Training is DONE!!!

I am now officially a Peace Corps volunteer. After completing 10 weeks of training, we all were sworn in this past Thursday. It was a hectic week with the villagers creating a floating stage on the sanbij (sand beach)and an enormous covered seating area big enough to hold us, all of the Peace Corps staff, distinguished guests (ambassadors, government ministers and pastors), other guests and the entire village. After many prayers, introductions and speeches (about 3 hours worth), we raised our hands (or put them on our hearts) and recited the Peace Corps oath. The ceremony ended with a last picture being taken of all the new volunteers as the sun set in the background. Then we all drank kava, shared in a lafete (feast) in our honor, danced, sang songs and generally kept the entire village awake until around 3:00 am. Maybe not the best way to say thank you to all the wonderful people of Emua who gave us a place to stay, fed us massive quantities of food and generally put up with our Amercan ways. In any case, early the next morning we all got together again and said our good byes by shaking the hands of every villager before loading into the trucks and heading to Vila.

I'll be here for a week getting ready to go to my site - buying food, pots, utensils, etc. - everything to set up a new household - and do it on the $300 the Peace Corps gives us to settle in! Plus, I'll be running around gathering information to take with me, anything from making copies to finding out if some people are really planning on blowing up the reef to build a wharf. I'm also tracking down info on building ovens, painting t-shirts, quilting, and starting a chicken operation - just a few projects that might happen.

Speaking of noise, I just want to describe a typical morning meditation so you get an idea of village life: So, the first rooster starts to crow around 2:00 am. I know this because he belongs to my family, sits in the tree above my room and has not sung me back to sleep - ever. I get up around 5:45, have a cup of tea while studying Bislama or reading and then sit around 6:30. My host papa sometimes gets up after this and pees outside my window before heading to the solwota to watch the waves come and go. By this time the fire in the kuk (kitchen or cook) house has been lit and the smoke is filling my room. The rooster has quieted down, but Leon (my host-sister's 4 year old) is either crying or yelling or better yet, kicking the tin wall of the house - the wall outside my room. He could be kicking the dog or cat too and then there's animal crying noise. On a good morning, Kalman will be riding around in his truck and using a loud speaker to make announcements about meetings or anything the whole community needs to hear about. On quiet mornings, there's only the sound of the crabs digging in the coral, the rats running across the roof or the rain pounding on the tin roof so hard you can't hear anything else. I think you all get the idea. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to meditate UNLESS there is fulup (plenty) noise after this. :-)

I know a lot has happened since my last post, but a lot of it escapes me now. Did you all know there are whales in these parts?? During one of our field trips to a site that is being considered as a World Heritage site, we spotted some whales about 5 miles away, just playing around the island of Lelepa. Than last weekend, my host-papa yelled out, "welfish, welfish" and everyone ran to the solwota (salt water) to watch the whales jump and blow water off the cost of Pele for about an hour. Pele is about 8 or 9 kilometers away from the northern coast of Efate where the training village is. They must have been huge because we could see about half their bodies rise up out of the water. So, imagine about 20 people just sitting and watching the horizon patiently, the silence punctuated every few minutes by ahs and oohs. After some time, people just started wandering off. I went back to the house to spell (take a nap or rest). After laying down, I felt a little sprinkle of wetness on my arm and thought, "how nice, it must be raining a little and it is coming in through the window." However, I soon remembered that even in the most torrential downpour, water DOES NOT come in through the window. I looked up and found a gecko clinging to the side of one of the ceiling beams looking down at me. I'd just been peed on by a gecko!

We had another earthquake the night we swore in. Since I couldn't help but be awake listening to the same song being played at high volume 30 or 40 times in a row, I was surprised to first hear a roaring sound and then feel the whole bed and house shake. It was louder than the music which is really saying something about the roar.

I had my first experience with too much kava a couple of weeks ago. I drank my first shell and right after, one of our trainers arrived and I wanted to buy him a shell too. I thought I'd join him for a 2nd one, so I basically drank 200 vatu worth of kava in one gulp. Well.... the first thing I noticed was that my hearing became very acute. All of the sounds around me were magnified - crickets, string band music across the park 2 blocks away, conversations. Next, my vision started doing what it has only been known to do when I've been very, very, very drunk. They say that you just need to sit and listen to the kava talk to you. Well, in that state, it is not possible to do much more than that. Talking is fine as long as the other person isn't expecting any quick response, but standing or trying to move would be a big mistake. I won't be doing that again soon. It is funny though because the strength of the kava varies so much that sometimes it doesn't affect you at all and at others it whaps you upside the head. And then there is the taste. For something that tastes that bad, you'd think I wouldn't drink it again. Perhaps these comments can attest to the some underlying fallacies in the concept of aversion therapy???

I'm now the proud owner of 3 island dresses. Some of the volunteers who have been here a year have 15, so I'm off to a good start.

My host family took me to their village (Siviry) a couple of weekends ago and we visited some caves there. One is filled with water that rises and falls with the tide, but is not salty. You can even take a kayak to the back of the cave through a narrow opening and get access to trails that go further into the mountain. After we went snorkeling and just walked the beach. And then.... kava, of course!

The night before the swearing in ceremony, I was awakened by a bunch of men's voices outside. Some of the young fala from the village had been out fishing all night and had just brought back stringers full of fish. My host-papa called everyone over to see. About 12 hours later, the fish found their way into the lafete and our stomachs. I really had to think before eating them because refrigeration is not part of this scene. The fish hung outside, uncovered for a long time before they got cooked. No one got sick and I'm learning some that some of the food precautions I've been brought up with are a little overly cautious. Another night, after a wedding ceremony, I was also awakened, but this time it was because a wheelbarrow arrived with a quarter bullock in it. Since my host-papa is the oldest in his family, he then used a bush knife and axe to cut up the meat, scoop it into piles and then hand it off to each of his related families. We had ours in soup the next day and it was delicious. Different, huh????

We did a little review of the way we all were when we first came to Vanuatu and how we are now. Some of the big ones for me are: taking a shower twice a day before and now taking a shower every 3rd day is just fine; being polite about asking for someone before and now just yelling the person's name at the top of my lungs from 1/4 mile away; not wearing the same clothes more than 1 day before and now wearing them for a week before changing; not knowing what was being eaten before and now, not only knowing, but not being picky because hunger is a great equalizer of taste.

I don't think I've told all of you yet, but Vanuatu is the 3rd most dangerous place to live in the world according to some people. That's because the quantity, severity and variety of types of natural disasters here is quite impressive: cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanos to name a few. I'm living about 20 minutes from one of the most accessible and active volcanos around. I feel quite safe in knowing that if it should decide to really blow, not only will I be the one reporting it to the Peace Corps, but I will also need to go into the highest danger zone first before being about to get away from it. Yes, a little sarcasm can be read into that statement. I think I'll just go for a swim or just hitch a ride with one of the yachtees in the Port. By the way, there's a 4th of July party in Lenakel on Tanna and a lot of people are going to see the volcano the next night - including me!!

And finally, one of our field trips was to visit about 7 places on North Efate that have cultural tours run by Ni-Vans. Got to see my first kastom dance and I immediately responded to the drum beat. I also have a whole set of places to take people should anyone come to visit.

I'll post a few pictures soon, but I need to get them small enough to upload without taking all day to do so. Love hearing from all of you too.