Monday, April 4, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
April 1, 2011
Lamkail’s Little Readers
Happy April Fool’s Day Everyone! My April fool’s joke was that I fell down my longdrop….it really is one of my biggest fears. I’m sure you guys have seen that part in Slumdog Millionaire where the kid is stuck in the longdrop and can’t get out….that just haunts me.
Anyway I just wanted to update everyone on my library progress. I have successfully received 23 boxes of primary level books from my church back home!!! They only took about a month to arrive and the fact that they all made it is a miracle. The best part however is that I managed to get a couple of free rides to my school and didn’t end up paying much on transportation at this end.
Happy April Fool’s Day Everyone! My April fool’s joke was that I fell down my longdrop….it really is one of my biggest fears. I’m sure you guys have seen that part in Slumdog Millionaire where the kid is stuck in the longdrop and can’t get out….that just haunts me.
Anyway I just wanted to update everyone on my library progress. I have successfully received 23 boxes of primary level books from my church back home!!! They only took about a month to arrive and the fact that they all made it is a miracle. The best part however is that I managed to get a couple of free rides to my school and didn’t end up paying much on transportation at this end.
March 30th, 2011
Digicel I No Tuf Tumas
Digicel is one of two cell phone companies in this beautiful Country of Vanuatu. I learned yesterday that it is actually an Irish Company based somewhere in the Caribbean (I think) and is overtaking the South Pacific at a speed that no other cell phone service provider has been able to match. My phone service has been quite limited at my house this past year as Lamkail School is far from any Digicel tower here on Tanna. But this shall be no longer….I spent a weekend away from site and came back to find that about 26 paces from my front door and about 5 from the school gate was the beginning of a Digicel tower. Now I am no environmentalist nor do I know much about these towers and their effects on their surroundings but I do know that I have never seen a tower built so close to a village (let alone a school). I mean this thing is literally in someone’s backyard (if there was such a thing as backyards here).
As weeks passed more and more men started showing up to work on this ugly looking thing. Every time I walked to my host family’s house or to town I had the luxury of walking by about 30 young men who were not ashamed to tell me how they felt about me walking by…awo Man Tanna. On the bright side, this tower project became quite the entertainment for my neighbors. Instead of coming home and turning on the television, we finished school and set mats outside to watch how “island construction” is done. I don’t think I had ever seen a man shimmy up a tower like it is a coconut tree. I had also never seen this intricate system of ropes and trucks and part of a crane to get the parts to the top. Talk about prime time television here! I’ll try to post a few pictures next time so you can see folks enjoying watching this whole affair.
Here are the pics:
Digicel is one of two cell phone companies in this beautiful Country of Vanuatu. I learned yesterday that it is actually an Irish Company based somewhere in the Caribbean (I think) and is overtaking the South Pacific at a speed that no other cell phone service provider has been able to match. My phone service has been quite limited at my house this past year as Lamkail School is far from any Digicel tower here on Tanna. But this shall be no longer….I spent a weekend away from site and came back to find that about 26 paces from my front door and about 5 from the school gate was the beginning of a Digicel tower. Now I am no environmentalist nor do I know much about these towers and their effects on their surroundings but I do know that I have never seen a tower built so close to a village (let alone a school). I mean this thing is literally in someone’s backyard (if there was such a thing as backyards here).
As weeks passed more and more men started showing up to work on this ugly looking thing. Every time I walked to my host family’s house or to town I had the luxury of walking by about 30 young men who were not ashamed to tell me how they felt about me walking by…awo Man Tanna. On the bright side, this tower project became quite the entertainment for my neighbors. Instead of coming home and turning on the television, we finished school and set mats outside to watch how “island construction” is done. I don’t think I had ever seen a man shimmy up a tower like it is a coconut tree. I had also never seen this intricate system of ropes and trucks and part of a crane to get the parts to the top. Talk about prime time television here! I’ll try to post a few pictures next time so you can see folks enjoying watching this whole affair.
Here are the pics:
Thursday, March 24, 2011
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
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 papersOn 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
Friday, February 25, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
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.
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.
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