adventures in vanuatu: community happenings

I love that we’ve rounded the corner on year two because now holidays are repeating themselves. Easter was a lot like last year. My family isn’t a church-going bunch; we usually spend our Sundays down at the saltwater instead. But when Easter shows up, so do we. On the way to church, my papa successfully sling shotted a couple of birds that we’d eat for lunch. The longfala service has a bonus baptism attached to it and afterwards we drank tea and ate bread with everyone.

That afternoon we headed up to Lovusinava for Shamila’s 20th birthday party. Shamila is a temporary teacher at my school and lives with her papa, Mr. Allan, the class 5 teacher. Shamila and I take early morning walks and I sometimes convince her to run back with me. She is family, just like everyone else, and I singaot “sista” to her.

Birthday parties, similar to all other social gatherings, consist of sitting on mats, storying and helping wrap up the food until kava is ready. The day before they killed a pig and it had been baking in a big earth oven with some taro and bush cabbage for later enjoyment! I’ve become a fan of pig, especially when it’s slow cooked like this. Local meat just tastes better, period. Once the kava is ready, there’s a lot of drinking and spitting while the sun goes down. Eventually it’s time to go. If there is kava left, as there was this time, you fill up a bottle and carry it with you back home. My papa likes drinking a few shells on the hike back and my mama and I usually gladly join him. This makes the walk back a little more wobbly and enjoyable.

The market house that I’ve been helping out with is finally gaining momentum. On June 3rd we had a work party and fundraiser to kick off the market house’s construction. While the men cleared the land that was given to the women by the chief, the women prepared the food. Mamas brought 6 pieces of laplap and we cooked up rice, susut vines, chicken, and fish. My mama suggested that because I figured out the organizational aspect of the day, I should step back and let the council run the show. Sounds good to me! So I grabbed the 3 kilos of onions and 6 heads of garlic and found a shady spot for my chop station.

I spent the morning storying with Bumbu Nelson, Northeast Ambae’s sweetest and oldest oldfala. He is 83 years old and just lost his ability to walk, but his mind is still sharp and his humor is still on point. I learned the word for storian (laqa laqa) and heard stories about the Ambae of his childhood. He reminisced about his travels to America (he was chosen to attend a teacher’s workshop in New York City back in the 60s!) and we joked about how similar NYC is to village life. He asked sincere questions and listened intently to my answers. He is one of the kindest people I’ve met in Vanuatu and believe me when I say that Vanuatu is overflowing with kindness. I noticed a wood carving and asked him if it was from around here. He told me he received it at his graduation from USP in Suva, Fiji in 1963. And then he gifted it to me, telling me he’d had it long enough already and it should go to someone new. Bumbu Nelson made the chop station significantly better. And man, I love this funky little word carving as if it were my own inner child. It does conveniently look like the pose I make over my pit toilet…

bumbu nelson

my long-droppelgänger

Jessie Rae was visiting Ambae that week to give toktoks about her project, Sarem Hart. Jessie was on Ambae at first and then changed sites to Buninga, a little island in the Shepherds above Efate. The Shepherds took a beating from Pam, most of them losing all of their vegetation and most of their houses. Jessie has been stationed in Vila since we got back and has worked with the National Disaster Management Office and shelter cluster to create an interisland program called Sarem Hart. The ni-Vanuatu want to help each other, but it’s hard to figure out just how to help. One thing that ni-Vanuatu have (and have a deep connection with) that outside aid does not is local resources. Aid donors have sent endless tarps, but these tarps are breaking from the heat of the sun and not serving as proper shelters for families. But Vanuatu has natangura, a wonderful tree with fronds that, when woven together, make thatched roofs. Jessie Rae, in all her brilliant resourceful glory, figured out a way to empower the ni-Vanuatu to help their fellow men and women. She helped set up the road (this includes the ship road, too!) to get these materials from the bush of Ambae into the hands of manBuninga. She signed interested people up and gave them tags – one tag equals 500 natangura leaves. Around 30 tags (or 15,000 leaves) make a roof for a home or community center.

Jessie traveled up and down East Ambae and was overwhelmed with the support and love of manAmbae. She shared her toktok with my North Ambae community and they pledged 40 tags, more than she had gotten from any other area! In the end, they filled an order of 50 tags, 25,000 natangura fronds. And now, for ever and ever, they will have a connection with little Buninga island and the ni-Vanuatu who inhabit it. I’ve been coordinating things on this end and so far, so good. This is an incredible project and I’m so happy to be helping Jessie out. It’s amazing what can happen when you give people the opportunity to do good.

Once the men had gotten their fill of work, they came over and had lunch. When the afternoon rolled around, we all had kava and enjoyed the end of a successful fundraiser and the start of a beautiful element of community development. Jessie Rae and I walked back to my site with some of the mamas and spent the evening playing catch up. The next morning we took our coffee down to the ocean and perched ourselves up on a cliff while storying the morning away. I walked her halfway back to town at midday and came back home just in time for mama’s yoga.

Mama’s Yoga! What started as a bible study yoga class combo, an attempt to convince people to try out a little relaxing exercise, is now a bona fide yoga class, Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30 in the kindy room. It was a once a week gig, but the mamas asked for more so I gave it to em! I’ve never taught yoga before, but I think (hope!) I’m doing some justice to the ancient practice. A woman’s daily responsibilities in Vanuatu are demanding on her body, especially the shoulders and lower back – activities such as cooking over a fire, washing clothes, sweeping, weeding the garden, and carrying around little ones. We do a lot of poses that focus on relieving the stress in these areas and stretching out everything else. The effectiveness of this class is primarily thanks to the book Light on Yoga that former volunteer Sara Barr left for me that is full of information on benefits of different poses. And some trial and error and class feedback for working out the kinks. The class has a few regulars, but other than that, the size fluctuates from 4-10, which is totally cool with me. I really enjoy watching their progress and seeing their interest levels increase as they become more flexible and confident in the poses. The class lasts half an hour to an hour, depending on the mood of the room and we always end with a little meditation.

They seem to really love the class and when Jessie came to the fundraiser, a few women ranted to her about how good they feel after 1 or 2 classes. Not sure how much of this is placebo effect, but that’s okay, too! Feeling good comes from the body and the mind, so if the mind is feeling healthy, then yoga is doing its job! Some mamas told me that they are doing the stretches in the morning when they wake up and before they go to bed at night. One day the class asked me if we could make a traveling yoga club that visits the oldfala women who can’t make it to class and practice at their homes. Not sure if that’s the smartest plan considering I am an uncertified, amateur mama’s yoga instructor not a physical therapist, but I love the idea! And I’m delighted I found this niche with the mamas and get to spend some great afternoons doing things that make me happy.

There was a week in May when classes were canceled due to a whole buncha of wedding ceremonies taking place. These kastom celebrations are full of fun stories and I think I’ll save em for a full post of its own.

At the beginning of June we were told that the Bishop’s ship arrived from the Marshall Islands and the confirmation ceremony and priesting (what do you call it when someone becomes a priest?) would take place that Monday. My sister Petrina was participating, so we got up early and followed a truck to a village in East Ambae. It was a nice, long day. The next weekend there was a big kakae for the man who was priested, my uncle Glen’s papa. There was kastom dancing, good island food, and my grandmother was there so I got to story with her.