port vila ventures

These last few weeks in Port Vila have been great. It’s always a pleasure seeing friends, trading stories, and celebrating with good food and cold drinks. And I love getting to catch up with family at home! I came into town for two workshops, PDM (Project Design Management) and DRR (Disaster Risk Reduction) and both were really rewarding. The PDM training got me excited about the mama’s road market project I’m working on. My counterpart that joined me was Leah Tari, the secretary for the Gamalibulu Women’s Council on Ambae. We started drawing up our plans and writing grant requests, so hopefully things will come together next year. 

One night Laura and I made soft tacos for our counterparts and they were delicious! Introducing easy-to-make tortillas to all the Vanuatu mamas! And during the DRR, we all did a counterpart dinner with burgers, fries, and fruit salad. Everyone got to try out the Dale’s Sauce that a wonderful family friend Estelle sent me from home! I think it tastes even more delicious in Vanuatu than it does at home, which is pretty damn delicious.

 The DRR workshop provided us with plenty of information on how vulnerable we are here. It’s pretty wild actually! Vanuatu is one of the most dangerous places in the world because of its location on the ring of fire. It’s home to earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos, droughts, floods, cyclones, you name it! So there’s a big push for mitigation, prevention, and response for the inevitables. The National Disaster Management Office ran the workshop and we learned a lot about how we can set up local committees to prepare for disasters on the outer islands. We also learned about how climate change is affecting Vanuatu and how to respond to this with adaptations. My papa and I are going to start a tilapia pond at the school! We got to check one out while in Vila and it was pretty cool. In order to do this, we’re going to do local fundraising. An old Returned Peace Corps Volunteer owns a solar store in Vila and gives us wholesale price on buying bulk solar lights. I followed Laura’s lead and bought a box of 24 to sell in the villages and will use the profits towards our tilapia ponds! Because we get them at such a discount, I’m able to sell them to the community for much lower than they’d be able to buy them from other stores on the island. Win/win!

Two observations I made during these workshops are: ni-Vanuatus don’t respond to chocolate incentives like we do. For review sessions, we got candy if we answered questions right. All of us gobbled up our chocolate treats immediately while the counterparts just let them sit unattended on the tables. Another is this – at the end of each Peace Corps workshop, we’re given certificates. People here love certificates! They are very proud of them and it’s one of my favorite parts of each training. 

Leah and Alison, officially official

my papa and me!

We’ve spent most of the non-workshop days enjoying the sunshine. Vila has a bunch of resorts and we’re allowed to go to them for free. Being at resorts is a very strange thing, but it’s a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Most of the people rolling through these places are typical tourists, but at least when we go, we can storian with the staff in Bislama. I feel like I’ve always been a conscious traveler, but after spending time in the capital and seeing the way some tourists act, I know my future traveling self will be even more culturally aware and respectful. Just another lesson in  cross-cultural exchange!  Being in a bathing suit is the oddest part considering my thighs and bel haven’t seen the sun in several months. We all look a little scrub-ish next to the super clean tourists, but it gives the place a little character, right?

view from the grand! and laura

katie and our dirty backpacks

laura adding color to her thigh region

The Holiday Inn is unlike what I envision when I think “Holiday Inn.” It’s the nicest place I’ve probably ever been to. They have a kickass brunch buffet with everything under the sun, so we indulged in that. We spent the rest of the day swimming, reading, kayaking, snorkeling, and playing jumbo sized chess. All the good things!

For Thanksgiving we all went to this place in town called Warhorse Saloon. Apparently last year they had a big traditional spread, but this year we just enjoyed the bar food instead. They’ve got delicious burgers and they brew their own beer, so it’s safe to say our bellies were full of the good stuff. The best part of Thanksgiving is being with people you love, so that was covered. It was a great night of drinking, dancing, singing, eating, and just enjoying a good ol’ American holiday! But here’s a curveball – recently just found out that the too-friendly owner is a former US baseball player who fled America after jail time and dodging child support and failed resort debt and other things you've just gotta do to be a decent human. Lovely! Looks like that was my last time supporting his little business, but at least we went out with a bang! See ya never, Troy Neel!

One night we had a cookout at Natalie and Tim’s house, two extendee volunteers who live in Port Vila. They’ve got a great house overlooking the harbor, pretty unreal! We played some frisbee, cooked on the grill, and ate cake. I’ve mentioned before that ni-Vans love ceremonially cutting cake, so we followed suit.

cutting the cake

Also! Laura's mama sent us some pictures from my pen pals' classroom. So glad the pictures arrived and now some kids on Martha's Vineyard know where the hell Vanuatu is! Yahoo!

This is a Vanuatu Christmas Tree. These trees are everywhere and provide the greatest shade. When December rolls around, the burst into color! When flying over the islands, you see red blooms all over! This is about as commercial as Christmas is here, which is so refreshing. I am looking forward to Christmas in the village and Family Day, December 26. Laura and her visiting boyfriend lover Pete are coming to Ambae on the 27th, climbing Manaro and hanging out at my site, and then we are all heading to Vila for new years!

boom

Laura and I are doing some south Vanuatu traveling to Aneityum and Tanna for a couple weeks and then I’ll be home in the states for a few weeks to see the newest member of the family, Lyla, and the oldest of course, the Dams! On the way back here, I’m stopping in New Zealand for 5 days to visit friends and then back to Vanuatu for year 2 of my service. It’s been a wild ride so far, can’t wait to see what’s ahead! 

But for now, I’m ready to go back home! I miss drinking fresh rain water, cooking over my fire, and bathing with a bucket. I even miss my pit toilet! Plumbing, electricity, tile floor, internet, and fans are all nice treats, but I’d trade all of it for my hammock and a good book right about now. Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home…

eyebrows, bush knives, and worms

The ni-Vanuatu are the masters of non-verbals. We learned a little bit about this during cultural training, but it really hit me once I got to site and saw it in action. First off, there is no need to say “yes” in this country. When you raise your eyebrows, you are letting everyone around you know that that’s what you mean. It’s like a head nod with your brows! People even do it when it’s dark outside – the pause signifies that the brows were raised, you just couldn’t visually confirm their uplift. This took me a while to get used to. I was confused why no one was responding to me until I realized that I just wasn’t looking! It’s been a good lesson in eye contact and giving my full attention to whomever I’m communicating with. I practice the brow-raising move whenever I remember to do so, and I’m hoping it will become natural soon enough! Another thing they’ve got down is the hand signals. I’ve watched 2+ minute long conversations happen with just the strategic flutterings of the hand. Explaining where you’re going with the point, swirling the finger around to say you’re coming back, and other movements to show what you’ll be doing, how long you’ll be gone, and even who you’ll be with! It’s wild! I try this method of communication out with my papa and brother O’Brien, but it usually ends in laughter and verbal explanations. An eyebrow raise for effort!

I haven’t come across anything as therapeutic as doing yard work with bush knife. When it’s time to trim down the pathway of nalalas behind my house or tame the hibiscus bush tree out front, I just grab my machete and get to hacking. If I want the extra kick, I’ll sharpen my knife and really feel its overwhelming power over the ever-growing greenery! I think it goes without saying that this can lead to an enjoyable game of Going Overboard, which happens more times than not. But guess what! When you’ve got the A+ combination of rich volcanic soil, South Pacific sun, and fresh rain water, it all grows back faster than you could believe. Which only means another chance to whip out the big boy and manicure that lawn, so a big thank you to the elements on this one! Because after a good session with my bush knife, I’m feeling refreshed, revived, and ready for whatever curve balls this place is always throwing atcha.

Not sure if I’ve spent any time talking about the bush knife presence here in Vanuatu, but it’s at least 2:1 to people. Maybe more like 3 or 4:1 now that I think about it! I probably use my bush knife every day – either to crack open a coconut, shave off the pineapple armor, yard work, or cutting shit down to make things. And of course when you go up to the gardens, you’d be silly not to carry it. Sometimes on hikes I’ll have it with me, too, just in casies. Every student at my school has his or her own bush knife. They come to school with them for work parties and are all experts with tools such as this one. Basically every person you pass on the big road is holding a bush knife, heading to their garden or town or any place they please. It’s just part of life here, not taboo or illegal or scary, just practical. And everyone knows his or her own knife. When there are many lying around together, I’ll watch someone pick one up, check the grooves and nicks in the blade, go to the next one, and eventually come upon his familiar friend.

The other day I was swimming and realized how easily it is to take for granted that the Pacific Ocean is a 3 minute walk from the back door. Too many days have passed that I haven’t gone down to take a dip! Now don’t get me wrong, I do my fair share of swimming in the cold parts and soaking in the hot springs, but I know that in the future, I may just look back and slap myself for not milking the shit out of it! So October and November I’m been participating in a one man ocean challenge. Just get your toes in the water every day you’re at site, Alison! But you can’t really just put your toes in cuz once you’re down there, it’s immediate bliss mode. I just recently found out that there is a beautiful reef past the tide pools, so I’ve been snorkeling about over there. Rolin, a woman living in a neighboring village, has a beautiful rocky shore where you can fish, snorkel, and see turtles before sunset! So I’ve been spending time there. This place is nothing short of magical, but I’ve found that sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that when it becomes your normal routine, your home, your life! So the ocean challenge has helped me break out of that and remember to return to a place of fascination instead of normalcy. How vast and immense the Pacific Ocean is, how its waters come and go in sync with the bigfala moon above, and no matter how big some problems feel, we are still just tiny specks of sparkle drifting along its shores.

Speaking of remarkable oceanic things, October marked a strange thing – the palolo worms. On the nights before the October full moon every year, millions of small noodle-lookin’ worms (I guess they all look like noodles now that I think about it) show up along the shores in Vanuatu. You go down to the waters with your family and collect the squirming spaghetti with nets and buckets, bring them on top, and boil them. They all form together like a black bean burger. Then you eat them. I tasted them, but couldn’t get past the mental block of the blue/red veiny worms mushed together in my mouth. But an experience indeed! My mami grin thamb told me the Ambae kastom behind it. In October, the ocean “like a cow” fills up with the worms in its belly and they venture out to shore to explore. But when the full moon comes, the light shines on the worms and they have to return home to the belly until next year. Or something along those lines! So salty worm patties aren’t my cup of meat, but every ni-Van I’ve encountered thinks they are fantastic! Even if I didn’t enjoy the idea of them going into my belly, I had the chance to watch dozens of people happily devour them for a week straight. Which is all I needed to get my fill!