Shoot! I loaded these in reverse order! Try reading Frankly Speaking #1 first and then ready backwards.
One day when I came back from Lenakel, I found Tom Escar sitting at my mothers with a bloody arm wrapped in calico. Seems he found one of those plastic wrist bands on the ground and put it on his arm. He was taking it back to Mary when Mary’s man, UN, saw him and became jealous. UN chased him around the village trying to cut him with his bush knife and after scratching him a few times was able to cut him on the arm down to the muscle. The local Aide Post worker poured betadine on the wound and then packed it with some kastom leaf to stop the bleeding before wrapping it in clean calico. The next day the police came and took Tom and UN into Lenakel and then took Tom to the hospital for stitches and arrested UN. A week later Tom pulled out 2 of the stitches chopping wood.
Another time I went to Lenakel it was raining. I mean RAINING! In Lenakel there is a low area through which the main road runs and I usually walk to the market using it. On this particular day it had a deep stream of running water. It didn't look too bad and so I started across. I had to brace myself and go pretty slow because it was really bad - even the trucks wouldn't use it. After shopping in the rain, eating in the rain and waiting for the truck to go back in the rain, we left. At the volcano there used to be a big lake but in 2002 it was washed into the sea because of a large rainfall. When we got to this spot, it too was filled with water. I screamed out to stop because I wasn't going to be in the truck when it got washed over the edge of the drop off. Everyone got out and some of the men waded across and found th shallow spots. So the rest of us pulled up our skirts, shorts or whatever and followed them across. The truck then followed us. The stories that were being told before we arrived at the water started back up again, but now they had another one to tell.
Back to work topics: it took me 6 tries to have a village meeting with enough people to discuss what the community wanted to do with the projects previous PCVs had started and had subsequently fallen down. They committed to a community work day to fix the buildings for 2 of them. I called them last week and found they had made 2 work days. Now, it is time for my work with the committee to begin again. I’ve not wanted to bully or in any way act like the colonial government and some ex-pats act here towards Ni-Vans and I still don’t want to. But, I’ll be starting with gentle pushing in a direct way. Then I’ll start nagging.
Due to donations to the Peace Corp Partnership Program as well as the German Embassy and the European Union, Port will be receiving a 12 meter retractable windmill. I don’t know if any of you who read then made a donation, but YOU did it!!! Without your help there wasn’t enough funding from the other sources to make it happen. This is be an exciting project which may, if there is any way for me to create sustainability, help the community to move ahead in some new ways.
Wish I had more stories to tell here and ones that are fun, but it has been a period of transition for me and it is not finished yet. I’m feeling a little too serious. This “work” is challenging, but the non-work stuff, the people, relationships, environment, personal learning, are all wonderful. I’m redefining what I want to get out of my experience here. When I came I heard volunteers say they got more out of their experience than they put it. I said I wouldn’t let that happen; I would give more than I got. Now, I realize I have no control over what is happening and it will happen this way regardless of my efforts. I haven’t run out of approaches to try yet and so there is still some “work” to be done. There are some small successes and they make the weeks of stagnation tolerable. At the same time, the living experience, the friends I’m making, the adventure of being here and seeing the world in new ways, are far from intolerable and I guess, just living is pretty wonderful. (However, after 5 days at Iririki, a top end resort with jacuzzis in every room, never ending lagoon-style pools, great food, fantastic service, TV, internet and HOT water, I do miss some things in America.)
A last note: Paddi, my doggy companion for the last 12 years, died in April. Although she had been sick since January, it was very hard reading the status reports in chronological order until the last one. The image of her sleeping under a lilac tree next to another loved dog is close to my heart. We leave so much behind.
Back to work topics: it took me 6 tries to have a village meeting with enough people to discuss what the community wanted to do with the projects previous PCVs had started and had subsequently fallen down. They committed to a community work day to fix the buildings for 2 of them. I called them last week and found they had made 2 work days. Now, it is time for my work with the committee to begin again. I’ve not wanted to bully or in any way act like the colonial government and some ex-pats act here towards Ni-Vans and I still don’t want to. But, I’ll be starting with gentle pushing in a direct way. Then I’ll start nagging.
Due to donations to the Peace Corp Partnership Program as well as the German Embassy and the European Union, Port will be receiving a 12 meter retractable windmill. I don’t know if any of you who read then made a donation, but YOU did it!!! Without your help there wasn’t enough funding from the other sources to make it happen. This is be an exciting project which may, if there is any way for me to create sustainability, help the community to move ahead in some new ways.
Wish I had more stories to tell here and ones that are fun, but it has been a period of transition for me and it is not finished yet. I’m feeling a little too serious. This “work” is challenging, but the non-work stuff, the people, relationships, environment, personal learning, are all wonderful. I’m redefining what I want to get out of my experience here. When I came I heard volunteers say they got more out of their experience than they put it. I said I wouldn’t let that happen; I would give more than I got. Now, I realize I have no control over what is happening and it will happen this way regardless of my efforts. I haven’t run out of approaches to try yet and so there is still some “work” to be done. There are some small successes and they make the weeks of stagnation tolerable. At the same time, the living experience, the friends I’m making, the adventure of being here and seeing the world in new ways, are far from intolerable and I guess, just living is pretty wonderful. (However, after 5 days at Iririki, a top end resort with jacuzzis in every room, never ending lagoon-style pools, great food, fantastic service, TV, internet and HOT water, I do miss some things in America.)
A last note: Paddi, my doggy companion for the last 12 years, died in April. Although she had been sick since January, it was very hard reading the status reports in chronological order until the last one. The image of her sleeping under a lilac tree next to another loved dog is close to my heart. We leave so much behind.
Until September...
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