March stories

March 1, 2011
A Father and a Healer

I’ve gotten pretty used to my host dad’s lectures, usually about marrying a ManTanna and staying here forever or about how the US is good and Vanuatu is bad. On Sunday afternoon, I was feeling bad about skipping church so decided to pay him a visit. He was lying on a mat in his front yard wearing only a piece of calico around his waist (the usual). He asked me what kind of sick I had last year that made me go all the way to Australia. I explained what kidney stones were and how Peace Corps has rules about certain illnesses. He then went on a 20 minute lecture about how he is the best doctor on Tanna. Not the kind of doctor that puts poison and bad chemicals in your body and uses machines like in the US. He is a doctor sent straight from God and heals by using natural things that God sent to us. And this kind of doctor is the only good kind of doctor. He ended by demanding that next time I’m sick, I must only come to him.


March 12, 2011
Tsunami Scare

Yesterday, after shopping a bit in town, a PCV and I went to charge our electronics and sleep at another PCV’s house. She is currently in New Zealand but left me the key for charging purposes since she is the only one out of the three of us with power. After watching some Modern Family and scoring some meat at the market across the street my friend’s phone rang. I found my phone and saw I had missed a voicemail. When I heard my sister’s voice I immediately got worried as the family only calls when there is an emergency. In the voicemail, my sister said that an 8.9 earthquake had just devastated Japan followed by a tsunami and the entire South Pacific was on red alert. My friend and I immediately called our Safety and Security officer in the capital who confirmed this information. She told us to get to higher ground before midnight as that was the projected time of the tsunami. I walked across the street to the store to start spreading the news of the tsunami to the locals. Luckily I ran into a truck driver who was headed to a boxing match on the beach but decided he could take us up the hill. The other men headed to the beach spread the word quickly on their walk. My friend and I grabbed our belongings and jumped in the truck. We stopped on the way to inform another PCV and pick her up. On our way we passed the meteo truck that was driving along the coast yelling the news over his megaphone. On our way up the hill, the truck driver’s phone ran constantly as other folks were needing a taxi to higher ground. If we hadn’t gotten that ten minute head start thanks to my sister’s call I don’t think we would have found an available taxi driver. Just being on that hill away from the solwota I felt relieved and safe. I said some pretty intense prayers before going to sleep. Thankfully we were spared this time but I am afraid since nothing happened that folks will take it less seriously next time.


March 20th, 2011

What a crazy week! I’m completely exhausted and tomorrow is Monday…A PCV whom I visited in January came to Tanna to visit for a week. I met her at the airport on Monday morning and we got a truck to my school. We took a short walkabout the school and the neighboring village and I showed her the hotspots (like the water pump). We had dinner and storied with my neighbor for a bit before turning in. Students presenting their papers

On Tuesday, we went to each classroom and did a toktok on diarrhea, how it spreads, and how to prevent it. Then each class did drawings of ways to prevent diarrhea and the best drawings got an award. The students really enjoyed this as it involved lots of hilarious pictures (like of men relieving themselves in the gardens). A neighboring PCV came over in the afternoon and we made manioc tortillas with rice, beans, and avocado for lunch (tortillas over a fire take forever).

On Wednesday morning we ventured over to Black Man Town, as they call it here, for some shopping and lunch. We met the two male PCV’s for lunch and planned to reunite at my school in the evening. The guys agreed to help with a health talk we were planning for Thursday. We made our way back to school and started preparing a big meal for the guys. Just as we were finishing up, my phone rang and the guys said they were at a Nakamal taking kava for a bit. Instead of getting annoyed, my friend and I realized that this is probably how every local female feels each night her man goes to the Nakamal. Our wait was worth it however as the boys arrived with sausages and fish…..like a Christmas meal! After strorying and a delicious meal which we flattened, the boys slept next door in an empty house (in order to remain culturally appropriate).

The next morning we did 2 reproductive health/ knowing your body toktoks with classes 5 and 6. The two guys took the boys down to the solwota and my friend and I brought the girls up to my house. We taught them about sikmoon (their period) and how reproduction works. At the end of the talk we passed our papers and pens for the girls to write down questions they were scared to ask out loud. I was amazed at how these girls didn’t know about their own body and about how much they did know when it comes to sex. This kind of health is not in any curriculum books in this country and teachers are scared to discuss it in class. It is also taboo to talk about these things at home so most of the students were hearing it for the first and last time.

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day we made avocado manioc pancakes…and then had stomach aches. My PCV friend painted a sign on the library door and helped make another one to go inside the library. Then we hauled some coral to put around my house and swam. We of course made the mandatory trip to the volcano.
Truck to volcano

At Mt. Yasur

February stories

February 11, 2011

Pregnancy in Vanuatu isn’t like pregnancy in the USA. You don’t call your friends and family and announce the big news. Instead you wear your biggest island dresses and cover it up as long as possible. And even when you start showing, no one will talk about it in public or say anything on the subject. My neighbor and favorite teacher had a huge belly when I got back from holiday. She failed to mention her pregnancy all the times we chatted on the phone…style blong olgeta. Yesterday after sitting through our school teacher meeting, she took her bamboo stick and fished out on the reef for a few hours. Shortly after, a truck nonchalantly showed up and drove her to the hospital where she gave birth instantly to a little girl. Women here don’t spend hours in labor. They don’t spend days lying around and ordering their husbands around the house. The Canadian doctor at the hospital confirmed that most Ni-Vanuatu women pop out their babies without signs of pain in 10 to 15 minutes. Can you imagine?

The best part of the story however is what happened when the baby and mother arrived home. Most women take several weeks to name their new born child. It is kastom for others to come give names to the baby and the family then decides which is best. Following kastom, I offered up the name Eloisa after my newest niece born last September. A few weeks went by and I hadn’t heard a name yet so I went to ask. My neighbor told me that the baby not only was given the name Hali but also Eloisa. They combined the two to make Heloisa. Another one of their family members had a baby the next day on Santo and also named her little girl Heloisa. I now am proud to say that I have a “Namesake”!

February 7th, 2011
Under the Sea

Tonight I decided to take a break from Ratsville and get a full nights rest at my fellow PCV’s house. Sunday morning she went on her usual run down the beach but instead of her usual cat calls she got stopped on the road. A yangfala sang out her name and handed her a huge flying fish that he had caught that morning. While to most this fish might just look like lunch meat, it was probably more of an engagement offer. I showed my friend how to scale and gut the fish (that’s right…because I am now an expert) and we had ourselves a little fish fry. Let’s just hope that this young man doesn’t show up later expecting her hand in return.

As dinner time crept up on us we realized our food supply was a bit limited. So I went on a little walkabout around the village. Families are always generous with their root crops and laplap. Not expecting much on a Sunday afternoon, I went to visit one of my teachers from last year. We storied for a while and then she asked what dinner looked like. I told her honestly that I wasn’t sure yet. She jumped to her feet and grabbed some dishes and calico. We walked down to a few mamas who were having a fundraiser for school fees for their kids. One of the mamas piled a plate high with root crops and fish soup. The next mama whips out a huge lobster from her saucepan and throws it on top of the pile. Talk about ask and you shall receive. I proudly walked back with my incredible find and we devoured the lobster in record time. A day of sincere generosity!

February 4th, 2011
I came back to Tanna with a particularly bad case of the runs. Now I used to think they called it the “runs” because it ran out of your body . . . but now I think it’s because once you hear that grumble in your stomach, you better run. Unfortunately cyclone Vania did quite a number on my back yard area and a large coconut tree is now blocking my smol haos. Needless to say my “runs” to the smol haos have been pretty comic. To make matters a bit worse, at night I not only fell on the way to the smol haos, I also chased three rats. This was seriously straight out of some British slap stick comedy show. Please take a moment to picture this scene: me chasing 3 rats with a wimpy broom in and out of my room…all of the sudden my stomach grumbles…drop the broom, forget the rats, and run to the smol haos…trip and fall, run back to the house, grab the broom and start chasing again…and so on until 4:30 AM when I surrendered. And the worst part is that I didn’t even have any food in my house so the rats were clearly just after me. Welkam bak Hali!

Stories I Never Posted

Lina’s Birthday!

Lina is a fifth grade student at my school. Her mother has been teaching kindergarten for over 15 years now. They live in one of the smallest kastom houses I have ever seen. They don’t have a kitchen but cook right outside their one room hut. Lina’s father is a fisherman and used to bring some money by selling his catch of the day. Last year, he was sent to prison for raping three young girls…his daughter was one of them. Lina doesn’t spend much time with the other kids at school because she is always doing house work. She is a wonderful student and really cares about her studies. On several occasions she has come to ask me for help with her homework.

One day I was teaching Lina’s mother some kindergarten songs and she started talking about Lina. She told me her birthday was coming up soon but that she didn’t have any flour to bake a cake. I told her that on Saturday evening I would prepare a cake if she made a meal. I invited my neighbors on both sides to Lina’s party but neither family showed up. I made her a banana cake and a bracelet. Then she opened her toothbrush and toothpaste that I had wrapped in newspaper. I wasn’t sure what her reaction was going to be…I mean what kid wants that for their birthday. A few days earlier, after noticing her rotting teeth, I had asked her if she ever brushed her teeth. She told me she had never done it before. When she opened it, she seemed pretty excited but I couldn’t tell if she was just being polite.

The next morning I woke up to Lina knocking on my door around 5ish. She had her toothpaste and toothbrush in hand and wanted me to show her how to do it. So we brushed our teeth together. I guess she really did like her gifts.

Lamen Airport Pictures

Oh traveling adventures just keep getting better and better. We canoed from Lamen to Epi...my arms are still sore. I thought I had already been on the smallest plane possible but then I saw this one land. A four passenger plane with only one pilot. Wow. The pilot actually had to rev up the propellors before taking off. The winds were so strong that we landed completely off the runway. I was so terrified at one point that I grabbed the hand of the lady behind me. She was just as scared as I was so we squeezed each others hand until we hit the ground. I don't think I will ever get over my flying anxiety...especially not as long as I live here.

Lamen Island Highlights

We were extremely productive during my week on Lamen. Besides hanging out with the locals and eating a ton of island food we did a few little experiments as well. We made soap with some mamas by mixing lye, water, coconut oil, and bit of lavender. We made 6 bars in coconut shell molds. The only hard part about this process is that you have to wait 6 weeks before using the soap on your skin (lye is a pretty potent chemical). I'm going to take the materials back to Tanna with me and hopefully do a soap making workshop with the mamas in my village. While ManTanna swims (showers) everyday and sometimes even twice a day, soap isn't often used. So this project is really great for the island mamas.


My friend and I also made chocolate! Some kids helped suck the cacao seed off the fruit....and probably all got sick afterwards. The cacao seeds then dried on the roof of the swim haos for 8 days. We made a kranki contraption with a milk tin and a piece of iron to roast the cacao over the fire. Once it cooled we took the skin off each seed and then crushed them up into powder. Finally we mixed in a little powdered milk and sugar and drank some delicious chocolate milk. We were wired that night. I also hope to do this with some of my students on Tanna.

Lamen Island Adventures

After waiting a week for cyclone Vania to pass, my PCV friend and I were finally given the okay to go to her site by plane (original plan was to take a little passenger boat). We boarded another small plane which landed on Ambryn firstaem and then proceeded to Epi. The landing on Ambryn was pretty rough....let's just say we swayed back and forth through trees before hitting the grass runway. We landed on Epi and scouted out a boat to take to Lamen Island.

The solwota was still really rough when we arrived and we got drenched on the ride over. It was pretty amusing however since we were on a boat with some chiefs...we all laughed at how wet we were getting.

Lamen Island is a small island of about 1 km in diameter and a population of 500. It is surrounded by bigger islands which protects it from tsunamis and cyclones. The people on Lamen take canoes to Epi to tend to their gardens. They spend most of their days making mats, laplap, and keeping the island clean and polished.

The island was so well groomed I felt like I was walking into a movie set. Apparently everyone rakes the road and around their house on Saturday...which explains why it was so clean. Everyone pretty much lives on top of each other as you can imagine with a population of 500 in such a small area.

Quick Sydney Trip

Headed to a small island off of Epi with a PCV on Monday. Pics and stories to come! Happy New Year to everyone!