Hey Guys,
So...I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! Training is now over and we swore in last Thursday. It was long and rainy, but overall fun. The last two weeks of training were really hard. It was just as all the other current volunteers told us it would be...when you get back from your week visit to your future site, it's hard to sit through Bislama sessions and whatnot. We were all tired and ready to go to site and get to work. A lot of grumpiness.
I gave the speech at our swearing in on behalf of the 16 of us...in Bislama...in front of 100 people...including the president of Vanuatu and the U.S. ambassador to the South Pacific. It went well, and I was only slightly nervous...maybe my stage fright is going away, hehe. The president took the opportunity of his coming to Epau to award several community members with medals and, because this was the Peace Corps Country Director's last swearing in ceremony, a lot of the ceremony was about him. I felt bad for the invited guests, because the whole thing was about three hours long. Afterwards we drank kava, ate, and danced to string band music.
The next morning was dreary. Me and Rachel (the girl who lives out in the boonies with me) walked the mile and a half in the rain to the nakamal where everybody gathered to say goodbye. We all stood facing the villagers and they lined up to shake our hands and hug us goodbye. Everyone was crying and it was just really sad and depressing. It was kinda funny at the same time because crying is such a "thing to do" around here. There are certain events where you're required to cry, just as natural as it is to shake hands. So they just cover their faces and pretend like they're crying. A lot of them can cry on command, it's very impressive. My papa is a very religious guy and makes a point to cry whenever he prays in front of the congregation. He "cried" when he said goodbye to me, which made me feel sad, but then I saw him five minutes later cracking up with his buddies so it wasn't so bad.
I was sad to leave Epau, but very ready to move on. I've been in the capital for three days now and it's been raining in Vanuatu since Monday. Today is the first time I've seen the sun in almost a week. But I guess I'd better get used to that. It's nice to be able to chill out and take my time doing things for a change. There's a lot to do and unfortunately, now that we're not trainees anymore, PC has pretty much left us to fend for ourselves. There have been so many mistakes with flight plans and money and bank accounts. It's really frustrating. To top it all off, we got here Friday morning and no one works on weekends so there's no one to help us out until Monday. Which is when we're leaving. Long story.
Anyway I've developed a pretty good friendship with a girl named Hillary. She's from Texas but moved to California for college. She's traveled all over the world, plays rugby, and is a diving master. All around cool girl...I'm going to try to get SCUBA certified so we can go diving together. Her and I are flying out tomorrow to Santo, where we'll stay the night and then go visit her site. Then she's coming to Ambae with me for about a week. Should be fun. It was her birthday yesterday so we had lots of fun. She got me to shotgun my very first beer, hehe. I bought a guitar yesterday for $40. It's a piece of crap, but it sounds pretty good. I learned how to tune it relatively well and I borrowed a songbook from the resource center. Hopefully I'll be somewhat decent by the time I get back to the states, hehe. There's also a puppy waiting for me at site. I bought him a collar so ppl will know he has an owner. I named him Lenny, but while I was gone apparently he got himself trapped in a toilet so ppl call him Stu...short for Stupid. Great. Haha, he's really cute and all white and he's a good guard dog.
My group elected me and this other guy, Travis, to be the representatives for the Volunteer Advisory Committee. It was very flattering to know that my fellow volunteers think that I'm up for the challenge, and even better that VAC members get flown into Vila (for free) at least twice a year for meetings. That's more money I can put towards a vacation in New Zealand!!!
So this is where it gets hard. Training is over, and we're on our own now. When I get out to site, it'll just be me and my village. Wish me luck!
Justine Beaulieu
Peace Corps Volunteer
P.O. Box 33
Lolowai, Ambae
Vanuatu
Mobile: 011 678 5445706
Land: 011 678 38015
Love ya,
Justine
ps- You can all still send emails to volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov...our resource center lady prints them out and mails them to us...it'll get to me within two weeks and is much faster than letter writing from the states : )
So...I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! Training is now over and we swore in last Thursday. It was long and rainy, but overall fun. The last two weeks of training were really hard. It was just as all the other current volunteers told us it would be...when you get back from your week visit to your future site, it's hard to sit through Bislama sessions and whatnot. We were all tired and ready to go to site and get to work. A lot of grumpiness.
I gave the speech at our swearing in on behalf of the 16 of us...in Bislama...in front of 100 people...including the president of Vanuatu and the U.S. ambassador to the South Pacific. It went well, and I was only slightly nervous...maybe my stage fright is going away, hehe. The president took the opportunity of his coming to Epau to award several community members with medals and, because this was the Peace Corps Country Director's last swearing in ceremony, a lot of the ceremony was about him. I felt bad for the invited guests, because the whole thing was about three hours long. Afterwards we drank kava, ate, and danced to string band music.
The next morning was dreary. Me and Rachel (the girl who lives out in the boonies with me) walked the mile and a half in the rain to the nakamal where everybody gathered to say goodbye. We all stood facing the villagers and they lined up to shake our hands and hug us goodbye. Everyone was crying and it was just really sad and depressing. It was kinda funny at the same time because crying is such a "thing to do" around here. There are certain events where you're required to cry, just as natural as it is to shake hands. So they just cover their faces and pretend like they're crying. A lot of them can cry on command, it's very impressive. My papa is a very religious guy and makes a point to cry whenever he prays in front of the congregation. He "cried" when he said goodbye to me, which made me feel sad, but then I saw him five minutes later cracking up with his buddies so it wasn't so bad.
I was sad to leave Epau, but very ready to move on. I've been in the capital for three days now and it's been raining in Vanuatu since Monday. Today is the first time I've seen the sun in almost a week. But I guess I'd better get used to that. It's nice to be able to chill out and take my time doing things for a change. There's a lot to do and unfortunately, now that we're not trainees anymore, PC has pretty much left us to fend for ourselves. There have been so many mistakes with flight plans and money and bank accounts. It's really frustrating. To top it all off, we got here Friday morning and no one works on weekends so there's no one to help us out until Monday. Which is when we're leaving. Long story.
Anyway I've developed a pretty good friendship with a girl named Hillary. She's from Texas but moved to California for college. She's traveled all over the world, plays rugby, and is a diving master. All around cool girl...I'm going to try to get SCUBA certified so we can go diving together. Her and I are flying out tomorrow to Santo, where we'll stay the night and then go visit her site. Then she's coming to Ambae with me for about a week. Should be fun. It was her birthday yesterday so we had lots of fun. She got me to shotgun my very first beer, hehe. I bought a guitar yesterday for $40. It's a piece of crap, but it sounds pretty good. I learned how to tune it relatively well and I borrowed a songbook from the resource center. Hopefully I'll be somewhat decent by the time I get back to the states, hehe. There's also a puppy waiting for me at site. I bought him a collar so ppl will know he has an owner. I named him Lenny, but while I was gone apparently he got himself trapped in a toilet so ppl call him Stu...short for Stupid. Great. Haha, he's really cute and all white and he's a good guard dog.
My group elected me and this other guy, Travis, to be the representatives for the Volunteer Advisory Committee. It was very flattering to know that my fellow volunteers think that I'm up for the challenge, and even better that VAC members get flown into Vila (for free) at least twice a year for meetings. That's more money I can put towards a vacation in New Zealand!!!
So this is where it gets hard. Training is over, and we're on our own now. When I get out to site, it'll just be me and my village. Wish me luck!
Justine Beaulieu
Peace Corps Volunteer
P.O. Box 33
Lolowai, Ambae
Vanuatu
Mobile: 011 678 5445706
Land: 011 678 38015
Love ya,
Justine
ps- You can all still send emails to volunteer@vu.peacecorps.go
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