Hello All-
So I just finished my first three months at site. There's so much to tell I don't know where to begin (again). I'll try to give a brief rundown...Hopefully it won't repeat too much of what I've written home about.
After leaving Vila, I took a plane to Luganville, Santo. Espiritu Santo is the largest island in Vanuatu. Luganville is a decent sized town with lots of Chinese shops. I made a friend in training, Hillary, who came with me. We spent a couple of nights in a hotel there and just tried to relax before going to site. When we first got to Luganville we had to wait so long for a taxi that the airport closed and turned off all of its lights. We just stood there in the dark amongst all of Hillary's luggage for a while. We felt it was a very Peace Corps experience. Hillary's host family was nice enough to come meet us at the airport though, so we weren't alone. I helped Hillary take all of her luggage and new puppy to her site. It was about an hour truck ride to the dock where we took about a half hour motor boat ride to her island. It's a teeny tiny island called Araki. We hiked up the side of her island and then to her house with all of her stuff. Thank goodness we had lots of strong Ni-Van men to help us, hehe. We wanted to sit and chat for a while, but they quickly shooed us back to the shore where the boat was waiting to take us back. The chief of Hillary's village is very old and senile. He decided to come with us and repeatedly asked us for money. He actually fell backwards in the boat and hit his head pretty hard. Crazy times.
Back in Luganville Hillary and I went to a kava bar and enjoyed our last beers and steak dinner, haha. It was so delicious. We caught a plane to Ambae (my island). We stayed at this UN Volunteer Steve's house in the provencial capital, Saratamata. Vanuatu is separated into six provinces. Penama province encompasses Ambae, Pentecost, and Maewo. Luckily, the capital of the province is only a three hour walk from my site, one hour by truck. It's only about 8 miles, but the roads are so bad it takes a while to get around. We met a bunch of other volunteers there and prepared to go down to Sakao, a volunteer's village in South Ambae past my own, for a July 4th party. We were rained out the first day, but left the second. There are a lot of creeks in South Ambae, which contributes to the stark contrast in development between South and East Ambae. The creeks make for difficult crossing, especially when there is a lot of rain. Anyway we all crammed into a truck for the two hour ride to Sakao. I brought my puppy, Stuey, who got car sick and threw up all over Jackie, our 70-year old PC Volunteer. I felt pretty bad. He was known as "That Damn Stuey" for the rest of the trip, haha.
Sakao was a bit rough. I got pink eye for the first time. It rained almost every day but I got to brush up on my Spades playing. We had a party on the fourth. No fireworks, but there was a lot of alcohol :) I considered it my last party before going to site and thoroughly enjoyed myself. A couple days later we headed out. I made it to my site with pink eye in both eyes. The villagers were like, what's wrong with your face?? It was pretty embarassing. Afterwards, I got really sick. My jaw and neck swelled up and I had a high fever and sore throat/body. I called into the PC Office and they told me to take some penicillin. After about three days I was right as rain again. But for a while there people were just coming into my house to stare at the sick white lady. That was awful. I just wanted to be alone. I think a lot of people thought that I wasn't really sick, but unhappy to be there. I was happy to get better and go out into the village to talk to people.
The first three months have been good and bad. I have had amazing days but also really terrible days. I definitely have to learn to calm my American multi-tasking self. A few things backfired on me just because I wasn't culturally sensitive enough to appreciate the differences in how things are done in Vanuatu. So I've kindof switched gears and decided to slow down a bit. It's hard because I'm really bored most of the time and it would be a lot easier if I had work to do. But that's one of the challenges of Peace Corps. At the same time, I've gotten a lot done for a new volunteer. The women in the village practically seized me and demanded that we form a women's group. We held elections and formed a committee. Now we have monthly meetings, cooking groups, and fundraisers. Their eventual goal is to build a small restaurant in the village. People in Lolovoli (that's the name of my village) have money, but little time so I feel like a restaurant might be a good idea. We'll see how it goes. Ambae women are known for being strong and intelligent. They definitely play a bigger role in the community than do women on most other islands. In the long run, I feel like the women's group could help the community with bigger projects like water sanitation, road building, etc.
The women's group built a chicken coop the other day with all local materials. It was maybe my favorite day in Vanuatu so far. It was nice to get out and get some exercise. We used bamboo and wood for the frame, then natangura leaves for the roof and woven bamboo for the walls. I plan to buy a couple chickens and a rooster and eventually start selling eggs and meat. My village doesn't eat nearly enough protein, and it really shows in the kids. They are all very small for their ages. I think it was my bringing up the fact that it was the women's responsibility in the village to look out for the kids' nutrition that got them so motivated. I was truly amazed with how much we got built in one day. The money would go towards the women's group to build their restaurant and whatever other project they'd like to do.
There's a cultural center in the village that the previous volunteer built. There's also a committee for that cultural center. We meet roughly every month. Right now we're planning the second annual mini-arts festival for november 3. Not sure if that will actually happen either, hehe. I've had to separate myself a bit from the cultural center lately though. We charge cell phones there for about $1 each with a solar panel to raise money for the center. EVERYBODY has a cell phone here now. This company called Digicel hit Vanuatu hard with its marketing and advertising. I was charging somewhere around 10 phones a day, going back and forth between my house and the center to plug in, unplug, and/or check on phones. It started to make me feel like the village saw me only as a cell phone charger. They also started coming to my house to get change or buy things from me. At first I got excited because I thought people were coming to my house to talk, but they'd always just be asking for something. It started to put me on edge. With everyone that came to my house I became more and more frustrated. So a couple of Sundays ago I got up at the meeting house after church where everybody makes announcements and made one of my own. I announced that I was not a bank, a store, or a phone charger, and to please stop coming to my house unless you wished to talk to ME. I think they respected that. Tim, my closest volunteer neighbor, told me that Ni-Vans will take advantage of you as long as you let them. So I stopped letting them. At first I wanted so badly to help them and fit in and be liked that I did anything and everything I could for them, but now I see that it doesn't work like that. Now I feel much happier.
Now I'm trying to start a kids' group. Every Wednesday night I invite the kids to the cultural center to play. I'm trying to get them to use the cultural center. When I first got to Lolovoli, the center would stay locked all day long. People were afraid to go in, let alone touch anything inside. So I'm trying to do some easy lesson plan for an hour about their culture, and then another hour of play. So far the biggest challenge is just getting them to show up, haha. We'll see, it's still very new.
Later I'm thinking about starting a girls' group. Just a sleepover at the cultural center once a month where we can do girly things and maybe watch a movie. Maybe it will help those who might want to talk to someone about their concerns. Or just have fun. The kids are great here. There was a water project that I was trying to get started in the village, but I can't seem to find anyone to help do a survey of the water pipes in the village. So that's on hold until somebody steps up to the plate for that one.
As Lolovoli is surrounded by creeks and sits on a volcano, there are natural disaster risks. So I am beginning to work with the Vanuatu and French Red Cross to develop disaster preparedness plans for the village. One of the reasons I'm in the capital is actually to go to a couple trainings with the Red Cross. The more I see here in Vanuatu, the more interested I become with Food Security. My village relies mostly on their kava crops for income. As a result they don't plant much food and rely a lot upon rice. As everyone knows, the price of rice has greatly increased and when it gets scarce, people run low on food. They live on a lush tropical island where you can grown things even accidentally and they don't have food! It's insane.
Anyway, as you can see I'm keeping myself busy. I have a lot of little things going on, but for the most part it's the days between that are difficult. Every day I wake up around 7 am. I make the bed faithfully. My village is so humid and damp that my sheets are clammy every night when I get into bed. Making the bed helps. I sweep my house with a broom made of coconut fronds. I go fill up two buckets with water and carry them back to my house to wash dishes. Breakfast is usually oatmeal or crackers and peanut butter. I just got a coffee press and real coffee so no more instant!!!! Now I just have to figure out how to get real milk, hehe. There are cows and goats here, but nobody has an interest in dairy products. It's appalling...how can people live without cheese?!!! Maybe I'll buy my own cow, hehe. They're only about $300 here. I'll usually go wash my clothes, work, or go story on with people until lunch. I read a lot and do crossword puzzles. Write letters. Lunch is usually whatever I have lying around. People have just started bringing by the first round of veggies for me, which rocks! I just got a bunch of tomatoes and mangoes. I made a kickass tomato and onion salad the other day. The mangoes were to die for. A good thing about living without a grocery store is that you get really creative with your cooking. I love to cook now and hope that will continue after my stay in Vanuatu. After lunch I get to take a nap. Then I'll play with my dog, maybe go for a walk, or go story on a bit more. By then the kids come home from school and a few of them play in my house. Lately I've been going over to my host family's house for a few hours before dinner to help. They almost never let me help, but a couple times I get lucky and grate some lap lap or coconuts. Doing that has really helped me feel more a part of the community. Tuesday and Saturday nights are market nights, where a selected group of women bring food to the nakamal for sale. I love market nights. Lately they've been baking bread too! That means not only do I not have to cook, but I don't have to wash dishes either! It's a nice break in the monotony. I used to drink kava on market nights as well, but right now I'm taking a break from it. I go back to my house and play games with the kids or read or just chill. Around 9 pm I close my doors and go to bed. I do get a little scared at night, but most of the time I'm really tired and fall asleep quickly. Stuey is a great guard dog and I'm used to the spiders and cockroaches for the most part. The rats don't bother me as much anymore either, but it's hard to sleep when they're chewing on my walls, haha. I'm waiting for one of the village kitties to have her kittens so I can have one. Stuey loves cats and plays with them. I miss him a lot now that I'm in Vila.
I make it down to the provincial capital every two or three weeks. I like to walk, but it's not really that cool to go alone. I hate asking people to walk with me, but what can I do? Staying in Saratamata means cold drinks and meat. It also means seeing Steve, a guy that I have started to see. He has a motorcycle and is able to make it up to my village now and again with eggs and other supplies for me.
So now I'm in Port Vila for two weeks, assessing the first three months and marveling that I've now been here for six. It's a bit hard being a woman in Vanuatu. I'm told repeatedly that I can't do many things because I'm a woman, but then I'm that I shouldn't walk around alone. During the day when everyone goes to their gardens (which I'm not permitted to go to yet) I sit around. It's very boring. The longer I'm here though the more aggressive and assertive I become with the garden issue. I tell them once in a while..."you know, I am an AGRICULTURE volunteer...maybe I should go to the gardens?" But no. There is a community garden that I might get to work in eventually, but again I can't walk their alone. It's definitely going to be a challenging next 21 months for me, but I knew that going into the Peace Corps.
I got to meet the new training group. I'm not one of the newbies anymore, which is a relief! Seeing their anxious faces and answering their worried questions helped me to put my experience into perspective and feel better. Talking to them I realized that I have really learned a lot so far and that after another six months I'll feel even more comfortable here. Now I'm just doing a little work each day, then relaxing. It's nice to have the internet and air conditioning. I love the hotel room...the bed is soft, the bathroom is attached to my room, and there's running (hot) water!!! The best is ice cubes, ice cream, pizza, and CHEESE!!! I went dancing the other night but had a hard time keeping my eyes off of the tv screens haha. All the new music videos from kanye, timbaland, rihanna, etc were playing. I love the new stuff that's out and it really seems like there's more racial integration in teh music videos. Not sure if I would've noticed the changes there or in fashion if I were still in the US. I went kayaking around Iririki island the other day and got a pretty killer sunburn. It is turning into a tan though and I'm looking forward getting back out in the sun (with sunblock). We've had pretty good weather. Just kindof doing the tourist thing for the first time. It's nice to be able to be in the capital and know my way around and speak the language.
Peace Corps Vanuatu just got a new Country Director, who really seems to have his shit together. I just got done with a two-hour meeting with him and feel very confident in his ability to clean up a lot of the problems we're having here. I didn't feel too comfortable with the former CD, but Eddie puts me completely at ease. It was nice to talk to him to introduce myself and let him know what I'm up to. This weekend Steve and I are gonna rent a car and drive around the island. I wanna see my host family from my training village. My host mama had her baby and named her Justine! Should be a good time.
Anyhoo hope this LONG LONG LONG (SORRY SORRY SORRY) email finds you all well. I miss you all very much! Please send your addresses if I don't already have them...i'd love to send postcards or letters.
If anybody feels like sending goodies...
Cereal
Granola
Trail Mix
Jerkey
Tea
Kraft Mac n Cheese
Add Waters
Thank you so much for the packages. I now have a year's supply of crystal light, haha. Love you guys!
Justine xoxo
So I just finished my first three months at site. There's so much to tell I don't know where to begin (again). I'll try to give a brief rundown...Hopefully it won't repeat too much of what I've written home about.
After leaving Vila, I took a plane to Luganville, Santo. Espiritu Santo is the largest island in Vanuatu. Luganville is a decent sized town with lots of Chinese shops. I made a friend in training, Hillary, who came with me. We spent a couple of nights in a hotel there and just tried to relax before going to site. When we first got to Luganville we had to wait so long for a taxi that the airport closed and turned off all of its lights. We just stood there in the dark amongst all of Hillary's luggage for a while. We felt it was a very Peace Corps experience. Hillary's host family was nice enough to come meet us at the airport though, so we weren't alone. I helped Hillary take all of her luggage and new puppy to her site. It was about an hour truck ride to the dock where we took about a half hour motor boat ride to her island. It's a teeny tiny island called Araki. We hiked up the side of her island and then to her house with all of her stuff. Thank goodness we had lots of strong Ni-Van men to help us, hehe. We wanted to sit and chat for a while, but they quickly shooed us back to the shore where the boat was waiting to take us back. The chief of Hillary's village is very old and senile. He decided to come with us and repeatedly asked us for money. He actually fell backwards in the boat and hit his head pretty hard. Crazy times.
Back in Luganville Hillary and I went to a kava bar and enjoyed our last beers and steak dinner, haha. It was so delicious. We caught a plane to Ambae (my island). We stayed at this UN Volunteer Steve's house in the provencial capital, Saratamata. Vanuatu is separated into six provinces. Penama province encompasses Ambae, Pentecost, and Maewo. Luckily, the capital of the province is only a three hour walk from my site, one hour by truck. It's only about 8 miles, but the roads are so bad it takes a while to get around. We met a bunch of other volunteers there and prepared to go down to Sakao, a volunteer's village in South Ambae past my own, for a July 4th party. We were rained out the first day, but left the second. There are a lot of creeks in South Ambae, which contributes to the stark contrast in development between South and East Ambae. The creeks make for difficult crossing, especially when there is a lot of rain. Anyway we all crammed into a truck for the two hour ride to Sakao. I brought my puppy, Stuey, who got car sick and threw up all over Jackie, our 70-year old PC Volunteer. I felt pretty bad. He was known as "That Damn Stuey" for the rest of the trip, haha.
Sakao was a bit rough. I got pink eye for the first time. It rained almost every day but I got to brush up on my Spades playing. We had a party on the fourth. No fireworks, but there was a lot of alcohol :) I considered it my last party before going to site and thoroughly enjoyed myself. A couple days later we headed out. I made it to my site with pink eye in both eyes. The villagers were like, what's wrong with your face?? It was pretty embarassing. Afterwards, I got really sick. My jaw and neck swelled up and I had a high fever and sore throat/body. I called into the PC Office and they told me to take some penicillin. After about three days I was right as rain again. But for a while there people were just coming into my house to stare at the sick white lady. That was awful. I just wanted to be alone. I think a lot of people thought that I wasn't really sick, but unhappy to be there. I was happy to get better and go out into the village to talk to people.
The first three months have been good and bad. I have had amazing days but also really terrible days. I definitely have to learn to calm my American multi-tasking self. A few things backfired on me just because I wasn't culturally sensitive enough to appreciate the differences in how things are done in Vanuatu. So I've kindof switched gears and decided to slow down a bit. It's hard because I'm really bored most of the time and it would be a lot easier if I had work to do. But that's one of the challenges of Peace Corps. At the same time, I've gotten a lot done for a new volunteer. The women in the village practically seized me and demanded that we form a women's group. We held elections and formed a committee. Now we have monthly meetings, cooking groups, and fundraisers. Their eventual goal is to build a small restaurant in the village. People in Lolovoli (that's the name of my village) have money, but little time so I feel like a restaurant might be a good idea. We'll see how it goes. Ambae women are known for being strong and intelligent. They definitely play a bigger role in the community than do women on most other islands. In the long run, I feel like the women's group could help the community with bigger projects like water sanitation, road building, etc.
The women's group built a chicken coop the other day with all local materials. It was maybe my favorite day in Vanuatu so far. It was nice to get out and get some exercise. We used bamboo and wood for the frame, then natangura leaves for the roof and woven bamboo for the walls. I plan to buy a couple chickens and a rooster and eventually start selling eggs and meat. My village doesn't eat nearly enough protein, and it really shows in the kids. They are all very small for their ages. I think it was my bringing up the fact that it was the women's responsibility in the village to look out for the kids' nutrition that got them so motivated. I was truly amazed with how much we got built in one day. The money would go towards the women's group to build their restaurant and whatever other project they'd like to do.
There's a cultural center in the village that the previous volunteer built. There's also a committee for that cultural center. We meet roughly every month. Right now we're planning the second annual mini-arts festival for november 3. Not sure if that will actually happen either, hehe. I've had to separate myself a bit from the cultural center lately though. We charge cell phones there for about $1 each with a solar panel to raise money for the center. EVERYBODY has a cell phone here now. This company called Digicel hit Vanuatu hard with its marketing and advertising. I was charging somewhere around 10 phones a day, going back and forth between my house and the center to plug in, unplug, and/or check on phones. It started to make me feel like the village saw me only as a cell phone charger. They also started coming to my house to get change or buy things from me. At first I got excited because I thought people were coming to my house to talk, but they'd always just be asking for something. It started to put me on edge. With everyone that came to my house I became more and more frustrated. So a couple of Sundays ago I got up at the meeting house after church where everybody makes announcements and made one of my own. I announced that I was not a bank, a store, or a phone charger, and to please stop coming to my house unless you wished to talk to ME. I think they respected that. Tim, my closest volunteer neighbor, told me that Ni-Vans will take advantage of you as long as you let them. So I stopped letting them. At first I wanted so badly to help them and fit in and be liked that I did anything and everything I could for them, but now I see that it doesn't work like that. Now I feel much happier.
Now I'm trying to start a kids' group. Every Wednesday night I invite the kids to the cultural center to play. I'm trying to get them to use the cultural center. When I first got to Lolovoli, the center would stay locked all day long. People were afraid to go in, let alone touch anything inside. So I'm trying to do some easy lesson plan for an hour about their culture, and then another hour of play. So far the biggest challenge is just getting them to show up, haha. We'll see, it's still very new.
Later I'm thinking about starting a girls' group. Just a sleepover at the cultural center once a month where we can do girly things and maybe watch a movie. Maybe it will help those who might want to talk to someone about their concerns. Or just have fun. The kids are great here. There was a water project that I was trying to get started in the village, but I can't seem to find anyone to help do a survey of the water pipes in the village. So that's on hold until somebody steps up to the plate for that one.
As Lolovoli is surrounded by creeks and sits on a volcano, there are natural disaster risks. So I am beginning to work with the Vanuatu and French Red Cross to develop disaster preparedness plans for the village. One of the reasons I'm in the capital is actually to go to a couple trainings with the Red Cross. The more I see here in Vanuatu, the more interested I become with Food Security. My village relies mostly on their kava crops for income. As a result they don't plant much food and rely a lot upon rice. As everyone knows, the price of rice has greatly increased and when it gets scarce, people run low on food. They live on a lush tropical island where you can grown things even accidentally and they don't have food! It's insane.
Anyway, as you can see I'm keeping myself busy. I have a lot of little things going on, but for the most part it's the days between that are difficult. Every day I wake up around 7 am. I make the bed faithfully. My village is so humid and damp that my sheets are clammy every night when I get into bed. Making the bed helps. I sweep my house with a broom made of coconut fronds. I go fill up two buckets with water and carry them back to my house to wash dishes. Breakfast is usually oatmeal or crackers and peanut butter. I just got a coffee press and real coffee so no more instant!!!! Now I just have to figure out how to get real milk, hehe. There are cows and goats here, but nobody has an interest in dairy products. It's appalling...how can people live without cheese?!!! Maybe I'll buy my own cow, hehe. They're only about $300 here. I'll usually go wash my clothes, work, or go story on with people until lunch. I read a lot and do crossword puzzles. Write letters. Lunch is usually whatever I have lying around. People have just started bringing by the first round of veggies for me, which rocks! I just got a bunch of tomatoes and mangoes. I made a kickass tomato and onion salad the other day. The mangoes were to die for. A good thing about living without a grocery store is that you get really creative with your cooking. I love to cook now and hope that will continue after my stay in Vanuatu. After lunch I get to take a nap. Then I'll play with my dog, maybe go for a walk, or go story on a bit more. By then the kids come home from school and a few of them play in my house. Lately I've been going over to my host family's house for a few hours before dinner to help. They almost never let me help, but a couple times I get lucky and grate some lap lap or coconuts. Doing that has really helped me feel more a part of the community. Tuesday and Saturday nights are market nights, where a selected group of women bring food to the nakamal for sale. I love market nights. Lately they've been baking bread too! That means not only do I not have to cook, but I don't have to wash dishes either! It's a nice break in the monotony. I used to drink kava on market nights as well, but right now I'm taking a break from it. I go back to my house and play games with the kids or read or just chill. Around 9 pm I close my doors and go to bed. I do get a little scared at night, but most of the time I'm really tired and fall asleep quickly. Stuey is a great guard dog and I'm used to the spiders and cockroaches for the most part. The rats don't bother me as much anymore either, but it's hard to sleep when they're chewing on my walls, haha. I'm waiting for one of the village kitties to have her kittens so I can have one. Stuey loves cats and plays with them. I miss him a lot now that I'm in Vila.
I make it down to the provincial capital every two or three weeks. I like to walk, but it's not really that cool to go alone. I hate asking people to walk with me, but what can I do? Staying in Saratamata means cold drinks and meat. It also means seeing Steve, a guy that I have started to see. He has a motorcycle and is able to make it up to my village now and again with eggs and other supplies for me.
So now I'm in Port Vila for two weeks, assessing the first three months and marveling that I've now been here for six. It's a bit hard being a woman in Vanuatu. I'm told repeatedly that I can't do many things because I'm a woman, but then I'm that I shouldn't walk around alone. During the day when everyone goes to their gardens (which I'm not permitted to go to yet) I sit around. It's very boring. The longer I'm here though the more aggressive and assertive I become with the garden issue. I tell them once in a while..."you know, I am an AGRICULTURE volunteer...maybe I should go to the gardens?" But no. There is a community garden that I might get to work in eventually, but again I can't walk their alone. It's definitely going to be a challenging next 21 months for me, but I knew that going into the Peace Corps.
I got to meet the new training group. I'm not one of the newbies anymore, which is a relief! Seeing their anxious faces and answering their worried questions helped me to put my experience into perspective and feel better. Talking to them I realized that I have really learned a lot so far and that after another six months I'll feel even more comfortable here. Now I'm just doing a little work each day, then relaxing. It's nice to have the internet and air conditioning. I love the hotel room...the bed is soft, the bathroom is attached to my room, and there's running (hot) water!!! The best is ice cubes, ice cream, pizza, and CHEESE!!! I went dancing the other night but had a hard time keeping my eyes off of the tv screens haha. All the new music videos from kanye, timbaland, rihanna, etc were playing. I love the new stuff that's out and it really seems like there's more racial integration in teh music videos. Not sure if I would've noticed the changes there or in fashion if I were still in the US. I went kayaking around Iririki island the other day and got a pretty killer sunburn. It is turning into a tan though and I'm looking forward getting back out in the sun (with sunblock). We've had pretty good weather. Just kindof doing the tourist thing for the first time. It's nice to be able to be in the capital and know my way around and speak the language.
Peace Corps Vanuatu just got a new Country Director, who really seems to have his shit together. I just got done with a two-hour meeting with him and feel very confident in his ability to clean up a lot of the problems we're having here. I didn't feel too comfortable with the former CD, but Eddie puts me completely at ease. It was nice to talk to him to introduce myself and let him know what I'm up to. This weekend Steve and I are gonna rent a car and drive around the island. I wanna see my host family from my training village. My host mama had her baby and named her Justine! Should be a good time.
Anyhoo hope this LONG LONG LONG (SORRY SORRY SORRY) email finds you all well. I miss you all very much! Please send your addresses if I don't already have them...i'd love to send postcards or letters.
If anybody feels like sending goodies...
Cereal
Granola
Trail Mix
Jerkey
Tea
Kraft Mac n Cheese
Add Waters
Thank you so much for the packages. I now have a year's supply of crystal light, haha. Love you guys!
Justine xoxo
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