Thursday, September 30, 2010

A Yummy Meal and My Toothbrush Rap Girls


Some more




Kastom Ceremony Pics





Kastom Ceremony



The months of August and September here on Tanna are busy months for those families involved in kastom ceremonies. My host family was one of those families this year. My nephew, Ishmael's 5 years old and attends a French Catholic Mission school but has been absent for 2 months now. Two months ago he said goodbye to his mother and other women in the family and was led to the nakamal by the men of the family. Several things happened during these 2 months, including circumcision, some healing,and a new bond between all the boys at the nakamal. They will be like brothers from now on. Every afternoon around 4 o'clock the conch shell is blown by one of my brothers and the boys and men go swim (bathe) in the ocean together. The conch shell is to inform the women that their swim time is finished and they must stay clear of the path leading to the solwota (I found this out the hard way, no explanation needed). The boys spend 2 months naked eating, bathing, and sleeping at the nakamal with the men of the family. This time is followed by a large celebration known as the Coming-Out Ceremony.

On the first day the women peel the skins off the root crops and get ready for the big kakae (food). the next day is dedicated to laplap making...which I will someday show detailed pics of that process. That night the women danced in one place and then men danced at the nakamal while burning a certain type of wood. The third day is the big day! The families get all dressed up in grass skirts, face paint, tinsel, calico and so on. The baskets, mats (which have been made by the women over the past two months), pigs, kava, laplap, calico, and so on are put into piles according to families in the nakamal. The ceremony involves killing pigs and cows with huge wooden bats, the boys coming out and walking around the piles of gifts a few times, some kastom dancing and some tears from the mamas.

I realize my description isn't very detailed but I hope these pictures will help.

Highlights


August 16, 2010

1. I thought I’d experienced it all when it came to smol haoses: missing the hole, rats crawling on the walls, huge hairy spiders, almost losing a flip flop, falling on my ass when my legs gave out (terrible case of the runs)…well today topped all of those by a million. As I assumed the squatting position and began relieving my bladder, something suddenly flew up from the long drop. I jumped back, pulled up my pants, opened the door for some light…and sure enough a poor little chick had somehow fallen in my long drop. I’m not entirely sure what attracted it to such a horrid and fowl smelling place to start with…but with no means of a rescue, the poor little chick stopped squawking within minutes. It probably died of intoxication, poor thing. I never thought my excrement would cause the death of a chick…Rest In Peace.
2. Cooking grits on a fire is quite a challenge. I do not recommend trying this at home (or anywhere for that matter). “Simmer on low heat,” let me just turn my fire down to low heat. I enjoyed eating them, thanks mom and Andi.
3. A few days ago, I was sitting with my neighbors just chatting about this and that. We started talking about having children and I asked them if they wanted anymore (they are in their early 30s with 3 kids). The conversation then turned to me having children and I said I had fulap time. They then asked me if I could have a baby when I got back to the US and send it to them. I agreed jokingly but they were convinced. They said I should just “friend” a Man Tanna here and give them that baby. Still not convinced, the husband offered to go find someone and I could just make a baby today! Wow. I politely declined the offer.
4. I had a sleepover with two of my year 5 girls Friday night. They came carrying island kabij and peanuts. We watched High School Musical, ate some lollis, made pancakes and hot chocolate, made bracelets, and did some weeding. Can imagine 12 year old girls in the U.S at a sleepover begging to weed your yard? We had a blast.
5. Buying a huge cartoon of milk and sharing it with the other PCV as our calcium for the month. We had to chug it before leaving the store or else it would go bad.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Medical Encumbrance

To make a long story short I have 3 to 4 small kidney stones in both kidneys. I have been chugging water and taking pain meds (wow thanks peace corps for the ibuprofen...it really helps). I went to the hospital today to get an ultrasound and xray to see the number and size of these things. Now I have had my share of xrays and know what a typical xray is like in the United States. I walked in fully clothed and was immediately told to stand against the board. He took the picture and then said I was done. He never asked me to empty my coins from my pockets, or mentioned my buttons on my pants or anything like that. On the way out the Peace Corps Doc and I picked up the xray and took a look. The picture cut off my kidneys and only showed my spine....go Vila Hospital!

A Murderer and a Seat Buddy

(If you are a child or under the age of 13 maturity wise please do not read this story as it might make you hurl)

A few days ago an interesting event happened on the beautiful island of Tanna. Maybe I should preface this story by saying that land disputes are quite common in Vanuatu. Most disputes in fact are related to land ownership. This story started out just like any other story...2 men fighting over who owned the land. But this wasn't just any land. This land has quite a few bee hives on it and brings in a bit of money through marketing the honey. These two men argued for several days over who owned the honey and who should win the money. It just became too much for one of the men so he decided to pick up his bush knife and go at it the hard way. He started by carving on the man's face and then moved to his hands. He cut both of his hands off. Just because that wasn't enough punishment he decided to strike one last time...and chopped the man's head off...and tossed it. The last part about the tossing is extremely important here according to most Ni-Vans (I don't know why..I guess chopping the nasty bloody head off and watching it fall to the ground isn't good enough so he had to get his hands even dirtier and pick it up and throw it...

I had to come to Vila for a medical encumbrance (thank you thesaurus.com)
yesterday. Just before boarding the plane I noticed a man in zip twisty hand cuffs (Vanuatu can't afford the real deal) being led to the plane with a police officer. I asked the ladies next to me who that was...they asked if I had heard the story of the murderer because that was him. I realize that on a large airplane these things wouldn't matter much but on a 15 passenger flight...well let's just say that you get to know each other's smells quite quickly. And our little murderer friend was sitting in the seat in front of me. I never thought I would be seat buddies with someone who decapitated a man. Only in Vanuatu.