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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| peace corps resource room! home away from home |
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| 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!
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| saw my headmaster's wife in her stall by the water |
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| downtown Vila view & Iririki Island in the distance |
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| waterfront |
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