malekula visits

The TOT was over, but my adventures were not. First stop, Laura’s site in Northwest Malekula! Laura is one of my best friends here in Vanuatu. She’s one of those people you just enjoy being around. Whenever we go to Vila, we’re hotel roommates, and we think in terms of both of us for meals and activities and errands and whatnots. Usually always on the same page, so everything works out, making the best times ever. I was excited to check out her site, which I had already heard plenty about. Being able to see each other’s sites, meet host families, and see everyone’s groove in action is one of the coolest opportunities we get here!

love this billboard

lakatoro, malekula's big apple

kickass mama's market!

friends

We went into Lakatoro and bought some goodies for the week- primarily a jug of wine and some meat. When I say meat, I mean fresh, delicious, local filet steak and mince. Man, is that stuff good! We grabbed some veggies from the mama’s market and waited to hop on a truck up to Laura’s site. It takes about 2.5-3 hours to get to Laura’s village Matanvat, which is quite the ride! In the truck bed with 10 others and a pile of food and bags, you figure out how to get comfortable, and you enjoy the long, winding road. Malekula is huge! And shaped like a sitting dog, if you’re willing to use your imagination. Matanvat is on the head of the dog, so we had a nice journey along the back. We stopped at a few road markets to pick up more fruits and vegetables. Drank a green coconut or two, dreamed out loud about the cheese-stuffed burgers we were going to devour for dinner, and before I knew it, we had arrived.

roadside markets = fast food!

copra warehouse - malekula aint kiddin about its copra industry

drying some copra

I’d say it is pretty much fact that nothing ever happens smoothly in the Peace Corps, which is just The Way It Is and that’s okay. We hopped out and Laura sliced her finger on a knife tucked in the bed of the truck. She went down to the saltwater to wash it off, and we unloaded our cargo. One of her brothers came down to help us carry our stuff to her house, but we couldn’t grab all of it. Not thinking twice (or maybe not thinking at all) we didn’t grab the basket of yams… that had the 2 kilos of meat in it. By the time we got back down to the road, the dogs had filled up on that fresh, delicious, local steak and mince I mentioned earlier. Damn! We were pretty bummed. The reality of oozing burgers of cheesy happiness was gone and we were standing there, at the village entrance, with 4 lip-licking pups and frowns on our faces. We snapped out of this pretty quickly, because that’s what you gotta do! After a few minutes, we remembered how insignificant meat was to our enjoyment of this week of gudfala friendship, and we made new plans: ultimate grilled cheeses with yam fries. Plus some mulled wine! The overwhelmingly satisfying meal made us forget about our recent sad 5 minute episode by the road. Food will play tricks on ya, sometimes for the best.

the ultimate grilled cheese with a side of yam fries

cheeeeeeeese

Laura’s house has a natangura thatched roof like mine and she’s got bamboo woven walls. It’s a big place! She’s the fourth volunteer to live there, so it’s pretty worked in. She lives on her family compound and about a 5 minute walk from school grounds. She’s got a kickass kitchen and a pit toilet that reminds me of home.

matanvat plantation

the kitchen sanctuary, home of all things tasty

shaki, the mysterious 8 month never-growing puskat

heading down to the sea

scrub those pots girl!

Laura woke up early to the sound of a passing truck and ran out to give him some vatu to bring us back some meat in the afternoon. Nice work Laura! We made coffee (Lynn gave us the leftover Tanna coffee from the workshop!) and a granola and banana breakfast. We went to the library where Laura teaches and the students told us about their 2 week holiday. After classes, we went home, did some bikram, and a visitor arrived: Tim! Tim, a volunteer on my island, was site hopping around Malekula before heading back to Ambae and asked to crash at Laura’s for the night. Get this – he brought meat, too! A delicious meal was on the horizon and we were all excited to start the preparations. We storied, went down to the sea for a little, and came back to cook after the colorful sunset.

By the time we finished our half pound cheese stuffed burgers (you’ve gotta be kidding! Wow!) and cajun yam fries, we couldn’t move. It was one of those absurdly good meals that you can’t stop eating just cuz you’re full. You finish that thing! And we did.

The next day, Tim hopped a truck, and Laura and I taught for a little bit, did some more bikram, and headed over to her tawi’s house (tawi means in-law in Vanuatu) to make some laplap sorsor! I tasted sorsor for the first time at the TOT, but didn’t get to help with the prep or get to devour it properly.

Sorsor is basically laplap on steroids. It is top notch, numbawan, scrum-dilly-umptious, and that’s not really doing it justice. It’s a Malekula tradition and it’s all you hear about it from the Malekula volunteers. As much as I’ve rolled my eyes at the words “laplap sor sor,” I now understand what the hubub’s all about. 

We rash-rashed the wild yam (grated it into mush) and cut up the green onion, susut, tomatoes, and local greens. We put our recently purchased round two of filet steak right in the middle as we wrapped up the sorsor (which is an art form and skill in itself) and put it over the fire to bake.

laura and her tawi on yam duty

scratching the coconut

coconut milking the stone! deliciousness

wrapped up like a present!

Baked and ready to go, we joined the whole family in Laura’s parents’ house two hours later. Laura’s community is SDA, Seventh Day Adventist. Her family is pretty religious and is a challenge she deals with weekly. Some Saturdays, she’s clockin 6-8 hours of church! Don’t worry, most of that was for integration – she’s now feeling comfortable enough to stay in and enjoy herself on the Sabbath instead of church marathoning. So before sorsor, we had an hour of worship. We sang songs (they sang songs, I didn’t know any of them) and her papa asked me what I plan to do when Jesus comes down to Earth. All very strange, but anything can happen here, so not really that shocking. It totally reminded me of some families I knew growing up in Sweet Home Alabama that would push an unhealthy serving of religion onto your plate, expecting you to not only take a bite, but eat the whole pie. No wonder the obesity rate is so high down there!

Worship finished! Time for a proper laplap sor sor meal. Everyone sits around the laplap in a circle, criss cross apple sauce, and with a knife, starts slicing her to pieces. In the middle of the laplap, there’s a hot stone from the fire that’s keeping the coconut milk hot and tasty. You take your sliver of laplap, pile on some of the toppings, and dip it right in the middle. Next stop, down in your belly, followed by about 72381 more where that came from! Another stuffed evening. We went back, played cards, and passed out!

We woke up with a mission – coconut jam. But before we could start all of that, we relaxed with our books and snoozed until lunchtime in our hammocks. Woke up revived and got started. We gathered coconuts (an easy task considering Laura’s village is in a plantation) dehusked them, scratched the shavings out, squeezed and strained the strong milk, and put it on the fire with brown sugar for 2 hours, stirring occasionally until… wa-la! Coconut jam. A wonderful success. We made 3 jars, one was a thank you gift to her parents for having me in the compound. After that, we relaxed.

Susut tacos for dinner and coconut jam & nutella rollups for dessert. We drank some wine, played cards, and storian’d for the evening. Such an terrific visit with a great friend! As usual with good times, it went far too quickly, but that just means I’ve gotta go back!

the last supper... tacos and yam fries!

I woke up early and Laura had packed me up some coconut jam, banana, nutella rollups for the truck ride! I hopped the first truck and enjoyed the sunrise cruise to Kelsey’s site. It seems that only in a 5 am truck ride on a random island shaped like a dog in the South Pacific will you find 2 out of the 13 passengers sporting Alabama State College hats. I’m not even sure if Alabama State College is real, but the hats were! We all laughed as I explained that I am from Alabama and the wildness of encountering 2 alumni. Haha, but really, it’s a small world after all.

beautiful malekula

sunrise drive-by kava sales

early morning truck rides

now would ya look at that!

I hopped off at Kelsey’s school and took a nap while she taught class. At lunch we walked 30 minutes to a great road market and picked up some veggies for the weekend. Kelsey had just been at my site for the Manaro hike and world map painting. Bryan, Kate, Jen, and she went to Maewo after Ambae, so she caught me up on all the fun they had! Most of the weekend was spent hanging out and catching up. Kelsey is another great friend of mine in Vanuatu. She was in the sub-village Nangus with Jen and me during training part 2, so we had a chance to become close friends. Kelsey lives on school grounds in a triplex. Her house is bright and welcoming and she’s got a killer view of the sea you couldn’t get sick of even if you climbed the backyard tree with your book and stared out all day! That is a confirmed fact, by the way.

hello kelsey! please disregard the bleach towel... its mine

typical peace corps sleeping arrangements

One night we made a delicious red curry meal and the next night she taught me how to make teriyaki! Another series of ridiculously tasty dinners! On Saturday we went across the street to a kava bar for a few shells. We drank a few too many and woke up with some bigfala kava hangovers – this lazy, heavy feeling that makes you want to do nothing but lounge. Which would have been perfect for a typical Sunday, but we had asked her auntie to take us to the small island across the way! On the back on Malekula dog, there are 4 small islands – Wala, Rano, Achen, and Vau. We joined her auntie and paddled over to Rano for the day. This day included church, which wasn’t too bad minus our desire to not be in church because of the kava lazies. It happened to be the Presbyterian Church’s father’s day, so we had a big meal on the island. One of the chiefs walked us around Rano, which took close to an hour. It’s a beautiful place! We swam for a bit and headed back home in the afternoon. The next morning I followed a truck to the airport and zoomed back home to reality. Extended break over, but what a blast it was!