PS (first!): I'm loading this from Tanna on a dial-up connection so it is VERY slow. Next time I'm in Vila, I'll add some pictures - especially of my buchi (namesake) - Sandy
Just back from Australia and find myself with plenty of time in Vila for a change which means I get to write a LOT about everything that has happened in the last – oh my – 5 months! First, Australia was FANTASTIC. I met up with a long time friend of mine, Martha at the airport at 11:00am in late October with a bottle of wine and 2 glasses. Well, actually 2 coffee mugs. After a delicious lunch we indulged in massages and some great Greek food, thanks to a young man I met in the airport in Sydney who not only recommended it but worked there. New friend and he might visit Vanuatu next year! We stayed in Melbourne for a few days and then headed to Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayers Rock) for a 4 day outback safari. We were a little surprised to find ourselves watching the sunset at Uluru with glasses of champagne in our hands! Seems we got upgraded to the “deluxe” tour because not enough people had signed up for the 4 day basic tour. That meant wine with every meal, no cooking or cleaning and permanent tents with real beds, sheets and pillows. We DID NOT complain. However, I wanted to sleep in a swag, under the stars and did that every night. If the Peace Corps could provide mattresses like those inside the swags I think they’d make a lot of volunteers happy. We did a lot of hiking and it was hot, like 38 C or 100 F. We saw wallabies, wild camels and witchety grubs. One guy even ate one – a big white worm that is supposed to taste like raw egg – no thank you! At one creek, me and a couple of other people swam across to the other side and took a walk down the canyon. The water was incredibly cold, the canyon beautiful. As we entered, a chorus of sound stretched out in front of us – some kind of bird or animal early warning system.
We saw a lot of wildlife, learned a lot about the history of Australia both socially and geologically, and drank a lot of wine. Oh, and ate a lot of good food! Wine was a major theme or our stay in the Adelaide area. Thanks to Martha, we got a private tour of the Molly Dooker winery and I must say that I learned to love Shiraz as a result. Since most of their distribution is in the US you might be able to find it and try it too. We went to Kangaroo Island, the Great Ocean Road, and lots more. I could spend the entire blog just on our trip. Great company, great scenery, great food and of course, great wine!
I also got to see a dermatologist and had a basal cell carinoma removed which was good even if I do have “the mark of Zorro” on my forehead. It is healing nicely and I had the last of the stitches removed after I returned to site. The only advice from the PC medical officer was to keep it clean. I tried exploring my writing style on this topic since I found it somewhat ironic that the one thing I can’t do at site is keep anything clean.
Ok, now for a little bad news, just to get it out of the way. Tusker my dog (and Larry’s) got hit by a truck at the beginning of July and died. We buried him with some bananas (his favorite) and his toys and planted petunas and marked the edge of his grave with upturned Tusker beer bottles. Seems appropriate, huh?
We also lost my namesake just 3 weeks ago. Ester Sandra struggled with a respiratory problem for a long time and after all of the kastom medicine failed, she went to the hospital. Apparently “hart blong hem i kat fulap toti” (her heart was filled with dirty) and after she recovered from her cold/pneumonia, they gave her medicine to take for her heart. She and her mom were also given medicine for “sik blong faol” (illness coming from chickens). She fought really hard. I only wish she had learned to smile more.
The oldest chief in the village died last week too. He was the titular leader of the nakamal and I’m unsure what his passing will mean in terms of village politics. I’ll probably not find out anytime soon and I may be gone before anything happens anyway.
Two other chiefs tried to kill each other recently, but were unsuccessful. It appears Jimmy was upset about a pig and used something akin to a 4x4 piece of wood to knock Phil upside the head. Now, if it were anyone but man-Tanna, the blow would not only have knocked him down but also killed him. Phil is over 80, but is recovering from the cracked skull and concussion. His two sons weren’t real happy and so they beat Jimmy up or rather down to the ground and kicked the living sh*t out of him. Several broken ribs later he too is recovering. He had friends though and they weren’t happy either and so men from 7 (yes not 1, but 7) villages went to Phil’s place and tore down all of their houses and destroyed a lot of their things. The word went out to all of the women who were in the gardens to go back to the village because the gardens are close to Phil’s place and the men were going to be looking for Phil’s family in the gardens if they didn’t find them in the village, and if they would “kil” (hit, beat up) anyone they found. Me and a friend of mine, Jacobeth, we on our way to the gardens and decided to go anyway, but we hurried. This basically means we only stayed in the garden for 2 hours not 4. One of the leaders of the nakamal by the 7 villages sent word to the men in our village to stay out of the fight because the fight would only come inside the village if they brought it there by interfering. After, some men from the South were planning on going to the village and make the same damage to the houses belonging to Jimmy’s family. However, they haven’t gotten around to it yet. So everything was a little interesting for a couple of days, but ultimately safe.
Seems to be the taem (time) for raos (fights). Lots of village meetings about things like women leaving their men, women fighting with women over men, jealousy over sharing cigarettes or other things, disrespect for elders, stealing, etc. Yaoma kils the tamtam early early and everyone starts to gather under the meeting tree. The talk goes on and on and on, anyone with something to say waiting politely until the previous speaker is finished, pausing briefly, and then standing up and speaking. The talk goes on and on and on until the issues is decided, the fines levied and payments made. One side usually pays something like a pig and some kava and the other side does too. I haven’t seen a one sided fine come out of these meetings yet. Maybe that’s what the sori ceremonies are about because they are definitely one-sided.
I almost found myself in one of these meetings too. Seems I was slow in paying to charge my mobile like everyone else here, but he didn’t like it. Seems too that it is ok for me to answer his phone and take messages when he is gone, but not to use it to make calls which I pay for. And finally, I learned it is not ok to ask the same questions about some other donor activities that other members of the village ask. After some yelling - by him, shoving and pushing – by him, and a LOT of calm words by me, we came to an understanding and he apologized. If he hadn’t, I would have had to go to Yaoma and ask him to kil the tamtam. Not because of the supposed rightness of my position – there is not kastom about the matters we differed on, but because he physically and orally assaulted me – which is village business because I’m their Peace Corps person. Finished now – at least in theory. Sometimes I’m a bit confused as to what standard I’m expected to live at sometimes – like man-Tanna or not?
All that aggression was good for something though. The Nipikinamu Futbol Team won the All-Tanna Futbol Championship this year! YAY!!! They almost won last year but the title-holding team refused to play the final round. This year they beat their asses!! And won 200,000 vatu or roughly $200. Next year, the tournament will be close to my village and so I’ll be able to watch the preliminaries as well as the final. The village is planning a celebration around Christmas and I’ll be presenting a framed team picture to them. They used the money to start a small business selling mazut (gasoline) to taxi trucks.
Just back from Australia and find myself with plenty of time in Vila for a change which means I get to write a LOT about everything that has happened in the last – oh my – 5 months! First, Australia was FANTASTIC. I met up with a long time friend of mine, Martha at the airport at 11:00am in late October with a bottle of wine and 2 glasses. Well, actually 2 coffee mugs. After a delicious lunch we indulged in massages and some great Greek food, thanks to a young man I met in the airport in Sydney who not only recommended it but worked there. New friend and he might visit Vanuatu next year! We stayed in Melbourne for a few days and then headed to Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayers Rock) for a 4 day outback safari. We were a little surprised to find ourselves watching the sunset at Uluru with glasses of champagne in our hands! Seems we got upgraded to the “deluxe” tour because not enough people had signed up for the 4 day basic tour. That meant wine with every meal, no cooking or cleaning and permanent tents with real beds, sheets and pillows. We DID NOT complain. However, I wanted to sleep in a swag, under the stars and did that every night. If the Peace Corps could provide mattresses like those inside the swags I think they’d make a lot of volunteers happy. We did a lot of hiking and it was hot, like 38 C or 100 F. We saw wallabies, wild camels and witchety grubs. One guy even ate one – a big white worm that is supposed to taste like raw egg – no thank you! At one creek, me and a couple of other people swam across to the other side and took a walk down the canyon. The water was incredibly cold, the canyon beautiful. As we entered, a chorus of sound stretched out in front of us – some kind of bird or animal early warning system.
We saw a lot of wildlife, learned a lot about the history of Australia both socially and geologically, and drank a lot of wine. Oh, and ate a lot of good food! Wine was a major theme or our stay in the Adelaide area. Thanks to Martha, we got a private tour of the Molly Dooker winery and I must say that I learned to love Shiraz as a result. Since most of their distribution is in the US you might be able to find it and try it too. We went to Kangaroo Island, the Great Ocean Road, and lots more. I could spend the entire blog just on our trip. Great company, great scenery, great food and of course, great wine!
I also got to see a dermatologist and had a basal cell carinoma removed which was good even if I do have “the mark of Zorro” on my forehead. It is healing nicely and I had the last of the stitches removed after I returned to site. The only advice from the PC medical officer was to keep it clean. I tried exploring my writing style on this topic since I found it somewhat ironic that the one thing I can’t do at site is keep anything clean.
Ok, now for a little bad news, just to get it out of the way. Tusker my dog (and Larry’s) got hit by a truck at the beginning of July and died. We buried him with some bananas (his favorite) and his toys and planted petunas and marked the edge of his grave with upturned Tusker beer bottles. Seems appropriate, huh?
We also lost my namesake just 3 weeks ago. Ester Sandra struggled with a respiratory problem for a long time and after all of the kastom medicine failed, she went to the hospital. Apparently “hart blong hem i kat fulap toti” (her heart was filled with dirty) and after she recovered from her cold/pneumonia, they gave her medicine to take for her heart. She and her mom were also given medicine for “sik blong faol” (illness coming from chickens). She fought really hard. I only wish she had learned to smile more.
The oldest chief in the village died last week too. He was the titular leader of the nakamal and I’m unsure what his passing will mean in terms of village politics. I’ll probably not find out anytime soon and I may be gone before anything happens anyway.
Two other chiefs tried to kill each other recently, but were unsuccessful. It appears Jimmy was upset about a pig and used something akin to a 4x4 piece of wood to knock Phil upside the head. Now, if it were anyone but man-Tanna, the blow would not only have knocked him down but also killed him. Phil is over 80, but is recovering from the cracked skull and concussion. His two sons weren’t real happy and so they beat Jimmy up or rather down to the ground and kicked the living sh*t out of him. Several broken ribs later he too is recovering. He had friends though and they weren’t happy either and so men from 7 (yes not 1, but 7) villages went to Phil’s place and tore down all of their houses and destroyed a lot of their things. The word went out to all of the women who were in the gardens to go back to the village because the gardens are close to Phil’s place and the men were going to be looking for Phil’s family in the gardens if they didn’t find them in the village, and if they would “kil” (hit, beat up) anyone they found. Me and a friend of mine, Jacobeth, we on our way to the gardens and decided to go anyway, but we hurried. This basically means we only stayed in the garden for 2 hours not 4. One of the leaders of the nakamal by the 7 villages sent word to the men in our village to stay out of the fight because the fight would only come inside the village if they brought it there by interfering. After, some men from the South were planning on going to the village and make the same damage to the houses belonging to Jimmy’s family. However, they haven’t gotten around to it yet. So everything was a little interesting for a couple of days, but ultimately safe.
Seems to be the taem (time) for raos (fights). Lots of village meetings about things like women leaving their men, women fighting with women over men, jealousy over sharing cigarettes or other things, disrespect for elders, stealing, etc. Yaoma kils the tamtam early early and everyone starts to gather under the meeting tree. The talk goes on and on and on, anyone with something to say waiting politely until the previous speaker is finished, pausing briefly, and then standing up and speaking. The talk goes on and on and on until the issues is decided, the fines levied and payments made. One side usually pays something like a pig and some kava and the other side does too. I haven’t seen a one sided fine come out of these meetings yet. Maybe that’s what the sori ceremonies are about because they are definitely one-sided.
I almost found myself in one of these meetings too. Seems I was slow in paying to charge my mobile like everyone else here, but he didn’t like it. Seems too that it is ok for me to answer his phone and take messages when he is gone, but not to use it to make calls which I pay for. And finally, I learned it is not ok to ask the same questions about some other donor activities that other members of the village ask. After some yelling - by him, shoving and pushing – by him, and a LOT of calm words by me, we came to an understanding and he apologized. If he hadn’t, I would have had to go to Yaoma and ask him to kil the tamtam. Not because of the supposed rightness of my position – there is not kastom about the matters we differed on, but because he physically and orally assaulted me – which is village business because I’m their Peace Corps person. Finished now – at least in theory. Sometimes I’m a bit confused as to what standard I’m expected to live at sometimes – like man-Tanna or not?
All that aggression was good for something though. The Nipikinamu Futbol Team won the All-Tanna Futbol Championship this year! YAY!!! They almost won last year but the title-holding team refused to play the final round. This year they beat their asses!! And won 200,000 vatu or roughly $200. Next year, the tournament will be close to my village and so I’ll be able to watch the preliminaries as well as the final. The village is planning a celebration around Christmas and I’ll be presenting a framed team picture to them. They used the money to start a small business selling mazut (gasoline) to taxi trucks.
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