i feel good! da na na na na na na

like i knew that i would!

I've been in Vila for a week now and it has been wonderful. I definitely wasn't at the point of needing to come in from the island, but its nice to settle all of your cravings and take a hot shower! ...and electricity, clean clothes, english speakers... I just got off the phone with my papa and am excited to get back to Lotahimamavi. I miss my family and I'm ready to start teaching and working on projects!

this one's for you, dad! gettysburg represented around the globe, whether people know what the hat says or not!

So the first half of the week was spent catching up on sleep, catching up with family, and ketchup. for french fries, of course! The other gad members came in and I had a chance to get to know some of the ones I hadn't yet met. Everyone's got good stories and a sense of humor to go along with them, so it's fun getting together and letting it all out.

best mint chocolate chip ice cream

Our gad meetings were from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Vanuatu has one of the most active gad programs among the peace corps posts, so it's really exciting being a member of it! We talked about the upcoming events and Tim, Michelle, and I took on our new positions. I'll be the project lead for programming and training of the staff and future volunteers and i'll be assisting with project planning that takes place at everyone's individual sites. Luckily, the current gad members rock at their jobs, so I'll have some great veterans teaching me the ropes. 

making kits for kamp glow/bild
cameo: my nokia phone!

The gender based violence prevention workshop was postponed due to funding problems, but we found out on thursday that funding came through for it to happen at the end of june! Great news! So we polished up the manual for that and for the ToT Kamp glow/bild in August, too. 

On Wednesday night there was a short film festival happening in Vila. Tim Martin, a 3rd year extendee vol, works with an organization called Further Arts to teach and help evolve media in Vanuatu for social change. He helped produce one of the short films and starred in another, so we came out to support him! They ended up being really good! and got a lot of good dialogue going, which is always a good thing. 

peace corps resource room! home away from home

funky lotus bouquet

We have one extendee on gad, Natalie, who is a bad ass. She has a great energy about her and is hilarious! She works with Youth Challenge in Vila and they were having a fundraiser, so we decided to head there after Friday meeting. Fundraisers here usually consist of a table of local food, kava, and bite size versions of the food called wasemaot (wash em out) that you eat after a shell of kava. Drank a few shells and hung out for a bit and then headed to Wan Smol Bag. 

Wan smol bag is an ngo in Vanuatu that uses theatre to create awareness and education on topics affecting the communities. Coincidentally, they have been putting on a play about gender based violence called “laef i swit” or life is sweet and we went to check it out. It was so good! The music, the acting, and the message were all on point. I recently learned that there has been a push in Vanuatu over the last few months to bring awareness to domestic violence and gender inequality happening here. I am fortunate to be here at a time when change is happening!

After this we went back to Pac Par and got ready to go out. Sara, Jasmine, Michelle, and I went to Alliance Francaise, a home base for the French expat community here. We stepped into this place and I felt like I was on a different planet. Or at least a different country. France, maybe? Mixed with New Zealand and Australia. I didn’t realize that there were so many young vols/expats living in Vila! Sara, an older vol, has a bunch of friends in the circle, so I’m glad I tagged along with her. We had a great time dancing to some fun tunes. One sing along was James Brown’s I Got You, which is still stuck in my head. No complaints about that. 

This has been a fun and refreshing trip to Vila. On Monday I head back to the island for more adventure time.

Until then!

saw my headmaster's wife in her stall by the water

downtown Vila view & Iririki Island in the distance

waterfront

ambaelievable

A collection of stories, in no special order. fancy word vomit! enjoy:

just found this one - sending my stuff to the cargo ship

Because my papa is the zca, he is in charge of visiting the schools in his zone and observing the teachers. One night while we were eating dinner, he told me that he was heading to Michelle's site in the morning. Lombaha, her village, is in north Ambae and much more inland than Lotahimamavi. She lives on Simon School grounds, but it backs into the village, all on a hill antap, surrounded by creeks. Many of the islands in Vanuatu are covered in rivers, but because Mt. Manero is active and doesn't have time to form rivers yet, we have hundreds of creek slithering through the island. When it's heavy rainfall, the creeks become dangerous and students from neighboring villages can't cross them to come to school. Michelle is trying to get a bridge project going, but is waiting for funding. It would make a big difference in her community, so fingers perpetually crossed!

I convinced my papa to let me join him on the trek, despite his warnings of an exhausting day. My parents last teaching assignment was in Lombaha where  my papa was the headmaster.They lived there for 8 years, so the journey up is as familiar walk home for him. We left our homes at 5:30 and walked the main road while the sun rose. The picture I'm using for the background of this is from that hike, just when the sky turns from rosy to golden as the sun makes its way up into position for the day. This hue blast has become the best trade off for the several roosters who sleep in the avocado tree in my front yard. When they're up, I'm up. Now I thank them for that.

We were on the main dirt road for about an hour and eventually got to the foot path. The next 2 hours were an uphill journey through Ambae bush. We crossed creeks and took breaks and my papa told me the names of all of the trees and plants we passed. It is unbelievable how much the ni-Van know about the land. We passed through a dozen or so villages and finally ended up at Simon School. Amen! I surprised Michelle and then took a nap in her hammock while she finished up class. She showed me around her village and we made simboro for lunch. Michelle has a wonderful hot sauce spread, so I dove right into that. In the afternoon, we began our trek back. Much easier! At one point on the main road part, on a very easy patch of dirt/basalt gravel path, I spaced out and slid to my bloody doom. Just kidding mom, but I did cut up my leg and got a good laugh about making it through the bush, but falling on the road. It's finally healed up, so no more weird stares at my leg anymore. followed by laughs, of course, at how I was "sleep walking" according to my papa. It was an exhausting day!

hike to lombaha

So when there's a full moon or anything past half full, the sky lights up and you can sit outside and enjoy each other's company without flashlights and candles. This was the case for a couple of nights, but one evening I looked outside while sitting in my parents house and noticed that it was dark. I mentioned this to my mama and, thinking it was strange, she went outside and gasped. I followed her and the saw that the moon was a deep reddish orange. She told me that she's glad we are Christians (they still don't fully grasp the Jewish thing. I just kinda go with it, it's harmless enough) because this was the end. I asked her to explain and she said that this was a sign from Jesus saying that the world was ending. I wasn't too keen on taking her word on this, so we went to the school library (thankfully we've got one of those) and found the book on astronomy that I was looking at earlier. I found the pages on lunar eclipse. As my mom was reading it, my aunt and headmaster both came over to ask me what was happening because they thought it was the end, too. After we all collectively breathed a sigh of relief that we could avoid island hysteria and widespread panic (ha ha), I explained to them what an eclipse was and we sat outside and watched it make its move. Apparently all over Vanuatu, people were asking the same questions and coming to the same conclusions. I learned a few things that night: "the rapture" is a good thing to name something if you want to freak people out, ignorance isn't always bliss, and lunar eclipses with a sky full of stars are breathtaking.

The teachers are government paid, so that means that every other Friday is a countrywide pay day event. I'm not included in the money part of this because Peace Corps pays its volunteers' living allowances separately, but it's still a great day to tag along! School is let out at 11:30 and we all hop on trucks and head into town. Sitting in the back of the truck (standing if you're lucky and up close to the cabin where you can lean forward) has become on of my favorite activities ever. The ride from school to town is the best of all things - wind blowing, sun shining down, everyone in high spirits, views of Maewo at every clearing... I will never forget the feeling and the inevitable goofy grin plastered on my face. Two more years of that ride. Woo!

"Town" refers to Lolowai and Saratamata. East Ambae is home to both of these little hubs that are about a 30 minute walk from one another. Lolowai has a cargo ship landing and is where you catch the boat to Maewo. There are 4-5 small shops and two big ones, blue store and wai co-op. My family owns a little store, Vuvu Tambe II (I asked what happened to Vuvu Tambe I, but I didn't get an answer) My aunt, Mami Amina, is the shopkeeper for my papa and the shop's porch becomes our home base on payday. After all the shopping and wandering about is finished, we meet back up at VT 2 and wait for the truck to bring us back home. My mama runs the school/community canteen and stocks up at both blue store and wai co-op. They've got pretty fair prices and sometimes blue store has cold beer! I buy one for myself and for my parents to enjoy when we get home. They don't really stay cold, but "a cold one" is still a nice treat after a week of classes.

After a short Lolowai stop, we either walk or hop on a truck to Saratamata. This is where the bank, post office, police station, education office, and other small businesses live. Bank line on pay day is pretty daunting, so I usually grab a (cold!) chocolate milk and go ask the post office lady Celia to double check if I have mail. On that note, thank you for the letters! Each one has put a smile on my face and brightened the two week gap until the next stop in town. Find yourself bored with nothing to do? There's no such thing! Write a letter - I happen to know someone who would very much love that. And then you'll get one in return. Pretty neat!

Because everyone makes their way to town to either collect their pay or to sell this-and-thats to those who just did, the place is really busy. I get a chance to catch up with the other volunteers on the island and swap stories. Jessie Rae and Nathan, a wonderful couple, live pretty close to Saratamata. Nathan teaches at Ambaebulu and Jessie Rae helps out at the Lolowai hospital. I've slept over at their place a couple of times and its always a good time. They are welcoming, easy going people and Jessie Rae is hysterical. I'm so happy we are island mates!

layover on pentecost, transporting simba and pistol to ambae!

Once the afternoon rolls in and you're ready to get back to your quiet little community, the truck scoops you up and takes ya home. My papa grabs a big tuna that the fishermen bring in and we cook it up for dinner. Pay day reminds me of Wet Hot American Summer when the counselors get to leave camp (minus all of the absurdness they get into) "It's fun getting away from camp, even if it's just for an hour!" Or however it goes. Always nice to get away from site and see a cluster of different faces. I'll have to take some shots of town next time I'm there.

So the rats aren't US-sized rats, they look more like mice. But! what they're lacking in size, they make up for in quantity. When I got to site, I found that the rats had decided to look after my house for me. Such considerate creatures! However, my little house just isn't big enough for all of us. I decided it was time for a puskat. The next time I went into Lolowai I asked around and found an olfala with puskats. He let me take a kitten and that was the last day I've been woken up by rats! I named him mighty quinn (maeti kwen, bislama style!) because quinn the eskimo has been stuck in my head for a very long time. Kwen is a funny little kitten and though not big enough to catch/eat rats yet, his scent scares them away.

you'll not see nothing like the mighty kwen!
(bae yu no luk wan samtin olsem maeti kwen - a little bislama for ya)

Two days later I was at church and a woman brought me another puskat because she saw me in Lolowai and assumed I needed more than one. I named her lava because she's orange and I live on a volcano. I went from being a single lady to a mother of two! kwen and lava are best friends/lovers and will hopefully hold off on reproducing for a while - I'm not quite ready to be a full blown cat lady. The good news on that front is that I'll be able to distribute out the little lavakwens pretty easily. In the mean time, they are good company. They climb up trees and slide back down, eat coconut shavings, examine the chickens, and have taught me the art of the daily cat nap. I hope they're alive when I return on Monday. My mama is keeping an eye on them, and if anything, they'll get a little hungry and learn how to hunt. I watched kwen catch a lizard and eat it, but 15 minutes later he yacked it up, fully intact and still kinda squirming. Practice makes perfect!

little lava

lover pups

huntress in training 

cat nap master

There are some gnarly spiders here. When you go inland, or antap, the spiders get crazier. They don't faze anyone here though. They aren't really spooked by much at all actually. I'm not a spider lover and they think it's hilarious that people could be afraid of them. They tell each other in language how I don't like them and they crack up and shake their heads. Even the little kids look at me with that face! The local word for spider is tagaga. When I check my swim house before I bathe (swim) I yell out "tagaga hatie" and my parents laugh at the absurdity of my announcing that there are no spiders. The 8 legged critters really like my natangura roof and come out of its thatched-ness at night time to check in on me. Really, it's prime time to catch bugs, so I let them be. We are allies in the never ending battle against mosquitoes - those assholes just don't give up! My only rule is for them to remain out of broom reach. I proudly made my broom with coconut leaves, so I'm happy to use it when one steps out of line. I'm slightly worried to return to site to find a new generation of spiders who don't know the rules yet. Hopefully the puskats are hungry enough to chase them off!

how bout them coconuts?!

here we are, home at last

2 minute walk behind my house! hot spring + pacific ocean, a really happy place

written on may 1 & 2 ish

I can't believe it's already May! Or that it's only May? Both thoughts have run through my mind a handful of times in my first month at site and both are always followed with the happy realization that this is my home, my family, and my life for the next two years. Here's to surviving month 1 at site!

The plan was to come back to Vila in June for PST2 (Pre-Service Training 2) to binge on dairy and showers, but I'll be going back May 9th for a week now, too! Most (maybe all, I'm not sure) Peace Corps posts have two elected groups: VAC, or Volunteer Advisor Committee, and GAD, Gender and Development Committee. I applied to join GAD and found out a couple of weeks ago that I was chosen to join! gad (I'm going lowercase because you say "gad" not "G-A-D" and that's enough screaming in this post) does great things and I loved their sessions during training. gad holds trainings and workshops to teach and encourage sustainable development through gender equality. It's important in Vanuatu where there are traditional roles for men and women in most settings and plenty of room for community action. Next week I get to attend the GBV (gender-based violence) workshop for the older volunteers and their site counterparts in Port Vila and in August, I'll be facilitating the ToT (Training of Trainers - Peace Corps has a thing for acronyms) which trains the other volunteers and their counterparts on how to run Camp GLOW/BILD (here we go again - Girls Leading Our World and Boys In Leadership Development) I'm really excited about the gad committee stuff and know that it will be a rewarding part of my service! the committee's chair Lynn created the website, it explains things much better than I can: http://gadvanuatu.com/

It's difficult to take this 24/7 fascinating experience and turn it into words on a screen. How do writers do it? I'll never know. I'm in limbo trying to not sound like an informational monster, but still explaining things enough where they make sense. There are so many unusual things happening in my life and they're quickly becoming normal, which is even more unusual. Here's another attempt at articulating some of it -

I got to site on April Fool's Day, because that's how the world works, and sighed with relief of arriving home (literally, arriving - the planes here do not make smooth landings) I took the hour truck ride to Qwatuneala Primary School and arrived just when work party was ending. Work party, also known as "bring your bush knife to school day," is this wonderful event once a week when the students clean up the school and do projects around campus after lunch. The kids love being outdoors with their friends and 160 students really get shit done! Plus, they've been doing this stuff in the villages since they were toddlers so they're good at it. Since being at site, the students have helped me build my garden, collect firewood, clear out my backyard, and build a handwashing station. Party on!

house from the back - kitchen on the left, swim house and toilet on the right

I talked with my parents, telling them about second half of training and they helped me settle in. Most of my belongings (including my mattress- should of thought that one through) were on a cargo ship planned to a arrive to Ambae in a couple of days. Planned and actual usually don't match up here, especially with transportation, so my first two weeks were lacking most of my things. As you can imagine, this made the arrival of my boxes with nothing missing all the more sweeter! My family took care of me and it wasn't a problem. They are wonderful people and I was thrilled to be back on Ambae! More on Ambae in another post. But for now - I live in northeast Ambae in Lotahimamavi, or fire water in local language! I have a hot spring in my back yard... it makes a chilly day feel like a treat! My house is on school grounds where I teach, Qwatuneala Primary School.

My primary assignment is teaching English to class 1, 2, and 3. The students learn English from 7:30-9:30 am, so I've made a rotation where I see those classes throughout the week. Pretty sweet gig! Other than that, I've been figuring out secondary projects and getting my house set up. I spend a good portion of my life between two trees, either in a hammock or walking (fumbling) across a slackline. I've been working through crosswords, practicing yoga, and exploring new music. A life without internet and other time fillers is very refreshing. No complaints! I brought my laptop with me and, thanks to the volunteers who know how to download massive amounts of media, have an external hard drive full of tv shows, music, podcasts, and movies. This really comes in handy.

view from the hammock

My parents, Ishmael & Jennifer Mala, are the second coolest parents ever (you're welcome, real mom and dad!) They've been together for 25 years and have both been teachers for a long time. My papa is the zca or zone curriculum adviser. His job is to oversee the 12 schools in our zone on Penama province - north Ambae. My mama is the class 2 teacher at school.. along with my aunt who teaches class 2, my cousin teaching class 4, and another cousin as the headmaster/class 6 teacher. We all live on school grounds. It's a family affair! In fact, the whole island of Ambae is family. I sing out ankal, anti, brata, sista, bumbu, mami, and dadi to most people. This makes me feel safer. You may be asking something along the lines of "if you're related to everyone, how do people still act/look normal after so many years of this?" Michelle, a volunteer on my island, explained that there are two overlapping blood lines in Ambae and everyone knows who you can marry/make kids with and when it's taboo. It's a pretty good strategy actually. Personally, I'm avoiding the whole situation for my own happiness and security, so no worries of incest for me. Phew.

at the school entrance. howdy!

school grounds. check out that mango tree!

My parents are from villages antap (on top, or in land closer to the volcano) but both went to Qwatuneala when they were pikinini. It was the first school my mom taught at when she became a teacher 20 years ago, and my dad and her lived there in the 90's for 8 years when my dad was the headmaster. They have plenty of memories on school grounds and I love when they tell me where the old mango tree was, how they helped build the kindy building, and a whole variety of stories of the past. They are wonderful! I can tell by how he interacts with everyone that my papa is really respected where I live. He's goofy and the three of us have inside jokes and laugh a lot. They have been so kind and generous to me and I am already so grateful for their friendship.

Because the school term ends mid May for two weeks, I haven't taught on my own yet - just observing and giving pre-assessments to the kids. The literacy levels are all over the place, so hopefully I can help even things out. Hopefully is the key word here, considering I've never really taught before. Learn as you go!

The kava on Ambae is far superior to that on Efate that I drank during training. The outer islands grow large amounts of kava, so when you drink it, it's fresher and more potent. It also doesn't mess with your bel as much. Kava is the national drink here and a big part of culture. It isn't a violent, addictive substance, but a way to connect with the earth and those around you. I drink kava 4-5 nights a week. My papa usually goes to the kava bar and takes a few shells and then brings back a jumbo water bottle for my mama, him, and myself (me? I? dami, I'm not sure.. sorry!) to split. Sometimes my brother and friends are around to drink or other family members stop by for the evening. You fill up a glass, go to a corner of the yard, and sing out "malogu" or the local word for kava, and gulp it down. the tastes sucks, but a few minutes later, the effects settle in and you feel nice. After 15 or 30 minutes, you take another shell if you'd like and that's how the night goes. I usually drink 3-5, depending on the strength and how i'm feeling. It's not aggressive back-to-back chugging, just a great way to socialize, storian, and get a good night's sleep. No hangovers, too! I think I'll end up writing more about kava in the future, but this is enough for now! Haha one last thing - my family has a kava garden and one night my papa and brother grinded down some kava for us to enjoy. I like plays on words so I sang out "ishmael mala-gu" when we drank and my papa spit out his kava laughing, it was quite a scene! And another-when I started drinking, I would make sure I had on a darker shirt because I'd end up spilling some of it. I guess I'm still a toddler. But I called this my kavattire and they'd always get a kick out of it. Gotta love the world of spoken language!

I love my little house. I've added a couple pictures from it. When I go to Vila, I'm going to buy some paint for the outside and inside. all of the square panels you'll see below will be different colors and outside will be a light brown ish color. I'm hopefully going to find some cheap broken tile so I can mosaic my front porch.

my ode to vanuatu corner. gotta keep those island dresses wrinkle free!

food-making zone

where i sit and ponder, do crosswords, and play with watercolors

dream station

food safe-turned-armoire.. no more rat holes in my clothes!

my pretend bathroom counter

figured out how to do panorama!

view from my porch

A bunch of my uncles helped me build my bush kitchen, too. I convinced them to make the walls low and to have a big opening because those things get smokey. We ended up compromising because it wasn't conventional enough for them, but it turned out great! I blared Bob Marley and cut up oranges for them (the secrets to getting shit done here) and it was finished in a few hours and ready for cookin'. Woo hoo!

kitchen in progress

finished! always trust a man who wears a belt with his sweatpants..

Once I get to town, I'll find some time to sit down in the resource room and type up some more life happenings. Adios!

a few lessons i've learned so far

• all good things must dry in the end. and if they don't, throw them on top of your tin kitchen and let the sun kill the mold
• too much kava means peeing in the middle of the night. the infamous pee bucket is a volunteer's most prized possession when its 2 in the morning. 
• always keep your mosquito net tucked in
• washing your clothes by hand takes the same time but you're present during all of it
• ill never underestimate the value of a good book
• cleaning out a french press is challenging with no running water, but coffee is worth the clean up. when it rains hard and you have all the time in the world, a fun game is letting the drops of your roof clean it out. also fun with cleaning your toothbrush!

wakobaot week

shit, something deleted the second half of this post. ill fill ya in on life on ambae once i get to site! happy living, everyone

this post is going to be short because I have plenty of time (two years!!) in the future to write about my permanent placement. I only took a handful of pictures because I’m trying to avoid being the person with the camera while simultaneously being the community guest, if that makes sense!



The flight to Ambae was great. The original plane was overbooked, so peace corps chartered a small 8 seater for most of us heading to Ambae and Maewo. Maewo is a remote island close to Ambae with no airstrip – you have to fly to Ambae and then take a small boat over to the island. 5 health volunteers + Steve (he’s English, but his wife Alexis is health) will be in Maewo. Steve and Lexi’s site is Naviso – a village so remote that peace corps wasn’t positive they’d be ready for volunteers because the only way to contact them is word of mouth! Steve and Lexi will be going with a satellite phone, but other than that, they have no access to service of any kind. It takes them 3+ hours up a mountain to get to Naviso! All pretty nuts, but they’re an awesome couple and up for the challenge. I’m excited to visit their world once we’re all settled in!

Anyways, the plane ride was beautiful. The 8 seater meant guaranteed window seat! When we were approaching Ambae, the sky was too cloudy to see the landing strip so we took a half hour trip around the island until it cleared up. It was great! Michelle, a current Ambae vol, pointed out my school to me and it got me even more excited to arrive.

Thank you for the lovely birthday cards! I had some great laughs (with myself) and displayed them proudly in my little house. Turning 23 will always stand out in my mind and you haven’t a clue how special you made it.

sports day at school

my cute little home

i poop in a hole! but it's a fancy hole - a VIP (ventilation improved pit)

high cielings! flas! (fancy)

east ambae's airport

black sand beach a half mile from my site

extra large avocados for a birthday gift

birthday yums from my great host family

kakae (kah-kye)

means food! food is an important part of Vanuatu culture (and I think most cultures) so I want to share some common kakae with yall – assuming anyone reads this thing besides my mom – over the next two years. the kakae diaries, volume 1: lap lap

We are super lucky to have access to endless fruit and nut trees here. The soil is rich, so when a fruit is in season, it’s everywhere! I was lucky enough to arrive at avocado season… which means I get to open up a plump one every morning for breakfast. Not half bad.

While the fruit has been an easy plus, it’s taken some time getting used to aelan kakae, or island food. I’m sure there will be plenty kakae posts in the future, but here’s a taste of what I’ve been tasting so far

The national food of Vanuatu is laplap. I’ve eaten this concoction almost every day, sometimes twice a day! This doesn’t mean that it’s my favorite food, it just means that it’s put on the plate in front of me. And then everyone stares until you eat or they talk in language about how you don’t like aelan kakae. It goes like this:

You take some green bananas (or manioc, taro, breadfruit) and grate them down into a mush consistency. You cut down some banana leaves and lay them down, two or three in a row, then two or three on top of those, crossing them the other way. It helps to have you and someone sitting on the ground across from with a few feet to separate you. Allow the space between to become the area of masterpiece. After you’ve laid out the two layers of banana leaves, you must rewind a few steps and collect some coconuts. Once you crack them open, you grate and milk them, putting some on top of the leaves. After, slop on the [insert filling of choice] mush and cover that with the rest of the coconut milk. Use the ends of the banana leaves to wrap the future laplap up tight and rewind again!

So an hour before this, you need to make an earth oven. You layer wood with stones and cook a fire until the wood burns away the stones are extremely hot. There are special round stones used for earth ovens here, I think they get them from the riverbed. Now you remove half of the hot stones and put the wrapped up coconut leaf packet into the earth oven and cover it with more stones. You let this cook for an hour or two while you’re at church and when you return, it’s ready! It tastes pretty mushtastic, but I’ve actually gotten so used to it that it ain’t half bad. I like when the mamas get a little create and add in onions and garlic. Sometimes you get lucky and they add in chicken or beef! Sometimes you don’t get lucky and they don’t take out the bones.

   



chicken laplap pictures from alexis & steve – for more reading, they’re at http://www.invanuatu.com



oh, food! I’ll write volume 2 soon enough

tata training! epau final week

last week in Epau! Which means last week of training! What a nice feeling.

i'm going to create a calendar called "Small Children with Knives" - here's Benson, January's shot

This week has been practical-based training. Angie, Nathan, and I are teaching English to class 4 every morning 8-10 and then tutoring/lesson planning afterwards. This is my first time in a classroom, so it’s been interesting. I’m grateful to be with Nathan and Angie, two badasses with teaching/life experience that I am eager to learn from.

The sicknesses have been pouring in like the cyclone of march 12! Ever since my trailblazing into giardia, a handful of others have gotten it too. Along with that, the village collectively got the flu and a 9 of the trainees had high fevers! Everyone was breaking down and ready to end training and regain the ability to eat, drink, sleep, and do what we want. Next week is Vila town for swearing in which means meals and showers!

Shoshana sent me a great package with new string and beads! I was planning on making one for my papa and mama because they really liked mine. Unfortunately my family saw how much sho sent me and I became a one man hemp necklace sweatshop for the last two weeks. The things that made this okay were distraction from sickness and the smiles on their faces.

laura and i in matching dresses! mother hubbards forever

Last day finish class and they have a small thank you for us. We got island dresses and kaliko and the kids sang us this farewell song. The song was pretty eerie because they knew it so well that it was obvious they’ve sung it many times. It’s a weird situation because all of the villages along ring road on Efate see trucks passing by full of tourists pretty often. When the tourists stop, the kids leave class and sing for them. We witnessed that this afternoon and it put a bad taste in our mouths. I guess it would be different if the people were coming to learn about Epau for an afternoon. Instead, they just drop by, take a few videos, and drive on. Some tourists do donate money or supplies to the schools, which is we’ve learned it can be hard as a volunteer in these situations. You can’t really engage with the tourists and encourage a better cross cultural experience without potentially spoiling the relationship of the whole thing. It’s tough for sure and has made me more aware of the role tourists play (positive and negative) in some societies.

family's new pet... he tickles... and apparently has good jokes?

the sad pigs that belong to my family. really heart breaking

Two good things that come with having a paved road are the second hand truck and the meat truck! The second hand truck is a traveling thrift store that carries a bunch of random shit in the truck bed. I am slightly (very) addicted to second hand stores, so one that’s on wheels and comes to me is a treat!

Another treat is the meat truck. It’s a truck that drives around ring road with two ice boxes- one for meat and one for ice cream! My family bought meat a few times, but I really love it for the frozen dairy goodness. It feels like childhood when everyone lines up and gets their fix. There’s no ice cream truck music or a wall covered in selections, but it tastes even better than the “real” thing! Now for the other ice box (though I will admit, sometimes there’s only one ice box, I just don’t think about it) all of the meat is local and fresh and pretty damn good! Except for when it’s mince #2… Trust me, do not eat mince #2.

meeeaaaat truckkkkk!

Went to a lagoon off the ocean swam around used a huge log from a tree that broke from the cyclone as a floatie and relaxed all afternoon!



Around 5 we got to the nakamal and helped the mamas finish setting up for dinner. We all got matching island dresses and took some standard group photos, plus some ridiculous ones because Steve found a dramatic setting on his camera that made everyone look like evil cartoons! We had a small ceremony, drank a shell of kava, then ate a big delicious meal. The Epau string band played some tunes and we all danced with the mamas and pikininis! It was a fun night and a good ending to Epau!

nemo!