10/11/09

Hey I've been in Vanuatu for one whole month yeah! and things are still good. I get along really well with my host family and I'm finding it hard to believe my host family for my site could be nearly as good. I have a mama, papa, brat, sista and two aunties and lots of cousins. All the cousins are fun. Adorable toddlers with green ooze forever coming out of their noses to fun teenagers who sit and chat and watch me as I bashfully scrub my undies with a board and brush. It's funny people always say the same thing to me while watching me do laundry. "you have washing machine in US?" Which I take to mean I'm not an obvious natural at washing my clothes in a bucket.

Nor am I a natural at hygeine in a bucket which can be seen by the small yet growing infection on my leg. It's cool al the kids are doin it. No but seriously all the kids run around with big infections and scabs on their legs which come from a vaiety of sources, some parasites, coral abrasions, infected cuts, etc. I'm not really a huge fan of bandaids and I didn't really notice the flies too much but now I've learned my lesson; flies + scab=infection. Another girl in our group had to go to the hospital because she had bed bugs and wounds from bites that got infected. Ok enough negativity. I've learned the bandaid lesson now if I could only pass it on to all the kids, along with the wash your hands and blow your nose lessons.

My pandana leaf mat is coming along nicely and with numerous projects I'm finding myself very busy. At first I was worried I would be bored without the internet, work, school, bars, parties but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Rural life is very busy too. We've got a million things to do here and just storying on with the Ni-Vans feels very productive because that's what the Peace Corps wants me to do. It's awesome. Oh yeah I won't get into racial issues yet but I do think it's funny that some of my ni-van friends call me "white man". Hah I'm like first of all I'm a woman. but it's not offensive or anything it's just the way it is. SO back to mats. I learned to dye the leaves so now I can make them in different colors. I was thinking oh these would be great xmas gifts but I don't know what you'd use them for in the states. Here they're very important because people don't sit on chairs they sit on mats. So unless you want to sit in the dirt you have to make a mat. They are also traditionally used as currency. Even today a girl's dowry is paid some in vatu but also in pigs, pigs tusks and mats. I also got to work more on my coconut/bush knife skills ie husking, breaking and scratching out the insides. I'm so impressed with my progress. If only the resulting blisters on my hands would show such pogress in turning into caluses. Anyway time to go to chruch and then jumping off a 40 foot cliff into a coral reef. Hopefully not into the actual reef but the water above it.