A rainy day in Vanuatu can be great. It is an excuse to stay inside all day which is something a lot of us want to do every once in a while but which would otherwise be considered ridiculous or even rude unless of course we were sick and sleeping. Luckily, Ni-Vans think white people are weak (lets face it, we are here) and are constantly afraid of “spoiling” aka breaking us so this can easily be faked if necessary. Anyway one of these days is nice, four however is not. Rainy days also involve constantly wet and muddy feet since staying inside entirely is impossible when your kitchen, toilet, and water source are all separate entities and require walks down dirt paths and tall grass if your nine year old brother has not recently cut it for you with his bush knife. They can also get really boring and coming out of one of these four day stretches I am working towards finding motivation to get the things done that I need to before heading out again next month when I will actually be able to post this.
Lucky for you all my work today is comprised of sitting in Lamen Bay waiting for a ship to come that will hopefully have the materials I need for a big workshop I have planned for next week. The school here, where my closes neighbor Kathy works, has electricity three hours a day so right now I am staring in awe at fluorescent lights and writing this without having to sacrifice any of my precious battery life which must be conserved for an occasional episode of Arrested Development or Dexter when I need a solid dose of America. It looks like I will also be doing quite a bit of teaching here as well.
Kathy had the idea of creating a health club for the students after a previous volunteer last year did an adolescent reproductive health talk that was really well received with the students. The first day I decided to make a true false game where they stood in a line and when I read out statements regarding lots of different health topics they would move to one side if they thought it was true and another if they thought it was false. People here can be super shy so they sometimes tried to just follow what their friends did but overall I think it turned out really well. The purpose was to give them an idea of what we would be going over in the club as well assess their knowledge and dispel some crazy myths about health. Then I had them put any questions or subjects of interest in a question box and this is where it really got interesting.
With about 50 teenage boys and girls I expected to get plenty questions surrounding sex but was surprised to find that most have no idea what menstruation is, where babies come from or how sexually transmitted diseases spread (I guess their name is also lost in translation). So basically I have my work cut out for me there and will also be helping one of the science teachers go over some chapters on health and sanitation in her class.
I’ve also been trying to carve out some work for myself by making awareness posters for a different sickness each week at the health center, talking the women who just gave birth about family planning and healthy eating for the baby and the workshop next week is basically about community mobilization for primary health care. We will be doing a bunch of activities through which everyone will identify the health disparities in the community which are preventing them from achieving the ideals outlined in a healthy islands program and ultimately make an action plan for whatever project Is needed to address those issues. As is pretty common here, I’m expecting water and toilets to be some of the top needs. I already have some project ideas for these but I want to do the workshop as well to get the village involved so they will ultimately feel like it is their project.
Other than that, in terms of work, I have been neglecting the malaria study a bit to help the area secretary with some profiling and survey of our side of the island. This essentially means making maps, calendars, inventories of livestock and resources and a big survey of what is available in the community. The idea is that whenever one of these villages wants to ask the government or donor for funding for a project they will have this to look at to assess the legitimacy of the project and motivation and ability of the community in executing their action plan. Unfortunately the area secretary is one of many with the mindset that donor funding will always be required and available, because a lot of villages have gotten money from Australian and New Zealand High Commissions in the past which has kind of created a lack of empowerment among Vanuatu. In so many instances they rely on outside sources such as these for development rather than acknowledging that they are surrounded by extremely fertile land and with the right motivation, infrastructure and maybe a little help with business management from the outside could bring in a lot of money from copra, sandalwood, cocoa, kava or any of these things that are able to grow in this hot and sticky climate. When talking to a friend one day on the phone I blurted out my feeling that Peace Corps comes to places such as this and essentially tries to find creative ways to solve the problems created by really poor infrastructure. This is true of Vanuatu at least and is a rant I will save for the few who may be interested sometime.
All other news consists of an unfortunate weight gain as a result of lots of taro, wild yam, bananas and coconut milk combined with few level running surfaces and a giant blister on one of my toes, a recent bout of mild giardia, and learning to be content and happy. Returning to the village after such a long time in town was difficult as expected but in overcoming this I feel more at home than ever and all the things that were once out of place are quickly becoming daily life. Why wouldn’t I be eating dinner on a mat outside in the dark? Why would I buy produce at the store rather than using a bamboo pole to knock down grapefruit and avocados from the trees outside my house? And the people I see every day are coming more and more like actual friends and family.
This doesn’t mean I have forgotten about anyone or anything at home. I miss friends and family everyday single day and sometimes would kill to blend in, be ignored, and eat a cheeseburger while using the internet. But then I make a good joke in Bislama, someone comes to my house with questions he would have to be ashamed to ask at the health center because the nurse is his aunt, or I get to laugh at the look on people faces when I tell them something about my life in the US it is all pretty well worth it. At least for two years.
