April 16, 2008 Day 9

Hey Guys so I forgot to mention...the process of getting out to Vanuatu was crazy and exhausting. I boarded a plane to Chicago from DC early but then had to wait at O'Hare for about 3 hours. Got to LA and had fun for about a day and a half...the hotel was nice, but there wasn't much to do around it. The flight to New Zealand was amazing, everything I'd heard about international flights was true...I watched three movies: Jane Austen Book Club, Death at a Funeral, and Enchanted. Slept very little. We got to shower and drink a few beers in the six hours we had to kill at the New Zealand airport. I slept for about 20 mins.

The flight from NZ to Vanuatu was about 2.5 hours. They served us a really good meal with lots of alcoholic beverages :) The view from the plane when we landed was beautiful. The current PC volunteers welcomed us with noisemakers, leis, sarongs, and coconuts. They gave us a van tour around the city and took us to our motel. The vans are called buses here and you can get on one wherever and whenever you see one for just 100 vatu, or $1...Currently.

Thursday here in Vanuatu, on my lunch break. The weather here has been cloudy and very rainy for the past couple of days, due to a tropical depression somewhere out in the Pacific. We should be fine here though. A few of us went to a discoteque via a truck ride-my first...I got to stand up in the bed of a pick-up and hold on for dear life. Luckily the roads here in Vila are relatively okay and the driver was good, it was fun :) A few times I had to duck to avoid hitting tree branches so it was similar to a video game hehe. We were pretty much the only ppl at the club but we had a decent time. It was strange because there was all of this reggae music playing with a big screen with ESPN playing.

Yesterday we went to the Vanuatu cultural center and saw the National Library. Mom, you would've loved it. Apparently that museum is a huge deal in the South Pacific, but it was teeny tiny by American standards. We saw the chief's nakamal and drank kava and "storied on" about the history of Vanuatu. I tried some Vanuatu grapefruit, which is much sweeter than our grapefruit at home. I also tried something called naous I think...not very good, almost like eating a raw potato.

Last night was kindof low key...we all sat around and watched a movie and went to bed. This morning Deb, one of our grandma volunteers slipped and fell and fractured her wrist. We think she got medevacced (sp?) to Brisbane. That was a little scary, I've never seen a broken bone before. It was weird because she was just saying how she couldn't wait to get out on her own and then she left the motel and boom!

Today we got some info on a lot of the gastrointestinal problems we can encounter and got our first training on Bislama. We were taught that green coconut water can hydrate a person for up to six hours! Later on we'll be separated girls/boys and get the dreaded "sex talks." The current volunteers have been really nice to us and are showing us the ropes...apparently there will be a couple parties at their homes for us this weekend.

I haven't given very much info on the basics here. Right now I've been staying in a motel with about ten rooms, a beautiful gazebo in the middle and a small pool. Each room holds an avg of two ppl and has a main room and then a bathroom. The beds are bunked and the lower is a double-sized bed. I got the lower bed, mwhahaha. The bathrooms are nothing special. Because it is so humid here, we have trouble with mildew. Nothing ever dries completely. Papers get damp and crumply. The towels and sheets are washed every day and, as a result, are pretty threadbare, which is okay seeing as how its so hot.

The PC office is just a few blocks away and is a set of rudimentary buildings. We sit at tables barefoot and listen to different presentations.
There's a separate room with A/C where they keep these computers and books to check out. That's where I am now. There's a supermarket down the street called Au Bon Marche. There's also a market downtown where the mamas (what women with children in Vanuatu are called) sell their goods. We ate lunch there yesterday for about $3 and it was delicious. They have the most interesting produce. There's breadfruit trees, passionfruit, papaya, grapefruit growing everywhere. There are also lots of stray cats and dogs that I wish I could take home with me. It would break your heart.

On another note, the ppl are very friendly here. According to the U.N., Vanuatu is #128 in the world for GDP, but #1 in terms of the happiest ppl. They say it is because of the traditional economy that exists here with ppl living off of the land. Anyway, there's lots more to tell, but so little time! I'll try to email again soon.
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