It’s official. My extension request has been approved and I will be staying for another year. I’m happy about that most days. There have been some days though where I’m ready to quit. Not too different from the first year, but I don’t take myself as seriously as I used to when this happens.
The Women’s Center Project is going well. The new building is under construction. The village is adapting to building 2 buildings at the same time: the women’s center and a new dispensary. This is not easy and many would like to work on only one of them until it is done and then start on the next one. I don’t blame them either. It takes about 10 days for 25 people to carry enough sand and coral from the beach to pour the footings and floor for the dispensary alone. They use empty 25kg rice bags and the beach is about half a mile away.
The Windmill Project is still delayed waiting for the windmill tower to be fabricated. The local contractor has had very poor luck with fabricators and is now working with the 5th. The hope is that it will be finished and arrive here in May. This has been a major source of frustration for me because the project was funded and the money disbursed in June last year. And one of the donors is unhappy enough that they are threatening to ask for their money back. And I can’t do a damn thing. And there are a lot of people and projects depending on the power it will generate. Enough said?
I’m excited about a water and sanitation project the community is developing. I’ve been in a stalemate with them for along time over “my big project”. They kept asking me what I was going to do and I kept asking them what they wanted me to do. In January we had that discussion again. This time I put 5 boxes in front of them, each one representing a different project that I had heard some of them talk about at various times. If I was going to stay another year, what did they want? They told me!!!! Yay! Now the Water Committee is starting to develop the project scope and gone to the 5 nakamals representing 6 villages and obtained their support. The most exciting part is they are doing it.
I recently did an adolescent reproductive health workshop (sex education) for a group of youngfala boys. BIG step for me, a woman, to teach something like this to a group of males. They told me it was okay because I am an oldfala. Lots of very interesting questions, like “is it true that if a young man sleeps with an older woman, she will poison his blood?” I am now the major condom supplier to the village.
When I go back next week, I plan on doing some movie nights using videos created by Wan Smol Bag. WSB is dedicated to teaching about the environment, health, domestic violence, tourism, voting rights and other things through workshops, plays, peer educators, books and videos. A lot of their materials are aimed at young people.
So, work life is good. My guitar playing is coming along and I’m toughening up my fingers. Some of the guys are teaching me to play chords and picking and I hope to learn enough to play one of the John Frum songs with them. February 15 is the yearly anniversary of John Frum. I joined people from my village to watch the flag raising, marching and kastom dancing. Chief Isaac lifted up a new paramount chief and it was a woman! A woman born in Vanuatu to Asian parents. Me and Nate, another volunteer, talked with her and learned Isaac felt it was time for a change and after observing the changes in the world over the last 28 years, it was time to bring a woman into power. There are a lot of mixed feelings about this, only some of which are related to her being a woman. Some people are concerned because of her political connections. Others because of her financial motivations. Which stories are true? How will it turn out? Maybe that is part of why I’m staying – I want to know the end of the story.
Port recently received a shipping container of donated items from a Seven Day Adventist (SDA) organization. Lots of bicycles arrived along with carpet, couches, clothes and toys. After taking a look around I walked back to the village and came upon Wilson carrying his oldest son who is maybe 5 years old. He was sobbing his heart out. He wanted a bicycle so much, but didn’t get one. All of them were old, some in better shape than others. They’re getting a lot of mileage too, but flats are a problem and some of the chains are starting to slip and no one knows how to repair them.
You know you have been inVanuatu too long when you have learned how mother hens wean their chicks from their side.
Snippets:
· I ate my first turtle and my first flying fox (BIG bat) last month .
· A new fishing boat now catches fresh tuna and pouillet every few days and I can buy 1kg for $4.
· Bella, Pilot’s pig, is black like Tusker, chases chickens like Tusker, sleeps with the cats like Tusker, digs holes next to the house like Tusker, lays down and asks for its belly to be rubbed like Tusker.
· Nathan came for an unannounced visit – he walked 19 hours straight around the outside of the island and I found him sleeping in my house when I came back from the garden.
· Manuapin started a mama’s market and it is making about 4 times the money made by my village’s market. They tell me it was my idea. I think all I did was ask them where they went to market and where people from the South went to market and didn’t the people from the South have to go through their village to get to the nearest market. Now they want a women’s center too.
· The owner of the truck made a big “thank you for your support” lafete for the village and his boat caught a lot of fish, including a 50kg shark. Too bad the shark is their totem and they couldn’t eat any of it.
· My toilet fell down on Christmas day. I had a new one 3 days later. I have never ever gotten any kind of work done that fast in the village before.
· My host brother, Samson, went to New Zealand for 7 months to pick kiwi and apples. I miss his company and he took care of all those little things: cutting branches off trees, security for those difficult walks, fixing my house, storian over kava, putting up new roofs, finishing off leftovers, clearing bananas…..
· A woman friend came to see me one night because she had just learned her husband was living with another woman in Vila and wanted my help.
· A man asked me to help him write a resignation letter from a community development committee. He is the recognized head of one of the 5 families on the committee. It is a secret and why he resigned is a secret. Officially, I know nothing.
· A developer asked my help in finding someone he could trust to run his development in the Port area and identifying alternative energy constraints. Officially, I know nothing.
I’m learning local language and can do some basic sentences. It helps when I sit with the mamas and try to say something and they all laugh at me. No really, it helps. They don’t think I’m so scary when we laugh and they’ll help me say something right and then teach me more.
Chief Ronnie died at the end of January. He was a very sweet hold man and not just because I kept him supplied in chocolate. The nakamal had a big meeting with people from all over southeast Tanna because people believed someone was making magic that killed him and Chief Tobay last year. Old man Sarowe accused Ronnie’s son, Johnson. Johnson accused Sarowe. Yata accused a man who has been dead for 8 years. After about 6 hours, everyone got fined for lying. A few weeks later, a klebber or witch doctor, came and cleared the village of the “sick”.
I’m not too worried about cyclones anymore. Prophet Fred, another John Frum leader, has prophesied that Tanna will be safe until 2016. I am a little worried about tsunamis though. Lots of earthquakes originating deep in the ocean relatively close to us in the 7.5 range on the Richter Scale. And that volcano on Ambrym has quite a few people worried at present. Seems it is building up for a big bang shortly. Mt. Yasur on Tanna was more active last year than this one, but in the 2 years I’ve been here it’s shape and size have noticeably changed. You did know that Vanuatu was more prone to natural disasters than any other place in the world, didn’t you?
Now for a fun story. A couple of weeks ago I broke a tooth. It was hurting enough that Peace Corps flew me to Vila for a day. It had been raining for most of 2 weeks and the usually dry riverbed by the volcano was a raging black torrent filled with volcanic ash, trees and bushes. Our truck stopped and we were waiting for it to go down enough to cross – maybe 1 or 2 hours. A truck arrived on the other side to pick up the tourist we were carrying, but it too could not cross. One of the men went up stream and found a place he felt we could wade across. Since me and the tourist were on the same plane and didn’t want to miss it, we followed a group of men about half a mile up stream where one of the guides tried to re-cross the river. The current was too strong and he couldn’t. We walked further up stream, got in the water, tried to cross, got out of the water, walked some more. After another unsuccessful attempt, I suggested they look for a place where the river was at its widest because the current would be less strong there. They found one, tried it and then carried our bags across. The water came up to their thighs. By the time we started to cross the water was over our waists and it took 2 men for each of us to make any headway across. We went downstream about as far as we crossed. We were soaked with black ashy water, but on the other side. We climbed into the truck and off we went. It was raining so hard by then that the road too was flooded with about 6 to 8 inches of water – for the entire hour drive into Lenakel. We had about 10 minutes and went into a toilet, stripped, rinsed our clothes out in the sink, re-dressed with clean, but wet clothes from our bags and made it to the airport about half an hour to spare. I met a wonderful new friend, Ruth, and we both agreed that without each other neither of us would have attempted the crossing. It was scary but fun!!
That’s it for now. If you read this, send me some of your stories. What’s happening in your life?
The Women’s Center Project is going well. The new building is under construction. The village is adapting to building 2 buildings at the same time: the women’s center and a new dispensary. This is not easy and many would like to work on only one of them until it is done and then start on the next one. I don’t blame them either. It takes about 10 days for 25 people to carry enough sand and coral from the beach to pour the footings and floor for the dispensary alone. They use empty 25kg rice bags and the beach is about half a mile away.
The Windmill Project is still delayed waiting for the windmill tower to be fabricated. The local contractor has had very poor luck with fabricators and is now working with the 5th. The hope is that it will be finished and arrive here in May. This has been a major source of frustration for me because the project was funded and the money disbursed in June last year. And one of the donors is unhappy enough that they are threatening to ask for their money back. And I can’t do a damn thing. And there are a lot of people and projects depending on the power it will generate. Enough said?
I’m excited about a water and sanitation project the community is developing. I’ve been in a stalemate with them for along time over “my big project”. They kept asking me what I was going to do and I kept asking them what they wanted me to do. In January we had that discussion again. This time I put 5 boxes in front of them, each one representing a different project that I had heard some of them talk about at various times. If I was going to stay another year, what did they want? They told me!!!! Yay! Now the Water Committee is starting to develop the project scope and gone to the 5 nakamals representing 6 villages and obtained their support. The most exciting part is they are doing it.
I recently did an adolescent reproductive health workshop (sex education) for a group of youngfala boys. BIG step for me, a woman, to teach something like this to a group of males. They told me it was okay because I am an oldfala. Lots of very interesting questions, like “is it true that if a young man sleeps with an older woman, she will poison his blood?” I am now the major condom supplier to the village.
When I go back next week, I plan on doing some movie nights using videos created by Wan Smol Bag. WSB is dedicated to teaching about the environment, health, domestic violence, tourism, voting rights and other things through workshops, plays, peer educators, books and videos. A lot of their materials are aimed at young people.
So, work life is good. My guitar playing is coming along and I’m toughening up my fingers. Some of the guys are teaching me to play chords and picking and I hope to learn enough to play one of the John Frum songs with them. February 15 is the yearly anniversary of John Frum. I joined people from my village to watch the flag raising, marching and kastom dancing. Chief Isaac lifted up a new paramount chief and it was a woman! A woman born in Vanuatu to Asian parents. Me and Nate, another volunteer, talked with her and learned Isaac felt it was time for a change and after observing the changes in the world over the last 28 years, it was time to bring a woman into power. There are a lot of mixed feelings about this, only some of which are related to her being a woman. Some people are concerned because of her political connections. Others because of her financial motivations. Which stories are true? How will it turn out? Maybe that is part of why I’m staying – I want to know the end of the story.
Port recently received a shipping container of donated items from a Seven Day Adventist (SDA) organization. Lots of bicycles arrived along with carpet, couches, clothes and toys. After taking a look around I walked back to the village and came upon Wilson carrying his oldest son who is maybe 5 years old. He was sobbing his heart out. He wanted a bicycle so much, but didn’t get one. All of them were old, some in better shape than others. They’re getting a lot of mileage too, but flats are a problem and some of the chains are starting to slip and no one knows how to repair them.
You know you have been inVanuatu too long when you have learned how mother hens wean their chicks from their side.
Snippets:
· I ate my first turtle and my first flying fox (BIG bat) last month .
· A new fishing boat now catches fresh tuna and pouillet every few days and I can buy 1kg for $4.
· Bella, Pilot’s pig, is black like Tusker, chases chickens like Tusker, sleeps with the cats like Tusker, digs holes next to the house like Tusker, lays down and asks for its belly to be rubbed like Tusker.
· Nathan came for an unannounced visit – he walked 19 hours straight around the outside of the island and I found him sleeping in my house when I came back from the garden.
· Manuapin started a mama’s market and it is making about 4 times the money made by my village’s market. They tell me it was my idea. I think all I did was ask them where they went to market and where people from the South went to market and didn’t the people from the South have to go through their village to get to the nearest market. Now they want a women’s center too.
· The owner of the truck made a big “thank you for your support” lafete for the village and his boat caught a lot of fish, including a 50kg shark. Too bad the shark is their totem and they couldn’t eat any of it.
· My toilet fell down on Christmas day. I had a new one 3 days later. I have never ever gotten any kind of work done that fast in the village before.
· My host brother, Samson, went to New Zealand for 7 months to pick kiwi and apples. I miss his company and he took care of all those little things: cutting branches off trees, security for those difficult walks, fixing my house, storian over kava, putting up new roofs, finishing off leftovers, clearing bananas…..
· A woman friend came to see me one night because she had just learned her husband was living with another woman in Vila and wanted my help.
· A man asked me to help him write a resignation letter from a community development committee. He is the recognized head of one of the 5 families on the committee. It is a secret and why he resigned is a secret. Officially, I know nothing.
· A developer asked my help in finding someone he could trust to run his development in the Port area and identifying alternative energy constraints. Officially, I know nothing.
I’m learning local language and can do some basic sentences. It helps when I sit with the mamas and try to say something and they all laugh at me. No really, it helps. They don’t think I’m so scary when we laugh and they’ll help me say something right and then teach me more.
Chief Ronnie died at the end of January. He was a very sweet hold man and not just because I kept him supplied in chocolate. The nakamal had a big meeting with people from all over southeast Tanna because people believed someone was making magic that killed him and Chief Tobay last year. Old man Sarowe accused Ronnie’s son, Johnson. Johnson accused Sarowe. Yata accused a man who has been dead for 8 years. After about 6 hours, everyone got fined for lying. A few weeks later, a klebber or witch doctor, came and cleared the village of the “sick”.
I’m not too worried about cyclones anymore. Prophet Fred, another John Frum leader, has prophesied that Tanna will be safe until 2016. I am a little worried about tsunamis though. Lots of earthquakes originating deep in the ocean relatively close to us in the 7.5 range on the Richter Scale. And that volcano on Ambrym has quite a few people worried at present. Seems it is building up for a big bang shortly. Mt. Yasur on Tanna was more active last year than this one, but in the 2 years I’ve been here it’s shape and size have noticeably changed. You did know that Vanuatu was more prone to natural disasters than any other place in the world, didn’t you?
Now for a fun story. A couple of weeks ago I broke a tooth. It was hurting enough that Peace Corps flew me to Vila for a day. It had been raining for most of 2 weeks and the usually dry riverbed by the volcano was a raging black torrent filled with volcanic ash, trees and bushes. Our truck stopped and we were waiting for it to go down enough to cross – maybe 1 or 2 hours. A truck arrived on the other side to pick up the tourist we were carrying, but it too could not cross. One of the men went up stream and found a place he felt we could wade across. Since me and the tourist were on the same plane and didn’t want to miss it, we followed a group of men about half a mile up stream where one of the guides tried to re-cross the river. The current was too strong and he couldn’t. We walked further up stream, got in the water, tried to cross, got out of the water, walked some more. After another unsuccessful attempt, I suggested they look for a place where the river was at its widest because the current would be less strong there. They found one, tried it and then carried our bags across. The water came up to their thighs. By the time we started to cross the water was over our waists and it took 2 men for each of us to make any headway across. We went downstream about as far as we crossed. We were soaked with black ashy water, but on the other side. We climbed into the truck and off we went. It was raining so hard by then that the road too was flooded with about 6 to 8 inches of water – for the entire hour drive into Lenakel. We had about 10 minutes and went into a toilet, stripped, rinsed our clothes out in the sink, re-dressed with clean, but wet clothes from our bags and made it to the airport about half an hour to spare. I met a wonderful new friend, Ruth, and we both agreed that without each other neither of us would have attempted the crossing. It was scary but fun!!
That’s it for now. If you read this, send me some of your stories. What’s happening in your life?
1 comments:
We're awesome! :D I'm so glad we made it across that river without killing ourselves!
Stay safe, and I hope that volcano behaves itself!
~R
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