the dirty south

We got down to Aneityum on Saturday and were in awe at the view coming in. Aneityum doesn't have its own air strip, so instead, you land on Mystery Island (a small island off the coast) and boat over to the big land. These pictures do small justice, but Mystery Island is surrounded by a huge living reef which makes for fantastic snorkeling! We were immediately hit with waves of white - white tourists, that is. Cruise ship day! Because of Mystery Island, Aneityum is a popular destination for cruise ships. I won't go into the pros and cons of cruise ship and tourist impact on a small developing country (let alone, a remote island within this country) but it was definitely an experience to observe the flood of white man in this tiny space. The mamas from Aneityum will come over and sell their goodies - beautiful handmade gifts and sadly far too much foreign made souvenirs. Plenty of Australian tots leave Mystery with cornrows and sunburns while the adults throw ridiculous money at all the wrong trinkets but! Mama financial independence is something that cannot be put down as long as its managed well - something that the three Aneityum vols are trying to help out with.

Jen's mama dressed us with kastom leaves and gave us fresh lobster for lunch. We swam and eventually headed back to the main land to settle in at Jen's place. We had a great night and went to bed early to prepare for the hike to Umej!

hello reef!

landing strip

draped in kastom peace leaves

lobsta snacks with jen and laura

white sand, white tourists

jen and mama faena

aneityum, view from mystery

On Sunday we began our trek to Umej, Vanuatu's southernmost village and Brittany's home. The hike takes about 3 hours and winds you around the coast of Aneityum. The sun was extra hot which, we were told, beats the muddy, slippery rain. We walked along rocky, coral, and white sand beaches and climbed hills that provided breathtaking views. We filled up our water bottles at a fresh spring and enjoyed plenty of shady breaks. One funny thing about Aneityum is that it's covered in pine trees, originally planted to protect the sandalwood and coconut tree plantations. The paths are scattered with pine cones and needles and some of the views looked like a good ol American trail, minus the tropical reminders. 

path to umej

tree fort city!

umej village

crossing river ivanjamp

i spy

Before we crossed the river into Umej, we stopped at this tree fort house and its inhabitants invited us in for a bite to eat. They served us a treat Jen, Laura, and I had never tasted before! This is surprising because most local foods in Vanuatu are cooked pretty much the same, so something fresh is always welcomed onto the pallets. The dish in front of us was a pawpaw stuffed with coconut milk, cooked in an earth oven. It was like a jumbo papaya eclair! It was delicious and the papa explained to us how to make it, definitely a treat I'm bringing back to Ambae for the fam. 

After a tasty explosion in our mouths, we headed to the river Ivanjamp, which feeds into the ocean and is the entrance to Umej. We crossed it, swam for a bit, and headed into the village. We were greeted by Brittany's wonderful family and immediately felt at home. We settled in and joined the community in some games of volleyball while the sun set. They held a welcome ceremony for us and we drank some kava. Umej is ples blo kava (place where they drink a lot of kava) so it was fun sharing this tradition with them. Nowadays most places in Vanuatu use a mincer to grind kava, but every island has its traditional preparation methods. On Ambae they grind it with a special stone and on Aneityum they chew it. During training I tried chewing it with my host family and it was just as difficult as it sounds - if you know the taste of kava, it's unlikely that you want it permeating your mouth while you grind it down with your teeth! Of course I'm only speaking for myself and maybe others who haven't grown up with this kastom. Because in Umej they love chewing it. And Brittany has taken on fasen blo Umej because she's right there with them on that one!

The next day we lazily woke up and Jen headed back to anaculut to get her life back in order after being away so long. Laura, Brittany, and I jumped into the Ivanjamp and spent most the day swimming and relaxing. When afternoon rolled around we joined her auntie for our own kava-chewing experience. 

I haven't mentioned yet that Brittany totally thrives in Umej. She's their first peace corps volunteer and they adore her. She's a perfect fit for this remote village because she's such a laid back chick. And more importantly, she's a tank blo kava. That girl can drink! And she loves chewing it, too. A perfect match for the Umej community. 

So we went down to the river and began chewing the kava. Your mouth floods with saliva but they insist that you not swallow, unless you want an unhappy bel. So Laura and I attempt to be useful, but it was short lived! We spit out our small contributions and ate some wash em out fried fish while our numb mouths thanked us for aborting the mission. 

Eventually they squeezed out the chewed kava and we all took a shell. This specific kava, locally called glisan, is extremely strong. Kava is usually pretty thin, but drinking this was like chugging whole milk. I immediately yacked after shell 1, which has never happened before! Too thick! I tried a shell 2 and 3 later on, but was 3 for 3 on throwing up. An impressive record indeed. I think I took one gulp of the third shell before it returned to the ground where it came from. Laura was in the same boat! While Brittany was chewing and drinking all night...

We danced for a while and went back to her aunties house to cook some fish (Jen left us with her Old Bay, so we spiced it up a bit!) and danced summor. These people were machines! Totally kava drunk and shaking their booties all night! Laura and I paid our Umej dues by dancing past exhaustion, but at one point my eyes were closed and I was just swaying back and forth, trying not to pass out. Apparently this is a common occurrence, another reason why Brittany the night owl is absolutely at home in this vibrant village. 

We finally went to sleep and woke up late. I went on a beach walk and we eventually began the journey back to anaculhat. Quite a long hike back! We arrived just in time to beat the rain and were greeted with more shells of kava. Good grief! So we drank in Jen's kitchen with her mama neighbors and passed out early. 

The rest of the trip was great! I spent one whole day sneezing and sick, but really unsure of the cause. We spent some time at Charlotte's site and she took us on a hike through the pine forest. There's a big pine tree preservation project on Aneityum and the whole place is covered in them! It was definitely a funny change of scenery from the overgrown jungle oasis sweet home Ambae. Other than that, we hung out, sewed up some dresses with Jen's mama and taught her how to make hemp bracelets to sell at her stall. At our last kakae with the family, her mama gave us an Aneityum style basket and matching skirts, so those were a mustwear for the flight to Tanna! We ate a delicious meal of local food and fresh blue fish. Laura and I were lucky to have Jen's mama and papa look out for us and make our trip down to Aneityum extra special. On Saturday we returned to Mystery Island and hopped on a flight to Tanna!

jen's digs

 

charlotte's mama's shell polishing station

charlotte's home

couscous, the best island pup ever

adios aneityum! the matching chicks are off to tanna land

Tanna was a great adventure. We stayed with our best buddy Dave in Lokotai. Lots of laughs and delicious meals in his little rat home. We painted a map of Tanna on his school and had plans of holding a Camp GLOW/BILD with his community at the end of the week. The rain tried to spoil our time, but it only half worked. The Peace Corps had us down on standfast  (stay where you're at!) because of the tropical depression sliding past our neck of the woods, but luckily that didn't stop us from getting back to Vila in time for my flight home! It almost did though... canceled flights, worsening storms, flooded roads, etc. While we got drenched in the back of a truck on the way to the airport, all Laura and I could do was laugh at the ways of the universe. The bumps in the road were already there, but now add all the other elements and you've got some flavor in your day! Air Vanuatu put us up in a fancy shmancy resort for the night and we got food vouchers, so really no complaints from this end. A wonderfully bizarre trip I'll never forget! Happy to have started this new year with good company and bumpy, flooded roads! Here are the only shots I got of Dave's place:

the entrance to dave's

davey!

laura with her thrilled face on

poo brain wall art

other fancy wall decor 

really showcasing his decoration abilities

typical vanuatu carry on

homeward bound

So here it is, the big 2015. Can't believe a new year has begun! Another year of saying yes to adventure, digging deeper into myself, and just enjoying this gudfala place. My 2015 has kicked off with some great travels so far! Laura and I went from Vila town down to Aneityum and then to Tanna, two southern Vanuatu islands. The best part about in-country travel is seeing how vastly different each place is. Every island has a different feel to it, both with the culture and the environment. The people are always the same with their friendly smiles, but each island definitely has its own fashion. Different skin tones, languages, styles of cooking island food, community layouts. The earth is different, too. Ambae is a jungle island- very bush with black sand beaches and rocky cliffs. Aneityum has much more coral and a forest full of pine trees! It's been a fun game of observations, learning about how the ni-Vanuatu communities have adapted to their dealt hands throughout this island nation.

And of course traveling with good friends has made it that much better. Laura and I have been great travelin buddies. Over these past two weeks, we've checked out Jen, Charlotte, Brittany, Dave, and Kirk's lives, with all the good local trails and sites along the way. A tall glass of laughs, delicious local food, kava, and going with whatever way the wind blows- the usual means of motion these days. Man I love island life.

I remember when preparing to come to Vanuatu, the current volunteers kept telling us "hemi depen" or it depends about just about everything because of the range of island living. It's slowly made more since to me over the past year- each person's individual experience relies on where you're placed and how you work yourself into the community. It's fun seeing your friends' digs and meeting their host families and whatnot. It's natural to get some site envy, too. For example, Brittany swims in Ivanjamp river every day for her bath! Dave does yoga in an inch of sea on an old coral reef! But traveling has also reminded me of how incredibly good home is. I love my little Ambae life and can't wait to get back in my own groove.

Speaking of home, I'm about to embark on some travels to the US! Talk about home! Looking forward to sharing some happy times with great people, filling my belly with good eats and a few extra cold beers, and treating myself to some forgotten luxuries. It's been almost a year (January 26!) since I've slept on a real mattress, taken a proper shower, or worn pants. Should be an interesting 3 weeks of readjustment! And I get to hang out with my new niece Lyla. That's about as cool as it gets. On the way back to Vanuatu, I pass through New Zealand for 5 days with the lovely Emma and Cameron, two friends I lived with in Oakland before I came here. Man!

I found this excerpt from a poem by Elizabeth Bishop called Questions of Travel in one of the New York Times magazines that my Aunt Gerry sent me. Thanks Gerry!

"Think of the long trip home. Should we have stayed at home and thought of here? . . . But surely it would have been a pity not to have seen the trees along this road."

I think that's beautiful. When I'm home in the states, I'm gonna try my best to describe the trees and wild flowers and ups and downs and goods and bads along my current road, but not sure if they'll ever be articulated or justified to satisfaction. And you know what I think? It's better that way. What a kick ass world we've got!

Until next time

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!

deds

Back in July, my grandmother's sister Bumbu Margaret died a day after we visited her. The visit was actually very pleasant considering the circumstances that the feeling of upcoming death brings to the air. Everyone was in good spirits and talked about the peaceful departure that was near. Old age deaths are still sad here, but I've noticed that they are accepted with the understanding that life and death both happen. There's still uncomfortable amounts of wailing and the 100 day ritual, but something is sacred about living to an old age here. 

Bumbu Margaret lived in Lolobui, about 30 minutes down the main road and up a small hill. Here's a fun fact to start your day with: Bui means bamboo in language and it has also come to mean knife. Bamboo was used as spears and knives long before the metal version came around. Maybe my sense of fun has changed, but I was delighted when I made that connection and had it confirmed!

Lolobui is home to about 30 people. They have an awesome swing made from an anchor's chain that my uncle salvaged after a shipwreck in Lolowai during a cyclone. Because i didn't know my place in this intimate situation, I spent most of the day on the swing reliving childhood happiness. Swings man! What a liberating feeling. And a view that made it that much better- Lolobui sits on a hill overlooking the saltwater. The occasional nakavika falling on my head was worth the daydream delight I was swinging in!

About a month later, my grandmother's other sister Bumbu Mata passed away. Although I only met Bumbu Mata a few times, I knew she was a cool lady. Her and her late husband lived on a coconut plantation by themselves, so when he passed away, it was her living in complete solitude. She looked after the land, animals, and herself for many years. 

Bumbu Margaret had a village to manage the 100 day ded ritual, but Bumbu Mata had no children, so my aunts and mama stepped in. Since the ded, Mami Green Thumb, Mami Corina and her husband (and others in and out) have been living at Mata's house in Lololiso and are helping with the traditions. 

What are these ded rituals I keep talking about? It's pretty amazing really. On one hand it's an exhausting, time consuming burden on the community, but on the other hand, it's a ancient tradition that honors the life of the deceased. 

For every 5 days until the 100 day anniversary of the dead, the community celebrates with food and kava. These gatherings are called bongis, the local word for "day" and in Vanuatu they're referred to as "deds." Every 5 days, lap lap is cooked, kava is grounded (ground? grinded? a grammar mystery), and people come together in the name of the person who died! The 10 day bongi is a big one where they reveal the grave, a really Big Deal. Graves here are above ground cement or rock structures. My mama explained that when her papa was dying, he told them to build his grave in a place where children could play on it and men could sit, drink kava, and storian. The graves become mini gathering places to connect with the one who died. A different way to think about a grave. Pretty interesting! 

In northeast Ambae, the 10, 25, 50, and 100 day anniversaries seem to be the more important bongis. The community kills extra cows, chickens, and pigs to cook with the laplap and the kava is more plentiful than usual, from what I've taken in. These take more mamas and more time to prepare for because the fresh buluk and strong ded kava brings people out of the wood work. I don't blame em! By the way, ded kava is the best. It's stronger (mixed with less water) and there's more than enough to go around if the person who passed was a kava head or a chief. But! every rose has its thorn... if you're drinking ded kava, you parcel up your food in banana leaves and eat it later because you aren't supposed to eat until you're finished drinking. So the steaming hot laplap doesn't get to be enjoyed until its lost its touch. You win some, you lose some!

We went up to Lololiso for a couple of the bongis, usually after school. Since being on Ambae, I've learned that, "Hey let's go to so-and-so's house for a few hours!" Really means "Let's hike for 30 minutes to an hour+ uphill and then come back when its pitch black! Don't forget your headlamp!" Some of the details are implied because they know that everywhere we go takes an uphill hike and we're always staying for longer than a few hours. Now I never leave the house without the travelin essentials-   a full water bottle, headlamp, and toilet paper!

On the 40th I decided to go early and help my Mami Green Thamb with the preparations. Here she is with her posse, including me. One of the toughest women I've met! 

woman Ambae! those are bag of kumala (sweet potatoes) on her back and her head

We hiked through the hills of plantations. Plantations are like land mines, but in the sky. Sky mines. When a coconut falls, it usually barely makes a sound. You don't want one of those falling on your head! For the most part, you forget about the chance of this happening, but when the wind starts to pick up, I become more strategic with my path. I don't think I'll ever have the sixth sense that comes with living in plantation nation!

The dogs had a field day! Fighting over coconuts, sprinting through the footpaths, barking obnoxiously at the grazing cows, and finally passing the f out when we got to the house. I did the same about a few hours later!

lololiso plantation

mus man taking a break

fighting over the one out of 8230927 coconut husks lying around

When these women come together for a bongi or a wedding, they turn into a nonstop machine! It's amazing to watch. They were very grateful for my assistance even though I was more like a rusty hand crank trying to keep up with their years of finely tuned machine-like ways. 

riano and rialdo watching me take a nap

bumbu mata's house

there's a shit load of laplap under this!
covered in leaves and burlap and everything else to keep the earth oven hot

papa and o'brien

mami delila (pronounced da-lee-la) putting the milk on the laplap taro my favorite!!

After a day of preparations, it was time to eat! The spread was unbelievable. For laplaps: banana with coconut milk, two taro ones with milk (my favorite, locally called sala vatu) manioc with milk already mixed in (called waro quihi) manioc with island cabbage on top (lulu) kumala with milk, and manioc with cabbage and veggies cooked on top (waro sombe) That's a ridiculous amount of laplap! 

To top it off (literally) we had pig, flying fox, crab, chicken, and fish. This was a dream! I'd never seen such a wild variety of everything for our belly enjoyment! And that it was. 

you are what you eat

mouth-watering goodness

how do you spell bongi? Y-U-M

dates

September 16^th is Penama Day, or a day to celebrate my province! Penama province consists of Pentecost, Maewo, and Ambae islands. And when I say Penama Day, it actually means a weeklong celebration of all things football, kava, music, and food. I’m in! This year the celebrations took place in Saratamata. When I got to town, I ran into Sydney and her sister who was visiting! We watched a parade, swam in the ocean, had an embarrassing public pee session, and enjoyed some football. At one point, we got some green coconuts to drink and I offered to open the second hole in Sydney’s sister’s coconut to make the drinking more smooth. Well no surprise here, but I slice my finger in a bloody mess! This poor finger that has already fallen victim to the knife from clumsy encounters with a passionfruit, an avocado, and now the coconut. I also have a scar on this finger from a plastic sword fight with a middle school friend sawyer. I just realized that his name may have some connection to this digit’s unfortunate fate! Worth looking into.

shrooms by the bush kitchen
unedible, sadly, but fun to get down and look at!

gangs all here

October 6^th is is Teacher’s Day in Vanuatu, which means another reason to take off from school and celebrate! This one is pretty special considering I live at a school and am surrounded by teachers, plus I’m part-teacher these days. In fact, not only are my mama and papa wonderful school teachers, they are absolutely my best Vanuatu life teachers. By the time I got to Ambae after training, I was probably at the infant ni-Van level of learning. Now I am post-toddler, heading into the adolescence stage, all because of good ol mom and pops! The skills inherent to these kids or learned at remarkably young ages are just now coming around for Alison. For example, I’ve never seen a 4+ year old not crack open a coconut on their first hit with the bush knife. It’s unreal! I’m getting there! I felt the need to express my gratitude, so I rambled on their behalf for a lelebet and gave them some Mojo bars and Crystal Lite packets as an attempt to say thank you. They loved it!

We walked an hour or so down the big road to Lolopuepue, the place where the PISSA games were held. We, with all the other zone 5 teachers, met there for a la fet or party. We were salu-salu’d (leis put around your neck) and my papa gave a speech. He’s the ZCA or zone curriculum advisor and looks out for the all the schools in da zone. After that we all held each other’s shoulders and cut the cake (always a big to-do!) and ate some delicious kakae. When we had arrived, this white man showed up in a truck, which is always confusing. We met and I found out he was James Buluok, a volunteer from the UK living on Pentecost, an island to the southeast of us. For 4 years! My papa had talked to him on the phone, but upon meeting, he was dumfounded. James took the Pentecost family name Buluok and his Bislama is incredibly good. Like eerily good – his tones and pronunciation sound like a native speaker’s. Assuming that he was ni-Van and then finding out he was white man, my papa was blown away! It was pretty amusing to watch unfold.

wai maito spilling into the sea

wai maito, or black water

group cake cutting, the only way to do it

James came to Vanuatu 4 years ago with a small volunteer group and basically never left. He lives on Pentecost and has created a summer school program for top 6^th grade students preparing to enter secondary school. There just isn’t enough emphasis on good students here. No chance to excel or be rewarded, so this program would give those students an opportunity to build confidence and skills at a  one month summer school/camp. He’s run the camp 2 times on Pentecost, including more regions in the second year. This January will be year 3 for all of Pentecost, and next year they’re expanding it to include Ambae! So by this point, James had been on Ambae for 28 days going school-to-school spreading the word and gauging interest. All positive thus far! His last stop was my school to fill us in on the plans and then he’d hop a ship back to Pentecost. He came to our school a couple of days later. We chatted for a while and he told me about his story. He also told me about his trek around Ambae. He didn’t even bring a towel with him. Man-Ambae just took care of him at every stop with a place to sleep and food to eat, totally appreciating the work he’s doing. I love this place!

Halloweeeeeen! By far the most ridiculous thing I’ve had to explain cross-culturally since being in Vanuatu. Dressing up, jack-o-lanterns, trick or treating, candy galore… it’s all a mess! It probably didn’t help that I dressed up as something as abstract as, say, the ocean. My puskats were catfish and my dog was a shark. It was really all just to entertain myself, but that’s what life is for! It was Friday so I had class with kindy. We decorated masks and ears and all jumped around the classrooms like mad men. A typical Friday kindy day, but a little more festive!

class crafts

the crew

goin wild!

garai

sweet little lawence

my favorite lavenda! 

julina and those chompers

girlz

braunia and tari in the back with the seduction

mus and alison, halloween 2014

My mama and I walked into town in the hot sun. At one point she said that Halloween sounds like “hot wind” (or the way it’s pronounced here – hot weend) so we kept saying Happy Hot Wind instead. By the grace of the Halloween gods, the huge public works camion truck scooped us up and we rode the monster into town, singing out, “Happy Halloween!” because the wind was no longer hot when you’re riding that high. When I tried climbing in the truck, I flashed some thigh to make the leap up. It got quite the laugh from everyone around, considering it was my thighs’ debut in the outside world of Vanuatu. Yes, after 9 months of hiding under skirts, my thighs saw daylight! And they happened to be dressed up as ghosts, because they were white as hell. Haha, everyone cracked up at bright surprise, especially me. White man wan taem!

Sydney and Michelle’s services were coming to a close, so they invited us to their last kakaes, or farewell feasts. I followed a truck up to Sydney’s village Nanigama for the weekend for her toilet project opening and her last kakae. This was my first time staying in East, so I was looking forward to a flood of new faces. First stop was Lovuinvili, Sydney’s first village and the location of the toilet opening. Sydney is a health volunteer and her community’s focus was sanitation. Lovuinvili and the surrounding villages are all clustered together and overpopulated and there was beginning to be a problem with toilets – the old ones were full and no place to put new ones that wouldn’t spoil gardens or the water supply. The vol before Sydney, Cara, helped the village get water pipes to pump water from springs in the mountains, so to build on this, Sydney helped them build 11 flush toilets with septic tank setups.

sydney's great chinese shop notebook
it says "This is the most comfortable notebook you have ever run into.
You will feel like writing with it all the time." Classic!

So why move sites when you’ve got a mega project going? It’s a weird story, but after Sydney’s first year at site, she was able to move to a village half an hour up the road that actually wanted her there and appreciated her presence. Nanigama is a special place and ended up being the perfect home for her.

I arrived when all the food was being cooked. A feast celebrating toilets! We helped her first host mama cut the watermelon. They told me about this woman’s green thumb – she grew a 25 kg watermelon! She married a local seed with a kind from another island and boom! Watermelon monster! They sent it to Port Vila and it sold for $70 US. Pretty impressive!

We went to the ceremony and some community members gave speeches. Sadly her first host papa called her Cara the whole time, which sucked, but what can ya do? Sydney gave her report and it immediately reminded me of a picture we had hanging in our bathroom growing up: “No job is finished until the paperwork is done.” Ha! I love that. We went down to one of the completed toilets for the ribbon cutting. These guys love ribbon/cake cutting – anything to make something official. I support! The bathroom was all flas’d out (fancy-fied) and looked like a party instead of a potty. More speeches, some test flushes, and back to the community hall for gifts and food.

toilet talk

laplap galore

the fanciest of potties

syd and her counterpart and the throne

gifts

They passed out the laplaps to all those involved and showered Sydney in baby powder, calico, salu salus, and baskets. She got 12 baskets! One had “Mr. Bowman Sydney” woven into it while another had “Sydney Do man” Both are timeless. I was called up and both Sydney and I had to stand and shake everyone’s hand before we ate. It was a funny thing to include me, considering I knew about 2% of these folks, had never been to the village, was not leaving Ambae, and did not provide them with access to better sanitation. Yet I was a “distinguished guest” they kept telling me, so I had to “seik han” with everyone. Picture all the oldfala giving heartfelt goodbye hugs and shedding tears with Sydney and then arriving at my handshake, confused at who the hell I am, shaking my hand anyway, and then going to grab food. I wasn’t even the warm up handshake! I was post-Sydney. Very odd, but such is life. The two of us got plenty of sideways glances and laughs in with this line of encounters, so all is well.

After stuffing our faces, we headed up to her home in the beautiful Nanigama. We got settled, passed out some laplap, stored away the whole chicken (what! such a good surprise!) that was cooked with the laplap, and got to burger making. I brought up a half kilo of mince from town and we had the most delicious baby burgers! About 8 total. Gobbled em all up, tailor-style on her floor, laughing about the events of the day. Fell asleep happy.

We started Saturday with Sydney pulling apart the chicken and me reading to her about Chile, her future 5 month home after a coupla months in the states. She’ll be volunteering with the UN and Chilean Government teaching English in a primary school! The world is full of the coolest opportunities. Reading this guide book made me seriously want to check out South America for a bit. Definitely a place you gotta commit some time to! As all continents and countries and places should be treated, I suppose. Gotta brush up on that Spanish, who knows what’s next!

Tim Jessie Rae and Lynda Mae came and we all ate the chicken noodle soup that was cookin all morning. It was delicious! We hung out, played nostalgia games with Sydney, and asked about her two year takeaways. Jessie and Lynda Mae split before dark because Nathan was coming home from Vila and they were walkin to meet him at home, so they had to miss out on the last kakae.

That night was the last kakae. Sydney was covered in salusalus, kalicos, baskets, flowers, and love. Many hugs and tears and speeches and other things that make up goodbyes. I was glad to be there to see her off! The food was delicious and of course we ate too much of everything. A wonderful visit indeed.

trabel the mama

sydney in all of her glory!

Oh! But I must mention that her puskat Trabel (yes, Trouble) has a cute 7 week old kitten! We spent a good part of the weekend playing with these two! A funny story about the birth – Sydney was going to sleep and Trabel was being extra cuddly, so she let her shack up under the mosquito net. When Sydney went to the toilet in the night and returned, she found a baby kitten in her sheets! Along with the afterbirth and all the other good stuff, of course. So she flipped the mattress and passed back out after sticking the cats on the floor. Anything can happen! Now little ginger hair is a sweet puskat and going to live at Tim’s site to chase away/munch on his absurd rat population.

A night at Jessie Rae and Nathan’s and then back to site. Always, always good to arrive back home after a weekend away.