Walkabout

I've been in Vila for a week now, and I'm just now getting a chance to sit down and write a blog. I've been running lots of errands and buying lots of stuff to take back to site. I'm really excited because I just got a laptop and it's already making my life a lot easier.

School's been out for the entire month of July, so I decided to use that time to see more of Vanuatu. Malekula's volunteers are infamous for knowing how to throw a party, so naturally I decided to go there for the fourth of July. Santo's a stop along the way, so I stayed there for a night and did a bit of shopping. It's not easy finding transport from the Luganville airport into town that isn't really expensive, but I met a taxi driver named Samuel who was nice enough to give me a discount. He's now my driver, or so he claims. I'm not allowed to travel by a taxi owned by anybody else. It's a fair deal. He's getting business and I'm getting a lower price. It's win-win...win. It's a bit overwhelming to go from the island to a city, and this was no exception. LCM's the name of a huuuge Chinese store that can ship whatever you buy back to your island. How's that for convenient? There's not much to do in Luganville when you only have a few hours, so I ate dinner at the Deco Stop and called it a day. There's a place called the Chinese Restaurant, but I couldn't figure out what kind of restaurant it was so I opted for pizza.

Wednesday's the day I caught the flight from Santo to the Kula, as it is known round these parts. Malekula's got a lot of coconuts. That's about all I can say about it. It's also flat, hot, and sunny. Norsup's airport was one of the first things I noticed. It's got no roof because it was fire bombed? It's dilapidated and there are papaya trees growing out of it. Dan's a volunteer on Malekula and I stayed with him during my stay there. He's got electricity, a blender, waterbed, computer, a fan, and, most importantly, seasons 1-4 of The Office. Dan's house is located close to Lakatoro, which is the provincial center for the Malampa Province. Lakatoro's amazing. It's got a huge mama's market, and there are stores where you can buy almost anything you could ever want. Dan's house is located at the school, however, so there are constantly children running around yelling, crying, and staring at us through his windows. That's a little awkward, but not as annoying as the school bell that rings at least ten times a day, or the rooster that likes to crow outside of the window, hehe.

Malekula's got a ton of PCVs. I've never been a huge sushi fan, but some of the other Malekula volunteers brought over several kilos of fresh tuna and mahi mahi that they had caught and we all made sushi. It's really weird to grab a chunk of fish flesh and put it in your mouth, but that's exactly what we did. Santo's got wassabe, so I picked up a tube of it and we made a good dipping sauce with that and some soy sauce (real soy sauce!).

What's a fourth of July party without burgers and beer? That'd be an Ambae fourth of July. Dan's friend actually sent him a small grill, so we all grabbed that and had a picnic on the beach, listening to classic rock songs. It's dark by 7 pm round here, so we packed up our stuff and headed back to Dan's. I've never had such a chill fourth of July.

Jameson's not a liquor to be trifled with, so the next day was filled with laying around and recovering. I'm not a big fan of whiskey, so luckily I was okay. Malekula's known for making a kind of lap lap called lap lap sursur. Dan's host family had us over for lunch and I got to try it. It's just regular laplap, but they put hot stones in the center and then meat on top. It's really tasty because not only is there meat on top of the laplap, a rarity in Maewo, but it's really tender and the juices seep down into the laplap, actually giving it some flavor. There's also coconut milk on top, which makes everything ten times better.

That's about all of the exciting things I did on Malekula, but I'm definitely not complaining. It's nice to just hang out and relax and not worry about social obligations in my community. I've finally caught up with everybody on watching The Office, managed to finish season one of Heroes, and even watched a few movies. Dan's got a lot of movies, and I got a chance to watch No Country for Old Men, The Cleaner, Mama Mia!, Across the Universe, and a few others that I can't remember right now.

There's some sort of unspoken rule between some PCVs that when there are two or more of them present in the vicinity, and it's mealtime, something spectacular must be prepared. You've gotta keep in mind the fact that our standards are considerably lower here, so "something spectacular" to us might not be quite so spectacular to you. I'm of the opinion that, as long as something has flavor, it's pretty amazing. Vanuatu's beef is really fresh and, if you know how to cook it right, you can't really go wrong with that. There's this grocery store in Lakatoro that sells cheese, potatoes, canned tomatoes, eggs, cold drinks, pasta, and more. I'm not a creative person, but the possibilities are sortof endless with those ingredients, especially because their mama's market sells a lot of good produce like eggplant, green beans, chinese cabbage and cucumber.

That's pretty much it for my stay in Malekula. It's difficult to leave a place of such relaxation, but, as my next stop was Vila, it wasn't too difficult :) Vila's such a trip for volunteers living on the outer islands. It's so busy and congested, which is funny because, compared to any city in the U.S., it's nothing special. I'm a big fan of cheese, so naturally the first food I turn to when I get to Vila is pizza. There's a hotel in Vila where PCVs always stay and they put me up for the meeting. Internet's free there if you have a laptop (which I now do--thanks Dad!) so I curled up with my hawaiian pizza and got online for the first time in months.

It's getting down to my last day here in Vila, so I'm going to wrap this up for now in case I don't get on again. I'm having a great time in Vanuatu, and, now that I have my laptop, I'll be able to type up blogs at site and then post them when I come back in October. I'll try to keep in touch, but take care until next time!