Last Post In Vanuatu

At a meeting in preparation for close of service, 2 months before departure we were instructed that when we get back to the US everybody is going to ask us how are service was and tell us they want to hear all about it but that their attention span is probably shorter than they express. The reality is that after two minutes of hearing your story most people’s eyes will glaze over as they mentally go over their grocery list. So I’m trying to sum up my service in two minutes. I think I got it down to 5 minutes. Here goes:

Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 small islands in the South pacific with a population of 250,000 people. Due to this isolating environment of lots of little islands with rough terrain in a big pacific ocean, it is ridiculously cultural and linguistically diverse; over one hundred completely distinct languages for only 250,000 people. The people and islands of Vanuatu were not unified as a country until both the French and the English simultaneously colonized them at the turn of the 19th century. As a result they speak a creole of native languages, French, English all mixed together which is called bislama.



In my area at least, the people were not poor because they have a strong family support system, a diversified portfolio of income generating options, they own the land they live on and they grow all the food they need. They earn around $3000 per year and are pretty self sufficient. The main areas where they fall behind are in education, health care, and infrastructure. On average people have a 6th grade education and it can take between a few hours to a few days to get to the nearest hospital, always over rough terrain and with very unreliable and expensive transportation. The country became independent in 1980 and has been slowly but surely climbing out of the status of least developing countries and is now on the border to joining the ranks of developing countries. To catch a glimpse of the whirl wind pace of change, just think that every Vanuatu airplane pilot or computer systems manager is the grandson/daughter of someone who lived in the stone ages.
After two months of training near the capital in September and October of 09 I moved to the second biggest island, Malekula in the village of Lamap. Lamap was the former capital of the French colony and has many vestiges of this including French language, French schools, French Catholic Church, and some tasty French cuisine. Of course they also left rotting old cement structures like old government buildings without rooves, power lines even though there has been no electricity in Lamap since independence, land disputes and even an old tennis court with night lighting that doesn’t work.


The Lamap Ecotourism project

For the two years I lived in Lamap I worked as a business advisor to a grassroots ecotourism project as well as to a new community-run vocational school. The ecotourism project balanced community environmental needs with the income generating power of the growing tourism industry. Through ecotourism products such as hiking tours, snorkeling, cultural festivals and island entertainment, the community was able to afford environmental project such as waste management, coral reef monitoring and clean up, marine protected areas, environmental education campaigns, and the promotion and introduction of solar power lighting.


The vocational school was only three years old when I arrived and had never finished a full year of school. The manager, managing committee, and I faced many challenges as we couldn’t find qualified teachers that would take the salary we could afford to pay. After just settling in to site our head teacher stopped coming to school and so did most of the students. We changed the salary system to allow for more incentives and bonuses without over straining the budget and managed to attract two new teachers who finished out a full year in 2011. We lowered the reliance on school fees with secondary income generation projects integrated into the students’ studies. We also got the school recognized as an education institution, got it to fall into the guidelines required by the government in order to allow us to give out certified diplomas so our students could graduate and go on to higher level technical schools.


This was my host mama for 2 years. Miss her!

As secondary projects I assisted the local women’s association in getting up and running again and did some hygiene and sanitation projects trying to move away from open sewage toilets to water seal toilets built from cement. I also learned some of the local native language, lots of local stories, learned to weave mats and baskets and drink lots of kava, made lots of friends, chilled out and read a lot of books while hanging in my hammock in my bamboo hut.


My Favorite Grandma/kava drinking buddy and our favorite nakamal owner (the taller one)

Vanuatu is a beautiful place with such friendly people who accepted me as family immediately. I learned a lot of lessons from them. Like to complain is to ask for help. So don’t say you’re cold unless you want the shirt off the back of the guy sitting next to you. Also share everything with everyone, even if it’s your last one. So what? They’re just material things. The joy of giving is worth more than any one thing. My time in the Peace Corps was such a great experience; I would readily do it over again.

Hiking for two days without shoes and other skills that will be completely useless when I return to US.

These are just some of my many new skills that will be rendered absolutely useless and soon forgotten upon returning to the good old comfortable usa.

1 Killing and dressing a pig, chicken or fish
2 Doing anything and everything with a machete
3 Gardening in the tropics. It’s easy as long as you don’t bury it upside down it will grow. I’ve had particular success with peanuts, pumpkin, cucumber and onion
4 Reading the secret meaning behind what ni-vans are saying, i.e. reading ni-vans minds. It takes a lot of cultivation of relationships, observation of behavior, and analysis of motives to understand even a basic conversation. Essentially people lie expecting that you know their lying. So then it’s not really lying, if you have an understanding that one person is lying. At least that’s the local theory.
5 Staying clean without running water
6 Cooking like a ni-van: Cutting food without a cutting board, using my hands as a cutting board while sitting on a stool 5 inches off the ground.
7 Using coconut milk in every meal
8 Catching crabs with my bare hands and bare feet and tying them to a stick with a vine.
9 Baking delicious cakes, bread, and quiches in a pot over a wood fire
10 Speaking Bislama sign language, (also speaking Bislama (Pidgen English) for that matter)
11 Hiking barefoot all day long
12 Sleeping without a mattress

Breaking News: Community organizing can be a pain in the arse in Vanuatu!

My apologies in advance for another work rant about the difficulties of getting things done in Vanuatu.

The ecotourism project’s busiest month should have been June however many of the committee members were busy in the capital. So I was stuck being the only one freaking out about all the work that needed to be done. I could have just let it go and said hey this is their project and if they are in Vila well then it’s their fault if the work doesn’t get done. Anyway I didn’t do that. The biggest work was preparing the venue for the big tourism events coming up over the yacht season. The first event was going to take place on Thursday the 16thonly ten days away. However our venue had no roof, or chairs or table and there were only 10 days till the event. I get the tour guides together to try to make a plan to work on the house. They say ok let’s do it this Friday. I go talk to the chief to arrange his support to get more community members there. I then make an announcement at the two community churches to let the community know that they are expected to come give a hand.

On Friday, I go to the prospective venue and there is no one there. Nobody, not one person, showed up to work. I just stayed at the house all day waiting. Honestly it wasn’t so bad waiting. I visited a good friend who lives across the street and met a tourist that was passing through. I still felt pretty disrespected. Plus I was freaking out because of the approaching deadline. But I also knew that the fact that they disrespected me could be my best bet to get the job done.
That night, I go to my host family and tell them the story over kava. They were appalled. “They made you wait all day and nobody showed up!” (by the way the people saying that should have been there too.) The mamas in my host family then go walk with me to the various workers houses and shame them with the story of how they made me wait all day for them. The word gets spread all over about the horrible offense I suffered (though it really wasn’t as bad they make it out to be). All this sympathy drummed up a lot more support and awareness than my announcements and meetings. It just goes to show that people pay more attention to gossip than what’s said in church. Next thing I know the chief is coming to me saying he’ll have the whole community down there Wednesday. “You no worry You no kick.” I tell him that’s cutting it a bit close but he says well that’s our way of doing things here, wait till the last minute.

The American in me couldn’t deal with leaving it to the last minute so I managed to recruit some boys to get building supplies for the house on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday when I go to the venue low and behold 30 people are working away on the house. It was a miracle. For the first time in my Peace Corps experience everyone who said they’d show up, actually did show up. As I walked up to the group and grabbed a knife to help descale the fish for lunch, I couldn’t help but smile and laugh. You have to go about things in the most roundabout way to get results in this country. But I guess I’ve kinda got the hang of it. Look at me, I used my cultural knowledge for community organizing.

Thanks for the attentive ear. I feel a lot better now.XOXO

Highest Highs

and some lows

I’ve had some low points in the past 20 months; all of them in the first 9 months of service. It has been pretty much all uphill from there. They would include:

1. Feeling out of place in the training village,
2. Getting stared at and pitied in my first 3 months in my community,
3. The time the teachers stopped showing up and the school closed for a term,
4. Getting bed bugs,
5. Being medically evacuated for diphtheria in May 2010.

But let’s not focus on the negative. I think the highs make up for it:

1. Moving to my very own cute as a button little thatch house after living with a host family for 5 months.
2. Getting little baby Marie Antoinette during my first week in my comunity. She was so tiny and fluffy and full of fleas!
3. Organizing 30 self important busy community leaders to build a venue for the tourism events.
4. Organizing 50 self important yachties to attend our tourism events in one of the most remote places on earth.
5. Finally being able to tell a good joke in Bislama and making my friends laugh.
6. Peering over the edge of Marum Volcano with Virginia in Dec 2010. Plus the trip to Australia over Xmas/New Years. All 3 weeks were a high.
7. Nina’s Visit! Land diving wooo!
8. Visiting other volunteers in Vanuatu; Justine on Maewo, Amy on Lamen, Robert, Gaia, and Jason on Pentecost, Hali, Zoe, Laura, and Jake on Tanna, Zoe and Whitney on Santo, all my peeps on Malekula, Ambae, Alisha on Ambrym, Desiree on Nguna and Alexia and Kalli in Vila.
9. Electricity and meat vacations: Meeting up with the other volunteers on my Island, organizing beer pong tournaments, snorkeling, and eating lots of meat; Karen, Sandra, Ricky, Andrew, Marie, Neill, Josh, Sara, Yegor and Jeff
10. Helping out with all the youth leadership camps (called GLOW/BILDs) in Wowo, Lakatoro, Lamap, and Blacksands. Soon to come one last camp in Emua my training village.
11. Having a kava bar named after me. And enjoying a good storian session with my oldfellas over kava.
12. Painting huge world map murals with Neil, and an environment mural with Amy. Soon to come another world map in my community.
13. Hiring Karine to teach at the vocational school. You Yes Karine! She literally saved the school from ruin and took heaviest the burden from my shoulders.
14. Realizing my students have actually mastered the material I’ve taught them.
15. Seeing my projects functioning properly on their own as I finish my time and prepare to leave.

Y’all’er a buncha ripe bananas

My auntie the other day says to me, “Stephanie, when you go back, your family won’t even recognize you. You look like a ripe banana.” It took me a sec to realize she was commenting on all my freckles. At least that sounds better than pizza face.

I still haven’t gotten the hang of taking eggs from the chicken that lives in my kitchen. The other day she flew out the window, presumably to peck around outside for food. So I took her egg and got ready to fix myself something to eat. I put the frying pan on the fire, greased it, and then just as I was cracking the egg on the edge of the frying pan I hear this screech right in my ear. I jumped I was so startled. Then a wave of embarrassment, then shame came over me. Apparently the hen had been watching me the whole time from the kitchen window sill. And she was screaming at me and chewing me out for killing her baby.

Then after a second or two of feeling like the worst infanticidal murderer ever, I remembered that it’s just a stupid bird and shooed her away. I had to remind myself that it’s her job to make eggs for me. But I still felt bad for her, having to see her egg cracked open into a frying pan, right in her face. I wonder if she even knew it was her egg or if she was just screaming because she’s a crazy bird.



Four months more in the Peace Corps! This is the home stretch people. I just wrote a to do list of everything I have to accomplish before I leave and I realized I could get it all done in one month if we were in the States. But no, here in good old Vanuatu, it will take me 4 months to complete all that stuff because every time you plan anything there is just a 50/50 chance people will actually show up and do what they said they would. But the good thing is I know I can get it all done and leave here feeling like I did something and have something to show for my two years. We’ll see how that plays out.

I’m jealous of all my friends in the states enjoying summer in the city. I miss US most during the months of Jun-Aug. In the winter, when everyone’s telling me about blizzards and unbearable cold in the states, I feel all smug like, ‘ha well it’s 85 degrees here. Who’s made the more sensible decision now?’ But just the mention of the word ‘July’ summons up images of drinking cold lager in the hot sun out on some porch (or roof) surrounded by friends. Banterific! Or midnight bike rides to a sweet swim spot or my favorite 24hr Italian bakery. Outdoor concerts, festivals, backyard bbqs, beach trips, road trips, etc. In other words, the best stuff life’s made of. But alas I’ll just have to live vicariously through facebook for one more summer. Enjoy it my little ripe bananas, and then write me to tell me all the juicy gossip.

I out new pics up on facebook. I'll blog again soon. XOXO SteBlau

The Post Office is Open!

Today has been a great day! A year after our local post office was robbed and shut down it has reopened and I received lots of letters and packages. The oldest being the letter from Dossie dated July 18th 2010. And more recently an awesome birthday package from Justine. I also received a Halloween package and two Christmas packages and a cinco de mayo birthday package. I ate half the Halloween chocolates and a bowl of cheesy tortilla soup. And I feel kind of sick but am loving it.

Nina was just here last month on her way back to the states. I was meaning to visit her on my way back but she beat me to it. It was a nice excuse to travel around the country. We visited the island Pentecost where they have a peculiar ceremony for celebrating the yam harvest every May and June. They build tall towers out of sticks and vines 40 ft high and jump off of them into the dirt with a vine attached to their ankle. It’s sort of like bungee jumping. It was really impressive. After that we were supposed to head off to Yasur volcano, which is the most magnificent approachable active volcano on earth. Unfortunately it was being a little too active and consequently not very approachable. Peace Corps forbid me to go so we decided to hop on a small passenger ship heading to the island just to the south. That ship should have arrived at 6 pm but instead it showed up at 1 am. We got on only to find out that it was not stopping at the next island but going directly to the capital city. 12 hours after our 3 hour tour had started, we finally reached the capital and spent several days lounging pool side at various resorts to make up for the time we’d spent on the boat. It was good fun to catch up with Nina and hear all the Friar news. Nina quote, “So it seems like the theory behind Peace Corps cuisine is ‘it’s better with Peanut butter.’” Yep, so true. Biscuits: better with peanut butter; ramen noodles: better with peanut butter; spoon: better with peanut butter.

Here's a video about Land Diving, the Nangol Ceremony

Things that make me smile in Vanuatu

I’ve been here for a year and a half and there are so many things that still make me crack up inside. I could be in a serious meeting but then the area council secretary will start digging in his nose while talking to me and I just lose it. At least it never gets boring.


1. Although it is sold in the shops, nobody ever has toilet paper:
In fact, most people don’t have toilets. But those that do are totally confused about them. In the hospital for example, they built the toilet stall to the exact size of the toilet. It’s so small that you can’t close the door unless you are already sitting down. So you have to pull your pants down and then close the door. Another thing that cracks me up is when the toilet is facing the wrong way. It’s like people don’t know where the front of the toilet is. Here are some drawings of actual toilets I’ve experienced here:



Speaking of sanitation practices, did you know it is customary here to wash your hands after every meal? This unfortunately is not the most effective method of preventing the spread of disease.

It is not impolite to pick your nose in public, while having a conversation, while eating, or where ever. In fact some people grow one fingernail longer than the others for the job.

Also one polite way to burp is to say “OHH!” louder than the sound of the burp so it just sounds like you are surprised by something rather than just burping.

2. Names:
Some common Vanuatu names I’ve encountered: Rock, Coozy, Tito, Fanny (that’s my name here), and the very common family name Bong. I eagerly await the day that I will find a way to use the phrase “He’s got more Bongs than a Vanuatu phone book,” in conversation.

There are a couple families in my area that have named all their kids with variations of the same name. My favorite of course is the family that named all their children variations of Stephanie. There is Stephanie, Stephan, Stephana, and Stephano. I have to admit it is a lot easier to learn everybody’s name when they're named like this.

3. My English class dynamics at the Lamap Vocational School:
-Rachel 15, 5th grade education 0 years of English in school
-Ilene 16, 8th grade education 8 years of English
-Calixto 21, 10th grade education 4 years of English, forbidden to speak with Lidiana
-Cindy 20, 10th grade education 4 years of English, teen mother
-Anika 17, 8th grade education, 2 years of English, teen mother
-Lidiana 18, 6th grade education 0 years English, forbidden to speak to Calixto
Calixto and Liliana are forbidden to talk or sit next to each other or work together due to traditional law that you can’t speak with certain cousins of the opposite sex. And all the other girls are just too shy to talk to him haha. So between the different maturity levels, education levels, language levels, social taboos etc. you can see how this class can be rediculous at times.

Other good news:

I just went on a great three day hike to a small village deep in the bush. It was such a great break from Lamap because it's not humid, it was about ten degrees cooler, there were no mosquitos, and lots of fresh water to swim in. Plus so much great food. You can catch prawns in the river. We collected shellfish and even fresh water eel. One day we went wild pig hunting and caught one! Also the village has a big herd of cattle. We ate meat at every meal.

Also they just put up a new cell phone tower across the way and as of next week I will have cellphone service in my house! Happy easter to me :)

Love you all
Miss you much
XOXOXO!!!

Viva La Radio & Tsunami Dreams

Did not get the best nights sleep but was eternally grateful early this morning when the people in my village woke me up at 2am to move to higher ground after they'd heard the Tsunami Alert on the radio. Apparently the Vanuatu tsunami alert was for 12am-3am so we were a little late. A text was sent to me to warn me of the tsunami alert earlier in the evening but we don't have cellphone reception in our village! There were strong waves reported in the Solomon Islands but not yet in the northern islands of Vanuatu at the time we headed up hill. It was extremely unlikely that we'd get a tsunami but we live in a very low lying northern facing village just a few feet from shore, in bamboo houses no less, so even strong waves could be dangerous. So I grabbed my pillow and my dog, Marie, and headed out into the pitch black.

Then the whole village crammed into one house on top of a hill and tried to fall asleep while the patriarch of the group insisted on blaring the radio. I tried to fall asleep while listening to the radio reports of people calling in and saying they had moved their village to higher ground between every song of string band music, reggae and random 80s pop. This resulted in me falling asleep and dreaming of witnessing a tsunami attack on our village. The water drew back and we could see all the fishes flopping on dry land and then Marie went out to chase them and then it crashed down on us and i'm running running running until I woke up in the morning. We weren't really in any danger. But I think what happened to similar small villages in American Samoain 2009 really hit home for the people of Vanuatu.

Although it was hard to sleep with the radio on it just goes to show that radio is no where near dead. Yeah it may not be the place to make it or break it in the music world but it has it's place. It's the best news source for all of the smaller pacific countries since they all have big rural populations without tv access or power. I'm sure it's the same in other rural areas in the world. Having a story of another village moving to higher ground in between every song though redundant is a constant guilt trip on those that haven't taken any action yet. Peer pressure you know, if they weren't being reminded constantly on the radio they would just be like nah I'm going back to bed.

Dj: Hallo what is your name?
Caller: I'm a chief in Tisman.
Dj: Hallo chief what's going on where you are?
Caller: Well we've moved everybody up the hill and we're all here together.
Dj: ok well that's good. you stay put.
*stringband song starts*

Then today I got on the internet and found out what all the fuss was about. Holy ichi ni san shi tsunami! Check out the youtube footage below. Biggest Earthquake ever recorded in Japan! Massive tsunami eating up the northern coast! We have it so lucky on the East Coast of the States, the occasional Blizzard is nothing compared to the constant barrage of earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, and hurricanes these islands out in the Pacific are getting.

Tsunami in Japan


More tsunami in Japan

A Vanuatu Folk Tale

I heard this folk story on the Vanuatu National Cultural Center's radio show which airs I think on Wednesday nights on Radio Vanuatu. So it must have been the 8th of February. Anyway I thought it was kinda funny and would be good to share. It's abridged and paraphrased and also translated from Bislama. The story teller was a cultural center field worker working on Ambae Island.

And it goes a little something like this:

One day a man was hunting for birds deep in the woods a far walk from his village (Of course he was wearing Nambas the traditional dress of a large leaf wrapped around the penis and tied at the waste with a string). He was shooting down the birds with his sling shot and he caught lots and lots and filled up a big basket with all the birds he had caught and then started heading back to his village. Then a lesipsip (a jungle devil dwarf) came up behind him and said "hey can I have one of your birds to eat?"



img: A Vanuatu Devil, possibly to the lesipsip variety

So the man gave him one and the lesipsip took a minute to devoured it ravenously. The man started to walk off when the Lesipsip came up to him again asking again "hey can I have one of your birds to eat?".

But the man said "No I need to take these birds back to my village to feed my family."

"Well if you don't give me a bird to eat I will eat you, so can I have a bird to eat."

"Ok" the man said but he was scared now because he had made the devil angry so he threw the bird on the ground as he ran away. After the lesipsip had finished ravenously eating the bird he ran after the man. The man kept throwing birds down and running away for quite some time but he was getting tired and he wasn't losing the lesipsip.



img: Some more Vanuatu devils, maybe lesipsips, I don't know I've never seen one.

So the man tried climbing a white tree (certain type of tree found on the island that has lots of gooey sap under its bark). He climbed up high in the tree and the Lesipsip laughed and said "you think I can't climb up there and eat you?"

"Wait! if you just peel all the bark off the bottom of this tree I'll give you a bird to eat."

So the lesipsip tore all the bark off the tree and then said "hey can I have one of your birds to eat?"

The man gave him a bird to eat then he said "hey can I have one of your birds to eat?"

"No I just gave you one"

"Ok well I'm coming up there to eat you then"

But when the lesipsip tried to climb the tree his hands just slipped on all the sap from the tree. You'd think this would be the end of the story but no... The lesipsip went and sung out and called 9 friends to join him and they all piled one on top of the other until they could reach the man. At this point the lesipsips were angry and so they say "give me all your birds to eat or I will eat you!"

So the man had no choice but to give them the all the birds. He emptied his basket and the lesipsips ate ravenously.

When they were done they said "give us another bird to eat or we will eat you."

"But I've already given you all the birds, I don't have any more."

"Don't lie to us. We can see that you are hiding one. It's wrapped in a leaf we can see it"

When the man realized what they were talking about he stood up in the tree took off his nambas and peed all over the lesipsips. This caught the Lesipsips totally off guard and they all lost their balance and fell down dead. Releaved, the man got down out of the tree and quickly ran home.



img: This is the kind of outfit the man would have been wearing.

Big Thanks All To Those Who Donated!

I can't believe, in less than three weeks my amazing friends and family have helped me to collect over $1,600 to buy computers and sewing machines for the vocational school I work at. Perfect timing too because here I am in the capital, Port Vila, ready to purchase the supplies in time for the start of the school year. My local conterparts, the manager and teachers, are so surprised and excited. They didn't think it would be possible to collect such a sum in such a short time. They will surely be glowing when I hop off the boat next week with 2 computes and 3 sewing machines so we can start the two new courses, home economics and computer science this february.

Thanks once again from the Lamap Rural Training Center.

Warm wishes,
Stephanie

All I want for Christmas is computers and sewing machines for my school!

As you know I'm serving in the Peace Corps down in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. One of the projects I'm working on is helping a local grassroots vocational school grow and better serve its small community. The school is hoping to add two new courses in 2011, Home Economics and Computer Science. But they can't get enough funds from the local community to buy the supplies they need to expand.

The community has invested a lot in creating this school over the last three years because they see that the many area youth that only go to middle school don't have the skills to succeed. The community has raised funds to create the school, build a two classrooms, buy a computer, and run the school for 3 years but now we need your help. We're trying to raise $1,600 over the Christmas holiday to buy two more computers and three sewing machines so that the students will have what they need to succeed this year.

Christmas is the time to give and think of others. I know a lot of you like to donate to charities in others' names as Christmas presents. So now you can give a donation gift through this secure online donation website run by Peace Corps, plus you have the added benefit of helping out little old me and the assurance that it really will be going directly to a community in need (50% of it won't get lost in logistics of running a big non-profit). So this Christmas show your love to friends, fam, coworkers, strangers, etc. by donating to the Lamap Rural Training Center.

More info on the project

Donate Here!

Meet the students and teachers at the school in this youtube video.



Please try to forward this info to some friends and co-workers. Trust me they won't be annoyed, I know them. They love this sort of thing. Don't make me use scare tactics (If you don't send it to five people right now you will get a paper cut this afternoon, guaranteed;). No but really I need your help to get all these supplies in time fore school next year, so try and pull me some strings gang.

I love you all lots and lots! Have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Love,
Stephanie

Ambrym Volcano hike

Ok I promise I'll write a proper blog post describing every detail but right now I just arrived in Brisbane and I'm beat so I thought I'd put these videos up. If a picture shows a thousand words then a video must be exponentially better.

Here's the gist: Virginia and I hiked up the volcanic island of Ambrym to visit the twin volcanoes, Benbow and Marum, an 8 hour hike, then we were attacked by tornadoes of poison gas flinging ash around. The guide was walking around with a small child on his shoulders right on the edge of the volcano despite strong winds. We saw lava. It is infinitely more amazing in person than in video I assure you. We camped outside the crater of the volcano. In the morning we walked back to shore and soaked our blistered feet in the hot springs on the beach.

Everybody Run! The French Are Invading!...again

This huge French ship came with a hundred soldiers and apparently they are coming back next year for a whole month next march to do some service projects. Cool.




My little recycling poster boys. We did some fun workshops with these kids on recycling and disposing of rubbish.




Throw your rubbish away in the 'ol' but batteries must be thrown away in a 'cemen ol'

One Year Has Passed Already?!

Well actually a year and a month. Which means around this time next year I’ll be getting on a plane back to the states. I can leave as early as October 5th but I think I’ll stay as long as I can without missing Halloween. That is a long ways away still and I need to enjoy the present instead of dwelling on the future (which is surprisingly hard ‘cause, well, if you know me you know how obsessed I am with planning the future).



Speaking of the present, today happened. I was supposed give a talk to a bunch of elementary school kids about the environment but then when I woke up I found out that it’s a public holiday and school was canceled. Constitution Day, like Vanuatu needs another excuse not to go to work. Nobody’s been getting much done here recently because of a couple deaths. When someone in the family dies the entire extended family has to take 10 days off work and stay together with the body (don’t worry they bury the body the first day (It’s hot here, ew)). So there was one death and then when those ten days finally passed and everyone was allowed to go home there were two more. And everyone is extended family so basically the whole town’s been shut down for three weeks. But hey gotta respect the dead.

So when I heard that I had my morning free I decided to go visit my favorite cafe, probably the only café on the island of Malekula. It’s only reliably open like that because it is the front porch of a handicapped man and not quite obese woman. They never leave the house so they are always open. They’re great fun and they have good food and they are also the only place that sells fresh vegetables. Anyway stocked up on the fresh veges, then made some pumpkin bread and some fake Tabasco sauce.

Then my tech savvy friend, who always has technology problems for me to fix and I never know how to fix them but he keeps coming back for more, showed up. Today he brought me a fake iPhone he’d just bought. It’s called ‘Phone’ and on the back it says, “Designed in America by Phone a Assembled in China”. It looked so cool but was totally worthless. He’d never heard of an iPhone before but then I showed him online what a real iPhone is. He got so excited and now he has to have one. I know that is not surprising to most people reading this but I think anyone who’s lived in Vanuatu would be surprised because most Ni-Vans either don’t give a crap about technology or are afraid to try it. I’m always telling people how much easier computers will make their lives but it’s actually a surprisingly hard sell sometimes. They’re like ‘OK so it can type letters? Why would I want to type letters and pay 40 cents to print them when I could just put my pen to the paper here?’ So when this guy is getting really excited about an iPhone I’m like I know I totally want one too! iPhones, building bridges across cultural cleavages. Maybe instead of getting Palestinian kids and Israeli kids to play soccer together they should just get them talking about how badly they want the new iPhone. Tell them if they come up with a way to stop the fighting they’ll all get iPhones. Problem solved (Go American Capitalism!).

Then my friend, feeling grateful to me for enlightening him about iPhones, says he wants to do something for me.
“Stephanie, you used to fight will you fight again when you go back to the US?”
“Yeah I’ve taken like 6 years off from karate but I really do want to get back into it when I go back to the states”
“Yeah when I used to live in the Capital I used to always fight. I used to always drink vodka and fight. One day 28 men chased me down and they kicked my ass from here over to that house over there. Then I got kastom medicine [black magic] put on my bones so that they’re stronger. After that if I punched a man one time he would go down. I got them in my feet too and my elbows. You look at these cuts too. I think only my family knows the secret. It’s the bones of my grandfather [and/or ancestor]. I put his bones in my bones so I have double bones now. They can’t break and they’re really heavy to throw a punch. You could get it done too so when you go back to fight in the US you’ll have double bones too. If you hit someone they’ll go down in one punch”

So now I’m seriously contemplating getting double bones, I mean yeah I want double bones that would be awesome. I just have to find out more about the procedure, like how deep are the cuts and where do the grandfather/ancestor bones come from? I asked him, “well if he’s not my ancestor why is he going to want to help me out? I mean if I’m not from here would it work on me too?” He assures me that it doesn’t matter, that it works the same on everybody. There never seems to be any logic with magic. I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway because I don’t really believe in black magic but man I’d love to try it. And if nothing else it’ll be a story, so I’ll keep y’all updated.

A message from the future to Man Vanuatu

I come from the future. Did you know that? I come from a world of microwave ovens, internet, computers, heart surgery, video games, gang violence, crack hoes, obesity, etc. I know you guys are psyched to have all these new stores with all this imported candy and chips but your children are going to have diabetes and plenty of cavities as a result, and possibly obesity. I know this because I come from the future and these things have already happened in our society. Like they say in that movie ‘The God’s Must Be Crazy’, every time man has come up with ways to make his life easier he has in fact made it more complicated. I look at the lives of man Vanuatu and I think wow you are chilling all the time that must be great. Because if you can, why not? But for us in the future if you led a life like that with papa working part time in the garden, a stay at home mom, and five kids you’d have to be on welfare. But if you own all your own land and grow all your own food then why should you have to work for the anything else? It’s really a Utopian system. If the rest of the world didn’t exist to make you want to buy all it’s cellphones and satellite dishes, you could live like this forever but alas that ship has sail… literally a boat sailed up to your little island 230 years ago and there is nothing you can do about it but prepare for the inevitable. All I’m saying is appreciate what you’ve got, don’t sell your land, get your kids to the highest possible level of education, and enjoy the lack of social pressure to wear clothes without holes in them. Ta! -pis cop blong yu.



If there’s one thing I’ve learned here it’s that development as we see it in the US is not the best fit for all places. I feel bad for Americans and especially American kids that they have to grow up in suburbs with no natural swimming holes and trees full of fresh fruit to climb and pick. These kids here in Vanuatu haven’t been corrupted with high fructose corn syrup. They crave mandarins, mangoes, sweet corn, and fresh lemonade, not bubble gum, Doritos, and soda. I remember in Elementary school it was drilled into us that the US was the best country on earth and that we were so lucky to be here and not starving in Ethiopia (or my parents would have been told starving kids in China and today’s kids probably hear about starving kids in Afghanistan). But not all developing countries are starving. That is a very small percentage or the developing world. And I would argue from what I see here in Vanuatu that the developing countries that still rely on their traditional eating habits are probably eating better than Americans.

When my group of 40 Peace Corps volunteers arrived in Vanuatu last September, everyone one was freaking out because the people didn’t eat enough protein. Influenced by the Adkins craze of the last decade, we were shocked that these people were so uneducated about some crazy American food fad. Many immediately started a campaign to get people to eat more meat. But now looking back I see that the people here actually know more about eating healthy than we Americans do. And it was wrong of us to jump in and expect we know best because we’re more educated. When they eat the island food it’s based on root crops then lot’s of fruits, then vegetables followed by meat. Pretty much fits into the food pyramid. Plus it’s all 100% organic and locally grown. They don’t eat a lot of meat, true but they eat it nearly everyday, and they also eat nuts. Anyhow when I think about the mainstays of my university diet; Chinese takeaway, ramen noodles with frozen veggies, hot dogs, beer, and splenda products, I’m shocked by how bad it was. All of it processed, rarely fresh, organic, or local. The reason I was eating that way was because I had no money and I think that kind of diet is reflective of a lot of lower income Americans. You always think that no matter how bad we are eating in the states, all those millions of people in developing countries are eating much worse. Well think again. As a rule people that are eating as they’ve been eating for thousands of years have a more healthy diet than those that change their eating habits every 10 years due to a new scientific discovery. We haven’t figured it all out yet. When we do maybe we’ll know better than they do but in the mean time maybe we should try to eat more like our ancestors, or more like people in developing countries.

I should note that it’s not all good here. In the last 20 years people have started eating more rice, tinned meat, and over processed Asian imports. Hence the warning in the first paragraph. Island food is pretty healthy but people are moving to a more unhealthy diet because they see store bought food as more prestigious. My neighbor just lost his leg to Diabetes.

Highs and Lows

Yesterday I had a horrible day everything went wrong and I was so ready to write a big angry long blog rant (know as a grant in internet slang ;)) but I’m glad I didn’t because today I had a good day. Although all the problems from the previous day are still floating there waiting to be confronted again on Monday, at least you don’t have to read my rant. Basically I have two main jobs and one I just added on there cause it’s fun. Of the two main jobs, one is adviser and teacher at a vocational school and the other is adviser for the environment and tourism committee. And then I also do some work with the women’s committee cause I feel like it even though it’s not my job (call it volunteer work). The Environment and tourism committee is doing good work. We’re getting ready for a big art and culture festival in about a month and a half. But on the other hand, ugh headache of the century, the vocational school is in shambles and the whole thing has fallen on my shoulders. As in I’m the only one keeping it afloat. So yesterday was horrible due to various factors surrounding the circumstances of said vocational school disaster. and I nearly cried actually because so many people kept on letting me down over and over again. But then I ran into some friendly faces that cheered me up. Anyway the point of the story is even though yesterday was such a let down, today made up for it cause I had my workshop with the women’s group and they are just really awesome and a good time. We talked about nutrition and food safety and I showed them how to make some English food and some American food and we exchanged recipes. It was really fun and I felt like we accomplished something. I think the nutrition and food safety stuff went over well. We made plans to build some more energy efficient and health friendly stoves and to make hand washing stations outside everyone’s toilets (I showed them how this time and next time we’ll each make one). I think they really like it too. Plus I think our meetings have improved the cohesiveness and morale of the group. I just wonder how I could make that continue after I leave.

The women’s group also helped me build this wood fire stove out of cement. I got the instructions and then we all made it together. It was the first time any of us had worked with cement and it was empowering, surprisingly easy and fun. And now I have a stove which only cost me 13 dollars (had to buy the cement). We mixed the cement in an old canoe and used banana leaves and scrap wood to make the frames for the cement.



and here it is when it's finished. That blue can is where I'm going to put a pipe for the smoke. It's been surprisingly hard to find one though.

Pests

In other news I’ve tackled a lot of pests this week. I was trying to fall asleep on a rainy Tuesday night listening to that bastard rat chew through my rat proof box. What’s the point of chasing him away when he’ll just come back after I turn out the lights again. So I try to distract myself with the pitterpatter of rain drops, the squawks of bats, mosquitoes buzzing, the occaisonal naos falling and pigs grunting. When all of a sudden I hear a thud on the bed next to the pillow. I get my flashlight on in time to see something falling through the slats of the bed frame. Looked like an insect, probably a cockroach. Well I’ll get that mofo. He’s no match for my Tiga Roda (that’s Indonesian for cockroach spray, I assume). But the little bugger’s nowhere to be found. So I decide to go back to sleep. When what do I see out of the corner of my eye but a huge frigen centipede fall out from the two bedsheets that try to pass for a wall right at the head of my bed. He fell onto the headboar, centipedes are the Sahara desert scorpions of the pacific islands. They are 4-8 inches long and have big old poisonous pinchers. They’re not poisonous enough to kill a human but they can incapacitate you for a few days and are capable of killing a little puppy dog like my Marie who was dreaming little doggy dreams at the foot of the bed. The best way to kill them is to pour boiling water on them because it kills their eggs too. Anyhow I managed to boil some water, find it, trap it under a big bowl and pour boiling water over it without waking my roommate or my dog. They must have been really tired cause I wan’t quiet. The thing about centipedes is that they say that if you find one it really means you’ve probably got two or more. So I’m lying there in bed waiting for the other proverbial centipede shoe to drop into my bed. Ugh I couldn’t go to sleep for three hours but another one never came.

Then I finally tackled my rat problem the next day. This story is gross but I’m only telling it because I can’t believe that I did this. Stephanie from a year ago I think would have been jumping up and down squealing as I did frequently when encountering rats in the alley behind Otherside. But Stephanie from last Wednesday caught a rat by the tail in a glue trap and then chopped it’s head clean off with one swipe of her machete as he stared frightened with his beady little eyes. No squealing, just cold hearted rat murder. He deserved it though for his constant harassment of my condiments. That rat bastard is guilty of the maliciously manslaughter of my ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise. Not to mention eating through my not-so-rat-proof rat-proof box. The moral of the story is don’t mess with my condiments, man, or you get the machete. Update I caught and disposed of another rat but then I’ve seen two more since. Damn these bastards are invincible. The good side of the pest news is, the bed bugs are finally gone. Also there is a chicken that lays eggs in my kitchen about every other day. Best pest ever! Chickens aren’t pests you say? Well they obviously don’t wake you up everyday at 5am.

The Ship

So let me tell you about the ship I took to get here cause that was pretty exciting. I decided to go with the AOG youth group cause they had a ship confirmed and it was a good one too, Fresh Cargo. Which isn't very big but is considered very flashy because it has chairs to sit on rather than just sitting on the cargo the ship is carrying. Good thing I went with them because the other group that was supposed to go to the wedding still haven't gotten a ship together.

Our journey went from South Malekula then to North Malekula and then back South to Efate island where the capital city is. I looked on a map to find the name of the body of water we were going to cross to reach Efate island. It's called the Pacific Ocean. Aparrently it is the biggest body of water on earth. So it wasn't exactly a smooth ride or a short one. If they had gone directly south it could have taken as little as 12 hours but no, they had to go all around Malekula first. I was sumoned to the wharf to meet the boat at 8pm on friday night. I boarded the boat at midnight and disembarked in Vila at 11pm the next day. It took 23 hours yikes! The first half was fine because I had my ipod and a million comedy albums I got from Justine that I hadn't heard before. Everyone was looking so miserable and then I was sitting there with my headphones on cracking up. Then the battery on my ipod died. :( and I understood why everyone looked unhappy. They were all throwing up all the time which is hardly noticable if you can't hear it. but yuck ugh that was miserable just listening to people all around me get sick. Cause there's nothing else to look at. You can't read cause everything is moving too much. Once we left Malekula behind there wasn't another island in site until we reached efate. Nothing but blue sea and blue sky. Like a more drab version of an Yves Klein painting. Oh yeah and then one of the engines died. A ship journey is never complete without an engine dying. They managed to fix it and get it running again in about an hour. But we did have to deal with some nasty disel fumes for a while.

The highlight of the trip was either that I didn't at any point feel the need to throw up or catching a flying fish. Well I didn't catch it. The fish did all the work. It just flew at me and then I put in a plastic bag and took it home. It was a beautiful fish, with it's silver scales and translucent wings. But when I got back to the house I was suffering from land sickness, where the ground feels like its moving, for about 2 hours. so I didn't feel like gutting and descaling the thing. I gave it to the dogs instead. That worked out well because they were so grateful they escorted me down to the bus stop after.

It was a very long trip. but I think on the way back we should be going directly to Lamap first so It might take only 13 hours. That would be amazing. I would really appreciate that. So how much does this fabulours experience cost well. I got a special AOG youth discount so it was only $70 dolars round trip rather than $185 which is the cost of the plane. However the plane only takes 70 minutes instead of 35 hours. Bit of a difference. But the plane wasn't an option.Now I'm getting psyched about getting back on that speed demon, Fresh Cargo and heading back on Saturday.

May so far…

has been great. I just came back from Vila three weeks ago. We had our last two weeks of school before the term break. Well actually that part wasn’t so great. I came back to find that the other teacher has been playing hooky for the last two weeks and the whole community including me and the manager are like wtf man. But the manager doesn’t take any responsibility. He acts like there’s nothing he could have done. But he could have found a substitute teacher duh. While I was in Vila I had a substitute teacher. I told him that and he was like I couldn’t find one. And I was like well why didn’t you do it? And he goes well I didn’t want to. Oh ok great but do you want to deal with people not paying their school fees and not coming to school anymore because of what you did. Anyway we got a new school policy out of it but it’s not going to do much. Nobody pays attention to policies.

On the other hand when I asked what the other teacher was so busy doing that he couldn’t come to school. It turns out he’s doing some contract labor to fix up this house for a new doctor. Our aid post is being upgraded yay! And we’re getting a doctor. I was at a meeting the other day and my friend goes “we’re getting a doctor”
I was like “oh really that’s good”
“Yeah a white man”
“ Oh that’s good (me trying to hide excitement)”
“Yeah a young guy”
“Uh huh (me trying to not show that I’m freaking psyched)”
“Yeah an American”
“WHAT?! You’ve got to be kidding!”
“Yeah I’m kidding”
I don’t know what part he was kidding about though. Cause I asked around and we are supposed to get a doctor. But I don’t have the guts to ask if it’s going to be a young American guy or Frenchman or what? Anyway it could totally change the dynamics of my situation because I could have somebody that speaks English and reads newspapers and has been out of the country/off the island. It’s an exciting prospect but I can’t get my hopes up because it could easily be some old fart from the next island over who’s morbidly obese and doesn’t know how to smile (like our current RN).

I had a pretty good birthday. I got lots of phone credit from my parents so I could call lots of people. I got a chicken from a friend of mine. whom my mom quickly turned into a delicious soup. Yum. I also received a bucket of kava and sort of a kava party at my house. Some peace corps on my island came down to visit they made me a bench and gave me some alcohol that I’ll never get around to drinking. But yeah it was nice to have all the local guys in the neighborhood over for kava and the peace corps peeps all together chilling on our newly made “place belong sit down” behind my house. We made burritos with homemade tortillas. The norm when drinking kava is to get things to go because sometimes kava and food don’t mix. So I was wrapping up all these dudes burritos for them other side style in foil and shiat and I’m thinking man these guys have never seen a burrito in their life. How are they going to eat this? Ten bucks says they thought the tortilla was a plate and didn’t eat it. (You have to remember we don’t have lights at night too)

I can’t wait for the Naos fruit season to be over. There’s a Naos tree over my house and every time they fall out of the tree they wack my roof so hard I think they’re going to come right through. Then they roll down off the roof and land on the ground right next to my bed on the other side of the bamboo screen. Then every night just as I’m going to sleep some big huge pig comes and smack-smack-smacks his way through all the yummy fruit. Ugh chewing with your mouth open is so gross mister pig. I could literally poke my finger through the screen and touch the pig but I’m afraid of what he might do plus that would be gross cause they roll around in their own poo all day. Also baby pigs are the most obnoxious things I’ve ever heard. Imagine one baby crying times 8 or 10 babies and louder. Anyway, pigs, they taste great. Naos, I could do without.

I had an interesting conversation about black magic the other day. It was with Romeric and wan olfala man. Romeric’s like “have you ever seen black magic with your own eyes?”
I was like “no have you?”
“No” he says.
Which is funny enough in itself, because he’s always talking about how people here know how to disappear with a leaf and use it to steal cake as a joke. Anyway olfala man goes “I have. I’ve seen it and I’ve done it.”
“Really like what?”
“Like flying.”
“What! You know how to fly? How?”
(Typical non-direct answer, he starts talking about something different) “You put ashes –this is for getting a girl- ashes from a certain leaf –“
“Yeah and bones from dead bodies or something like that,” Romeric interjects “baby bones are the best. You can do anything if you have a baby bone. You can take a baby bone and go to a locked door and they’ll open it for you.”
“What? Where do you get baby bones?
No answer.
Olfala man continues with his recipe for getting a girl. “This is for a girl that is shy and doesn’t talk to you. It doesn’t work on girls that you joke around with all the time. One time I was saying I didn’t believe in black magic but an old man told me to try this. He took ashes mixed with some other things and rubbed it into my skin until all of it was in my skin and there was none left. Then he did it again and again until it all went into my skin then he wrapped up my hand in a leaf and told me to go see the girl after dark. If you sing out her name the first time her family will sleep, the second time her animals will sleep, the third time she will be thinking of you so much she won’t be able to sleep. And she’ll get up and come to you. So I went to her house that night and I did what the old man said and when I came into the yard all of the animals were asleep. Her dog was sleeping right in front of her door but it couldn’t get up. I knocked on the door once and she sung out my name. She didn’t know I was coming but she sung out my name. I came into the house and all her family was asleep but her. We talked go go and when it was time for me to leave I said goodbye and turned around to leave out the door. The door closes behind me and I hear her father say ‘what are you doing up?’ She says ‘no papa I just came back from the toilet.’ As I was leaving the yard all the dogs got up at once and started barking.
There’s black magic all around here like that mango tree over there between Merivar and Penisies with the taboo leaf on it. If you break a leaf from that tree someone from your family will die quite soon. And when you break the leaf you’ll see it’s not white like usual. The tree has blood, blood comes out if you break the tree.”
So I never found out the story about flying but now I know not to touch the blood mango tree! Good to know.

I had a great fundraiser where I played katikati, which is like a raffle, but it’s high speed and low stakes and it somehow feels more like gambling. I organised it but I didn’t really know what I was doing. The way you play is you’ve got something like a t-shirt and ten people buy tickets and then pick a winner and then you get another prize like a bag of sugar and ten people buy tickets and then you pull the winner. It goes really fast. People get so excited. You should have seen some of the women who were betting on sugar they were so nervous it was making me uncomfortable. But we did get a lot of money. Between selling food, kava, katikati and a DVD show we made $300 which when you think about that relative to people’s salaries/cost of living here it’s more like $3000. That was for the vocational school. Then this Friday we’re having a fundraiser for the environment committee; kava and some new string band video everyone’s freaking out about.

I’m probably going to Vila this weekend. I shouldn’t go back so soon. But I promoted this festival on the wrong date. I asked them a million times if there was anything going on that date that might mess up the festival. I asked them again and again. I asked al different people and they all failed to mention that there is going to be a football tournament that week and that all the young men that should do the custom dance in the festival won’t be able to make it because they’ll be playing football. I was like AHHHG. Then I just found a blurb in the Newspaper about it. It was totally out of my control. But I still feel like and it’s going to look like I messed it up. Anyway I’m going to have to go correct it. So I’ll hop on a ship with either half of my village that is going to a wedding or an AOG youth group this weekend. I wanted to go with the wedding group but they are freaking out because they chartered a boat for the family to get to the wedding and now everybody in the village wants to get on the boat. And then the boat they chartered couldn’t come so another boat is going to come but they don’t know what boat or what size boat or when. So yikes what a headache. I think I’ll just jump on the AOG boat. The boat ride is something like 20 hours. I hope it’s a “big” ship. Though last time I was on a ship it was relatively big but I still launched some projectiles into the sea. I wish I had Dramamine. In any case if this is on the Internet during the month of May, it means I survived the voyage. If not I either didn’t survive or didn’t get on the ship.

So ready to get off the island 4/5/10

My dog has left me because i was not very nice to her this weekend. She kept following me into church and making a big embarrassing scene. So I tied her up but she chewed through the rope and found me and then I had to yell and throw stones to get her to leave (not at her really just sort of in her direction, I would never actually stone a dog). Anyway now there’s no more church and I want my friend back but yeah I guess it doesn’t work that way. I deserve it but I hope she comes back before I go to Vila. I was planing on feeding her lots of meat this week to fatten her up in preparation for my departure. Dogs here just eat scraps from the kitchen, which is what she’ll have when I’m gone. It’s enough to live off of but I want her to be big and strong and healthy and all that. DESOLE MARIE! MI SORI TUMAS! Ki Gio!

My mosquito repellent and parasite cream has run dry, I have a bitch of a kava hang over and the Bishop is here. It’s Easter week and I managed to escape church on Thursday but had to go Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Today, Monday, I was nearly forced to go (in a nice way, as they do here). A friend brought me a new dress to wear to the Bishop’s mass and then came to check if I was ready to go. I had to tell her sorry I’ll be late. Yeah 4 hours late. Oops haha. I’m sorry but I’ve been to three masses this weekend. And I’m not Catholic so I think that’s good enough. Anyway there’s going to be lot’s of traditional dancing and drinking kava with the Bishop tonight and I need to rest up for that. Not to mention all the work I have to get done before I get to Vila this week. Yikes! Time to get back to work. I’m also currently trying to make a baked potato on a gas stove, I don’t think it’s going to work out. It also doesn’t help that it’s not a potato. It’s some relative of a sweet potato, Kumala, the not so sweet potato.
I’m also typing up a letter for the South Malekula Land Committee to take to Court as evidence on a land case and there is some pretty funny misuse of language. “Approximatively” that made me laugh out loud. “Juridical” is actually a real word but I almost corrected it cause I'd never heard it before. And then they are confused about the meaning of condone. “We strongly condone Mr. Martin’s wrong moves and bad attitude.” Well if you condone his behaviour then why are you going to court against him? Other fun unrelated language differences: barrel=paddle “did you bring a barrel for the Canoe?”, sevem=serve/sieve; “They’re sevem kava now” Two very different steps in the Kava process. It’s either time to drink or they haven’t finished making it; sel=coconutshell/shellfish/sale/sell “we’re selem copra.” Could mean they are selling it or taking it out of it’s shell. “Are you going to have a sel?” Could mean a yardsale or a shell of kava.

ok next blog will be my Vila update. I'm staying for two full weeks!

xoxox
Steph