First months on Maewo

Just spent two months at my new site on Maewo. I didn't realize how bad my first site was until I realized how amazing my new site is. The move from Ambae to Maewo was a very stressful experience, but well worth the trouble. A Peace Corps staff member, Richard, flew with me to Ambae. We then took a truck to my village. Did I mention that I ride in the bed of pick-up trucks on a regular basis? Lots of fun. Anyway, we got to Lolovoli and I packed up my things while Richard talked with my village about what was going on. It was weird to be packing all of my things with everyone standing around watching. Occasionally someone would pick something up and ask if they could keep it. Pretty standard for Vanuatu. So I packed my things within two hours, giving some things away in the process, and leaving much behind. I walked over to the nakamal and drank a shell of kava with my host papa before getting onto the truck to go back down to Saratamata. Some tears were shed, but mine dried completely as soon as I saw everyone emptying my house of its furniture. I was feeling sorry about leaving, but when I saw that, I knew I had made the right decision.

We got back down to Saratamata and, the next day, put my things on a motorboat and puttered across to Maewo. With all of my things, the trip took about 90 minutes.














The best part: I got to bring my dog, Stuey. He loved the boat ride. I, on the other hand, was pretty shaky and nauseous by the time we arrived. .
















My counterpart's family helped me carry all of my things to my house.
My house is absolutely incredible. Cement floors, hurricane-proof windows with screens, running water, my own personal rain tank, and a toilet just outside the house. There's a gas stove, food safe, and bamboo couch.



The food safe was rendered useless by rats, and I've been waging a war against them on a daily basis. So far, they're winning. The bamboo couch is nice to look at, but is a bit like sitting in a church pew; after a little while it's uncomfortable. That night we drank kava and I storied with some of the women. It was a very different experience from my first few nights in Lolovoli due to the fact that I was more experienced with integrating into a community. I knew what to say, what not to say, and how to act. It was great.

The next day, the school committee held a meeting to welcome me and find me a host family. I introduced myself and met my host mama, Erima. I was then taken back to my family's house to meet my papa and siblings. My papa's name is Henry. He reminds me a lot of John Goodman. He's very big, and yells a lot. But not in an angry way. I have eight brothers and sisters. The eldest, Hensley, lives here in Vila. He's 21. Then it's Suzy (20), Darin (17), Ronald (16), Larry (14), Lucy (10), Hendrix (8), and Hancy (2). My host mama fully believes that Hancy was a result of black magic. Apparently, someone was upset with my host papa and decided to curse my mama with the burden of another child. Don't you hate it when that happens? I certainly do.

I share a bedroom with my sister, Suzy. She's pretty cool and, because she doesn't go to school, is free to take me wherever I wanna go. We went to the gardens, other villages, wove mats, cooked, storied, etc. The first month was just kinda us hanging out. But it did start to get a little boring.

Luckily school started at the beginning of March.
I'm super busy all of the time now, writing lesson plans, teaching, and trying to find time in between to have some time by myself. I usually get up around 5:45 and eat breakfast with my family. Then I walk to my house to shower and get ready for the day. I chose to live with my host family rather than inside my own house for several reasons: 1) Integration into the community is exponentially easier, 2) My house is kinda on its own, outside of the village, hence not the safest place at night, 3) I can eat most of my meals with my family, which saves me time and money, and 4) The volunteer I replaced lived with her host family the whole time and I don't want my host family to feel like they're not as good a family as hers was. This way, I feel safer and less lonely. If I ever need some "me time," I just go over to my house and hang out. Anyway, I teach from 8-11:30, then eat lunch with Rinisa, the woman I'm training to be my replacement.
I teach again from 1:30-3:30 then work on lesson plans until sundown, at which time I go back to my family's house and eat dinner. We talk for a little while, and sometimes I help my brothers and sisters with their homework. My youngest sister, Hancy, has really grown on me. She cries about everything, but when she's in a good mood, she's sooo cute. She always greets me with a big hug and sits on my lap, where she does her best impersonations of the handclap games she sees her big sister play. Then I go to bed and do it all over again the next day. Time flies.

On Saturdays I wash my clothes and meet Sandy, my closest PCV neighbor, at my house to cook. Every week, we choose different things to cook. We've cooked food like spaghetti, flat bread, guacamole, hummus, shortbread, fudge, onion rings, etc. All amazingly unhealthy, but delicious. We eat and story and it's a nice break at the end of the week. Around sundown we make our own "walk of shame" to the edge of my village, moaning and groaning the whole way because we've eaten wayyy too much food. After leaving her at the first creek, I go back to my family's house.

Sunday is church. Anglican. Not so bad. At the end of service on my first Sunday there, the priest started talking about church punshishment. Basically, whoever does something bad is "punished" by the church, and cannot take communion for a certain amount of time. In the meantime, I think they have to visit with the priest and work for forgiveness. It was weird to hear people being called out on their scandals in front of everybody. It seems a bit Salem witch trialish to me, but keeps the villagers in line, for the most part. I've done a couple of bible readings, which earns me HUGE brownie points, hehe. There's some talk about why I don't take communion, but I feel like it might be a bad idea to tell them that I've never been baptised. So I just say that I respect their religion, but mine tells me that I can't take communion. They seem to be okay with that, but every now and then I do get asked about it. After church, I go back to my house to get ready for the next school week and at sundown I go back to my family.

So far, so good. I've got about another year to go. I feel really good about the place because, for one thing, I did more with my host family on Maewo in the first week there than I ever did in my seven months on Ambae. Weaving mats, pinning natangura, going to the garden, etc. They care about me and want me to be happy. Volunteers claim that the second year goes by much faster than the first. I think it's because our projects really start to get going during that second year and time flies.

Which brings me to what I'm doing here in Vila. But because I don't want this posting to be too long, I'll stop here and write about my stay in Vila some other time. Hope everyone back home is seeing warmer days and sunnier skies. Miss you guys!