I'm back in the U.S.

I had a really really long journey- over 40 hours traveling, but luckily I had no problems. I had no delayed planes (I went on 4) and all my bags made it through. I had 2 10+ hour layovers in Fiji and LA, but I managed to read a lot, walk around the airports, and look in every store. Back home I have done some shopping, eaten good food, and just relaxed. Well, I think that'll be all my updates on the blog, but if you think of anything else you want to know, email me at alyssathiel@gmail.com

Tomorrow at this time I'll be about to arrive in Fiji. Nothing much new. Now I'm officially no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer but I'm still using the Peace Corps computer. And then in a couple days I'll be home!

So I've been in Vila for almost a week now. I've been completing a lot of final Peace Corps work. We have to write up a description of our service, have a language proficiency exam, some medical appointments, meet with the boss, close our bank accounts, all of those fun things. I've also had a chance to hang out with my Peace Corps friends and some of my Futuna family that lives in Vila. There's a new group of Peace Corps Volunteers that arrived in September and are now finishing their training so I've also been spending some time imparting some wisdom on them.

Anyway, the other day I decided to go meet up with some of my Futuna family. I walked just a few blocks over to where they were and I was standing by their truck just talking to them all. All of a sudden I felt really tired and my vision went all spotty and the next thing I knew I woke up to like 20 people around me and asking me if I wanted to go to the hospital. I had no idea why, but they said I had fainted. That had never happened to me, it was so weird. Anyway I felt really hot and sweaty but they said I was cold and my face had gone white. I went to the hospital but they didn't find anything wrong with me. I just rested the whole day and felt better. The next day I went to visit my family again and they told me in Bislama "Yu no mo kiaman ded." Which basically means "Don't pretend to die." I thought that was a funny way of putting it. I guess there's no word for faint in Bislama.

Now I'm just hanging out. We have our Peace Corps Last Kakae (final meal)for the 5 of us that are leaving within the next week. We're just going to get together with the Peace Corps staff and volunteers and anyone else who thinks we're pretty cool. It's sort of a cultural thing in Vanuatu that whenever someone leaves you have to make this last kakae, even if it's not technically their last meal, you still have to make some meal where it's dedicated to them. Tomorrow is the swearing-in ceremony for the new group of Volunteers. The President of Vanuatu will be giving a speech which is pretty special. Next week all of those new volunteers will be going out to their islands.

Oh and also yesterday morning I walked to the supermarket to get some breakfast. It literally took me like 30 minutes to decide, and you know what I wound up with? Cereal and milk. But there were like at least 20 different cereal options. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when i return to the states and there's a whole aisle worth of cereal.

I've posted some photos for you to see:

Me, my sister, and this kid from Australia who came with his family to visit Futuna

One of my classes at school

Peace Corps or Beach Corps?

Me hard at work

Lunch

Yesterday I came to Vila. I left Futuna for the last time (unless I go back to visit some day). The airport agents sent a message that we had to get to the airport early because the plane would come at 8 am. I left my village at 6 in the morning and waited at the airport for a long time. The agent finally got there and said he sent a message that the plane would come at 10, so I guess that got mixed up somewhere. Anyway, 10 o'clock came and went and there was no sign of a plane. But eventually around 12:30 it arrived. When it landed, one of the tires popped perhaps on a sharp stone. Then the plane had a flat tire. They said that we may have to go on it like that, but i did not think that was a good idea. They said "you don't need a wheel to fly a plane" but I reminded them that we would have to land again. Well luckily they called the airline and they sent another plane to Futuna with 2 mechanics and 2 spare tires. They changed both the broken tire and the other back tire because they said it looked like it was going to pop at any time. I'm not sure why they didn't check that when they left the capital, but at least they got it fixed. And then instead of going on the plane whose tires had broke, which would've stopped at 2 other destinations before mine, I got to fly directly to the capital on the mechanics' plane.

Now I'm in the capital until the 7th finishing up all my Peace Corps work. The above photos show the flat tire and them fixing it.

Can you guess the meaning of that phrase written in Bislama? Try to read it phonetically. “Me killem dead one rat.” “I killed a rat”

Lately the rats have taken up residence in my house again. I’m not sure why they like it because I don’t have any food here. I guess they just want the shelter. A couple months ago a Mama rat and a bunch of her babies decided to make a nest inside one of my boxes of stuff. When I finally discovered them, I wasn’t sure what to do. The Mama ran away but the babies were so small they couldn’t run. But then I couldn’t make myself kill them. I just threw them outside and luckily they didn’t come back.

Then last week I awoke all of a sudden to the tell tale noise of a rat running across the floor. I got out of bed and shined my flashlight on it and it would run to another part of my house. It kept running circles around my house as I chased it so basically i was laying flashlight tag with a rat. I positioned myself by the door with the door open and got the rat to go outside. As I was about to go back to sleep, I heard it come inside again. I spent another 30 minutes chasing it and eventually it left and I went back to sleep.

Then a few nights later I heard the rat again. We played some more flashlight tag and it went outside. Even when the rat is frozen, I’m still not sure what to do and I’m scared to kill it. I was back in bed when i heard a crinkling noise right by my bed. It sounded like a rat walking over one of the bags that I store stuff in. I kicked the bag to get the rat to run away, but there was no sign of the rat. When I heard the noise again, I realized it was inside the bag. At this point I felt like I had no choice. I started hitting the bag with the blunt edge of my machete. Eventually I got the rat. It was still wriggling around but I didn’t want to chop it in half because I didn’t want rat guts in my bag. I just stood on it for awhile. Then I emptied all my stuff from the bag, took it outisde, and dumped the rat in the grass. After that I went back to sleep thinking pleasant thoughts of dead rats.

This week at school we are having Reading Promotion Week. The basic idea was that they were going to cancel all other subjects and just focus on reading. However, it didn’t turn out that way at all. I guess like everything in Vanuatu, it didn’t turn out as planned. My main job in this program was to read aloud to all the classes. They want the students to hear fluent English being read. This was actually really enjoyable as the kids would get really excited to hear me read. But for the rest of the day, there seemed to be very little reading involved. There were 10 minutes of silent reading in the morning, but other than that the teachers liked to focus on this section they call “experience with a topic”. Basically they’re supposed to do some hands on activity related to what they are reading. The teachers I think interpreted this time as, let’s let the kids run wild, time. Yesterday one of the classes decided they’d take this time which is supposed to be an hour long and do a traditional bunia or bake. The bunia includes various root crops and any meat available (chicken or bat preferable). Well, needless to say, this activity which began at 9 in the morning went until 2 pm. And the whole time, the students were definitely not speaking English. I wonder if it even related to what they were reading. Anyway, next Monday they’ll do their presentations of what they have learned during the week so it should be quite interesting.

Also next week will be my last week teaching my classes. In 2 weeks from today, I’ll be leaving Futuna and heading to the capital. It still hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m leaving and a lot of these people I may never see again. I think I’m most sad about my 3 year old sister. Like all of the other people I can keep in touch with through letters or email, but my sister who is like my best friend here probably won’t even remember me when she gets older. The good thing about leaving is that I’m trying my hardest to appreciate all these organic root crops that I’m eating. Like whenever we’re having manioc for the umpteenth time that week I just tell myself, that maybe, just maybe, I’ll be thinking about manioc when I go home but I won’t be able to eat it.

Is that the right word to mean all the movements under the earth’s surface? The South Pacific has been a hotbed for underground activity lately. Last week there were the tsunamis and then yesterday we had a massive earthwuake in Vanuatu. It actually occurred on another island far from here and we didn’t even feel it, but after someone heard the news on the radio a few hours later, everyone was in tsunami warning mode. Luckily nothing major happened.

Last weekend I finally got the chance to climb to the top of Futuna. Futuna is shaped like a birthday cake and the very top is just a large plateau at over 600 meters. I’ve been meaning to go up it for awhile now, but when a friend came to visit, I finally went. On the 2 hour hike up, we stopped in a garden to dig up some taro roots. At the top, we cooked them over a fire along with some wild bush crabs. On the top it was really cold and al the flora was different. There was this fern type stuff growing on the outside of all the trees. Also, the rest of the island is very rocky, but up top there were no rocks, just dirt on the ground.

Also when my friend was here, we kept going to the beach which I don’t do often enough. It’s only like a 10 minute walk, and I’ll probably miss it when i’m freezing in New England next month. Anyway, he’d go spear fishing and then we’d cook the fish on the fire along with some bananas and eat them with fresh coconuts. It seemed like we were playing “stranded on a desert island” or something, because we were the only ones at the beach and we were gathering all our own food.

The other day someone built a fire near the telephone line and it broke, but then someone glued it back together. It’s sort of working now, but I think the wires got crossed, because sometimes you can hear other people’s conversations when you pick up the phone.

I’m getting close to leaving and now everyone’s been asking to buy all my stuff. I’ll make a big yard sale soon. When I go home, I plan on just bringing one bag mostly with souvenirs. I’m going to sell most of my clothes and all the other junk I’ve accumulated here. I certainly don’t need to bring 3 buckets home with me!

What have I been doing since my return to Futuna two weeks ago? Don’t get too excited. My absence from my blog has less to do with my “active” life here but really I just haven’t gotten a chance to use a laptop long enough to write an entry.

Well before i left Vila, I’m not sure if I mentioned that I got the chance to greet the incoming Peace Corps Volunteers at the airport. Forty fresh, naïve, excited, anxious, shocked faces arrived at the airport on a beautiful Sunday morning. They’ll have two months of training and then in November will go to their sites.

When I came back to Futuna, I came with a family of Australians. They’re friends of my host dad and were here for a visit. I had such a good time with them playing tour guide. I helped to translate, accompanied them to the beach, played some Scrabble, and walked around the island with them. It was so nice to have people around with whom I could be my sarcastic seld and be completely understood. Vanuatu sense of humor is just different from Western culture, and although I’ve gotten used to the Vanuatu style, it was nice to say whatever I feel. Also it was good practice for when I go back to the U.S. It’s not like I’ve forgotten English, but I feel like I’ve forgotten the sayings and expressions of everyday life. I’m hoping I’ll pick it up fairly quickly.

After the Australians left, I returned to my normal “work” schedule. I’m teaching the same remedial reading groups. The headmaster of the school told me that at the end of last term some of the parents of the students I work with said they’ve seen marked improvement with their children. For the first time, the ids have read at thome to their parents. That made me feel good about my work. I cannot imagine going back to the U.s> and having a “real job”. Here I teach like 2 hours a day, and if I have something else I’d rather do, like go to the airport to see the plane, I can just not go to work. But I think I”ll be glad to be busy again. I’ve had enough free time during the last 2 years.

Nothing much is new. Reading a lot and been playing a card game called 500 with my family most nights. The other night we stayed up until 2:30 am playing and the next day I slept until 8:45 which may be a record for me in Vanuatu. What happened to the old days of sleeping until noon?

2 pictures: One, me riding in a truck to go to a village on the other side of the island of Efate (where the capital is)

Two, in a cave with a big underground lake in it

Some more photos on Facebook

So I’ve been in Vila for a week and a half now. Why haven’t I been online every day? I’m in the big city. Normally when I come to the capital, I spend my days chatting online, devouring pizza, and taking hot showers. This current trip has been a little bit different.

I have a meeting for Peace Corps this week, but I came in early because I had some work to take care of. Also my school was on break, so I didn’t have much to do on the island. When I came, I decided to stay with some extended family of mine who live in a village on the outskirts of Vila. The good thing about Vanuatu is that no matter where you go, you have family. It doesn’t matter if it’s your mother’s uncle’s grand-daughter’s brother-in-law, if you show up that their house, you can stay with them. Anyway, I’m really glad I’ve been able to stay with some of my Futuna family in Vila.

What have I been doing? Well I pretty much lie in bed and watch movies, which has been awesome. Also I read (that’s new huh?). I haven’t been coming in to the office because I’m too lazy and cheap to pay the $1.50 for bus fare. I’ve come in a couple times though and that time I managed to get my ticket to come home. I arrive in the U.S. November 8th, so get ready! Also last week I went with my family to the other side of the island to a small village so that they could collect firewood and hunt for flying foxes (bats). Living near the capital, there’s not many places to collect firewood for cooking and then flying foxes, well that’s just a delicacy. We returned to the house and baked some flying foxes with yam in stones for dinner. Yum.

Now this week we have a conference for Peace Corps. It’s for all the people that I came with when we first came to Vanuatu in 2007. Since we’re all (or most of us at least) are leaving in the next few months, we have a conference to help us to readjust to life in the US. I’m excited because they’ll be putting us up at a nice resort and giving us food and it should be a nice time to reunite with all my Peace Corps friends one last time before we go to the States.

Well that’s all for now. Today I have my Close of Service medical to check me out before I go back and make sure I’m all healthy. I’m going to miss this free medical care when I go back.

I uploaded that last post and it was so quick! I love broadband internet. I decided to try to upload a video too. This is some people from Futuna performing a custom dance at the Tanna Art Festival.

Well I'm in the capital now so as a treat, I've posted a photo from my trip to Tanna. That's at the circumsion ceremony when we're all dressed up in custom clothes.

I'm in Vila now for a couple of weeks. Today I accomplished a lot of the work I had to do so that's good. Normally it takes awhile to get anything done, but today things went fairly smoothly. I even had time to eat a Greek salad for lunch! Yum.

So what's happening in Vanuatu now? We're trying to eradicate measles. That's probably a good idea since last month at least 4 kids in my village got it. They decided in all of Vanuatu they'd vaccinate every child ages 1-5. Then they decided to have Peace Corps Volunteers go and check on the vaccinations to see if every single child in the country get vaccinated. I guess I'm lucky, since I think in total on Futuna, there were less than 70 kids or something vaccinated, but on some of the other islands there's a lot more. Anyway, I had to walk around the island and check to see if the kids got vaccinated or not by the health workers here on the island. Well I found out that lots of kids hadn't been vaccinated because the day of the vaccinations the Mamas were busy with a church workshop. I wrote a note to the health worker who lives in a different village and luckily he returned to vaccinate all the kids. This past weekend I walked around the island to check on the other villages as well and it looks like everyone's been vaccinated so hopefully no more measles. Also while I was on the other side I bought a chicken for $5 and we should be killing it and cooking it up tomorrow for my birthday. That's about it on the what's new front here. We're in our last week of school for this term and on Thursday we are having an Open Day/ Music Day for the parents to come to school and receive the report cards and then for the students to perform some songs and dances. Should be exciting.

-Announcement to all students: You must bring your big knives to school tomorrow. If you forget, you will be punished.

-Instead of having normal classes, all students grades 1-8 will be required to spend 2 hours collecting stones and coral in bags bigger than their bodies and carrying them up the massive hill to the school in order to “beautify” the school. … And the next week, “why are all our students sick?” Maybe because school has turned into a labor camp. The funny thing is the students prefer the hard labor to actual classes.

-What do we do with all these old books that we no longer need? Put them in the toilets for toilet paper.

-Some students don’t have desks or chairs and sit on the floor or on cement blocks. however when it’s time to fundraise, the main priority for the school is a sound system.

-Students in the 10th grade have never seen a dictionary and don’t even know what it’s for. (Now our school just got a supply so they’re learning).

-A prayer group comes to the school to run out the devils that are haunting the school and causing the students to get sick.

-When it rains, some classes go home because the classrooms leak, and others shut all the windows and light candles to continue with their work.

-A teacher doesn’t come to school for a whole week, but their students still sit in their classroom without any supervision.

-The “school aid room” which is a cabinet in the office consists of cotton balls and medicine for Big Leg which is most likely expired.

-Students are suspended from school for helping their friends meet up with a girlfriend or boyfriend.

-Students spend the afternoon weeding the flower beds or cutting the grass with a machete.

-2nd graders take final exams even though they can’t read.

Maybe you’ve been wondering where I’ve been. Well I went on a fun-filled trip to the nearby island of Tanna. Although Tanna is more developed than Futuna, I did not have internet access there. I will try my best to recall the evenets of the last few weeks.

I arrived on Tanna on Saturday July 11th. There are 5 Peace Corps Volunteers on the island who were such a great help in hosting me. Also two other PCVs from another island ame down just to “lukluk ples” (look place or sight see). We spent our first two nights in the village of Port Resolution where we explored the natural hot springs. Some were boiling and we coked bananas in them. Others were the perfect hot tub temperature although whenever a wave came from the ocean it felt a little chilly. We also fot to paint our bodies with multicolred mud- a real spa experience.

After that we went to another village to witness a circumcision ceremony. Eight boys ranging in age from 4-8 years old had been circumcised and then in hiding for over a month. While in hiding the older men of the village looked after them. The ceremony was like their coming out party. Everyone got all dressed up (women in grass skirts and men in pieces of cloth wrapped around their waists) and painted their faces. They shared out tons of food and killed lots of pigs. Then we danced until the sun came up the next morning, and by we, I mean them. I went to sleep around 2 am I think.

After the ceremony we explored other parts of Tanna. We climbed the world’s third largest banyan tree and had an interesting experience bathing in a creek in the middle of the jungle. We also made lots of delicious food over the fire including enchilladas (tortillas from scratch) and pizza.

The next week there was a large arts festival for our province (Tafea) and the indigenous people of New Caledonia (a French territory that neighbors Vanuatu). There were lots of custom dances, concerts, soccer games, and foo. For the opening the Vanuatu military marching band performed the macarena. I love that the highest (and only) military body in the nation has time to do that. Also there were 2 official pig killings during the opening to strengthen the bond between Tafea and New Caledonia. Nothing better than killing a pig. Throughout the week I ate lots of ice cream and hamburgers and also caught giardia- a water borne parasite that makes you “sit sit wota” (shit shit water, try to figure that one out).

The festivities ran until July 30th which is Vanuatu’s Independence Day. 29 years now. I returned to Futuna and now am going to relax and recooperate from all the fun. Tanna was lots of fun but there were tons of people who I didn’t know and it’s nice to be back on an island where everyone knows my name.

I sent a CD of photos home so hopefully my mom'll get a chance to post those on my webshots at: http://community.webshots.com/user/alyssathielpcv/

Someone posted a comment on my Q & A blog about the French language in Vanuatu so I decided a good topic would be on languages in Vanuatu. Also, who are you that posted the comment?

Here the 2 official languages are French and English and the National Language is Bislama. Then there are over 100 local languages and with a population of about 200,000 that makes the most languages per person in any country in the world.

French and English are the official languages, meaning they are used for government purposes. These include school and some government offices, but I’d say mostly Bislama is used in government offices because it is the common language for everyone. When the French and British ran a Condominium government, they set up various schools throughout the country. So now the schools remain using the language in which they were founded. I’m not sure on the actual figures, but I’d say English is the language in probably two thirds and French in one third of the schools. With that being said, all of the students learn the other official language starting in 4th grade. It’s like a foreign language in the states where it is only taught a couple hours a week to begin with. So at the English schools they have a class called French and at French schools they have a class called Anglais. I think it is way too confusing for the students. Like the students in year 10 here are studying for their national exam in French, but they don’t even have a fluent grasp on English yet. So sometimes the questions will ask for them to translate something in French into English, but they just don’t know the English words.

In general, I find the students that went to French schools have a very good grasp of the language. They tend to use French when speaking to each other. However, at English schools the people are more reluctant to speak English and often just use Bislama.

Bislama is the national language and it began as a Pidjin English but has evolved to its own language. It has influence from French and English. Lots of things sound just like English but with an accent, but other words come from French like “Lafet” means party and comes from the French “La Fete” or “sora” means ear and comes from the French “Les oreils”. Then there are some words that were just created in Vanuatu like the names of plants and animals. Bislama is very simple to learn because there aren’t very many rules in the grammas and once you learn basic sentence structure, it comes quite naturally.

Local languages are very abundant with each island often having many different languages that are still in use today. The local language is a child’s first language, typically. Then they will learn Bislama by hearing visitors from other villages or islands speaking it as well as all national media. When they go to school, starting in 1st grade they will learn French or English and then in 4th grade they will start learning the other language. They have an amazing ability to learn languages. Also, oftentimes they know multiple local languages. Like if you get married and move to a different island, you will most likely learn that island’s local language because that is what all the people speak on a day to day basis.

In terms of the question about how French would help here, that would depend what you were doing. I for one don’t really ever use it. Sometimes I’ll read some French articles in the newspaper (the newspaper contains articles in the 3 main languages). Other times I’ll listen in on the French class, but I don’t really help in that at all because I’m sure the French teacher has a much better grasp on French than I do. I think if you were to come work at a French school, then obviously knowing French would be pretty important. Other than that, I guess French would be used in the tourism industry with tourists from France and New Caledonia (a French territory that neighbours Vanuatu).

Alright, well there’s a bit on languages in Vanuatu.

Everything here is progressing as usual. The flight schedule has now been changed again so we now have 2 flights a week instead of just one. Also we have a new plane coming here that we bought from China. It’s a big one – 16 seater- as opposed to the canoe or tin can that held about 8 people (if they didn’t have any bag). Also there’s talk going around that the Prime Minister is going to come to our island to visit, but the water was rough so the ship couldn’t run. Maybe next week. He would be coming just to do an official visit, but he actually comes from Futuna too so it is a pretty big deal.

In other news, I am craving salty French fries and mozzerella sticks with tomato sauce and maybe also some pizza. Do you think Dominoes would deliver?

I realized that there’s lots of basic day to day things that I do here that I never talk about. I’ve decided to answer some basic questions. If you have any more questions, send them to me because they make good blog topics.

How do you go online or even use a computer?

True, there’s no electricity here on Futuna. In Vanuatu there’s only one power company and I’m pretty sure they operate on only four of Vanuatu’s 83 inhabited islands. but on Futuna, multiple people have purchased personal solar systems. We charge the laptop using the solar or using the school’s generator. Then to go online, I just connect the telephone line to the computer (do you remember dial up?). The phone company gives free internet to the school which is awesome.

How do you send and receive mail?

There’s no post office on my island so to send mail, I give my letters to someone who is leaving the island to put at a post office. To receive mail, th epost office in Port Vila (the capital) should put any mail for Futuna on the plane that comes once a week. I live about a 40 minute walk from the airport so if I know mail is coming, I go to pick it up. If I don’t go, someone usually brings it to me.

What clothes do you wear?

On my island it is a rule that all girls must wear skirts that come below the knee. I normally wear shorts underneath because we do lots of hiking. Then I just wear a t-shirt (no tank tops allowed). For shoes, the fashion on my island is to wear imitation, Chinese made Crocs so going with the culture, I also wear them. They only cost about $3 in the capital and they’re good for walking through the mud.

How do you do laundry?

I put all my clothes in a basin with cold water and detergent. I then scrub them against a bumpy stone or if they’re really dirty, I use a scrub brush. Then I change the water in the basin and attempt to rinse out the soap. I wring out my clothes and hang them on a line where it can take anywhere from 1 to 3 days to dry.

How many books have you read?

132 and counting

Any more questions? Send them to me.

I realized I forgot to write about showers in my last entry about the coldness.

I literally feel like I'm freezing when the icey water comes out of the tap. But people here are adament about daily showers so if i skipped a day, they'd be all over me. In fact, most of them shower twice daily, but I'm a once a day person. But on the cold days, i really just want to cozy up in my bed with my 2 blankets. Nonetheless, I must shower, so now I have taken to showering in the middle of the day. After I eat lunch when the sun is strong I hop in the shower. I let the water trickle on me enough to get wet, and then i run out to change. I can't even imagine trying to wash my hair with that cold water. Last year it was so much easier when i didn't have any hair! I am now only washing my hair like once a week, but that's fine.

I could boil water over the fire and put it in a bucket to take a shower with, but firewood is a scarce commodity mostly reserved for cooking or heating up water for the babies to wash in. If I asked for hot water, I think they'd laugh.

What else is new? We had a staff meeting today that went from 10 am to 1 pm, but it was actually really cool, because all the teachers decided that we'd speak English in the meeting. it's an english school so they should speak english all the time, but a lot of them aren't confident in their english, but today they really tried. I was happy, and I think it'll help the students to improve their English if they hear the teachers speaking English outside of class time.

Also i'm not sure if I mentioned how the secondary school students (9th and 10th grade) finally moved into the dorms at school last weekend. The dorms (made out of bamboo and grass roof) each hold maybe 20 students or so. They should've been completed last year, but they just finished them this year. They also built a kitchen and dining hall out of various plant materials. Most of the secondary schools in Vanuautu are boarding schools I think coming from the fact that before there were only a couple run by the french and english governments so the kids all came from different islands. The sec. school here just started last year, and most of the students are from Futuna but there's 4 from another island. But even the kids that are from here sleep at the school. It's just the custom here to sleep at the school. They study at night together and do work at the school. Also if at the end of the year, they pass a national exam they can go to 11th grade and then they will have to leave our island and board at some other school so now they're taking it like practice sort of.

That's all for now.

Maybe you won’t believe me, but it has been really cold here lately. I always thought living in the tropics would be like living in a constant state of heat, but I was wrong. For the past month or so, I’ve been really cold. I mean it’s not New England cold, but after living here for almost 2 years, anything below 75 is cold. Anyway, I started just wearing my jacket at night, but now oftentimes I even wear it during the day. Also, some days I even wear socks. For some unknown reason I brought like 10 pairs to Vanuatu that I NEVER wear. But now, I’m wearing them. I sometimes wear long pants underneath my skirts, but that looks pretty ridiculous. If I had a winter hat, I’d wear it (lots of people here do). Maybe I should take it upon myself to knit one, although as of now I can only knit things in a rectangular shape, but I guess what else do I have to do?

So I guess we do have seasons in Vanuatu. This is the cold season. According to the Vanuatu Meteorological Society, the temperature in my province (Tafea Province) has a low of 60 degrees which is actually quite chilly if you ask me. I’m not sure where this information comes from, seeing there’s certainly no weather station on my island, but it’s probably from a nearby island. Anyway, I’m sure most of you reading from the States are now experiencing warm to hot temperatures. Summer now for you all, so think of me here in the frigid area of the South Pacific.

I find it hard to write about what's happening here on a daily basis, because at this point it all seems so normal to me. However, recently we had our first staff social gathering for the teachers at the school so i decided I'll write about that.

Thursday was a Public Holiday here: Ascension Day. We had a staff meeting (see previous entry) and decided to move the holiday to Friday so that we could have a 3 day weekend. Fridays here are always half days. I'm not sure why, but we made Thursday a halfday and in the afternoon had our social gathering.

The Social Gathering Committee decided we'd get together and bring raw food and roast over the fire (like take unripe bananas, throw them on the fire with their skins until they're black, and then remove the skin and eat). Well not surprisingly things changed. This event which was planned to begin at 1 pm wound up starting around 3 when we all met at school. We lit a fire but instead of roasting, they just cooked everything in pots. We had quite the variety: manioc (root crop), banana, rice, chicken, two kinds of crabs, and two types of canned meat and fish. Around 7 pm al the food was ready. We brought it up to one of the new classrooms that were just built. We got our food and one of the teachers brought his TV from his house. They turned on the generator they've been using to power the saws and other tools for the new classroom. After a couple light bulbs burned and some wires were crossed, the TV was up and running. We watched 2 DVDs: one of a Vanuatu string band and the other of some famous Vanuatu singer. I prefer those types of videos (singsing as they're called here) compared to the typical Asian action movies that they like to watch. Anyway around 9 pm, the event ended and I returned to my house. The next day there was no school and it was raining and somehow I slept until 10 am. I think that's the latest I've ever slept in Vanuatu.

Just as a side note, it's been really cold here lately. I have no way of knowing the temperature, but maybe it's been in the 60s. I wear a jacket sometimes! I especially miss hot showers now more than usual. I'm glad that it's not sweltering hot all the time like one might think of the tropics, but I know when I go back to the U.S. I am going to freeze.

I feel like this is an important subject to talk about to get a little insight into Vanuatu culture. I don’t know, maybe I just never attended enough meetings when I was younger, but whenever I attend a meeting here, I am struck by its orderliness.

First off before every meeting the secretary writes the Order of the Day on the blackboard. It looks something like this:

1. Prayer

2. Welcome

3. Roll Call

4. Order of the Day

5. Last Minute

6. Matters Arising

7. Other Business

8. Announcements

9. Prayer

These meetings aren’t big ordeals (in my opinion). Sometimes there may only be 4 people in attendance, but still It must follow this format. The Chairman and Secretary sit in the front. When we get to Matters Arising, in order to decide anything even like “Alyssa will do a workshop on Friday” there needs to be someone to make a motion: “I move that Alyssa will do a workshop…”. Then someone will Second the motion. Lastly they will ask the house to say “yes” or “hemia nao” (roughly translated as “that’s what I’m talking about.”) if they agree. Only after that can we move on.

Meetings (which undoubtedly start late due to Black Man Time as opposed to White Man Time which means On Time) always run past 2 hours. Sometimes there’s only one thing on the agenda, but people like to talk and restate the same ideas. I tend to sit down with my notebook and write down one o a million plans I have for when I leave Vanuatu. In all the meetings I’ve attended, I’ve yet to make a motion.

I don’t know about other places, but all the meeting I’d been to, we’d never done that, but I’m sure one day these formalities will come in handy. The thing I see in Vanuatu is that once they find a system that works for them, they tend to sticvk with it and are very hesitant to change it.

Does this not happen in the U.S.? I guess I’ve forgotten how fertile the soil in Vanuatu is. When I first arrived, they told us new Volunteers how really you don’t need to bother planting things. You just throw the seeds in the ground and it’ll grow. Of course I remembered my middle school science lessons and thought that it must be the combination of sunlight and rain that causes the seeds to grow.

However the other day, we were sitting in the kitchen when my dad said, “Oh look there’s 2 grapefruit trees beginning to grow.” Sure enough I looked underneath the bench I was sitting on and there were 2 six inch tall plants growing. I took his word for it that they were grapefruit trees. They could’ve just as easily been weeds, but my dad dug them up and transplanted them into plastic bags so that they wouldn’t get trampled in the kitchen. When they’re bigger and stronger, he’ll replant them in the soil.

How did they wind up growing inside the kitchen? Well my guess is that one day we were eating grapefruit and we spit out the seeds on the dirt floor. Logically the seeds started to sprout and there you have it the beginnings of a grapefruit tree.

To start with I only brought one book to read for two weeks. I tried to pace myself, but I finished it within the first week. I also did not bring any paper so I’m now using those empty pages at the back of the book to write out these blog entries.

A two week vacation may sound glamorous, but think again. I, along with my Futuna family, spent my 2 week school break on what they call “The Other Side.” This is a popular phrase in Vanuatu which really just means the other side of the island. I packed a few clothes and a toothbrush and made the couple hour trek to the other side.

My family is from The Other Side but they just live by the school now because my dad’s a teacher. They like to go to the other side for a break from the busy, hectic life at the school. You see, in the village at the school, they say there’s a lot of noise- telephones ringing, music playing, roosters cockadoodle doing, and babies crying. Well on the other side, there’s still roosters, but not much of the other distractions. Plenty of time to sit and do nothing.

Alright so to get back on topic, the first day I arrived I came down with a nasty cold. In Vanuatu, for every cold they say “flu” and naturally people start saying I have swine flu which I guess isn’t really funny at all, but now if someone sneezes, the new joke is “swine flu”. It used to be Dengue Fever (mosquito borne illness) which is a much more likely possibility- one person on Futuna got it already, but I don’t see swine flu arriving anytime soon. Well luckily I brought 2 bandanas which I’ve been using as a Kleenex alternative. It works fine but is still kind of gross.

My family has a plot of land on the other side where they’re planning on building a house. Note-planning, meaning now there is not a house. Some of the materials have arrived so they put up a makeshift corrugated iron shelter. Also some of the wooden beams are strewn across the ground so we slept on them. It’s better than sleeping on the muddy ground, but since the beams aren’t nailed down to anything when someone turns in their sleep, everyone feels the floor move.

Luckily the last time they came, my family had dug a toilet, and after only a few days while we were here they built a seat and a door. Before that it was a “squat and hope no one looks” situation. In terms of a place to take a shower- nope. Most people here have no problem showering in the open with their clothes on, but I chose to take my bucket of water behind the house and once again hope no one would come.

So it’s been a nice, relaxing vacation. (Not that the last 20 months haven’t been one long vacation). Luckily a package came for me the day I walked here with a People magazine. I’ve now read the issue cover to cover at least 5 times. I’ve got to keep up with my pop culture, but some stuff goes over my head, like what’s Twitter? I have learned a lot too, like by thoroughly examining the advertisements , I’ve come to the conclusion that Americans now want products that are “natural”, “organic”, and “green”. This ranges from skin care to paper towels to snack food, water, laundry detergent and even cat food. What do these labels even mean? Maybe these people should come to Futuna to experience organic!

We’ve been digging up a daily root (manioc) to eat and we’ve been killing a chicken and cooking it quite frequently as well. I can hardly imagine most meat eaters wanting to witness chicken slaughter, but if you’re eating it, you have to face the truth. At least here the chickens have a good life.

Well I still have a few days left here. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m writing at the back of my book. Maybe I’ll reread the book, but I may have to use it for toilet paper soon.

That was the entry I wrote while I was still on break. Today was our first day of school for Term 2, but the students just weeded the grounds and then played sports, because over 40 of the students were absent (I think the total is 120 for primary school). Also 2 teachers weren’t back yet. The plane came today so I think tomorrow we’ll be back up and operating.

than a piece of bread and a packet of instant coffee mix? How did I reach this point where I ahve almost forgotten about $5 iced soy caramel macchiatos and now rejoice when I get a full serving of "3 in 1 instant coffee mix"? I'm not sure where to begin my story, but I think I should preface it with the fact that I regularly drank iced soy lattes for the past few years. They were in my blood, that is until i came to Vanuatu.

My coffee addiction came to a halt when I was placed in a village of decout Seventh Day ADventists. They don't drink any caffeinated product so there goes coffee and tea. We did drink the occasional what i like to call Hot Sugar Milk which consisted of powdered milk and sugar mixed together with hot water. It's a lot better than it sounds. For quite awhile it was my beverage of choice. Then one "cold" night I was sleeping a little ways up the side of the volcano. THe next day we'd be getting up early to climb to the top. I hadn't been that cold since I'd arrived in the tropics. Our host graciously gave us mugs, a thermos of hot water, and some sugar. THat was when i learned to appreicate Hot Sugar Water. (Just as a side note they call all hot beverages tea, so if you come and they offer you tea, you should probably expect Hot Sugar Water). I downed cup after cup that cold night before climbing the volcano.

When i moved to my new island, i was living amongst Presbyterians. They love to drink sugar water. Everyday at least twice a day I drink a cup of sugar. When we're lucky, we have brown sugar which is tastier than white sugar. On the occasion we'll mix the sugar with a lemon leaf or orange leaf. But then, I discovered the store sells 3 in 1 Instant Coffee Mix. Which is sigar, coffee, and milk all in one. Apparently Presbyterians don't have a ban on caffeine. When it's in stock, we drink it all the time. but since the household has like 8 people we can't afford to buy a packet for everyone. Typically 2 or 3 packets will be divided amongst everyone and then extra sugar will be added. A typical breakfast is a third of a packet of instant coffee with some Breakfast Crackers.

What are Breakfast Crackers? I guess the best equivalent would be matzah, unleavend bread eaten at the time of Passover. It's basically just dry, tasteless, cardboard. We break them up and put them in the tea and eat them with a spoon. On the rare occasion someone will make bread. There's no butter or toasting of the bread involved, but just the fresh off the fire bread makes my day. ANd if I get a full packet of coffee intestead of a third, well I just don't know what else I could ask for.

I realized that my blog entries are getting rather boring I guess because my life here has become some regular. Like the littlest things that I’m sure at the beginning I would rant and rave about have all become normal. I no longer am surprised by the 6 inch spider on the toilet “seat”. I don’t worry when the tap no longer has water. I just go and fill up my bucket and dump the cold water over my head. I still brush my teeth outside using only my water bottle as rinse water. I read by flashlight at night. I can’t sleep past 7 or 8 because of roosters (which I guess is an improvement from when I first got here and woke up at 5). I no longer view an island dress as a huge fashion faux pas and uncomfortable garbage bag type heat insulator. Instead I view it as a convenient article of clothing that dries quickly and I don’t care if it gets ruined. I think it’s completely normal for school to be cancelled due to rain (I mean how can you have class when it’s raining INSIDE the classroom). When I hear that there’s a staff meeting at 3:30, I automatically assume that it’ll start at the earliest at 4 pm (ISLAND TIME) and of course go for hours to make sure that everyone has stated their opinion multiple times and repeated the opinions of others. I don’t get offended when people call me “fat fat”. In fact that’s a compliment here. If they say you’re skinny, it sort of implies that you’re sick. I view a flying fox (ie bat) as a prime meal. I mean it’s a good alternative to the normal tin fish. I see eating rice as a sign of wealth. Having 8 people watching a video on my 2 inch ipod screen is completely reasonable. Sugar mixed with hot water is the best drink ever. I have nothing else to do on a Monday I might as well walk to the other side of the island to the airport just to see who gets off the plane or what mail might come. Washing my clothes in a bucket is not all that bad- it gives me something to do to pass the time. So a 2 year old can wield a 2 foot long machete and manage to open a coconut? That seems normal to me. “All kids must bring their knives to school tomorrow otherwise they will be punished.” Instead of class this afternoon, we’ll be going to the beach to carry coral and sand up the cliff to build the new classroom. Of course, I take off my shoes when I go in any building. And obviously I wear shorts under my skirt every day, who doesn’t know that? When kids scream or cry when they see me, it doesn’t phase me too much, however, being called “missus” still really annoys me. I got bread for breakfast this morning- just plain bread, no butter or anything, and I felt like the luckiest girl ever. I spend my entire days speaking a foreign language (Bislama) while trying to learn another one (Futunese). I find it totally normal for people to sit around, pick lice out of their hair, and then eat it. When people say they want to eat my cat, I know they are not joking around (the cat went in the kitchen at night and ate all the food). In fact I haven’t seen the cat in awhile, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s now in someone’s stomach. I’m sure there’s tons more things that I’ve just gotten used to being here, but it’s hard to think of them from this side. Maybe it’s weird that I would have to fly 30 minutes across the ocean just to go to the post office or the bank or to buy some cheese, who knows? And maybe it’s weird that although I have access to the internet, I have no access to a doctor of any sort on the island. Well, at least there’s webMD. But I guess in the end, it’s really just the same. We all have to work and eat and socialize. And most likely when I get back to the U.S. I’ll be looking back through my rose-colored glasses and dreaming about the tropical paradise that is Vanuatu.

I realized that my blog entries are getting rather boring I guess because my life here has become some regular. Like the littlest things that I’m sure at the beginning I would rant and rave about have all become normal. I no longer am surprised by the 6 inch spider on the toilet “seat”. I don’t worry when the tap no longer has water. I just go and fill up my bucket and dump the cold water over my head. I still brush my teeth outside using only my water bottle as rinse water. I read by flashlight at night. I can’t sleep past 7 or 8 because of roosters (which I guess is an improvement from when I first got here and woke up at 5). I no longer view an island dress as a huge fashion faux pas and uncomfortable garbage bag type heat insulator. Instead I view it as a convenient article of clothing that dries quickly and I don’t care if it gets ruined. I think it’s completely normal for school to be cancelled due to rain (I mean how can you have class when it’s raining INSIDE the classroom). When I hear that there’s a staff meeting at 3:30, I automatically assume that it’ll start at the earliest at 4 pm (ISLAND TIME) and of course go for hours to make sure that everyone has stated their opinion multiple times and repeated the opinions of others. I don’t get offended when people call me “fat fat”. In fact that’s a compliment here. If they say you’re skinny, it sort of implies that you’re sick. I view a flying fox (ie bat) as a prime meal. I mean it’s a good alternative to the normal tin fish. I see eating rice as a sign of wealth. Having 8 people watching a video on my 2 inch ipod screen is completely reasonable. Sugar mixed with hot water is the best drink ever. I have nothing else to do on a Monday I might as well walk to the other side of the island to the airport just to see who gets off the plane or what mail might come. Washing my clothes in a bucket is not all that bad- it gives me something to do to pass the time. So a 2 year old can wield a 2 foot long machete and manage to open a coconut? That seems normal to me. “All kids must bring their knives to school tomorrow otherwise they will be punished.” Instead of class this afternoon, we’ll be going to the beach to carry coral and sand up the cliff to build the new classroom. Of course, I take off my shoes when I go in any building. And obviously I wear shorts under my skirt every day, who doesn’t know that? When kids scream or cry when they see me, it doesn’t phase me too much, however, being called “missus” still really annoys me. I got bread for breakfast this morning- just plain bread, no butter or anything, and I felt like the luckiest girl ever. I spend my entire days speaking a foreign language (Bislama) while trying to learn another one (Futunese). I find it totally normal for people to sit around, pick lice out of their hair, and then eat it. When people say they want to eat my cat, I know they are not joking around (the cat went in the kitchen at night and ate all the food). In fact I haven’t seen the cat in awhile, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s now in someone’s stomach. I’m sure there’s tons more things that I’ve just gotten used to being here, but it’s hard to think of them from this side. Maybe it’s weird that I would have to fly 30 minutes across the ocean just to go to the post office or the bank or to buy some cheese, who knows? And maybe it’s weird that although I have access to the internet, I have no access to a doctor of any sort on the island. Well, at least there’s webMD. But I guess in the end, it’s really just the same. We all have to work and eat and socialize. And most likely when I get back to the U.S. I’ll be looking back through my rose-colored glasses and dreaming about the tropical paradise that is Vanuatu.

Well finally the people from the phone company decided they'd send someone out to fix our telephones. They fixed them and now I'm back online! Yah!

Be sure to check out my photos on my webshots:

http://community.webshots.com/user/alyssathielpcv

Since being back, I've been doing reading groups with the weak readers in grades 1-6. They're going well and it's a much needed area. There's no special ed here at all so all the kids are just in the same class, even though some of the 6th graders can't even recognize letters.

We only have 2 weeks left and then the end of term 1. We have a 2 week vacation before term 2 starts but I'll be staying on Futuna the whole time.

Lately we've been eating a lot of rice since the ship has come. (It came while I was in Vila). What else? Now that I have an ipod I am not so bored. I watch the same 5 episodes of The Office which one of the teachers here had on his computer. They never get old (well at least not yet).

We've had a couple of torrential downpours lately which have caused water to literally run into and through people's houses like rivers. I feel sorry for the people who have dirt floors, luckily I have cement. But now it's nice and sunny. We're moving into the cold season so it's still hot in the day but at night I use a blanket and sometimes I wear a jacket.

Well send me an email. I'll be checking my email occasionally. Or send me a letter/ package of goodies.

my address:

Alyssa

Peace Corps Volunteer

Ishia School

Futuna

Vanuatu, South Pacific

Any snack food or pop culture magazines would be appreciated, but also random surprises are nice! Nothing beats a good letter!

http://community.webshots.com/user/alyssathielpcv

Go to this website and the first album (nov-dec 2008) and you'll see tons of Futuna photos!

School has started on Futuna. Unlike Ambae, school here actually started on the first day that the government decided. I helped out a bit in the 1st grade classroom with english seeing as these kids are supposed to be in English school but don't know a word of English. Now I'm busy sorting through the gigantic piles of books that are scattered throughout the various buildings at school.

It's been hot here lately and the water has been really finicky. Some days it runs great and then others (like this whole past weekend) it doesn't run at all and your dirty clothes just pile up and pile up. Luckily we have a rain tank but that's just enough water to drink and cook with and if you're lucky shower (otherwise you just go to the ocean to shower).

Nothing much new. Oh I bought a bag of flour and now my family is making bread sometimes which is really really nice for breakfast (as opposed to these things called breakfast crackers which are just flavorless hard crackers). Also I've started eating with the teachers again now that school has started so I like that as well.

Not much else. Our internet was cut for awhile due to the school not paying the phone bill, but now I should be back online.

Honestly, what more could you ask for than ice cream, cheese, bread, and pineapple? I went to Tanna (the nearest other island) and had a wonderful time eating. I also went to the bank and post office since we don't have them on Futuna. Tanna is quite the tourist destination apparently. While I was there, I saw tons of tourists who mostly come to see the very active volcano that shoots up molten rock every minute or so. I also found that on Tanna when I started speaking Bislama all the locals really liked me and wanted to talk to me. I guess they're tired of all the tourists. One morning a bunch of tourists loaded into a truck to go to the volcano on the other side of the island. The locals who were driving the truck asked me if I was going and I said I didn't have the money (typical Alyssa, huh?). Well anyway, I sweet talked in Bislama and they invited me to go on the tour for free (which is like $120 normally). It was pretty sweet I must admit. i was scared though, because this was a real volcano. It's not like Disney World. When the rocks come shooting up, there's no barricade to keep them from hitting you. And people have been hit by the molten rock before. I only stayed up top for like 5 minutes and then basically ran back down.

Now I'm back on Futuna. Nothing too exciting. I should do laundry today. But first I need my internet fix- it's been too long. It's really weird that it's 2009 now. Like when people ask me when I came to Vanuatu I can no longer say "last year". That's weird. I spent all last year in Vanuatu. It was fun to talk to all the tourists on Tanna because it really made me feel like I've integrated quite well. People tended to be impressed by Bislama which I totally forget is even an oddity. I mean I just feel like everyone must know Bislama. Anyway it's also weird to think that I'll finish my contract this year! Now people are asking me what I'll do when I go home- yikes! Maybe I'll submit my Starbucks application sometime soon. That could at least hold me over for a few months until Omega Teen Camp 2010.

Alright, well I hope everyone's 2009 is going well. I was tired on New Years Eve so I just slept, but in the morning we did get to celebrate by drinking one cup of juice each. Lucky, huh?

The ship did come. It wound up arriving sometime in the early afternoon and I went down to the shore to wait for my stuff to be unloaded. They unload the ship via small boats while the ship is anchored a little ways away from the shore (in order to protect the reef). Anyway, I waited and waited (typical Vanuatu) and by the time it got dark around 6:30 my stuff had not arrived yet and also i hadn't eaten. Nonetheless I waited some more and then finally heard the news that the ship decided it was going to drop all the stuff of at one beach which is by another village. Therefore, my stuff did not come to where I was waiitng along with everyone else from my village. So one of the people who owns a boat in my village decided to go over to the other beach and start to transport anything for our village to our beach. This was about 9 pm. Maybe by 10 or 11:00 two of my 14 items that were put on the ship arrived. By 11:30 I just walked back up the cliff and went to sleep. The next morning I heard that the ship had worked throughout the night. Down by the water, 9 of my items had safely arrived so I moved them all on top of the cliff with the help of my brothers. It was exciting to get my stuff and unpack and see all the crap I thought I'd need. At least I got a bunch of books. This stuff on the ship was all my stuff that i had packed up on Ambae and stored in Vila until now. Lots of useless stuff, but that's okay. Anyway, the next day I went to check at the other beach to see if the rest of my stuff was there. I only found one box which meant that the other 4 things were missing. They're still missing. I've heard rumors that people have seen them but I've gone back to check and found nothing. Oh well. My gas for my cooking stove is among the missing so more over the fire cooking for me. I'm not sure where all this stuff is. It most likley got dropped off at another island by mistake which means I don't think I'll be seeing it again.

Anyway, lots of people who are from Futuna but are living in Vila came to Futuna on the ship so I've met lots of new people lately. Futuna is a fairly small island with not too many work opportunities, other than teacher, so if you want to work, you have to go to Vila or Tanna. It's probably best that way anyway, since I think if all the people of Futuna came to live on the island it'd be a little crowded. We had a few events surrounding the Christmas celebration. A new church in a neighboring village hosted its opening. An American missionary came to talk because he'd organized the donation of lots of money to help build the church. It was interesting to get another American's perspective on Futuna, but it also made me realize that now I have a lot more in common with the people I've made connections to here as opposed to some random American. I think when I first got here I thought the most important thing was to be able to talk to another American, but now that's not necessarily true.

After the church opening, the next main event was Christmas which included a church service in the new church and then a sort of talent show/ dance off type thing which included quite the variety of dances including Pacific style and Christian gospel of sorts. I'm not sure if I mentioned how the whole island of Futuna celebrates Christmas in just one village. Everyone from around the island goes to the one village where it is decorated to the max (mostly with various flowers) while the rest of the island remains completely unaffected by Christmas. On Futuna one of the main symbols of Christmastime in my opinion is watermelon. Watermelon season is in full boom and I think I eat watermelon almost every day. It's quite nice.

Anyway I think throughout this week there have been various programs involving singing and Bible study at the Christmas village, but the next time I'll head over there is for New Years Eve. Apparently we stay up all night singing or something. They like to sing here.

That's about all the news here. It's hot, which is nothing new. There has been intermittent rain which is also nothing new.

Anyway I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

This ship that was supposed to come to Futuna still has not arrived. The story of its non-arrival sort of exemplifies Vanuatu. When I asked the people here what ship was coming they said "Tomorrow". I said "really?" and they said "yeah when you ask when it's leaving the answer is always tomorrow." Unfortunately this prophecy has come true. I first heard that the ship would be out on December 1st. December 1st came and went but no ship left (it would be coming from Vila the capital). Anyway since then this ship has made countless trips to other islands but none to Futuna yet. Then FINALLY they loaded it up for Futuna. It was full with passengers and cargo directed to Futuna. It left the wharf in Vila but unfortunately the police stopped it because it was too full. They made it return to the wharf and unload. Then it reloaded with only cargo for other islands and left. Apparently it is now en route back to Vila and its next trip will be for Futuna. We'll see when it happens. I'm sure the answer will be "tomorrow". The stores here are now done to scraps. This ship hopefully will come soon. I'm enjoying a lovely diet of roasted breadfruit and banana and boiled manioc until then.

This week also is a week long prayer group called Transformation. They are praying 24 hours a day all week. They are visiting everyone at their houses. Its really intense. Needless to say, I'm a little bored. On Sunday there will be a culmination by the opening of a brand new church in another village on the island. Apparently some American is coming tomorrow who gave money to build the church. Also the Prime Minister (who is from Futuna) should be arriving tomorrow. It should be an exciting day at the airport (and maybe I'll even get some mail)!

I realized I haven't written much about Bislama on my blog. Bislama is the National Language of Vanuatu (French and English are the official languages). Bislama is a sort of pidjin English/ French but has developed into its own language. Its similar to the pidjins of PNG and the Solomons. Anyway, it was super easy too learn since many words are just English in a different accent and also the vocabulary is very minimal. I think the best way to describe it is that I'll write something in it. Then you can try to read it. Its best if you try to read it outloud. Written Bislama is completely phonetic so just sound it out.

Vanuatu hemi gud. Mi laekem fulap samting long ples ia. I gat fulap kakae mo i minim se sipos sip i no kam long taem yu save kakae ol kakae we i gro nomo long aelan. Mi laekem se mi stap klosap long solwota. Yu wokabaot nomo mo yu kasem solwota. I hot be i no hot tumas. I neva kolkol. Mo tu i gud from se evri wan i wantem storian. I no gat tumas nara samting blong mekem i minim se yu mas storian nomo wetem ol narafala man. Wan las samting se mi laekem hemi se yu no spendem tumas mani long ples ia. Yu no save pem eni samting long stoa be i minim se yu no spendem eni mani. Hemia nomo.

Bislama once you hear it is really easy and I often find myself thinking in Bislama. It also has effected my English. I find it difficult to speak English without using only my Bislama vocabulary. For example, in Bislama the word "smol" (small) is used for any deriviation (little, tiny, small, miniscule- only one word smol). So when someone in Bislama says "yumi stap klosap?" i would answer "klosap smol". But in English this would be translated as "are we close?" "close small". Close small just isn't really appropriate in English. Other examples "Is it raining?" "small" in english doesn't really work. So hopefully when I'm reimmersed in English my English vocabulary will improve once again.

I'm slowly learning the local language but am totally not able to write a full paragraph in Futanese. I'll just leave you with:

Rufie Tabo- Good night

Today is the official last day of school in Vanuatu so after today I really don't think I'll have internet anymore.

Just to some up my activities since my last post. We did wind up going to the beach last Thursday which was Thanksgiving in the U.S. We were supposed to sing Christmas carols on the beach, but it started to rain so instead we did them inside the church. The next day however it was nice and sunny, in fact too sunny. In the morning we all went to the beach to catch some fish for a picnic. In order to catch fish at this specific beach, everyone stands in the water holding large sticks. You then proceed to beat on the water for hours with the sticks. Everyone stands in a circle around a tide pool. You start hitting the water at high tide to make the fish scared to pass you and when the water goes to low tide, all the fish are trapped in the pool. Anyway, about 2 hours into this activity I realize that I was being burned to a crisp by the sun and unfortunately my sunblock was no where near me. I got out of the water and stayed in the shade for the rest of the day, but I still wound up red as a lobster and confusing everyone, since they are not really familiar with the concept of sunburn. As the days progressed and my skin started peeling off, they were all quite worried, but I assured them it was typical of post-sunburn recooperation.

Anyway the rest of the week I have done not much. I have gone online a lot and watched a bunch of super random DVDs that are in the house. I've walked to the airport just to have something to do and I've been slowly learning the local language by interacting with my two year old sister who doesn't speak Bislama. I'm good at saying "no" and "come"- "Jigai" and "mai". We've also had lots of fun using Photo Booth on the iMac. The two year old just loves it. She's also been learning some new English and Bislama words. I enjoy that if I'm reading the news online she can correctly identify "Obama, President" and she is also good at saying "iPod" as about 4 people have ipods here. She likes to "talk" on the telephone to no one. At least it's entertainment. Recently she has been really into showering in the real shower whenever I go in. It's cute, unless I actually want to shower.

Okay that's all for now. I think I'll be going to the nearest island sometime during this school break just to go to the bank and buy a few things. The stores here are completely out of almost everything. There's supposed to be a ship coming, but every time they keep delaying when they'll actually come to Futuna since Futuna is so far out of the way. Now the stores are out of sugar and rice which are like 2 of the main imported foods that people like. Luckily we still can buy the 40 cent instant coffee, but it's just not that great without sugar. Yesterday someone who came in from Vila on the plane brought bread, and honestly it was so amazing. I hope when I go back, I can get that excited over a piece of bread!

Alright, seriously now, enough already, or in Futanese "Tao oji"!

We are approaching the end of the school year here which means soon I'm not sure if I'll be able to use the internet. Tomorrow we are going to go to a beach on a different part of the island and the kids will all perform/ sing in a Christmas carol night. The next day we will have a picnic on the beach. I don't think anyone will be singing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" unless they mean white sand beach. It's interesting that in the States we often associate Christmas with winter/ snow. You see Santa riding his sleigh through the snow, but us in the southern hemisphere/ tropics don't get that image. Maybe their Santa is riding a surfboard.

Christmas on Futuna should be good. One of the villages is opening a new church house so there will be a big celebration for that. Also there's a couple weddings at the time (Christmas is wedding season here). They say that for Christmas everyone on the island goes to one village to celebrate. Also a bunch of the Futuna people who live in Vila come back to the island for the holidays so I'll get to meet a lot of new people. However, some of the teachers and students who are from other islands will go back to their own islands so I won't see them again until January.

School officially starts up January 26th. This is like summer vacation in the U.S. So I'm not sure if I'll be online again before then. But you can email me and I'll get it eventually. Or write me a letter!

Things are going well on Futuna. School is winding down for the year. On Saturday we had a staff picnic on the beach. We used a large net to catch a bunch of fish. Well I grabbed one to throw it in a canoe but it's tail cut my hand. I didn't think much of it until my hand started throbbing. Then I swam to shore. My hand hurt extremely bad. It was bleeding a little bit so some kid chewed up a sweet coconut and spit on it "to stop the bleeding." Then my ears started ringing and everything got blurry so someone helped me to lie down. After that I was just in excruciating pain for the next few hours as they put various custom leaf medicines on my hand. At night I went home and went to sleep. The next morning the pain had subsided but my hand had swollen like a balloon and I could not move it. It was my right hand which made eating with a spoon rather difficult because I could not hold anything. But now, Wednesday, my hand has returned to normal and I am able to use it again for all those important activities (like typing).

Also this week I caught a nasty cold which is not fun at all. I am spending my days lying on the concrete floor because it is the coolest place in the hot weather. My nose is running and tissues do not exist here.

Also I finally received mail from the U.S.! You can send directly to Futuna if you want. I think you could write Alyssa, Futuna, Vanuatu, South Pacific it'd get here, but to be safe you can write:

Alyssa Thiel- Peace Corps

Ishia School

Futuna

Vanuatu, South Pacific

For the last week we have had sun, sun, and sun. I really like it. Before that all we had was rain. Now I can do my laundry without worrying too much about it staying wet and growing mold. Also when it rains here it gets extremely muddy which also isn't too fun. But now it's sunny!

We are now entering the week of exams. In Vanuatu in 8th grade students have to take a National Exam and the results of that exam say whether or not they can proceed to secondary school or not. It also tells what secondary school they'll go to. Vanuatu ranks the secondary schools so in order to get into the good ones you have to score high on the test. The students will take exams in English, Math, Basic Science, and Social Science. There are also exams for 10th graders (but we don't have any 10th graders at my school). This exam will tell if they can go on to 11th grade. It's quite stressful if you ask me. Also even in many of the primary grades (elementary) the students have to take end of year exams. I think it's a little absurd to ask an 8 year old to take a test about everything they've learned the whole school year. The school year here goes from January- December. Our school officially closes November 27th so after that is school break until it starts up again at the end of January.

Nothing too much is new here. I ran my first workshop for the teachers at the school last Friday on helping slow learners and I'm running another one this coming Friday on teaching spelling. I have been eating lots and lots of fish lately. However I'm quite inept at it. I seem to frequently choke on the bones, especially in the small fish. Oh and I ate a snail the other day too. It was interesting, rather chewy and slimy. They call it local chewing gum here. This coming Saturday we will be having a staff picnic so we will all go to the beach and cook things over the fire to eat (like fish, crab, coconut, banana, etc) and then we will go swimming. It should be fun.

Also interesting to note that I thought it would take so long for me to hear the results of the election, but I actually spent that whole day on the internet and the people here heard Obama's speech on Radio Australia. I think it's interesting how Obama made the comment in his speech about people in far away corners of the world huddled around radios. It just made me think of my life here.

Alright well that's all for now. Send me an email if you want!

Life here is still going great. I am on the internet quite frequently now so send me an email to my gmail- alyssathiel@gmail.

Everyone is so nice here and the teachers actually appreciate my help. I've been working with various classes on English and then will be running some workshops next month. I have also started to eat at different houses to get to know people better, and that's been really good as well.

The weather has been rather rainy lately so the solar power is low, but today is sunny so I'm back on the computer.

My daily life I get up around 6:30 and drink tea and then go to school for a couple hours in the morning. I eat lunch and hang out and talk to people in the afternoon. I've been doing some knitting too. Crazy huh to do knitting in the south pacific, but it does get cold here sometimes. I should say it gets "cold" because I'm sure when I go back to the US I'll absolutely freeze. I'll need someone to meet me at the airport with a winter coat and real shoes (not sandals). I haven't worn real shoes in over a year. Also it's weird to think I haven't worn jeans in over a year, because in the states I wore them almost every day. Oh so back to my life here. At night I'll eat dinner and then we hang out and talk till maybe 9 or 10 and then I sleep. I'm lucky because a few people have solar power here so we have lights, but in my house I do not. So I typically don't go back to my house until I'm ready to sleep. My house is made out of tin and has a concrete floor. It's small but bigger than my house on Ambae. It's nice.

Anyway that's about it for now. Write me an email if you get the chance!

Guess what?

I'm on a tiny spec of an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and we have internet!

It is absolutely amazing. I don't even know where to start.

The people here are probably the nicest people I've ever met. Everyone is so friendly. And not only that, but they also have solar power and laptops! So although yes I'm in the middle of nowhere, it doesn't matter at all.

It's absolutely beautiful here, but I don't think I'll be spending my time trying to upload photos from the dial-up internet anytime soon.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm here and it's awesome.

Today I depart for Futuna. I am very excited. I will begin my journey by going on the large plane (42 seater) to Tanna. Then I only have about 15 minutes at the airport until I get on the small plane to Futuna (8 seater). I should arrive before lunch today. I don't know when I'll be back online, so if you'd like to know what's going on with me, write me a letter or send me a message to my satellite phone!

I have just recently found out that I'm going to a new island called Futuna! It is in the south of Vanuatu and is the most easterly island. It is super small (only 4.5 sq miles). It is in the shape of a cake sort of, with a big plateau on the top, but all the villages are along the sides, so it looks like lots more hilly walking is in store for me.

I will be working at the one school on the island as a teacher trainer still, but my actual work will depend on what the school wants me to do.

I am very excited to go there. I am still waiting for my stuff to come on a ship from Ambae. I'm going to have to narrow down what I plan to bring to Futuna, because I'll have to take it all on the plane, and that's expensive. The next ship won't go to Futuna until December. There are 2 flights a week there, so I will either head out next week or in two weeks.

I will actually have a telephone in my village so I'm excited about that, and I've also heard that the school has dial up internet, but I doubt I'll be using that much. I'm impatient enough as it is on the internet in Vila.

So now I've been in Vila almost 2 weeks. I have been doing a lot of eating, emailing, sitting, and ummm... not much else. I've been trying to find odd jobs to do in the office. I do love doing menial tasks like typing, especially because I haven't done any of that in a year. That and photocopying is always fun. Although I did try doing some stapling, and I realized I'm completely inept at stapling now.

I will still have my satellite phone at site so you can email me on that once I leave for Futuna, but for now just keep sending emails to my gmail account. Also for now just send any mail/ letters to me at the Peace Corps office:

Alyssa Thiel, PCV

Peace Corps Vanuatu

PMB 9097

Port Vila

Vanuatu, South Pacific

The Peace Corps office will forward my mail to Futuna since there is no post office on the island.

I'm also excited because Futuna's closest neighbor is Tanna which is where the big volcano is, Yasur. It "fires up" quite frequently and is a definite tourist spot. To get to the top of that volcano, you take a truck so I won't have to repeat my 12 hour Ambae volcano experience. But I'm planning to go to Tanna sometime in December/ January maybe so we'll see.

Ok well I'll be sure to update again before I leave for Futuna. And you can Google Earth the island. Just type: Futuna Island, Vanuatu into the Google Earth search bar and you'll get a great picture.

I am still in Vila- the capital. I have not been doing much, other than being online every day for like 10 hours. I don't have any new news in terms of where I'll be headed next, but hopefully I will hear soon. I'm online all the time so please email me!

"rod blong manaro"- kastam tatu

Just in case you didn't read the super long last post:

I got a custom tattoo on July 4th. They use a thorn from an orange tree to stick you. Then they use the juice from a flower and ash to make the ink. Yes it hurt.

It symbolizes the walk up to the top of the volcano.

oh and yes I know my leg/ foot is disgusting and gross- sorry but that's what you get from being a Peace Corps Volunteer :)

And just another photo of me with 2 teachers:

Me and my sisters.

I thought I was coming to vila at the end of july so i wrote this blog before i left the island. Then i didn't come:

So I'm back in Vila and thought I'd do a nice update on my blog. Actually I'm writing this in a notebook while sitting in my hosue on Ambae, but when I type it I will be in Vila.

I can't really remember what I wrote last time, but I'll just start with what I've been doing since I came back to Ambae in May. Honestly, the first week or two back were hard. It was quite the adjustment going from a five star resort surrounded by all the Americans and Ameican food I could want to being back in my village where I'm teh only American and I'm eating roots. Life in my village is not "hard" in terms of everyday living. I have everything that I need. Sometimes it is hjust hard to read for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and not really talk to anyone about how you're feeling.

After a couple weeks things started improving for me. I feel like I've finally made friends who I can be myself around. I'm not always by myself or with my family, but now I can laugh and joke around with people my age. Before I joined Peace Corps I remember reading how your first year is cultural adjustment and you'll actually do work your second year. I didn't really fully understand that until now. Slowoly people are getting to know me and not seeing me just as the white girl. As much as I'm adjusting to being here, they are adjusting to having me. So maybe next year I won't have 10 kjids staring in my window to watch me read.

In terms of "work" I;ve done some. I have given small workshops for teachers and done some observatyions. I'm also often the substitute teacher when one is out. We've all been wokring on fundraising a lot too. I'm normally designated salesgirl at fundraisers.

At the end of June I got a boat to West Ambae to go see another PCV. I arrived late at night and unfortunately the only telephone within walking distance of me was broken all of June (and still is) so I hadn't gotten a chance to call her first. She was quite surprised and proceeded to tell me that she already had plans to walk to my village the next day with another volunteer and the postman.

So the next day we all set off on the treacherous walk. All the locals say how there is this huge cliff that makes teh walk incredibly difficult. Another PCV had done it and said he had to crawl along using his hands and one wrong step would mean falling down the cliff. Well after 7 or 8 horus we made it. It was quite the hike, but not as death defying as they all made it out to be. Needless to say, the next day we were all fairly sore.

After a couple days of rest in my village, we decided it would be a great idea to climb the volcano. Someone told us we could go up and down before lunch if we left early. We left at 7 am and after 6 hosru of continous rain and mud, we reached the "top" or so we were told. The top of the volcano has 3 crater lakes however all we saw were dead trees and a big cloud. We shoved food in our mouths and started the trek back "down". You'd think it would be quikcker going down, but no, come 7 pm we finally got down. I was cold, wet, my feet were completely cut up, but at least I can say I've climbed the volcano. After that excursion, we took a truck to the luxury provincial center where there is electricity (sometimes), running water (cold only), and a store that sells ice cream. What more could one want?

For July 4th a bunch of us got together at someone else's village for a nice "cross-cultural exchange". We showed them the Shrek 3 movie to exemplify American culture. That and qwe waved around a US flag beach towel. To share their culture, they gave us custom tattoos. I was very indecisive about whether I was going to get one and where, but I knew I'd regret it if I didn't. So for 30 minutes i let some guy stick a thorn from an orange tree, dipped in the juice of a flower mixed with ash, into my foot. The result: I now have 2 parallel lines on the instep of my foot symbolizing "the road to Manaro". Manaro is the volcano, and I figured I might as well mark myself that I did that 12 horu hike to see a cloud, as if I didn't have enough scars from the actual hike.

So since then I have just been hanging out in my village. I got the cutest kitten who currently seems to be off exploring. I hope she comes back soon. Some people have expressed interest in eating her, so i hope she's okay. I have just been reading and playing guitar and doing lots of crosswords and other word puzzles. It's been cold here lately, and it still rains a lot, but not as much as the other season. I couldn't imagine doing Peace Corps in an actually cold country. I don't know the temperature here but sometimes I wear pants and a jacket and I doubt it drops below 70 degrees!

Okay that's the end of my happy little July blog.

Check out my pictures on webshots: http://community.webshots.com/user/alyssathielpcv/

first pic: teachers hanging out in a classroom

second pic: me and 2 kids

Hi everyone.

I will update more later, but basically since May I was having a really good time in my village. I had lots of friends and was a lot more busy than I was when I first got here. I wrote out a really nice blog entry mid July, but I'll post that in a bit when I don't feel overwhelmed at being back online after 4 months. I'm in town due to some unfortunate circumstances in the village- if you want to know just email me to ask. However, I'm not sure what will happen next, but I'll keep you posted.

I can hardly believe I've already been in Vanuatu almost a year. Also I should be putting more pictures online at http://community.webshots.com/user/alyssathielpcv so check them out.

If you want to get in touch with me this week or so, email me at alyssathiel@gmail.com

It'sWell hello!

It has certainly been an incredibly long time. This blog is going to be extremely sub-par due to my lack of sleep and my frustration with Vanuatu internet.

Since I last wrote in January... I wound up moving in to my house right before school started in february. I was still eating with my host family because my gas tank hadn't arrived. I wound up teaching 3rd grade for a little while because they didn't have a teacher. In February, I pretty much stayed at my site the whole time.

In March, I went to the island of Vanua Lava and got to visit with some other PCVs which was tons of fun. I also helped with a Phonics workshop on my island.

In April, I took a boat over to the island of Maewo and had an amazing time. It was probably my favorite place in Vanuatu yet.

At site, I don't do much other than read. I've read 59 books so far. I also play guitar every day and do lots of crossword puzzles.

I came in to Vila last week some time for an All-Volunteer Conference. They put us up at a fancy resort (all 94 Volunteers) and a good time was had by all. I most enjoyed eating good food, taking hot showers, and just seeing all my friends. Unfortunately my camera got stolen from the room. I am trying to update the pictures I do have on my memory stick, but the internet here is incredibly slow.

Tomorrow I am flying back to Ambae and do not know when i'll be back in vila.

Keep in touch. You can either write me a snail mail letter, send me a message to my satellite phone, or send me an email through the peace corps email system all of which is explained on my blog! And since I have not much to do, I will write back!

Ok I think this is the address for my photos: try it, if not, i'm sorry!

http://community.webshots.com/user/alyssathielpcv/

So I really don’t even know where to start with a blog update. I have been living in my little village on Ambae for a little over a month now. I spend almost all of my time reading (I think I’ve read over 30 books already). I also play tons of guitar and do various crossword puzzles and stuff. I eat basically the same thing every day. I eat either cooked bananas (sometimes upwards of 30 bananas per day) or simboro (which is a root crop, like yam, wrapped in cabbage. Soon I hope to be cooking on my own but I am for now waiting for my gas tank to arrive. The first week of December my many boxes and bags were put on the shop coming to my site. All of my stuff came within a week or two except “5 items” which included my gas tank, toilet paper, mosquito net, bug spray, CDs, and I don’t even know what else. They said that those five items were stuck in the middle of the ship and they had to go to another port but would come and drop my stuff off on the way back. Well they did come back, but the water was too rough for the ship to land. The ship then went back to Vila (the capitol) and decided to stay there until after the Christmas and New Years holidays. As of now, the ship left Vila two days ago so should be getting to my site soon. Once all my stuff arrives, I plan on moving into my own little house (for now I have a room in my host family’s house). So Christmas and New Years have been the subject of many questions. Christmas morning, I woke up and had rice (woohoo!) and then I spent the morning reading. However in the afternoon we went down to some relative’s house and had a little “party” where we ate and because it was my grandfather’s birthday we even had a small cake. They don’t do presents or anything like that. New Years Eve: around 8 pm we all went down to the church. We proceeded to watch 2 Bible song videos, sing hymns, and then at 11 pm had the last sermon of 2007. Traditionally around Vanuatu, people drink a lot on New Years, but my village is Seventh Day Adventist so they don’t drink alcohol. Also as a note, staying up late is quite the rarity. Since we don’t have too many generators and people don’t buy kerosene for lanterns here, normally after dinner we just go to bed. I might play some Uno first, but I’m normally in my bed between 7-8 pm. Ok, what else? I’m sure there’s tons more. I have been walking around tons. I walk to the telephone which is about an hour or so away. Even walking down to the ocean takes about 30 minutes. I went to the post office once via a 2 hour boat ride. It was great to get packages and also I ate a meal at one of the food stalls (like a restaurant that only offers one meal). Most recently, I have come to the island of Malekula to plan some workshops with other volunteers and buy some supplies. I flew over to the island which is incredibly “developed” compared to where I am on Ambae. They have internet (hence being able to post on my blog), a grocery store, and some of the volunteers even have cell phones! My sat phone is working great, and you should send me some messages (instructions on the side of the blog). Also, everyone that has sent me mail, I greatly appreciate it and have written back already! I love getting mail, and it seems to take less than 3 weeks for me to get mail. Packages are great too: any food, snacks, or instant meals that you just add water, puzzle books, guitar tabs for any songs, hmm, I did have a lot of things in mind, but now I can’t think. Books, magazines (any type really). Photographs of you, me, anything you’ve done, or anything American (they love looking at photographs). Well, I can’t really update any pics, internet is still dialup. But I am guessing some people have put up some pics on the flickr website you could check. If you are too lazy to actually send me a letter, you can still send emails to volunteer@vu.peacecorps.gov with my name on the subject line and they’ll print them and mail them to me once or twice a month. But I really like real mail too. School is supposed to start at the end of January so we’ll see if that actually happens or not. I’ve heard rumors that school tends to be delayed if teachers haven’t come back yet. My job will be to help train teachers on various methods of literacy education through co-teaching and through holding workshops but I think at the beginning I’ll just be observing a lot. Okay that’s all for now. I should be back online in May when I go to Vila for the All-Volunteer Conference but who knows what will happen between then and now. If you want to know, send me a letter and I’ll send you one back!

I didn't think that when I came to Peace Corps I would be doing as much shopping as I am. We are supposed to be living at a modest standard of living comparable to the locals; however, I am not sure if I am quite doing that.

Today I spent over $300 on food alone for site. I mean there's only so much root crops a girl can eat. I must let you know that $75 of that was on powdered milk, maybe a little mistake with that. I also planned on buying a gas stove today but the store was out of tubing so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get what I need.

So here's a few stories for you:

Yesterday I was walking down the street and a little boy came up to me to sell me a newspaper (very common occurrence). I politely declined the paper, but he insisted on opening the paper and then proceeded to show me a picture of me in it. He told me he recognized me from the photo (it was a photo from our swearing in ceremony). How sweet is that! I'm a celebrity here. I should've offered to autograph it for him.

Also today I went to the post office to buy some Aerogrammes. Aerogrammes are these pieces of paper that are pre-stamped and are the cheapest way for me to send international mail. I saw that they were all out on the shelf so I asked them if there were any in the back. They then told me that they would be out until "nekis yia." I replied "wanem?" and he repeated "bae i gat mo nekis yia". "wanem?" "januari!" Basically, in case your Bislama isn't up to par, he told me that they'd be out until january. The post office. Kas! Also just FYI, the ATM was out of money today too. And we're in the capital city.

I am definitely ready to go to Ambae. Well at least I think so. I am now sick of living in the hustle and bustle of the city life of Port Vila. Too much fast paced (although when I first got here, I thought the city was pretty slow moving). I am ready to just relax and not have to race around town. Such a hassle having to go to a restaurant and get food. However, lately we've been living it up on the food front including trips to a Japanese restaurant for some miso soup and sushi, Jill's American Cafe for some veggie burritos and milkshakes, and The Thai for something that resembled Thai food. I can't complain about the food in the capital at all. I just think of how I'll be eating laplap (google it!) for the next two years. Well laplap and 20 boxes of breakfast crackers that I bought at the Wholesale part of the supermarket today.

So on Thursday I head off to Ambae. I think first I will go to Saratamata for a little while (the provincial center on the island) because there is an agriculture trade show. Then I will head out to my site. I don't know for sure the next time I'll be back online, but I hope to be going to Luganville (the other city) sometime in January just to get more supplies and meet up with some people. But maybe I'll be bored in the next couple of days and post again on my blog. Be sure to check out the info on my satellite phone on the right. You can send me emails of 160 characters of less for free. Or you can text or call me, but I don't know how much that'll cost.

And I posted new pictures on the same facebook album from the last two.

Maybe a quick post this time:

I am in Vila for the week so I will have time to update again soon. But I just uploaded some more pictures on facebook (the last link is the same one).

We had our swearing in ceremony on thursday and left the village on Friday. This week we're suppossed to be shopping and getting ready for site. Then I go to Ambae on Thursday of next week. But check out my pics and the Flickr website pics when you get a chance. I'll post again before I go to site. And check out the info on my satellite phone (on the right side of the page).

This is the last time I will be writing on my blog as a Peace Corps Trainee. Yup, in 8 days I will be swearing in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. What must be done before then? Well, a two day workshop to do with environmental education, a Thanksgiving dinner held in our village, a day trip to Hat Island where a chief and a bunch of men are buried, and then one last week of important, informative classes along with some "tests". Dispersed in there I'm sure will be plenty of toktok, storian, and wokabaot. Lots of Uno, Spades, Canasta, and Ultimate Frisbee.

A week from Friday we will all come back to Port Vila and stay in a hotel here for a bit to do some shopping to get ready to go to site. I still do not know when exactly I will be headed to Ambae, but sometime during the first week in December.

So, I last posted on Saturday. Since then I have done not too much. I discovered I have a very common mango allergy that two or so Volunteers from each group have. It originated as a tingling sensation around my lips (not while I was eating the mango). It progressed into an itchy rash on my face that really wasn't visible to anyone, so I just thought I was crazy. By the time the rash moved to my back and arms (a few days later), I decided it was time to tell the nurse. She talked to me for just a few seconds and decidedly told me it was a mango allergy. But have no fear, I can still eat mangoes (and that's a good thing, because they are plentiful), but it is the oil on the underneath side of the skin that causes the reaction. Basically, someone else needs to cut it for me if I want to eat it. There are 2 others in our group who have discovered their own mango allergies while here. I'm just glad it's not pineapple, because I love pineapple and I eat one (okay not a whole one) every day.

Today in Vila we checked out the Teacher's College here and listened to different speeches: one from the Kindergarten ("Kindy") co-ordinator and one from S.I.L, the Bible translating missionary group. I also ate a veggie burger, fries, and ice cream today. Those things may seem so simple to you, readers in the U.S., but they surely make my day. Tomorrow night we are having a Thanksgiving Dinner for our village, sort of potluck style, with all the volunteers bringing a traditional Thanksgiving dish. I will be helping in creating the traditional Thanksgiving nachos. Good times.

Okay, well that's all really. Continue to check out the Flikr group photo site for pictures from other volunteers if you want (the website link is posted on the right). I don't have any new pictures this week. Talk to you November 30th!

First things first, this my dog, Saelin, and my cat, Lini, who are waiting for me on Ambae. They belong to the current volunteer who I am replacing and I am super excited to have them.

Next I want to post my link for my facebook pictures: Pictures

They are from our Halloween party that we had for the village and from my week on Ambae.

Well I am in Vila today for a futbal (soccer) game which is New Zealand vs. Vanuatu. It should be a good time. This week in training we had technical week, which means basically that we learned somewhat what our job will entail. It was also cool to talk to everyone about their sites. Everyone had completely different experiences. I am sure once we get together for All-Vol in May things we will have even cooler stories to share.

Well I compiled a list of things that you could send me, if you want to send me a package:

granola bars, oatmeal packs, any snack food, candy, photographs, books, magazines, newspapers, any other food items. Mail is great here. And I will send you a letter back.

Okay, hmm, life in the village has been pretty simple. It's funny how when I first got to Vanuatu it was really hard there, but now the village seems "flas tumas"- sort of like very fancy, especially compared to Ambae.

Well, I think I'll get going. I'll be back in Vila on Wednesday because I think we have some meetings with the education office. Then I may be heading to Ambae as early as December 5th.