Part of the agreement between Peace Corps and Shefa Provincial Health Office is they are to provide me with housing. It was supposed to be ready when I arrived on January 13th. Well I finally moved in 2 weeks ago, at the end of February. Better late than never I guess.

Here is a quick little tour, I apologize for the cheesy music, but I had to put some sound or people would get bored. My bathroom is dirty. I have scrubbed it relentlessly to no avail. That dirt is STAINED and there is nothing I can do. I want to re-tile the floor, but I am only here for another 8 months (not that I am counting).

I want to publicly say Thank You to all the people that supported me in my last Peace Corps Partnership. Through your support and generosity, we were able to raise 5,870 USD to provide clean water and new toilets to the people of Ambae. Through your generosity, we are able to build 3 rain-catchment tanks and 30 new toilets. The people in the village are excited and motivated to get started on the work.

Unfortunately I will not be in the village to oversee all the construction. My replacement, Nancy Miyake, will be handed that task. She is amazing and is going to do a great job. You can follow her stories and adventures by clicking here.

For those of you that are still looking for ways to support the people of Vanuatu, you can check out an exciting and fun opportunity by clicking here.

As a member of the Gender and Development committee, we are committed to train the youth of Vanuatu to become the leaders of the future. We accomplish this goal through our leadership camps and clubs. Unfortunately, we do not have funding and must rely on outside donations. Any support would is greatly appreciated.

The full link is here:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=461-043

I hope you all know how much I appreciate your support in what we are trying to do here. It means a lot to me and to the people of Vanuatu.

My new job is adviser to the Shefa Provincial Health Office. Shefa province consists of 14 islands, 72 health facilities and 79,000 residents. The office is located in Port Vila in an old French administered hospital that looks like an abandoned warehouse. We have 16 staff including myself that supervises all health care facilities and administers any and all public health programs initiated by the Ministry of Health. We are understaffed, under-appreciated and underfunded.

I have been at the position for a month now and I have no clear definition of what I do. To give you a better understanding, I will just list some tasks I have been asked to complete thus far:

Written a proposal to conduct HIV/AIDS trainings to Village Health Workers and Nurses on the northern islands of the province

Created an evaluation form for all Dispensaries and Health Centers to be completed when our manager conducts his supervisory visitsCreated a legally binding contract for our new security guardRevised the Malaria Action plan for 2011Conducted 2 community mapping exercises in villages that are being targeted in a pilot program to improve primary health careWritten official letters on behalf of the manager to the Director General of the Ministry of HealthConducted 6 training sessions for the new Peace Corps volunteersI have no experience conducting any of these activities and I have felt overwhelmed and lost for most of the time here so far. However, it has been a wonderful way to gain experience and I truly enjoy the people and the work... I couldn't be happier.

Until next time,

Billy

To get a rosey view of Peace Corps service, Click Here

To get a jaded view of Peace Corps service, Click Here

Oddly, I can relate to both of these videos.

I have many problems with the local airline in Vanuatu:

They rely on government handouts to operate

The pilots look like washed up alcoholics

You can see in the cockpit while flying (FYI- Pilots can text while flying)

One pilot let my friend fly for a few minutes because she is cute

They like to fly in inclement weather

Their luggage includes live chickens and dead pigs

Their planes don't handle wind that well and subsequently scare the living daylights out of me

The runways are grass

The planes are made in China

I had assumed that these complaints only applied to the domestic carrier of Air Vanuatu because the international carrier appears to be a legitimate operation. It is ran by Quantas Air, Australia's leading airline, and has a (relatively) new looking plane and a real baggage check, security and all the other things we expect from an airline. However, my return trip home has changed my mind. Apparently, it is standard procedure to try to land a plane in the middle of a Cyclone. Add the fact the Port Vila airport does not have proper navigational equipment, I no longer have faith in Vanuatu transportation.

After two missed approaches, and a new pair of shorts, we had to got diverted to Fiji. I will be honest, I thought I was going to die. A 3-hour flight turned into an 18 hour ordeal. But I am back, I am safe, and I am happy to be back...

More posts to come about my new job, my living situation, and all other things Vanuatu! But if you are going to visit me, please fly Pacific Air.

Lukem Yu,

Billy

As many of you know, I spent Christmas in the United States of America. I describe how awesome of a trip it was, so I thought a Top-20 list of my favorite parts would have to suffice.

These are in no particular oder... Enjoy!

1. Eating southern cooking at ‘Husk’ with my Mom, Dad, Aunt Sue and Uncle Tom in Charleston

2. Giving traditional Vanuatu wedding gifts to all my friends that got married while I was gone. I knew that nobody was going to use them, but at least I had the most original wedding gift of all time.

3. Severn Admirals alumni basketball game.

4. Christmas Eve Dinner at the Hibachi Grill; A Christmas Tradition!

5. New Years Day… Hienz Field… Washington Capitals… Winter Classic... enough said.

6. Spending time with my high school buddies in Annapolis but not speaking to them until after the Caps vs. Pens game was over.

7. A Fran Ruchman Gala.

8. December 31st, 2010 (12:59:59).

9. Buck Hunter with Gary and the Goodell girls at Wing City (Gary got two 'Hunter's Hero' awards but I showed him up at the end by killing 25 of 25 turkey's).

10. Going over old family photos and learning about my Great Uncle Morris with Grandma Jo

11. A wonderful 3 day training session with the people over at 'Men Can Stop Rape'

12. The first time I heard the national anthem at the Verizon Center, I swear I almost cried... Amerika!

13. Finishing my Masters! That will (hopefully) be the last time I ever get a grade.

14. Saying 'Hi' to people and watching them try to recognize me. It was mean on my part but it provided quality entertainment.

15. Joss's Spring Role.

16. Pick-up basketball. I played every chance I could but it was obvoius I hadn't played in awhile.

17. T-bones buffalo wings with Nate-dawg and his lovely wife . Also, having the girl that sold me an ipod make fun of him relentlessly.

18. 10 hour road trip with my Mom and Dad (FYI- The trip should have only taken 8 hours).

19. Dog Park with Boss

20. Family Scrabble games... I lost!

As some of my loyal followers have noted, 2010 was not my best blogging year. I am not an expert or anything, but zero posts seems to be on the low side. Ideally, I was hoping to have enough followers that I could sell my blog and retire early like my father. I am not off to a good start:

My blog has been valued at...

$0.08

Blog Valuation Tool from BlogCalculator.com

In order to increase my following, my total number of blog posts, and my total Net-worth, I offer the following reviews for the year 2010. Enjoy!

November 2010

Nancy came at the beginning of November. She is awesome, and will be an amazing Peace Corps volunteer. What could have been a tough situation (I have heard replacement horror stories) ended up being extremely positive. I taught her a lot about the community, she took over my reading club, the village instantly loved her and she helped me facilitate the workshop that I had been planning for the past 6 months. She will be taking over the water project, and I am confident that the two of us will work together to get all the toilets and water tanks built as soon as possible.

Speaking of the water project, the workshop is called PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation) and is an amazing tool for international development. To quote my master’s thesis: Participatory Hygiene And Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) is an innovative process developed by the World Health Organization to address water and sanitation in developing countries. PHAST uses a methodology of participatory learning that builds on people’s preexisting knowledge and “innate ability to address and resolve their own problems”. The process uses pictures that are adapted to reflect actual cultural and physical characteristics of the communities in particular areas. The workshop organizes and empowers communities to manage their own water and sanitation facilities. PHAST has built in a component that promotes gender equality in the planning and implementing process.

The workshop was a huge success. The first few days I watched my village become excited about toilets, which I had been trying to do all year. It wasn’t until I stepped back and let them figure things out for themselves, that they were able to understand it! At the final day, the community figured out how many toilets they are going to build, where they will put the water tanks, who is going to do what tasks, and how they were going to monitor their progress.

At the end of the month I was ready to leave Fandue. We had one goodbye party after the other. It was really hard to say goodbye to the people in my village. I had lived there for a year and had grown close to a lot of people. I guess that is what happens when you only have 200 people in your village, you are forced to get to know them. I will miss my family a lot, and my neighbors. I was not really sad to leave. At the time, I was excited about going to the States, seeing my (real) family and having warm showers and decent food. Now that I have had all those things, I can’t stop thinking about what people are doing right now and how much I really do miss the ‘simple life’.

As some of my loyal followers have noted, 2010 was not my best blogging year. I am not an expert or anything, but zero posts seems to be on the low side. Ideally, I was hoping to have enough followers that I could sell my blog and retire early like my father. I am not off to a good start:

My blog has been valued at...

$0.08

Blog Valuation Tool from BlogCalculator.com

In order to increase my following, my total number of blog posts, and my total Net-worth, I offer the following reviews for the year 2010. Enjoy!

September 2010 After the camp, I hurried home to Ambae to attend the Grand Opening of my village’s new dispensary. I was asked to be an “honored guest” even though I had nothing to do with the funding, planning and/or construction of the building. I did, however, carry sand beach up a hill to make cement once or twice: But that doesn’t deserve any special honor. (Now that I think about it, I have only NOT been an honored guest at a ceremony once or twice since I started working in Vanuatu) It was a good event because I got to talk about my upcoming water and sanitation workshop in November. It was the only time the whole area was coming together before Christmas and I gave a much-needed announcement. There will be more to come regarding the workshop a little later in the email.

It felt like a week had past, instead of a month, when I boarded a plane to go to Port Vila and meet Danielle and Gradma Jo. I have been looking forward to my sister and grandma’s trip since they started planning for it in 2009. They could not have picked a better week to come. It just so happens that there was a special cultural festival that happens once every 4 years on the island of Tanna called the ‘Toka” the same week they were here. This is one of the only events they don’t advertise for tourists, so it is extremely authentic and culturally rich.

When they arrived, we spent a few days in Port Vila seeing the sites before heading to Tanna. Tanna is a cool place for 2 reasons. First, it is well known that they have held on their traditions and customs more than any other island in Vanuatu. There are still villages that dress in traditional attire (a leaf and a string) and they partake in custom ceremonies for everything. The second reason Tanna draws the most tourists in Vanuatu is because they have the worlds most accessible volcano. You literally stand on the rim of Mount Yassur and watch (and feel) the lava erupt from the lower cone hundreds of feet into the air. I cannot describe how exhilarating and frightening it is to stand on the edge watching to make sure the lava isn’t headed your way. Unbelievable. The Toka was cool too. The festivities included customary dances, the passing of the toka, the ‘mob’ of young boys with spears, coordinated ground shaking and, of course, the killing of countless pigs. Actually, I heard it was over 100! By far the favorite part of my time in the Peace Corps has been receiving visitors. Between my Mom, Dad, Grandma and Sister have all made the trip down and I am grateful they were able to see this beautiful country. I am saying this because I am officially extending a welcome to anybody who wants to come to the South Pacific and learn a little bit about the place I call home. It will be much easier to visit next year, because…

Around this time, I received some big news. The powers that be have asked me to move into Port Vila to work in a Provincial Health Center. This is a great opportunity for me and I am really excited to get this experience. I loved working in a village and I feel that I have learned a lot from the experience. But, I am really excited to work on a more macro level, things like policy and management of programs. Previous volunteers in this position have assist the local staff in all the health programs that are ran out of the office. Such programs include; Bed Net distribution, HIV/AIDS workshops, medicine distribution, nutrition education, NCD awareness and data collection. Having both the community experience, plus the government experience I think will benefit me professionally too in the long run. I couldn’t have asked for a better situation. I will be replaced by a volunteer from the new group of volunteers that came a year after we did. She will take over all my projects that I started and I am, now, unable to complete.

As some of my loyal followers have noted, 2010 was not my best blogging year. I am not an expert or anything, but zero posts seems to be on the low side. Ideally, I was hoping to have enough followers that I could sell my blog and retire early like my father. I am not off to a good start:

My blog has been valued at...

$0.08

Blog Valuation Tool from BlogCalculator.com

In order to increase my following, my total number of blog posts, and my total Net-worth, I offer the following reviews for the year 2010. Enjoy!

August 2010 August was my busiest month as a Peace Corps volunteer, which might not have been the best considering my doctor told me I could not lift anything over 5 pounds for the entire month. I never realized how physically demanding being a Peace Corps volunteer was until I couldn’t do anything physically. The people in my village were great though… they were extremely concerned for me and willing to do anything that was needed. My family especially would get water for me in the morning, cook and sweep, do my laundry, go to the garden, ect. My welcome in the village was amazing. There were rumors abound that my surgery was a near-death experience, so they were all relieved that I was alive and well.

I will admit that I pushed it a little bit at the beginning. I had a good reason not to rest though, we received extra PEPFAR (Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) funds left over and it needed to be spent before September! When we heard the news, a few of my friends and I decided on an ambitious schedule of 5 workshops in two weeks. It was an intense trip! We visited 3 villages in Ambae, took a boat to Maewo, climbed a waterfall, met some amazing people and informed 5 different villages on the severity of HIV/AIDS and what they can do to stop it. Part of me felt like I was on tour; we had celebrity status everywhere we went. Everybody wants to talk to us, find out everything there is to know about the U.S., and ask when his or her particular village will be getting a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Afterwards, I had a nice long 24-hour break before I was off again. I am a member of the Gender and Development committee and we have been running leadership development camps on for the past 4 years. They are a great way to teach young men and women about leadership, communication, teamwork, trust building, sexual reproductive health, domestic violence and just get together and have a good time. We work hard and we play hard. Between full-day sessions we teach them great American pastimes like ‘Capture the Flag, Ultimate Frisbee, Arts and Crafts, tie-dye and a pretty cool dance move called ‘Banana’s’. I am certain we are the only ‘camp’ in Vanuatu. Every year we hold a Training of Trainers (TOT) to teach other volunteers (and their local counterparts) how to run a camp in their village. This year, we went to the island of Malekula and worked with over 50 PCV's and local youth. It was a great camp, full of energy and amazing young leaders of Vanuatu.

2011 promises to bring a lot of new and exciting things: A Stanley Cup for the Washington Capitals, a new home for Donovan McNabb, unprecedented budget cuts, an overhaul of the metric system, and (spoiler alert) the death of Lord Voldemort. But of all those new and exciting things, I think 2011 is going to be the the year of second chances.

With that in mind, I am pleased to announce that 'Do you want to Vanuatu' will be getting a second chance. After some long and hard soul searching, I decided to give this blogging thing another try. For those of you who liked my emails, my apologies, but I have a feeling that this blogging thing might catch on in the Teenies.

Happy New Years everybody, I hope your 2011 is full of love, joy and happiness.

I am working at the Vandue Health Dispensary. I don't really know much about my assignment, but this is what I have gathered from the people I have talked to:

1. I don't have cell phone service and I am a 2 hour walk to the only other volunteer in my area, so technically I am a little isolated. But, I am a boat ride away from the Provincial Center and a Cargo Ship ride away to the other city in Vanuatu... Luganville. 2. I will be living next to the Dispensary.

3. There are 2 other Aid Posts about an hour walk up a HUGE hill that I am working with as well... I will have some amazingly defined calfs after 2 years.

4. The Provencial Center that is a boat ride away has a fancy store, a restaurant, a bank and post office. I will be there a lot but it is like 70 dollars to charter a boat. However, on Government PayDay's you can hop a ride with all the teachers that go to the bank and only pay 5 Dollars... So I will be going on Friday's every other week.

5. North Ambae has Black Sand Beaches

If you couldn't tell from the lack of postings on my blog... it has been a busy past couple of weeks...

Schedule:

10/21/09- Returned to my Training Village

A lot of tears, food and dancing. Unfortunately, I did not partake in the festivities because I was violently ill during our going away party. That night I had to go to Vila to get an IV and spent the night in the Peace Corps office. I was to sick the next few days to pack, so I had to make my Host Mama and Host Sista pack for me... I have no idea where anything is.

10/28/09- Country Director Issued our Site Announcements

I will be working the Vandue Health Dispensary in the village of Vandue, Ambae... YAY!

11/1/09- Came to Vila

Hectic... 9-5 training, trying to buy stuff for our site's and figuring out the logistics of only spending 10 dollars a day in a place that is 2wce as expensive as the U.S.

11/2/09- Turned 26!

Celebrated my Birthday by eating a Burritto, Drinking Beer and Playing Nerts... It ranked in the Top 5 Birthday's of all time. That doesn't say much because birthday's of the past have included 20 page papers, stomache virus's and George Bush getting re-elected to a 2nd term.

11/5/09- Officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteer's

Check out the Slide Show that I made for the occassion in the previous post.

11/9/09- Summed up the last 3 weeks of my life on my Blog

Similar feeling to when I packed all my earthly possessions in 2 bags.

We were sworn in yesterday by our Country Director and officially accepted by the President of Vanuatu. I have a few days left in the capital city and then I am off to my island of Ambae. I will post more about my island and job description tomorrow but I just wanted to let everybody know that I made it. Also wanted to give the link to the slide show from Vanuatu Group 22.

Enjoy

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=688364719474

As many of you might have seen, I haven't been on this here Internet thing in quite a while. I was actually in the Capital City of Port Vila a few days ago because I had to go to the Hospital and get my toe x-rayed. Among the many lessons I have learned in Vanuatu- If you are going to play futbol on a field with rocks against 15 of the local pikinini, you might want to consider wearing shoes. X-rays were negative (which is positive) and I was able to upload some pics on Facebook and let everybody know I didn't die in an Earthquake. Had no idea that that made it to the news back in the States. Anyway, I didn't bring any of my Blog posts the last time I came into town so I made sure to bring them now.

Right now I am about to go on a 3 day visit to a current volunteer on the island of Ambae. Our flight got delayed so I have been in Vila for the past 5 hours. Facebooked, Skyped, had a burger and a cold diet coke and thought I went to heaven. I will be back in town on Wednesday for an hour before I head back to my site. I will probably add more blog posts when I come back to Vila on Nov. 1st when we get sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers.

Until then,

Kalfou

Happy 60th Birthday to my wonderful mother, affectionately known to my friends as Mrs. D. I was able to sing her Happy Birthday in Bislama but I wish I could be there to celebrate. She will be in DC with Wesley and Lori and celebrate with them. I am one of the few peeps in my group that hasn’t gotten a letter or care package so I will post my address on the blog in a vane attempt to get some cool stuff. (Hint: Beef Jerky, Deodorant, AA batteries, Spices and anything else that screams USA!)

Billy DeLancey, PCV Peace Corps Private Mail Bag 9097 Port Vila, Vanuatu Ph.# (678) 26-160

Some other observations on the 1 Month in Vanuatu anniversary: I have a pretty awesome beard going and I don’t plan on shaving it anytime soon. It is hard to write a ‘Blog’ when you don’t have the internet and your just putting all your thoughts on a word document. I am going to an Island for a 3 day trip to visit another PCV and will be flying out of Port Vila, the capital city. If you are reading this post then I was able to sneak away and find an internet cafe. I would do absolutely anything right now for a Chipotle Burrito. Anything. I eat a lot of carbohydrates. Meat here is expensive and hard to get and because they are close to the Capital there is a lot of bread and rice. Taro, Manioc, Yams and Potatoes are also a staple because they are easy to grow and are available pretty much year round. One lunch my only options were Rice, Bread and Noodles. My host dad promised me I could kill a chicken before a leave, I told him I wanted to make sure it was a rooster so they would stop waking me up. My host mama, as sweet as she is, treats me like I am 8. She gets scared every time I use a knife and won’t let me go into the bush without somebody else. Yesterday, I had to walk a friend home after dark and she insisted that my sister come with me in case anything happened. I will be 26 in a few weeks and I needed an escort from a 14 year old girl and her friend. I smell awful People here are generally happier than the people in the U.S. They live off there land, put Family and God as their number one priority and are kind to each other. I think the country has like 50 police officers total and I don’t think there has been a murder here in years.

So I don’t know if you have heard it on the news or not in the US, but we have had some activity of the earthmoving variety down here in the South Pacific. First one we were under a Tsunami Watch, so somebody from the Peace Corps watched the water while we had class like 50 feet up from the saltwater (instead of actually on the beach, which we normally do). No Tsunami, but a few days later heard about the tragedy in Somoa, and if a 30 meter wave came our way we would have been in trouble no matter where we went. Last week there was another Tsunami Warning, this time the Earthquake was in Vanuatu off and island to the north of where I am staying. Well after last weeks news, the villagers of Emua didn’t feel like taking any chances and started to head for the hills. So I go back to town like 30 minutes before the Tsunami was supposed to hit and I saw my mom packing. I don’t mean packing like ‘grab the important things and go’ I mean she had like 4 bags of stuff. One kid in our village had a wheel barrow and that thing was packed to the brim. By the time we finally got out of there, it was a good 15 minutes after the Tsunami was supposed to come. Heading up the hill was not the best time in my life... it was raining, babies were crying, I fell down and I was cursing my mom for bringing the 2 bags of clothes I was carrying. Literally the second we got to the top I got a call from the Peace Corps saying the threat was over and no tsunami had come. By the time I cut open a coconut and drank it, the Moma’s of the town had set up a tent, busted out mats for everybody and had prepared lunch for everybody. It was pretty amazing how fast they got it all ready. So what was a pretty miserable and bitter experience ended up turning into a little bush party in the woods. One Volunteer brought a Portable I-Pod player and there might have been some dancing involved. The Moma’s loved my rendition of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’. Overall my first Tsunami evacuation was a success BUT I definetly wan’t to hold a workshop entitled “What to Bring and What Not to Bring in a Tsunami Evacuation”

Every Monday we get assignments that we have to present every Friday. This week we have to visit a local health facility and ask a series of questions and present our findings to the group on Friday. Me and a few other friends decided to go for a little boat ride to another island, Nguena and check out their health dispensary. Boat ride took about 30 minutes, and we had to hike up a bigfella hill which took a good 45 minutes. Once there we talked to the nurse who runs the place asking her all sorts of questions trying to figure out what a dispensary provides and what they can and can not do. In Vanuatu their are 5 hospitals, 31 Health Center, 84 Dispensaries and 208 aid posts. Aid post’s are staffed by a volunteer or a ‘Village Health Worker’ and they are supplied with common medicine, oral contraceptives and simple first aid stuff like cleaning wounds, scabies, Etc. If the village health worker can not help the patient, they are referred to a dispensary or a health center. A dispensary is staffed by one nurse and they can perform small surgeries like stitches and administer shots, Etc. while a health center is staffed with 3 nurses and they have a little more capabilities than the dispensary. If a patient is in serious condition they are referred to the hospital. But from what I have seen in regards to transportation if somebody has an emergency they better be able to endure a pretty rough ride to the hospital or they are in trouble. The dispensary we visited was pretty nice... 3 rooms and one bed in case the patient needs to stay the night. There was a problem with supplies because the gov’t was behind in refilling some basic medications but other than that I was kinda impressed. Made our way back down to the Ocean to catch our boat back to the island when I saw a sign for Tusker, the local beer in Vanuatu. Since our rule book of Peace Corps says “No drinking in the Village” nobody has had a beer in a while so I decided that it was about time I indulged myself. To make things even better it was cold, which is a rarity for Vanuatu. Enjoyed the beverage while sitting on the sandbeach and enjoyed an amazing view and as we took the boat back the driver gave us a little tour of the surrounding islands and we watched the sunset over the Pacific. The days were starting to drag a little bit and were becoming a little monotonous but I think the beer combined with the boat ride kinda refreshed me a little.

Until next time,

Kalfou

Here are some basic lessons about the lovely language of Bislama:

If you want to designate a possession you use the word blong, derived from the English word Belong.

My Mom= Mama blong mi My Book= Buk blong mi Your Book= Buk blong yu His car= Small fella truck blong hem I am full= Bel blong me i fulup

Bislama also has some pretty easy pronouns:

He/She= Hem You= Yu Me= Mi

Plaural is even better

Yufala= You Mifala= We Olgeta= Them

But the best part is that Bislama has dual and trial pronouns:

The 2 of us: Mitufella The 3 of us: Mitrifella The 2 of you: Yutufella The 3 of you: Yutrifella

That is it for now... Next Bislama lesson will deal with verbs. I will give you a hint though, most of the time you just take the english verb and add an -em to the end.

Wake up at 4 O’clock because the roosters crow and some brata of mine turns his truck on right outside my window and I hear that loud beeping noise that trucks make when they back-up. Still dark outside so I normally read by kerosene lamp or wait for the sun to come up and try to work out somehow. I didn’t bring any running shoes so I have had to get creative. By 6 the whole family is up and we normally eat breakfast around 6:30 or 7. I have Bislama Class everyday from 8-10 and after that we have a break from 10 until after lunch. We normally have an afternoon session where the Medical Office comes and gives us a talk on health issues or I go to another village about 30 minutes down the road and have training for our specific projects. On Monday, we are given assignments that are due on Friday so a lot of my ‘Freetime’ isn’t really free, were supposed to be working on what is due on Friday. So it is a little intense but not to bad. After Peace Corps class I normally watch the sunset on the beach with some of my friends or play futbol with the Pikinini and then walk home about 6ish when it gets dark. Dinner at 7 and then I am off to bed by 8 or 9. Anything past 9 is extremely late for me.

Our town is right at the base of a giant hill, so a few of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers decided to climb up and see the view. We met up at 6:30 and took some pikinini from the town to guide us up the ‘bigfalla hill’. A pretty decent climb, took us about an hour to get up to one of the peaks, then a good 30 minutes to get up the tallest. There was an amazing view of the islands directly north of us. I am told on a clear day you can see many more islands, but today had this odd mist/fog that made our view spectacular even though we couldn’t see to far. We stayed up there a little to long and only had 3 pikinini to guide us down and we got a little lost. I had to use my Bush-knife to cut a path through the bush. I also learned how to cut open a coconut which was pretty refreshing. Got home, relaxed... Did some laundry and fell asleep for a few hours, woke up and went into town and met up with my Bislama Teacher who promised to take me fishing... wait for it.....At Night, with a Speargun. Spear fishing is awesome. You get a waterproof flashlight, snorkeling gear and a spear gun and swim around until you find some fish. Since the fish are sleeping and they can’t see in the dark, you just swim up to them and shoot. Kinda mean but also pretty practical. We swam around for about an hour and caught two fish, which will be my lunch tomorrow after church. I am thinking that buying a spear gun, snorkeling gear and a waterproof light is going to be pretty expensive, but could definitely be my one big purchase here in Vanuatu. Needless to say, I felt pretty badass walking home with my speargun in one hand and fish in the other.

After a few Bislama lessons I thought I would give you the basic’s so when I come home after 2 years you won’t look at me wierd when I call children Pikinini or I refer to the ocean as Saltwater. Bislama only has a quarter of the vocab that the English language makes you use. So, they have to get descriptive. Its a principal known as Circumnavigate, which basically means if you want to tell something, and there is not a Bislama word for it, you just describe it. Some of my favorite examples:

Snorkeling Equipment- Glass of a diver, hose that you use to breathe and feet like a duck.

Self Defense- Time when another man tries to hurt you or your family you hurt that man so that he does not do that again.

Crowbar- The thing you use that is metal when you want to take out nails from wood.

Needless to say it makes for some very long conversations!

Ok, so I thought I would write another blog post after living in Emua for another week or something, but the Roosters started crowing this morning at 4:00AM and I can not sleep. For those who know me well, this is not surprising because I am a very light sleeper. But when these stupid birds sit outside your window and crow, I challenge anybody not to wake up. Of course, my host family is sound asleep.

So more on Emua:

At the center of town there is a store where you can buy soap, canned tuna, Bananas and the basic essentials. Close by there is a futbol field with the goals made out of tree branches and it is where all the kids play futbol. My first day I arrived I played soccer with the Pikininni and had a blast. I was laughing and screaming with the kids and taught them the “Everybody clap your hands” part of the Cha-Cha slide... but the game might have given me a reputation, some town people call me ‘Bigfella tok tok tumas’. I hope I can put some pictures up to describe the town and the houses people live in. They are mostly made of concrete walls with a wood and tin roof. Each house normally has about 2 to 4 rooms depending on the size and will have an outhouse and a kitchen near by. In town, I think some houses share a kitchen with their neighbors, but I can’t really tell. It seems like your neighbors are normally somehow related so I don’t think sharing outhouses and kitchen is uncommon. The kitchen’s are my favorite part: it is a fire pit, a room to store the taro and manioc, and a sink area (normally a bucket). Due to the amount of smoke there is just to boil water, none of the kitchens are inside the house. When we found out that one PCV has an indoor toilet, we all got really jealous.

The town has a Chief (who is my Brata) and on Saturday he came to the Community Center where we have class and gave us a tok tok regarding the Chief system and how the town operates. There are a lot of Kastoms and traditions that need to be respected but it seems like a pretty efficient system. One thing I learned, when the Chief makes a decision in a Kastom ceremony, that decision is final. After his tok tok, the Chief took us on a little tour of Emua. He showed us where he was ordained by the past chief and where and how he slaughtered the pig. It was a pretty interesting... we joke that one day I will come back and he will ordain me as the new chief, but then he said I probably would be able to kill the pig, so it wouldn’t be official.

On Sunday my dad took me to the Presbyterian Church in town. My family is AOG and my uncle is Pentecostal but they seem to go to different churches depending on the day. A fellow PCV’s Mama was becoming a Decon so a lot of people went to the Presbyterian service because they were related (a common theme). The women sit on one side and they all wear their island dresses, the men are on the other side dressed in island shirts and a pair of nice slacks while the pikinini sit on the floor in the front. Before service starts, the people just sit there singing Hymn's with no Hymn books and in no particular order. When one hymn was done, there was a brief moment of silence then somebody in the crowd would just start singing a song she wanted sung and after a few seconds everybody had joined in. Luckily my dad, uncle and small cousin had to leave early so we only stayed an hour and a half... It looked like the service was nowhere close to being done.

After church we went back to our house where we had a big feast that fed close to about 30 people. That is where I got my Kastom name that I talked about in the previous post and they gave me a flower necklace with real flowers and a peice of local fabric. My mom said she would make it into an island shirt if she has time.

Anyway, life in Emua is pretty amazing. People here are happy, kind and life is simple.

Until next time...

Kalfou

I live in a little small station about a 10 minute walk outside the town of Emua. There are about 5-6 families that live out here and they are all related. In fact, I think I am related to everybody in my village (Peace Corps told the host families to pretend like we are sons or daughters). That means I have to call everybody by there family name... Moma, Dad, Small Mama (Aunt), Big Papa (Uncle), Brata, Sista, Cousin Brata, Cousin Sista, ect. Since my papa has 11 siblings and my mama has 7, it gets a little confusing. My family also gave me a Kastom name, so nobody refers to me as Billy anymore. Small Papa Kert told me that they threw the name Billy in the water and fed it to the sharks... my new name is Kalfou Kalmire (Kalmire is my last name).

My host family is amazing! My Mama is really helpful: she has taught me the essentials like how to cook Lap Lap, wash my clothes, use a Kerosene lantern, ect. My dad and brother and sisters are great as well. We walk to Emua to buy bread, walk to Church and just ‘Story-on’ (That is an actual verb in Bislama). I have 2 sista’s and one brata. Oswal, my brata, is 22 and works in New Zealand on a farm 7 months out of the year, He just got back on Friday. Apparently a lot of Ni-Vanuatu men work in New Zealand during harvest season to. I want to find out more about this but don’t know how to ask so look for it in a later blog post. My sista, Lucy is 13 and was supposed to go to school on a different island last Friday, but her plane was cancelled because nobody will cut the grass on the airport runway so she has to wait another week. She is sweet but is really shy and won’t talk to me. She is starting to sit at the dinner table when we eat but she is a really great and helps me out a lot with common tasks. She fixed my kerosene lamp tonight after like a good thirty minute struggle with the wick. Lucy does however, laugh at my Bislama when it is particularly bad. Her and Cousin Brata George found it particularly funny when I asked if I could eat my flashlight.

I am actually picking up the language pretty quickly and everybody tells me ‘Yu tok tok gud Bislama’ but I can’t tell if they are being nice or not. It is 9 O’clock here and that means it is WAY past my bed time (not kidding) so I will have to talk about Emua the town another time.

Hope the US is good,

Kalfou

After 5 days here in Bluewater, we are saying goodbye and heading to our village for Pre-Service Training. It is weird, it has seemed like we have been in Vanuatu for a very long time. I think going into a new situation, the days seem to drag a little bit (especially when you are sitting through training from 8-6) But once I get into a routine, time is going to fly by.

Bluewater has been great... I have gotten to know a lot of my fellow trainees, got to pick up a little Bislama and I have tried some interesting island food. Training isn’t so bad, although it just seems to drag on. We have received a lot of medical training which I think is awesome... We played Diarrhea Bingo, we had to administer personal Malaria tests (which involved drawing our own blood) and we had a Condom Relay Race. Other training has included PC rules and regulations, Bislama Lessons, Cultural Acclimation and Overall Safety. Also, we had a scavenger hunt around Port Vila on Thursday and afterwards we went to the Country Directors house and got to try some Kava (much more on Kava at a later date).

So a little bit about our PST-

There are 3 villages in the northern part of Efate where we will be doing our training... Samma, Emua and Pangnanesu. I found out yesterday that I will be living in Emua, with 11 other volunteers. Emua is the middle village and has a post office and a gas station, so were pretty big time. I have a host family that I will be living with for the rest of September and October. I am a little nervous because the past 5 days have really felt like a vacation to me. A bunch of american’s living in an island resort with a bar, running water and a private beach hasn’t been to shabby. I think it will hit me once I am in town, living with my host family and standing up to use use the bathroom.

We arrived in Vanuatu today at 10:00AM (September 13th) after a good 24 hours of traveling. Flying into Port Vila, which is on the island of Efate, was absolutely spectacular. Vanuatu is a Beautiful country and seeing it from above is indescribable. After we landed, we were greeted by Peace Corps staff and current volunteers at the airport. They gave us green coconuts and welcoming gifts and we chatted for a little bit and took the only group photo of all 41 of us. After all our bags were pilled into trucks, we got into buses to drive to our temporary home and a tour of Port Villa, the Capital City. While the Bus drivers were giving us a prepared tour, the current PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteers) were showing us the useful sights... where to get on the internet, which place sells pizza and which restaurant has a satellite that gets American shows, ect. After about a 45 minute drive we arrived at Bluewater Resort.

Bluewater apparently has seen some better days. The Peace Corps staff told a few of us that it has had many different owners over the past year and has been poorly run in the past. Each ‘Bungalow’ has running water, its own toilet, a porch and overlooks a lagoon. The main resort house has a bar with a fridge and a full kitchen staff, a private beach and a Shark Tank. The electricity doesn’t always work and the showers are freezing... but it was WAY nicer than what I was expecting.

There are 41 people in our group, affectionately known as Vanuatu Group 22. It seems like we got a good group of people from a variety of different backgrounds. It has been great to hear everybody’s stories and how they got to where we are today. It is also nice because it is like we have all been going through the same thing the last few months, the waiting, the anxiety and all that good stuff but nobody else we knew was going through it as well. It was an instant bond.

I am sitting in a lovely Sheraton Hotel Lobby 45 minutes away from my first Peace Corps orientation and I figured this will be one of my last opportunities to post for a pretty significant time. I have felt a lot of feelings in the last 2 months... Nervous, Excited, Anxious, Thrilled. Now, a little more than 24 hours until I step on a flight to Vanuatu, I am just ready to get this rodeo started... My schedule for the next week:

Friday Sept. 11th

From 9-4 I have orientation all day at the hotel we are staying at in LA. The orientation will cover the Background of the Peace Corps, Logistics, Safety and Peace Corps Policies. Directly after our training sessions, we leave for LAX at 4:30. Flight departs at 9:30 for Auckland, New Zealand

Sunday Sept. 13

It will still be Saturday for the people back home, but we arrive in Auckland at 5:25am and have a 2 hour layover until heading due north to Vanuatu. I am pretty excited to experience Time Traveling for the first time. We arrive in Port Villa, Vanuatu at 10:00am (which will make it Saturday 7:00pm EST?!?!?) We then take a short(?) bus ride to our accommodations located 45 minutes north of the Capital City. From our welcome letter, "your orientation accommodation is “no frills” and the food will be island style, so keep the expectations in check and be prepared to try some new foods." Perfect! After lunch we have the rest of the day off.

Monday Sept. 14th- Friday Sept. 18th

Vanuatu Group 22 has its arrival orientation the next day starting at 8:00am. In our 'No Frills' accommodations we will be learning all about basic safety for a volunteer, hygiene, local diets and whatever else the US Government feels we need to know. On Friday, Sept 18th our group is split into 4 smaller groups and we go to the north shore of Efate Island to live with our host family for the next 2 months.

I probably will be able to make it to the internet at some point during the first week, so I will try to put a post up to let everybody know that I made it.

Bon Voyage...

Ladies and Gentleman, we are on the final week until I board a plane to go to the South Pacific.

My Thoughts:

All my personal possessions for the next 2 years will have to fit into a Northface Backpack, a Carry On and a Suitcase. Oh, and can not weigh more than 80 pounds. For the last month I have been slowly downsizing… Putting all my winter clothes into storage, giving most of my stuff to goodwill and examining each thing I own saying, “Is this worth dragging down to the South Pacific?” Most the time the answer is no.

Things I am excited about in order are: 1. Meeting new and interesting people 2. My Job 3. Learning a new language 4. The island paradise that is the South Pacific 5. Kava

Speaking of my Job, I haven't really blogged about it because I am not quite sure the specific's yet. I am a Community Health Extensionist and that most likely means I will be involved in expanding the Health Program to a new province. The issues that we will be working on probably include Malaria prevention, Water and Sanitation Projects, Maternal and Child Health, Ect. I am using the passive voice because I don't really know for sure, but I will post more on the subject once I learn the details.

I am going to have a lot of free time on my hands. Everybody talks about what an adventure this will be and how exciting it is... which it is! But I have come to realize that my daily routine is going to be pretty slow and uneventful. I think this is going to be a nice change of pace for me because I feel like life has moved to fast these past 4 years.

I will not miss the Redskins and the Capitals as much as everybody thinks I will. While being a die hard fan means you are die hard... I want to think my priorities are going to change a little bit once I get down there. But if I find myself making a days trip by boat to check the scores at an internet cafe, then I probably need to re-evaluate.

About 70% of the people I tell have no idea where Vanuatu is, a good 25% say "wasn't survivor filmed there" and there is occasionally the person (5%) who will go "isn't that in the South Pacific"??? I am extremely impressed with the last 5% because I would have fallen into the 70% category. So here is what I know (or what I copy/pasted from Wikipedia) about the island:

Vanuatu, which gained its independance in 1980, is a Volcanic Archipeligo located in the South Pacific. It is 1500 miles east of Australia, 600 miles west of Fiji and about 1000 miles north of New Zealand. The island nation is comprised of 83 islands and has a population of roughly 240,000. The locals are affectionately referred to as Ni-Vanuatu.

The climate is sub-tropical with approximately nine months of warm to hot rainy weather and the possibility of cyclones and three to four months of cooler drier weather characterized by winds from the southeast. The water temperature ranges from 72 °F (22 °C) in winter to 82 °F (28 °C) in the summer. Cool between April and September, the days become hotter and more humid starting in October. The daily temperature ranges from 68 °F (20 °C) to 90 °F (32 °C). Vanuatu has a long rainy session, with significant rainfall usually occurring almost every month. The wettest and hottest months are December through April, which also constitute the cyclone season. The driest months are June through November. Rainfall averages about 93 inches per year but can be as high as 160 inches in the northern islands.

There are three official languages: English, French and Bislama. Bislama is a pidgin language, and now a creole in urban areas, which essentially combines a typically Melanesian grammar with a mostly English vocabulary. It is the only language that can be understood and spoken by the majority of Vanuatu's population as a second language. In addition 113 indigenous languages are still actively spoken in Vanuatu. The density of languages, per capita, is the highest of any nation in the world with an average of only 2000 speakers per language.

Also, check out the peace corps Vanuatu website... it has a bunch of information about the country and a lot of details about my assignment:

www.peacecorps.vu

Tata (that is Bislamic for buh-bye)

Thought I would put my first real blog post on the '1 More Month in the US' day... That is right ladies and gentlemen, I will be departing for the island nation of Vanuatu on September 12th.

Things I am doing to prepare:

1. I threw out all my cotton shirts and bought Under Armor ones... I hate Cotton!2. Researching the best way to get electricity. Right now it looks like its going to be a solar panel connected to a car battery connected to an inverter. Awesome!3. Buying a Camera4. Blogging5. Saying my goodbye's. This is actually harder than it seems because I want to make sure I say goodbye to everybody buy I am a little strapped for time, as you can see by the title of the post. 6. Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork.

Not only do I have a bunch of things to do for Peace Corps (Passport, Visa, Resume, Aspiration Statement) but I still have to deal with GW. This little trip is counting as my Internship so I have a bunch of things to do on the academic side as well. Somebody told me the other day that they feel college is important not because of the grades, but because of the administrative crap that you have to put up with. They argued that that prepares you more for the real world than the actual tests and papers. I don't know how I feel about that, but he was convinced he was right so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I have been avoiding the academic paperwork like the plague, so much so that my advisor just sent me a facebook message saying to turn in this one form I have to do! I Guess I will stop blogging and go do that now.

I think the most exciting part about my upcoming journey is the people I am going to meet and live with for the next 2 years. I will most likely keep the 'Who Who's in Vanuatu' as a recurring theme in my blog as I am sure you all will want to hear about the people that I am meeting along the way.

(Editors Note: Most of my information I am getting comes straight from wikipedia... I wanted to write things pre-trip about the island and its people so I can look back and see the difference between my perceptions as an American compared to how things actually are once I am living in Vanuatu. Eventually, the blog will transform to actual Peace Corps experiences but first I have to have actual Peace Corps experiences.)

The people of the archipelago, who number about 240,000 are known as Ni-Vanuatu. The population is predominantly rural, although Port-Vila and Luganville have populations in the tens of thousands. The Ni-Vanuatu are in the majority (98.5%) of Melanesian descent, with the remainder made up of a mix of Europeans, Asians and other Pacific islanders. Small numbers of French, British, Australians, New Zealanders, Vietnamese and Chinese also reside on the islands.

Apparently, Vanuatu has been voted the 'Happiest Place to Live' in the the Happy Planet Index based on consumption levels (?), life expectancy and happiness. I never give to much credit to 'lists' or 'rankings' but I think the #1 spot can be attributed to the Island Paradise they live on and the unlimited Kava (that will be a later post). However, most people I talk to who have experience in Vanuatu (about 3) have said that the Ni-Vanuatu are the nicest people they have ever encountered... So maybe the rankings got it right.

I guess I won't know until I get there...

As many of you all know, it has been a life long dream of mine to become a Pirate. So I decided to go to the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu because I figured that is where the most buried treasure is going to be. Due to all the increased Pirate activity lately, I decided to leave earlier rather than later, So I am outta here in exactly 6 weeks from today... YARR!

I hope this lovely Blog will be able to keep you all updated on my daily activities and give you a glimpse of how great of a rhymer I am. Enjoy!