteer!  This involved a big ceremony full of island dresses which are the hottest article of clothing in the world (as in temperature of course), a visit from the ambassador and taking the same oath as the US President.   Another realization that I had integrated into life in Vanuatu was when I didn’t even think twice about wearing flip flops to this event, which I have also worn to climb halfway up a volcano.  I’m actually fairly sure the average Ni-Van  has never worn any other kind of shoe, and I am certainly not complaining. 

I hope you all are preparing for a wonderful holiday season.  Christmas here is not Peace Corps favorite time because not only are we are away from our family but it is also the only time that the Ni-Vanuatu drink alcohol.   Crime here is so low in part because kava has a much more relaxing effect, but during Christmas it tends to increase with the alcohol drinking and things gets a little crazy.  I will be safe but surely missing home. 

Also a big thank you to everyone who has sent a package for the holiday season! Getting one anytime is like Christmas, so I will post my new permanent address in case anyone is inclined to do so again in the future, or just wanting a pen pal.  This first month at site will probably be the hardest but I am confident that when I get back in February for Phase II training, I will have plenty of good experiences to share. 


Some of my host pikinini all dressed up before a wedding ceremony

 My entire host family in Mangaliliu the day I left

My host mama and papa and Oreo trying to escape

Little Oreo doing what she does best, meow at my feet

Sunsets, Beaches, and Bacterial Infection

Hello Everyone! Sorry I haven’t been able to update most of you, I have only been around internet for a few hours since I have been here so I guess I have to start from the beginning.  Arriving in Vanuatu was surreal, to say the least.  The group of everyone that I met with in LA turned out to be really fun and get along really well, which I think for a while distracted most of us from what was actually happening in our lives.  Then all of a sudden we were declaring ourselves new residents at Port Vila International Airport and being greeted by an overwhelming swarm of current PCV’s and Peace Corps staff wrapping lava lava’s around our waist and shoving coconuts in our hands.  For a week after that we stayed in a training camp where we were quickly forced to get used to waking up at 5:30 to the roosters and long afternoons in a hot tin building but falling asleep each night to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach; none of which I really minded. 

Now fast forward and I have become the proud owner of a 24 inch bush knife, drinken kava with a village chief, and gotten used to any spider less than two inches in diameter because, well, its small.  I have seen myself in a mirror a maximum of 5 times and unless I’ve just gotten out of the shower, I have hands and feet that any mother would be ashamed of.  One thing we all quickly learned is that cleanliness is relative and as long as I’m not completely covered in mango juice or have saltwater in my hair, I’m good to go.

A couple weeks ago we arrived in our training village of Mangaliliu which is located in northwest Efate and is known for having some of the best snorkeling in Vanuatu (which from my experience is true) and being the site of Survivor Vanuatu which ironically my mother may be watching right this very moment.  My house is extremely nice in terms of Ni-Van living as it has both an indoor flush toilet and shower and is made out of cement rather than local materials which makes it much less conducive to five inch spiders and poisonous centipedes.

Speaking of which, I did have a little visitor make a crash landing in my room the other night.  I had just gotten in bed and still had my headlamp on, which even before I never slept without, and was able to make out pretty quickly that it was a rat that had decided to stop in for a visit.  I have no idea where it came from since there are no holes in the ceiling but I think we were both surprised and very displeased by our meeting.  After some serious pep talking with myself, I found a way to usher him out of my room and haven’t exactly slept well since. This was a pretty harsh but necessary realization that there is more than just missing all you people that I am going to have to get used to over these next couple years and it is certainly not going to be easy.  Also, that I need to get a cat, asap. 

Training, which will last about 4 more weeks, is notoriously hated because the days are packed full of mostly dragged out classes and technical training followed by nights having to speak Bislama with our host  families and the general awkwardness that results from cultural differences.  This whole area is getting better but leads me to a very important part of Ni-Van culture called storian.  Anywhere else this would be called a bunch of women pretending to be working or cooking but really just sitting around talking and gossiping, maybe with a side project.  Sounds great right? Well, not when you don’t fluently speak Bislama and for most of us this leads to hours of just sitting with them in silence.  In their culture, women apparently don’t like to be left alone so they think they are doing you a favor just by sitting with you even if they have run out of things to talk about, whereas in American culture this seems awkward and just plain useless.  It is a bit better when my host parents are around as well as the pikinini who are insanely cute, and now that they have gotten over smiling and staring at the strange white alien in their grandma’s house, love to talk and play cards and duck duck goose with me.

I am also really excited because I just found out that in a couple weeks I will be going to Ambae for my host volunteer visit.  This is one of the islands I have been wanting to see most and really just going to another island at all is really exciting at this point since our training village is down a big steep hill with no cell phone service and feels really isolated.  Also, Ambae is supposed to be really cool and is known for having one of the biggest active volcanoes in Vanuatu.  It is tradition that everyone who climbs it gets a tattoo of the island at the bottom.   The volunteer I’m visiting lives really close to it and I’ll only be there a week but if we get the chance I definitely plan to make the hike.  Since my dad I’m sure is reading this, I won’t comment on the whole tattoo thing..

Overall everything else is going pretty well.  I am enjoying the company of other volunteers while I can, I seem to have a pretty good handle on the language and I generally enjoy being with my host family.   Every Saturday we go to the garden and I attempt to help cut down banana trees then not die on the way back as I carry a giant roll of banana leaves on my shoulder while my sisters carry that plus a couple pumpkins and bananas on their head.  Ni-Van women may not be motivated to work outside the home or even brush their teeth but they are amazing in their physical and emotional strength.  Then Sunday morning we all make lap lap before going to church.  Lap lap is probably the most common form of the staple root crops here and also probably the most difficult to make and disgusting thing I have ever eaten.  Making it not only involves the above mentioned work in the garden but also shaving about 10 coconuts, scraping the inside of about 30 bananas or taro or whatever kind you’re making, mushing it all together with coconut milk then finally shaving down the spine of the banana leaf to wrap it up in and cook on hot coals.  All that work for a food that tastes at best like feet and is the consistency of paste.  After last Sunday’s lap lap lunch of which I managed to eat about six bites before being “fulap tumas”- too full to eat anything else my papa asked me why blackman can eat so much more than whiteman.  Rather than say what I wanted, whiteman no likem lap lap, hemi tastem olsem wan foot, I made up something about us not being used to eating root crops so we get fuller faster.  That being said, don’t take your hamburgers and salads and burritos for granted, already I am dying even for just a slice of cheese.

The food is just one of many things I’m still getting used to.  Another is the plethora of health problems that are just accepted as a way of life and the treatment of dogs which can range but instead of going into the details Ill stop rambling and leave you with some pictures.  There will be plenty of time to talk later about fun stuff like the staff infections some volunteers got from our chief

Here is one of my favorite pikinini playing with some puppies of a family dog.  I’ll only say that I am trying to teach the kids that carrying them by their tails or one of their legs is not a comfortable means of transportation for the dog. 

And Tricia, to answer your question, I don’t have the luxury of a sink to brush my teeth or wash my face in, but I do it under a little spout attached to my house.  This however is my view while I do, so I’m willing to make the sacrifice..

And heres one of the children in the village after we had a little Halloween party with them where we carved some pumpkins.  Not only are they better with knives than we are but I'm pretty sure they think we are insane for cutting up what for them is an everyday food.  Regardless, they had lots of fun

I miss you all and am thinking of everyone all the time!

TWO days?!

Hello everyone,
As you all may know by now, I am a huge procrastinator.  I first submitted my application for the Peace Corps in September of 2009, on the 30th, at 11:59 pm.  Still, given two years of waiting, I find myself two days before my departure with an alarmingly sized to do list.  An array of clothes, shoes, office and camping supplies are strewn across my bedroom yet to be packed, health insurance to be canceled and I have many goodbyes still to make. At least I managed to finish class right? But I am still making a pre-departure post as promised, not just for you but in an attempt to learn how to even use this ridiculous website. 
The two years have served me well however for mental preparations and I believe I am ready for the challenge of whatever it is I have gotten myself into.  I miss everyone already and will try to update you all as much as possible. 
The past few weeks have been crazy, to say the least, but I will leave you with some pictures of Cincinnati in the fall which I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of. 

Everyone in New Orleans, do you finally see what I was complaining about missing all these years?