Archive for July, 2006

Woman Lelepa
After another delay after my last post I finally made it to site and am ‘woman Lelepa’ officially.
The arrival back was a little anti-climatic. I think after so many days where I was supposed to be coming people just ended up giving up and not believing that I was actually coming. I did have a little welcome meeting though with the council of chiefs. The assistant chief gave me rights to live and work on Lelepa and to become a part of the community.
Probobly the most exciting day of the week was this past Sunday – we celebrated Children’s Day in church. Children’s Day – which was actually Monday – is a national holiday in Vanuautu – all offices are closed to celebrate. All the parents of group 4 – a little section of our Church – decided to celebrate Children’s Day they would make all of their kids matching island dresses and island shirts – this time instead of green we had a bright orange calico – and instead of being with a bunch of other peace corps volunteers it was me and a bunch of ni-Van kids. In celebration all of us group 4 kids got up in front of Church and sang a song to our parents about how they should take care of us and teach us like Papa God takes care of us and teaches us. After we all went and had a kakae (food) at one of the families house. A kakae in Vanuatu has a very specific order in how things happen. First, island time – people just slowly trickle in – if it starts at two o’clock everyone might trickle in by 3-ish. Once everyone arrives and the men settle down on the benches on one side and the women and kids settle down on the mats on the other side the ceremony begins. First, who ever organizes the kakae gives a small toktok (talk) thanks everyone for coming, for preparing food, and sometimes gives a little history about the day. After he invites someone to grace the food. After that the organizer calls on one or two people to start the food line. We eat. Once that is done it is time for toktoks back again. Slowly different people stand up and tell stories or sing songs. Usually at least one person from each group represented has to give a toktok. It’s slow going at first but soon everyone is giving a toktok. After that and everyone has storiond finish, the organizer stands up once again. Usually picks someone to lead us in a worship song or two. Offers a final closing prayer and than gives final thanks. The whole process lasts a few hours. It’s fun and it makes any occassion feel like a special ordeal.
Well life is good. The pictures on top – the first is of my two new puppy dogs. The brown/white one is Pie and the black one is Ruth. The are 4 weeks old and a handful – a little young to be away from their mom, but their mom ate a poison fish and died so now I am bringing them up. They are adorable and are a good distraction on the island. The second picture I just took this morning while I was waiting for the boat driver to show up and take us over to the mainland to come back to Vila today. July 30 is Vanuatu Independence Day. I am in to see the celebrations. I think it will be exciting to hear about Independence and see a celebration where most people remember the time where France and Britain were the ruling powers under their joint condominium (Vanuatu just got independence in 1980).
Well that’s all for now. I miss you all — keep writing!!!

So it’s official, tomorrow I am heading back to site or actually off to site for the first time as an official Peace Corps volunteer. Lelepa is a small island of about 150 acres. There is one community on the island and in total it takes about 3.5 hours to circumnavigate it. In World War II American troops were stationed here. There is still a lot of evidence of their prescence around the island. We have a plane crash – brought down by friendly fire, some anchors used for securing a large underwater net to block submarines from entering the harbor, lots of old coke bottles from the 40’s (a huge tourist item), and concrete blocks for holding the guns. Another little interesting tidbit about Lelepa is that it is where Survivor Vanuatu was filmed. The actual camps for Survivor were on Efate, the main island, but they used our sand beach as the locations for all of the challenges that they did. It is definately going to be an interesting place to live for the next two years with lots of beautiful places to explore and reefs to snorkel.

The whole work assignment is still a little piecemeal and pretty much they just want to get me out of the city. I am happy to oblige. I spent the first week here buying all of the stuff that I will need to fill a house. The second week I spent getting SCUBA certified (which is one of the most fun, amazing things I have been able to do), and now I am ready to head back out to islands and wash the city air off of me. I am homeless, but I get to move back in with my host family and help construct my own house, which should be really interesting — this is where Habitat will come in handy. As far as work I have a bunch of little projects that will be going on between my island of Lelepa, a community on the mainland called Mangililu, and another island between the two called Eratoka or Hat Island.
-My main responsibility will be helping the island start monitoring the reef and developing a coastal management plan.
-I will also be helping create a general water use mangement plan – one of the challenges of Lelepa is that there is no fresh water source on the island. All of water is either rain water or we paddle over the mainland and fill up bottles at a water source over there.
- I may also be involved in a large fisheries project that may hopefully be starting up soon, but I am not too sure yet what this involves.
-I will also be helping with a project that another volunteer has already started and is working on. The area that I live in is in the process of being nominated to become a UNESCO World Heritage Area due to its historical significance. Eratoka or Hat Island is home to the only mass burial grave is the South Pacific. It is the grave of a famous chief Roy Mata who is known for bringing peace to Vanuatu and creating a totem system. (In this totem system I am a yam)
- Finally I will be doing projects with the Mamas and the kids of Lelepa too.
So apparently I will be busy, but all of this may or may not happen and that is where the Peace Corps flexibility will come in. I am ready to get started though and see what comes of it.
To steal from ACT, my little mantra for the next two years will be “It’s all a part of the challenge.”

These are pictures from our swearing-in ceremony.

Well it’s official. I am now a tried and true, sworn-in Peace Corps Volunteer. This past Monday we had our swearing-in ceremony. It is a lot like a graduation but more intimate, a lot shorter, and instead of wearing caps and gowns all the boys had matching calico island dresses and island shirts. After the ceremony we all had a huge island feast with the host families. At the center of our table in true polynesian style (we’re in melanesia) we had a roasted pig, some men went over to the mainland and killed a wild cow (which run rampant over that way), we had plenty different fruits, and than root crops galore (the true island staple). In addition to the aelan kakae (island food) we had a huge bucket of kava. After all the food settled we played in the fashion of the world cup, a USA versus Vanuatu futbol game. The US came out victorious, but I think that at any given time during the game we outnumbered their player 3 to 1. I will say we had one disadvantage (at least the girls)- playing in an island dress is not an easy thing. Sometimes the ball would bounce under my feet and I would lose it in the numerous folds of my island dress. That night we danced the night away to the island fashion music – stringband. This is not a music I can really explain, but let me just say every song sounds the same with variation in words only and maybe a few words thrown in in between. I love dancing to it though A. because everyone in the community loves (at least all the Mamas and pikininis (kids in bislama)) B. because it has one style of dance only C. i can actually dance to it — so it’s good fun.
The day after swearing-in it was time to say good-bye to our families who had welcomed us into the country. It was a tearful morning. We all met on the beach and the whole community lined up to shake our hands or give us hugs. We formed a line and worked our way through everyone shaking hands, crying, and hugging. It was hard. They all stayed on the beach and waved us off.
Little did I know…..
When I came back to Vila (the capital/big city) I would be coming back. Yes, I am no longer battling sharks off the coast of Espritu Santo. Instead I have been reassigned – partly because the tiger shark thing was just a bit of a hurdle to doing coastal resource mangement. When trying to come up with a last minute site the Peace Corps decided why not just go with a place we already know. So I am heading back the place that I called my paradise for the next two years. This Tuesday I am getting my official work assighment, so more on the reassignment later.
Until than I miss you all! Keep writing!!! Especially now – I am in the city for at least another week and Happy 4th of July!!!