written at the start of june
It was really nice to get back to Ambae after my trip to Vila. I missed my simple life and was excited to get back to some house projects and teaching. It's June now, which is just as unbelievable as it was when May rolled around. I feel as though this sensation of time moving at light speed while simultaneously inching along will never stop blowing my mind. That's okay - you can't really complain about an occasional mind blowing.
I leave for Vila again in a couple of weeks for pre service training part 2. Soon I will re enter the world of ice cream and speaking English in person! I'll be there with all of the other g26 education vols and our counterparts. Everyone gets to invite a counterpart from his or her community for the first half of training. My mama is coming with me! She is my primary counterpart and I know that I'll be coming to her for advice and assistance on all my future secondary projects. She is a wonderful teacher and I have already learned so much from her. I can't wait for her to meet my friends in Vila and enjoy a well-deserved weeklong holiday and workshop. Also I just realized that when I skype with my #1 mom, the two of them will have a chance to meet! A global mama-to-mama communication exchange! Awesome.
Teaching has been going good! I've been co-teaching with class 1 and 2 during English class, but am planning on returning with a different approach. The teaching world calls it the pull out method, which never gets old or less funny, and many volunteers finding it to be an effective use of their skills. I would work with small groups of students with similar learning levels to try and bring everyone to the same level. This can be done with phonics and phonemic awareness games, group reading, and even just communicating in a safe learning environment. I've found that my strength isn't teaching in front of a large group, but working with a more individualized focus. Plus, my mama and aunt have both been teaching for over 20 years and have a good system down. I'm hoping that my work outside of the classroom will help them enhance theirs inside of it.
Being in the classroom has helped me recognize my deep gratitude for the teachers I've had in my life. Teaching is hard, man! And frustrating and challenging and energy-sucking. I am extremely lucky to have had passionate teachers who believed in my growth. I'm very happy to be working with kids and helping them learn, especially with smaller groups, but I am eternally grateful for the true teachers of the world that really get it. And on that note, being a native English speaker is a privilege. English is confusing, has endless rules, and breaks most of them regularly. The world feels as though it's necessary for all of us to have some level of understanding of English, and whether or not I agree with that idea, I still find that being on this end of learning/teaching English is something I will never take for granted.
On Fridays I have been working with Kindy. It is my favorite part of the week! The teacher Miss Qwinnett says that she'd like me to help teach songs from my childhood. The kids don't know Bislama yet, so when I'm in the classroom, we are in constant translation with Miss Qwinnett's help. It's giving me a great opportunity to learn some language and be a kindy student myself! The kids are adorable and are so excited to teach me. Feelings mutual. We have started with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and it was a hit! We made a dance and decorated stars with our names on them. Another volunteer Laura has some good kindy ideas she's going to share with me back in Vila.
I've joined the worldwise schools correspondence program. It's a peace corps program that helps you become pen pals with a classroom in the states! Laura's mom is the director of a montessori school on Martha's Vineyard where she grew up. Her mom helped pair me with a teacher named Irene, who I'll be working with when the school year starts back!
Peace Corps Vanuatu has a newspaper that goes out every quarter called the VanAm. It's full of stories, recipes, workouts, and anything else a volunteer living in a remote village could think of. One of my favorite articles was the guide to mastering the game snake. Us lucky folks have the nokias with snake still on them! The article talks about different strategies and the benefits of playing the game after drinking kava. I'd be lying if I said I haven't been indulging in some evening games of snake after a few shells after reading the article! Funny stuff.
Laura and I are writing the Failure Report. We got the idea from a video Nik (former volunteer who is now on staff) showed us during training called Admitting Failure. We've reached out to all of the volunteers and asked about their cultural and work screw-ups and got some great responses! Sometimes it's good to share what didn't work and find comfort (and comical relief) with a network of people that understands the context. Laura and I ended the article with our own failure offering, the Missed the Pit Club, and open enrollment to all those qualified to join! Our slogan? Never underestimate the value of double checking your alignment.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I'm in charge of writing an article I've titled Oh My Gad where I share submitted success stories with gad-based programs. These range from planning water projects to cleanup campaigns to reproductive health workshops. It gives me a chance to dig into my cheesy phrases archive for my own shits and giggles. And to spread good ideas at the same time. You're h2o-kay in our book, Kelly. Thanks for talkin' trash, Katelyn. That's a wrap!
As far as secondary projects go, I am hoping to work with the mamas on a road market they want to start up. Representatives from the 9 nakamal councils of northeast Ambae were having a meeting at my school, and I happened to stumble across it - I actually tripped on the way back from the water tank with my buckets, so "stumbled" is as accurate as it gets. Their laughs welcomed me to join the talk. They are hoping to build a permanent structure along the road to sell food and crafts. Their goals are to contribute their time and skills to the contribute and have a source of their own income. I think it's a wonderful idea and my clumsiness paid off! They were working on a grant application to New Zealand aid and asked for my help. This was quite ambitious, considering the application was due in a few days time, but we did have a great discussion on an action plan. When I go to Vila for PST2, I am going to look into some other grants to help these mamas create a sustainable project!
That's it for business. Learning as I go and enjoying every part of the challenge!
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