On June 17 I was off to Port Vila for our Mid-Service Training. MST should have happened back in April, but weather got in the way and everyone asked for some time at site before returning to town. MST is a few days of doctor and dentist checkups (I’m all good!) and a few sessions on how to approach part 2 of service. Really it was a chance for us all to reconnect and share stories of our current successes and failures in the community. And drink a few cold beers. The newer group (I’ll just refer to them as g27 to attempt the hard to avoid patronizing them as newbies, new kids, the young ones, etc.) was in town for their in-service training and we had some overlap with them. This isn’t usually the case (65 volunteers busting the seams of Pac Par and Vila as a whole) but a rare situation encouraged the all-vol reunion. Carrie Hessler-Radelet, the Director of the Peace Corps (our bigfala boss) visited our little island nation! She served in Samoa long ago, so I can imagine it was nice to return to the South Pacific for a visit. More on this in a minute.
MST didn’t start until the 21st, but as the GAD (Gender and Development Committee) Programming and Training lead, I came in early to train g27 on a project planning tool called PACA. PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action) is a fantastic series of sessions that guides a community towards a project that benefits men, women, children, and future generations. It helps the community identify what they already have, what they need, priorities, challenges, conflicts in gender-based daily schedules, and how to create a realistic action plan. It’s great for the style of work Peace Corps believes in: community-based decision making and implementation. My time on the GAD Committee has been incredibly rewarding and being able to share these tools that we’ve tweaked and modified to work in villages and at schools in Vanuatu has been a great part of my service. So the two days of training went well. We experimented with letting each pcv and his or her counterpart facilitate a session of PACA during day 2 and it worked out much more smoothly than anticipated and I think they all appreciated the practice.
My visits to Vila town are usually a blur of storian, laughter, food, and not using the Internet efficiently, and this trip was no different. My first night in town, Laura and I went to the John Tari kava bar and took a few shells with my brother Moli. Moli is 20 and about to set off for Australia for 6 months! There is a great opportunity in Vanuatu for men and women to work overseas in New Zealand and Australia picking fruit. I guess it’s the only way the empire knew how to apologize for blackbirding. Moli has joined the brave ones and leaves for Aussie land this month! He’s in Vila for a few weeks sorting out paperwork and living with family until he heads out. It was nice seeing him and hearing about his month in the big smoke. He had visited Port Vila as a boy, but this was his first time off the island as a yungfala. My parents miss him already (mom, I told them they finally understand how you must feel with your girl over here in Vanuatu!) and true to Vanuatu nature, my mama sent some familiar island food down to her first born. I brought a laplap and a chicken on the plane with me and delivered it to their boy and it made him very happy. Family is such a beautiful thing here!
The next night Laura brought me along with her to hear some live music. Stan is a really talented ni-Vanuatu musician and the singer of Stan and the Earth Force, a local reggae band. He played an acoustic set outside of the cultural center for some visiting Australian group and we got to check it out. It was beautiful! And it was refreshing hearing live music not governed by the twangy ding-da-da-ding-ding-ding of Vanuatu string band music!
Alliance Francaise hosted a festival called Fete de la musique one Friday night which was pretty cool. We saw some more exceptional live music and had a pretty non-Vanuatu night at a party called French Touch. Because it was Nik’s last weekend in Vanuatu, I joined him and a few others at a late night eatery called Emily’s and wound up with a chicken finger in my purse the next morning. A sign of a good night, indeed!
The next night was Nik’s last kava and the whole gang went out and grabbed a few shells in his honor. Nik was in group 23 (we are 26) and has been here for 5 years as a volunteer, an extendee, and as an office staff member. He’s one of those people that has made Peace Corps Vanuatu exponentially better with his kind heart, open mind, and passion for sustainable change. Nik helped build my group’s foundation in training and has served as an invaluable guide ever since. He just got hired for the DC office and is off to the land of traffic lights and dunkin donuts. Can’t wait to see where he winds up!
Another event was the Namatan Film Festival in Saralana Park. I happened to be in town last year and now had a chance to check it out again. It was a very funny night. The films were all over the place (very different from last year’s lineup) and most were so absurd that we were amazed by the ridiculousness of it all.
Most other nights were spent cooking dinner and storying with friends. Jessie Rae’s mom came to visit and we grabbed drinks with her one evening. Mary and Jessie Rae are two peas in a pod and both know how to put me in laughing fits. Laura’s parents were also passing through before they headed up to Malekula and they treated a few of us to a delicious dinner. There’s something fun about meeting people’s people and gaining a little insight into who they are when they aren’t dirty island-living volunteers.
MST was good and semi-useful. The medical officer reminded us about all the medical issues we face and we spent a good, solid hour re-learning about not-so-solid poop, or sit sit wota. Lots of hilarious experience-based commentary during these discussions! One morning we had presentations on what projects we’re tangled up in at site. This was my favorite part – learning about how damn cool everyone is! We are all doing vastly different things with our two years and its inspiring hearing what people are creating out of this ambiguous adventure. Mike divided his secondary boarding school into four houses (Harry Potter style) to help curb misbehavior and encourage responsibility and teamwork. Without his guidance, the houses hung flags, cleaned up their dormitory grounds and planted flower gardens. Now the school environment is flowing with healthy, positive competition academically, athletically, and socially. Dave’s school on Tanna isn’t allowed to have afternoon classes because of post-cyclone recovery which leaves the teachers and students with little to do. Now they are preparing for a Finding Nemo musical that Dave created- learning songs, building props, and gaining confidence in a way you can’t imitate in a classroom. Jen created a library leveling system based on island fruit that is friendly and colorful and innovative. The list continues! It’s so inspiring being surrounded by peers that thrive in this unstructured environment and are really impacting their communities in nontraditional ways.
So for the Director’s visit! They gave her the whole Vanuatu treatment: kastom dances, sand drawings, island food, and a sleepover in a village. Not sure if she had a shell, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. She’s such a down to earth lady; it’s cool knowing that she’s the leader of our organization. Easy-going, not intimidating, and full of good stories from her travels to other Peace Corps countries during her years as director. Our staff organized an event where she presented the Women of Courage award to a ni-Vanuatu woman who got a hospital working after the cyclone. Carrie gave us volunteers a toktok about being emotionally present and it really resonated with me at this point in my service. The fancy shmancy “luncheon” was pretty scarce on food, so a handful of us grabbed a burger at Warhorse afterwards.
Carrie got an authentic volunteer experience (bush life wan time!) when she spent a night on Nguna at Lynda Mae’s house and learned about the project she’s working on called Smart Sistas – teaching technology skills to girls. This aligns with Michelle Obama (and, too, Peace Corps’ initiative) called Let Girls Learn, and we heard Carrie was going to bring news of Lynda Mae’s project back to Michelle! Yeah, Vanuatu!
And if you haven’t already, check out this video my friend Jen compiled from over 100 of our island clips of Vanuatu booty shakin! We convinced the director and the US Ambassador to both show up in it, as well! I make a quick cameo painting my world map and a few of those kastom dances are from my hood. I’ve watched the video now far too many times and each time it makes a smile creep onto my face (and that damn song won’t leave my headspace. So catchy!) and I’m reminded of how lovely this place really is.
After the Vila whirlwind, I headed to Santo for GAD’s Gender-Based Violence Prevention Retreat. For 4 days, we facilitated a workshop focusing on gender equality and decreasing domestic violence in Vanuatu. Along with the 7 GAD members, 10 volunteers and their island counterparts joined us at Towoc next to Champagne Beach. It’s probably the most beautiful place I’ve been to in Vanuatu. Really, my backyard is the most beautiful place to me, but that’s because of all the emotion I’ve attached to it. But Champagne Beach is picturesque: white sand beach, teal blue unbelievably clear water, little islands in the distance. A perfect, peaceful setting for a really heavy set of topics! The bungalows we stayed in were wonderful and right on the water. The staff at Towoc were great and they cooked the most delicious food. Santo is known for its buluk- santo beef, santo beef, santo beef. I’ve never eaten so much beef in my life. Twice a day steaks of killed-that-day, grass-grazing buluk has no tastebud competition! My body has seemed to have gained its own skirt steak around the middle, but my soul doesn’t seem to mind. I get to eat meat every 2 weeks or so at site, so this was a much-appreciated 5 day beef feast!
The workshop was intense and challenging and rewarding. We dove into topics that are considered taboo in this culture and we had discussions that brought out rivaling opinions on violence, rape, and gender roles. Dave and I were in charge of creating the lineup of night activities. Night one was tower building (first with sticks only and then adding in other local materials) then we did back-to-back where you have to work together to stand up, and night three was a circle where you pass the yarn and share affirmations. All the activities were dosed in meaning pertaining to each day’s activities and it turned out to be a nice way to end the day.
Because it’s only year 2 of this workshop, there is a lot of work to be done to revive it before next year. It’s a bit ambitious for a cluster of volunteers to think they can introduce a topic that they have no professional experience in, and we collectively realized this mid-week. It was a humbling lesson and necessary for the future of the program. We are going to shift the focus on building healthy relationships as a foundation for decreasing (not preventing!) gender-based violence… happy family, healthy community. This means a whole lot of work for the next 8 months, but I think the whole committee is ready for it. July 4th was the day after the workshop and we spent it in Luganville deep in magical collaboration that felt more like 5 minutes than 8 hours. Afterwards, we headed back to Towoc and celebrated Independence Day with the other volunteers, the remaining counterparts and the Towoc staff. Beach, burgers, and beer, the 3 B’s of July 4th island style.
On Sunday everyone left except for Michelle, Cade, Jo, Dave, and me. We had the whole beach to ourselves and after that exhausting week, we finally had a chance to enjoy it thoroughly. Sunday totally rejuvenated me and reminded me how nature serves as the best medicine for the soul. Monday we headed into town and here I am now, Tuesday, heading back to Ambae tomorrow. Last night we played ultimate Frisbee with Kate and Bryan’s regular crew- a fun mix of expats, locals, and kids. We ate a big spaghetti dinner and tonight we’re cooking up Mediterranean tacos. The grocery store here has feta (are you kidding me, Santo!) so I’m borderline forcing it into our ingredient list. One last indulgence before the simple pleasures of home sweet home.
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| namele nakamal where we had our workshop |
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| towoc restaurant |
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| not too shabby! |
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| bungalows for the week |
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| phil! |
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| buildem up or breakem down - healthy relationship activity |
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| breakfast club |
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