Vanuatu is full of customs and traditions. There still is a strong focus on preserving these traditions but including some newer ideas and twists. We recently had a big celebration. One of my sisters was "blocked." This is the Bislama way of saying she's engaged! The ceremony to "block" a woman involves work on both sides of the family. Our family prepares a banana laplap kworo to give to the family of the man. Bubu Madeline is putting thick coconut cream on the slabs of banana laplap. Three whole chickens were placed on top before they leaves covered them.Flowers and colorful leaves are used to make the bundle look fancy!

Here is the father of the groom. He traveled from his island of Malekula with his wife to do the ceremony. They brought yams, custom mats and money to give as gifts. People from our village came to witness.

Here is the groom and his father giving gifts to members of the brides family.The mother of the bride, Bubu Nancy, receives her mats, buckets, yams and money from the groom to be.

Gifts were given to each of the bride to be's uncles as a thank you for raising her.

After the groom's family was finished Cheif Jeconiah gave a talk thank you and presented the kworo laplap to the family of the groom.

Here is my new "taewi" and his mom.

And here is their son David Moli with his grandmother (Bubu) Nancy.

Life on the island is very simple. Most families garden to have plenty of food to eat. To eat a balanced diet our sources of protein vary. The locals have pigs, goats and chickens as domestic animals. We can hunt wild pigeons and flying fox (bat). We can look for crabs living within the stones, gather shells, and fish. Cows are killed on special occasions or for funerals. Occasionally even a dog or cat can become a meal. The local stores do sell tin tuna, spam, corned beef, and eggs too for those that are "wealthier."

But, a lucky hunter or gather might stumble across the infamous coconut crab in the dense bush. These are the world's largest land-living arthropods. They can get up to 9 lbs! According to Wikipedia: "a coconut crab cuts the coconuts from the tree to eat them on the ground. The coconut crab can take a coconut from the ground and cut it to a husk nut, take it with its claw, climb up a tree 10 m (33 ft) high and drop the husk nut, to access the content inside. They often descend from the trees by falling, and can survive a fall of at least 4.5 metres (15 ft) unhurt. Coconut crabs cut holes into coconuts with their strong claws and eat the contents, although it can take several days before the coconut is opened." I am not sure if that is necessarily true but it sounds good!

They live in holes they dig in the ground and hide inside during the day. They come out to feed at night or after rain. My Papa is quite the avid hunter. He makes sure our family has enough meat for balanced diets, to Ni-Vanuatu standards. One night while going out to catch smaller crabs he found a delightful treat!

This is no ordinary crab. It is HUGE, thus we have to have a big meal to go with it as well. Mama decided to make some yam laplap.

Here she is cleaning the skin off the yams then "ras ras ing" them to make the pudding like texture. While Mama was busy preparing supper I was busy playing with the kids. Charlotte and I went collecting pomplemous (our version of grapefruit), mandarins, and oranges for a snack. Joy Joy practiced her hair braiding on my luscious locks.

Noella, JoyJoy and Christiano also helped to de-feather the chickens! Mama Vira can't eat crab because she is allergic. We needed to have some meat for her as well!Mango the pig came along for a little belly rub too!

Mama made the laplap and wrapped it up in banana leaves. We decided to be silly and dance around the laplap Ambae style!

Now for the challenging part! Coconut crabs are STRONG! If that giant claw pinches you chances are high it won't let go. Mama needs to kill it so that we can then clean it.Look at her arm muscles. It is not making this easy for her! The kids and I crowded around to watch.

Here is a picture of cooked coconut crab. The yellow stuff is the crab's "balls" according to the locals. It is mostly fat that tastes creamy and slightly bitter. Bon appetit!

Thirsty?  The locals don't reach for water when they have been working hard all day in the hot sun.  To refresh they drink the water from fresh green coconuts!  

One way to get them down from the tree is to cut some foot holds in the trunk and climb their way up.  This works for my cousin brothers Daniel and Michael.

For taller trees (or those people that can't climb them) we use bamboo to "stick" the coconuts.  Here is Mama carrying the bamboo!  It is long and heavy.

With a few coordinated jabs you can get some coconuts to fall down.  Watch out they don't land on your head!

 

Now...what can be done effortlessly by Mama takes me about 10 minutes.  To drink the coconut water you have to cut away the strong skin first.  She and Papa guide me step by step and make sure to laugh at me the whole time!  

Now drink and enjoy!!  This water is better than Gatorade and free!

During the 2 week break between school terms Peace Corps volunteers gathered together for a Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and BILD (Boys in Leadership Development) at Vureas School on East Ambae.  This is part of the GAD (Gender and Development) initiative through Peace Corps posts around the world.  This one week camp is a way to build leadership skills, boost confidence, and increase motivation of local youth.  They are the future of the communities around Vanuatu but lack the proper working knowledge of what it means to be a good leader.We traveled from West Ambae to East Ambae by boat...an overcrowded boat that is!

Throughout the week we had various workshops to work on building up leadership skills.  Team building...

Communication and goal setting...Public speaking...Decision making...Trust...

Adolescent Reproductive Health...One day we even roasted our own lunch over an open fire!  Who needs plates when you have leaves?

We had time to play too!  We taught them how to do friendship bracelets and hair wraps...

 We made a banner and wrote thank you letters to the donors...

At the end of the week we had a closing ceremony where each participant received a certificate and award for their hard work and participation.  Here are my 3 village participants, Jio, Alice, and Soloman getting theirs:This camp was such a blast!  Not only did we get plenty of time to laugh and play but we learned lots of strategies to help guide us as leaders in our communities.  Yes I say "us" because I learned a lot too and I am already a good leader.  Our plan is to now run a similar camp in our village within the next few months.  Thank you to Mom and Dad who donated money to help pay for a chinese bag full of materials that will help us prepare for our camp on West Ambae.  This support will be appreciated by not only us by the members of the community that we will teach our newly acquired knowledge to!   

When you think of islands in the south pacific what comes to mind? Long sandy beaches? Lush green jungle? Tall coconut trees? The coconut trees here are amazing. Their trunks can be used for wood. The leaves for baskets, brooms, fire starters and mats. The coconuts are essential for drinking and food.

One of the most common ways for the locals to make money is by selling copra. Coconuts grow wherever one is germinated but the locals are proactive about planting them into plantations. When the plantations have lots of dry coconuts that have fallen down it is a perfect time to make copra. Copra is the dried "meat" of the coconut.

First the dry brown coconuts are heaped into piles. This in itself is a days work. Then Mama (she's the pro) will come through and chop the coconuts in half with one strong whack with an axe. I tried a few heaps. Each coconut took 3 or 4 whacks to break apart and I wasn't always right down the middle...oops. I also was so busy focusing on the coconuts that I accidentally stepped in cow poo...oops again.

Papa comes behind to lay out both sides of the coconut and take out any navara that has grown inside. Navara is when the coconut water starts to consolidate to make a cotton candy type consistency. The coconuts then dry in the sun for a day or two.

The next step involves a lot of team work. They do this together because they can talk and work at the same time and share the load. Using a special tool they scrape the meat out of the coconut husk.

The chunks of coconut "meat" are then dried using smoke from fire for a day or two. We are sorting the pieces to see which are finished and which need to be smoked more.

Papa is building the fire underneath the copra bed.

The dried copra is then sold to a local store. The locals make about 25,000 vatu (about 250 USD) per ton. The local store sends the bags to Santo island for processing. Coconut oil is extracted from it and the rest is used to make copra meal. This copra meal is full of protein but has too much fiber in it to be consumed by humans. The copra meal is perfect though for horses and cattle.

This is not an easy way to make money since it involves many steps and physical labor but if you put in the work you can get the reward. The locals work together to help each other and it can be a fun social event too.

As you may or may not remember my host family is HUGE! I have 4 sisters and 10 more cousins that live in our same yard. We started an after school program 4 nights a week to have an hour of practicing English. The kids enjoy showing off their hard work and I enjoy spending time with them every day. Here we are hard at work!

We squeeze together on the picnic table built by Bubu Fred. John Mark is the youngest at 2 years old going up to Michael at 13 years old.

Christiano and John Mark being hams for the camera! Apparently clothes are not required!

Noella and Joyline practicing handwriting

I work closely with Selena and Jerolyne because they are more behind in their reading. This is a good time to tutor them while the others are busy!

My old house was awesome! Hexagon shape...natangura roof...door facing the path towards the village center...good size for one person. BUT the roof leaked. A leaky roof means mould, mildew, and Chinese torture drip drip drip into bowls and buckets around the house. My counterpart felt sorry for me and built me a new house! Drum roll please....

This house is an L shape. There are 3 rooms (kitchen, sitting room, and bedroom). They plan to build a veranda (porch) in the coming months. The walls are made of meshanite and covered with a concret wash on the outside. The roof is made from natangura leaves and keeps a cool breeze passing through at all times.

Here's the kitchen!

I have my 2 burner propane stove, a place to wash dishes, a big drum for holding water, a food safe, and shelves hidden by turtle calico!

My sitting room has a table for eating and working as well as my comfy reading chair. Does this make me sound old? My Papa built me some bookshelves since I spend lots of free time reading. In the corner of the room I have hung all of the beautiful cards sent from friends and family since I have arrived. I get lots of snail mail!! Thanks everyone :)

My bedroom is a bit dark but perfect for sleeping in past 5 AM. I have my mosquito net covered bed which does wonders to block giant spiders, cockroaches, hornets, ants, millepedes and any other crawling or flying thing! I have a clothing wardrobe and table for storage.



Hung over my door I have a traditional red mat made on the east side of Ambae. This was given to me as a gift after I was a bridesmaid for my sister Losa. Her name was carved into the banana tree with the pattern for this special occasion!

Every saturday afternoon the Mamas come together for a "road market." Each one makes food to sell for cheap prices and we all sit together to chat and snack. This particular saturday the Mamas were taking turns weaving a floor mat. The leaves of pandanas trees are dried in the sun and used to make mats, baskets, bracelets, purses, and fans. The pandanas leaves need to be smoothed out and split down the middle first. Next they are joined together in a V shape to make it quicker to keep joining length to the mat. While some weave...others rest! I watched them work then asked them to show me. These mats are simple to make and so important to daily life here. They sleep, eat, and play on them and they are often used for gifts.

Every saturday afternoon the Mamas come together for a "road market." Each one makes food to sell for cheap prices and we all sit together to chat and snack. This particular saturday the Mamas were taking turns weaving a floor mat. The leaves of pandanas trees are dried in the sun and used to make mats, baskets, bracelets, purses, and fans. The pandanas leaves need to be smoothed out and split down the middle first. Next they are joined together in a V shape to make it quicker to keep joining length to the mat. While some weave...others rest! I watched them work then asked them to show me. These mats are simple to make and so important to daily life here. They sleep, eat, and play on them and they are often used for gifts.

In September last year I got to share my Peace Corps experience with my parents in person! This is an experience that cannot really be expressed with words. I can write about Vanuatu, show pictures, tell stories, etc but the only way to truly see what life is like here it to come. After not seeing them for a full year I was waiting anxiously for them to arrive at Walaha airport. My host family was just as excited to meet Mom and Dad as they were to meet my host family. Raul and Jerexylne, two of my cousins, welcomed Mom and Dad into our homes with traditional salu salus made from fresh flowers.

We spent time taking in the beautiful island paradise sights...Relaxing by the ocean at Devil's Rock beach...

Eating freshly caught fish...and experiencing island living with island baskets, hand woven fans, and bucket showers...

The community was thrilled to finally meet my parents that they had heard so much about and seen in photos. A big official welcoming was held in the church. The members of the community, including me, sang songs to welcome them. Mom and Dad even got a chance to give a speech!

After the welcome church service the community had prepared a big spread of food for everyone to share. This was Mom and Dad's first experience with laplap.

The kids were also happy to meet them and enjoyed chatting about movies!

Volovuhu School did a big welcome as well. They wanted to officially thank Mom and Dad for their contributions to the school library. A couple of the 8th grade boys ushered the two of them into the school boundaries then the whole school sang their welcome song.

Mom and Dad got a chance to visit each classroom. They sang songs, read books, and answered student and teacher questions about the U.S.

The teachers prepared a colorful lunch for us to share together and gifted Mom and Dad with a traditonal laplap (called kworo in local language) as a sign of their appreciation as well as some island baskets.One of my favorite parts of the whole week was seeing Mom and Dad spend quality time with my giant host family. I spend so much time with my host family in Tavala and they really support me so kindly. They have quickly become a true second family to me and I was proud to introduce them to Mom and Dad and vice versa. Now our families have truly merged into one.

Here they are making "storian" under a mango tree just like the locals. I think Chris is trying to get them to purchase land in Vanuatu!They had their first and probably last experience tasting kava freshly ground for us by Papa Tensley!There were plenty of random visits from the kids to see the token white people! Even baby Jenny warmed up to them eventually!Their time in Vanuatu was short but wonderful. Saying goodbye was emotion filled. More island baskets and custom red mats were given to Mom and Dad as a thank you for their visit and for allowing me to come live in Vanuatu. Bubu Fred was grinning ear to ear while handing over his gifts. Mom and wanted to give each family within my giant host family a small gift as well for their hospitality. They purchased some more durable mats from our local store to present to each family. Before our flight out we had one big family photo taken! This one will be frame worthy for the rest of my life.

Living on a semi active volcanic island is quite an experience. It is not uncommon to feel small earthquakes or rumbles in the distance. Because the volcano lets of steam almost constantly it isn't in much danger of a big eruption anytime soon. It hasn't had a big eruption in over 300 years.

The island of Ambae is actually a 1,496 m (4,908 ft) mountain called Lombenben. On top of this volcanic mountain are three lakes. The biggest is also the highest lake in the south pacific region. It is called Lake Manaro Lakua (this means big in local language). The next is called Lake Vui. It is a warm lake that has a layer of rock separating it from the lava that is not very thick. A small crack in that rock would cause quite a bang if the water were to mix with the lava. There is at third one called Lake Manaro Ngoru. This lake is dry 6 months out of the year and the other 6 months it is filled from a cold water spring. We set out on our adventure on a Friday night in November. I joined up with a couple Australian GAP volunteers to tag along with their tour guide from a nearby village. Andrea, the Health Aid Post worker from my village, came too. Friday night we walked about an hour up to one of the last villages. We settled into our tents early to prepare for an early wake up call.The real hiking began early Saturday morning. First we walked for 2.5 hours uphill!

Then we reached the top of Mt. Lombenben! At this point we were halfway there but the path was now covered in thick overgrown bush that went over our heads. The guide that was leading us hadn't been up there in 3 years so his path was a bit hard to follow. Using only their bush knives the boys slowly chopped away at the thick jungle. One boy would jump on the bush to push it down and a few others came behind to hack away. The cut vines were sharp and gave us lots of scratches and bruises along the way through behind the bushwhackers.

We moved at about the speed of waiting in line at Disney World for a popular ride. After about 6 hours of this our tour guides told us that we wouldn't be able to make it before dark. We agreed to spend the night in our tents up on top of the mountain. We set up camp and searched for firewood. It had also begun to rain so most of our firewood was now wet. A small smokey fire was all we could manage. So we all huddled together for warmth!

We woke up early the next morning for a fog covered summit. The young boys set out to finish clearing the trail and we tried our best to warm ourselves. It rained cats and dogs all night so we were cold and wet. Also we had only been eating crackers and peanut butter the whole trek so were were a bit hungry as well. I for some reason thought I wouldn't need my rain coat...silly silly silly. All I had for warmth was an extra skirt. It helped but wasn't the most fashionable outfit.

When the boys came back to let us know the path was now clear we set out on about an hour or so walk to finally reach one of the lakes. It was such a feeling of accomplishment when we finally reached the edge of the crater and looked down upon the blue green Lake Vui covered in a thick fog.

It took us another hour or so to make our way down the steep sandy slope to the water's edge. With only grass and old rotting trees to hold onto we had to take our time.

Lake Vui is a warm water lake that surrounds the smoking crater. There is a lingering smell of sulpher in the air which constantly reminds you that you are now standing inside a semi-active volcanic crater.

We waded in the warm water and took a few victory photos. What an accomplishment! We still had the long journey back home ahead of us. Andrea collected some of the water in a bottle to take back home. The Ambae natives believe this water has healing qualities. The boys rested in the warm sand because the ari was actually cold!

It started to rain again so we decided we should start heading back down. 7 hours later I was back home hungry, tired, and sore. But it was all worth it. What an adventure! I can't wait to hike it again and hopefully see the other two lakes.

During the big break between school years the locals use this as a time to get married. It is easier for families to travel because the kids are not in school and Christmas time is a time filled with parties anyways. This January we celebrated a dual wedding in Tavala village!

Getting ready...the beautiful bride is Losa, one of my cousin sisters. Her two flower girls are Eta (my sister) and Selena (my cousin).

Heading into the church!

The groomsmen and bridesmaids.

The first wedding was between Bubu Edward and Bubu Kwani. The second couple were Losa and Harry who are sitting in the middle. Mama Sara and Papa Hivo are sitting beside them as their witnesses.

The wedding was very westernized and spoken in English. They exchanged vows, rings, and were blessed by the pastor. The one change was the kiss! The man only kisses the woman on the cheek. I still cried!

Outside the wedding parties came to the reception area and it was time for cake cutting.The wedding party had to eat their cake and drink their juice first. The sun was scorching so we were using umbrellas as shade.

Then two custom mats are laid down in front of each couple and people can come give them gifts or money. Baby powder is used as a way to show you have been at a "lafet" or party. They always go easy on us "white misses" and don't powder us too much!

The family of the bride then sings traditional wedding songs in local language to signify they give away the bride happily to the groom. Bubu Fred (on the right) looks like he is texting! He says he was calling Papa Chris, who was spending the holiday break in Port Vila, so he could hear the singing.

Losa made a beautiful bride! Here she is with her younger sister Lulu and I.

The wedding was a beautiful and memorable day!



Lets meet the roomates and neighbors!

Lizards...

Spiders...

Crabs...Scorpions...Snakes...

Snails...Caterpillars...and Butterflies...

OH MY!

It is not uncommon to have "visitors" at night in Vanuatu. There are cockroaches, lizards, crabs, spiders, mosquitoes, and worst of all rats. They can be not only noisy but destructive. For my rat problem I got a cat and named her "Puss." Cats in Vanuatu are not like American cats. They mostly live outside. They eat table scraps and coconut flesh but their favorite meal is a nice big and juicy rat.Puss started out a small bony kitten. She refused to eat and cried all the time. She probably was given to me too soon because she wasn't able to find food on her own yet. I had to spoon feed her milk until she became stronger. But, when I saw her catch and eat her first lizard I was a proud parent.

Puss doesn't like to stay in my house all day. She prefers the bush kitchen where there are lots of children to drop food all over the place. But whenever she needs a quiet place to relax she comes to my house for a visit. When Mom and Dad were here she came almost everyday! Another favorite nap spot is right on top of a pile of rubbish!

Now that she is all grown up she has become a talented rat killer! This rodent was snatched right from behind my clothing wardrobe in broad daylight!

After playing with it she finally decided to bring the rat back inside to enjoy. How sweet!

The 2010 school year ended in December and we are now on break until February 14th. In Vanuatu their "big spell" between school years is during the holidays. I stayed on Ambae for an island Christmas but decided I wanted to keep working at the school. Using a reading assessment I found out what level each student was at. Then I grouped them together by ability. Then, three mornings a week, for 6 weeks, I held reading groups with every student that wanted to join! The Kindergarten kids were the most dedicated! This was their first time using the school's library. We read stories, sang songs, and practiced phonics. They never missed a week.

For students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade we practiced phonics, sight word recognition, spelling, reading and comprehension.

The older students, grades 4th - 8th, came to practice their English. We used a program called "Splash" which had great stories and activities to follow. The program encouraged them to use conversational English and practice their grammar. This was the first time that anyone had continued with school activities during the break in my village. In the two bigger cities in Vanuatu there are some opportunities to pay for tutors but never has it reached West Ambae. Students, parents, and community leaders were grateful for my willingness to take some of my time during the holiday break to continue teaching, for free. I was just happy to stay busy! It was lots of fun.

Christmas on Ambae was not even close to a traditional Vermont Christmas but it was filled with family, singing, and feasts! My Mama and I spent Christmas Eve baking cakes and other sweets for Christmas Day. That night the community joined together at the church and put the Nativity front and center to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas.On Christmas day we enjoyed a big feast with laplap made by me!

But, the best part of the day, in my opinion, was adding a little American custom into Vanuatu's celebrations. Over the past year I have slowly perfected how to make sugar cookies only using a big metal pot and fire! This holiday season we took it a step further and used cookie cutters to make shaped ones then decorated them. They came out beautifully!Our group was mostly my sisters, cousins, Mamas, Papas, and Bubus (grandparents). We used fake butter and icing sugar whipped together for frosting. I used my awesome art class skills from elementary school and only bought the primary colors of food coloring. Our "paintbrushes" were cotton swabs. This was the first time, but hopefully not the last time, in their lives to decorate cookies! They loved it!

The final products were colorful and delicious. Each person got to decorate two for themselves then any others they decorated they needed to say who they wanted to make it for. Overall we decorated about 100 cookies!!

Whitni came up to our village to join in and with the extra frosting we decorated one of the cakes my Mama and I had baked. Maybe we should start our own island bakery!

We celebrated the 100th birthday of my Great Grandfather (Bubu) David with style! Not only did we celebrate his life and accomplishments but his contribution to Vanuatu with his children and grandchildren.

Here are the men of honor!! My Bubu David is in the middle and his two only living brothers on the right and left.

A family tree was created to help count the number of grandchildren and great grandchildren he has. My Bubu (Grandpa Fred) has the most grandchildren to contribute to the count! I think all together we are over 20! Bubu David had 13 children and now has over 115 grand or great grandchildren!

Here is Bubu Fred with his father

Gifts in the form of laplap and custom mats were given to family members that continue to go above and beyond in taking care of these elderly gentlemen. A cow was killed and cooked for a big feast along with lots of cake! People brought small gifts for each of the men such as soap or clothes.

Some custom dancers from my village, Tavala, came to entertain. When you like their singing the custom is to "round" them by running and dancing in a circle. Some ladies from my village grabbed my hand and we joined in the fun!

After the day of celebration, and a big feast, we walked about an hour back to our village around sunset. These are the moments that I simply love Vanautu's beauty!

In December my Mama and Papa rented the village's "market stall" as a way to earn income. Each day they baked bread, served hot tea, sold raw food from their gardens, and occasionally cooked meals to sell to the villagers. On their last night they had a final fundraiser we call "closing of the stall." Excessive amounts of lap lap and rice were cooked and sold in single serving sizes. My uncle went out hunting "flying fox" (BIG bats) to be served with the laplap. The night before the fundraiser he went with a flashlight, slingshot, and small stones to find us some meat. First, their hair is burned off by passing them through a fire. Special leaves, called "leaf laplap" are used to cook things in stones so Bubu Madeline prepared the leaves and put some island cabbage inside them.

The flying fox were then added on top and a hot stone was added to the middle. Next, Mama sqeezed coconut milk over the food making lots of steam.

The parcel of cabbage, flying fox, and coconut milk is bundled and put between hot stones to bake along with the lap laps.

After about 2 hours cooking in these stones the laplap and flying fox are done! They are cut and portioned into individual servings to sell. Each flying fox is cut in half and joined with either laplap banana or manioc (aka cassava) and cabbage. Each is sold for 100 vatu which is about $1.00 to us in the U.S.

Flying fox meat has a very VERY strong smell and leaves you burping up that smell for the rest of the day. Some of the locals don't even like eating it. I have tried it twice, cooked in two different ways. Both times swallowing my single bite was almost impossible. Luckily at Mama and Papa's closing of stall we also had pig and fish to choose from. Yay!

In Vanuatu the end of each school year is a big time to celebrate. We come together to promote students from 8th grade into secondary school. To award students at the top of their class. To thank teachers for their hard work. To welcome new members of the community into the school committee. This year was the first time in West Ambae's history to also include promotion of Kindy to the big day of events!

With my crafty skills, and some construction paper from America, we made graduation caps! Calico was sewn to make sashes as well. Here we are busily getting the Kindergarteners and 8th graders ready to enter the church.Volovuhu Center School's Kindy Class of 2010

The 8th graders and Kindy students were the honored guests today so they were the lasts to walk inside.

Charlotte helped lead each of them to their seats. She was the usher because she was the first in her class!The Headmaster of the school, Mr. Jason gave a wonderful welcome speech!

I helped the Headmaster make graduation certificates for each student and we covered them with contact paper so they can last through Vanuatu's extreme elements. Here are 2 of my cousins with their certificates.

Charlotte Joy Here is Jordy recieving his 8th grade certificate!

In Vanuatu, each teacher ranks their students for each academic subject and then overall. First, second, and third overall get a small present from the school of stationary.

The 8th grade teacher also gets showered with gifts from the students parents.

After the gifts are presented, all students, staff, and community members enjoy a big feast of cow and rice. A cow is killed for the occasion and people come from all corners of the community to make sure they get to enjoy some fresh meat! Then the students play games while the parents meet 1:1 with their children's teachers to hear their grades. By the end of the day everyone goes home full and tired!

During Mom and Dad's visit they fell in love with my community. For Christmas they sent along a beautiful gift for everyone to enjoy! It is a nativity scene to display in the Church to help the story of Christmas come alive.I read Mom and Dad's letter in English and also translated it into Bislama for them to really understand the message. I wrote the translation and posted it for the members of the village to also re-read if they wished.The unveiling of the Nativity! The Pastor and leader of the Youth, my counterpart Chris, touched the gift as a sign of acceptance and gratefulness.

They were busy checking it out up close after service!

The community was so excited to have such a beautiful way to learn about the value of Christmas! Thanks Mom, Dad, and Grandma!!

After the students did their presentations we had play time! They call these "minor games" but they are like our field day games.

There was tug of war.

Relay Races

Blindfold games

Even the adults wanted to play!

Bucket ball (aka basketball on a budget)

A carnival game where you had to know down the coconuts shells

Some of the younger ones entertained themselves with a butterfly!

Others were just as entertained pointing at me and saying "tam tan" which means white woman.

In America we have Open Houses...in Vanuatu the school boundaries are off limits for anyone other than students. I helped my school try something new! We had an open day where the students invited their parents to come see what they have been working on. Here are some proud parents taking a tour of the classrooms with their children!

After a picnic lunch the classes did performances for the families. They were a mix of poetry, dramas, skits, readers theater, report presentations, and songs. The students were so creative and of course cute :)

The finalle was a skit done by the eight grade students about high blood pressure and how to get healthy to keep it down. Graham stuffed a pillow under his jacket to make him look overweight and after he followed the doctor's orders to eat lots of fresh fruit and exercise he was instantly slimmer (without the pillow for those that aren't following along). This day was a big success and I look forward to making next year bigger and better.

During the week we had lots of time to hang out and play too! Here are our hosts making french toast with fresh coconut on top!

We even made pizza!! We used Vermont smoked cheddar cheese, home grown basil, and a few local tomatoes. Yummy.

At Gambule School there is a statue that represents Vanuatu's motto "Long God Yumi Standap" which means "In God We Stand." It is a fund place for a photo op! My host Mama thought so too.



At one of the talent nights Justin decided to do a "magic" trick with the help of one of the men in his village. They made a very very small amount of coconut turn into a huge amount of coconut. The locals were scared and now think Justin knows black magic. I know the secret if anyone wants to know :)

Maewo was beautiful and the sunsets stunning (even though they are everywhere in Vanuatu).

When visiting other islands I always make sure I taste their kava...for culture learning only of course ;) So when I was in Maewo Justin made us Kava blong Maewo with the help of his host brother and papa. Earlier in the day the kava was pulled out of the ground. When it was starting to get dark Justin got to work.

First step: rinse off the dirt.Then cut the roots up into smaller pieces.

A piece of coral is then used to grind the kava roots into smaller pieces.

The kava is then squeezed and strained through a part of the coconut husk.

Next up...drinking! Individual shells are made and then directly passed to the drinker by the man that made kava. Your hands need to first be cleaned with water then you are ready to drink.

Usually men in Maewo face South and squat down while drinking but it is no longer customary.

The taste of Kava is definitely unique...but the result is pleasant. It is an experience worth trying!

During the Kindy Conference all the participants got together at night to showcase their individual cultures and activities they do with their students. This was a wonderful opportunity to learn about different islands because even though we are all within the same province, many Ni-Vanuatu people do not travel much outside of their villages.

Every evening began with singing praise and worship songs.

We get brownie points for being able to sing along!

Arleen is a VSA volunteer from New Zealand and she lives on the island of Santo. She has lots of suggestions to share and loves to jump right in! She danced with the one other woman from Santo to show a dance from there.

Then Arleen found two men to help her dance a traditional Maori dance that usually only men can do. One was our Kindy Coordinator for Penama Province, Fred (white shirt) and the other a Kindy teacher from North Pentecost island.

North Pentecost was full of energy! They did a mix of custom dances and some games they play with their students.

Next up...American culture. We don't really have "custom" dances for the US so the girls and I showed them a few things we do for fun to make people laugh. We lip sang the song "Shout" by the Temptations. Rachel lip-synced the lead and Sheridan and I were the backup singers. I think it was a bit too out there for the locals to appreciate. We might have even made a few small children cry (just kidding).

Next on our part was the Cupid Shuffle. This one was a fantastic hit and we even got a few other women to join us a few days later for an encore!

South Pentecost Kindy teachers showed us some of their rhymes and poems in local language.

Maewo Kindy teachers entertained us with rhyming songs and air band guitars made from stems of coconut leaves!

West and North Ambae Kindy teachers joined together for some custom dances.

It was such a memorable night for everyone with lots of laughing!

The Australia and New Zealand Governments have worked very hard to build up the Early Childhood Education programs here in Vanuatu. The Vanuatu government recognizes the importance of Kindy but only provides limited financial assistance for it at this point. Each Kindy is built and supported by its community which can either be a wonderful thing or more frustrating. Some communities embrace the schools and acknowledge it's significance but other communities think the government should be in charge. Every three years the Kindy teachers in Penama Province come together for a conference. They all have to pay their own transportation and do fundraising to provide food and facilities for the week. This years conferenc was held in Gambule, Maewo.

Before the conference began the participants arrived and paraded through the village with hand made banners chanting about the importance of Pre School Education. Their energy and excitement was uplifting.

We had a wonderful custom welcome from the chiefs of this village. They danced and dressed in ceremonial clothes to welcome the conference participants.

Customary salu salus were hung on all of the invited guests. This is a custom that we do for all big events. The salu salus are basically what we know as "leis" from Hawaii. They are made from local flowers and leaves and area always beautiful!

During the conference I ran two workshops. Each workshop I presented 6 times to 6 groups of about 10-15 Kindy Teachers from the three islands, Maewo, Pentecost, and Ambae that make up Penama Province. Each workshop session was 1 hour and 30 minutes. My first workshop was titled "Early Intervention." I talked about how to identify students that are slow learners or extra bright and how to use the activities they already use to build up areas of weakness. Here are a few of my chart papers in Bislama.

The participants worked in groups to match some of the pre reading, writing, and math skills that the Kindy students should master before transitioning to year 1 with activities to develop them more if they are weak. Then they took this list of activities with them home as a resource for using in their Kindys.

At the end of the conference we had our parade again and were given salu salus. The participants brought island baskets and various other locally made gifts with them to present to us as thank yous.

Most of my Peace Corps work is within the primary and center schools throughout West Ambae. But, we also have 15 Kindys in our zone area. The Kindy teachers asked me to help teach them about phonics and other literacy skills to help get their students ready to go to grade one. We did a 2 day workshop focusing on pre-reading skills and phonics. Here is the President of West Ambae's Kindy Teachers opening our time with a prayer.

My counterpart has a projector so I was able to make a powerpoint presentation and show it on the big screen. We made handouts for each school as a resource for them to take back later. 22 Kindy teachers attended!

Here they are doing some group work. They are thinking about the activities that they already use in their Kindys such as water play, drawing, blocks, etc. and how they can integrate pre-reading, pre-writing, and pre-math skills inside.

Here is one group presenting their ideas.

We also learned how to play some games to build up literacy skills through play. Memory match was a big hit.

I also gave them time to create some materials for their classrooms. I had collected cardboard for the past few months so they could make Bingo boards, game boards, flash cards, etc. I also gave them time to share some of their materials they already use to build up literacy skills. Volovuhu school has made books out of cardboard written in their local language.

Here is Chris working on a future workshop for us while I facilitate this workshop. Got to take advantage of the generator while you can!

At the end of the workshop the teachers presented me with a homemade cake and a small gift. In our culture when you lead a workshop you are often given an empty bag at the end. This represents the knowledge that you shared with them and they want you to go fill up your bag of knowledge again and share it with them at a future time. Laef i olsem long Vanuatu.

On one of our youth mission trips we went to East Ambae to a village called Nanigama. Myself and the teachers came back by boat so we didn't miss too many days of school. The youth from our village walked from East Ambae to West Ambae by passing through the South as well. While in the South they stayed for a week at an extended family members house. The group worked together to lay the foundation of this villages new church. When it came time for the youth of West Ambae to come back a few members of South Ambae joined them and came to visit us. During their month stay in Tavala village they lived in the church house and helped work around the village during the days. They helped to build the new market stall, helped in family gardens, and even cut the grass at school. Before they headed back home we had a big send off for them and chance to say thank you to them.

We called it a love offering and members of the community came and gave each of them clothing, money, toiletries, etc. One of the young boys was also preparing to go to Bible school so he was given gifts that would help him in his studies as well.

I have seen my community support each other many many times. However, this was an amazing display of gratitude towards these visitors. They were showered with gifts and given a ceremonial laplap called "kworo."

The leader, Joseph (in the red shorts), said thank you on behalf of the group and they sang a goodbye song that they had composed. It was a fun night and was a wonderful reminder of how generous this culture can be even without a lot of income or extra materialistic things.

Afterwards we enjoyed tea and bread together and had a little time to play!

When the doctor's office is over an hour walk away...they come to you! Every month the nurse team brings a scale to the village market house and does the baby scale to get a chance to check in on all the new babies.

With so many new babies in Tavala it helps the Mamas out a lot! Aren't they cute!

Here is Baby Eury, Mr. Vira's baby!! She is so cubby and cute :)

I live on West Ambae and a boat or plane ride away on the other side of Ambae is Rachel. She is a volunteer that has already been here about 2 years. I have been there to visit a few times and thought I would show you how the other half lives :)

Rachel's house is owned by the provincial government and has been a Peace Corps volunteer house for years. It is only about a 5 minute walk for her to get to the Provincial office where she works.

Her house has lots of modern day conveniences but not necessarily at our American standard of living. Compared to a long drop toilet and bamboo walls this house is "flas." She has some comfortable chairs, a sitting room, 2 bedrooms, flush toilet, cold water shower, and kitchen with a working sink.

This village has a large generator that runs M-F from 8:30 AM -9:00 PM and just in the evenings on Saturday and Sunday. Thus she can watch movies, use her computer, charge her phone, have working lights, etc. Lucky! No internet...yet...

It is a bit hot in there though...Rachel why don't you get an air conditioner? haha j/k

On one of my visits we had to wait for days because the ship didn't come on schedule (well it never comes on schedule). So in our free time we found lots of things to entertain ourselfs. My favorite was we watched the complete season 1 of Burn Notice. Even the yams became entertainment!



Even though she may have a fancy house, she still has some creepy neighbors!

One June 11 the Kindy students, teachers, and parents gathered together to celebrate the importance of Pre-School Education for building a bright future for Vanuatu's future leaders. It was a chance to come together as Zone 1 of Penama province. In this zone we have 15 Kindys, 10 primary schools, and 2 secondary schools. It was the first time in West Ambae's history for the schools to join together like this.



While we waited for all schools to arrive we had a snack break and relaxed. The kids love "gato" which is their version of a donut. As you can see they can be a little chewy!

The students lined up by school and proudly walked around the Navuti futbol field led by Sergeant Ben Takaro our one police officer for West Ambae.

Music was provided through a teacher's laptop and played over speakers. Technology is exploding here!

Here are the proud teachers from my school Volovuhu and our cute students!

The day was also a chance to honor the hard working teachers and their assistants from each school. They were given salu salus and certificates of recognition made by myself and my counterpart. The woman that cut the cake was the first Kindy teacher from West Ambae before Vanuatu gained independence in 1980!

The rest of the afternoon was a chance for each school to present some finger plays, poems, rhymes and/or songs that they have learned in their classes. Also parents of the students presented them with gifts. It was a fun day to show these students how much the community and familys support their education and also acknowledge the importance of attending pre-school. I hope we can celebrate like this every year!

Within the months of May and June there were 8 babies born in our village! Here are some of my favorites :)Meet Baby Junea! He is the first born of the year 7 teacher at our school Ms. Mebon. The woman holding him is Miss Jesinta another teacher at the school.Meet Baby Eurydice! She is the third child of the year 3&4 teacher at our school Mr. Vira. The woman holding her is her grandmother who is also the Kindy teacher at the school. Mama and big sister are on the right.Meet Baby Jeral! He is the third child of the year 1&2 teacher at our school who is also the Headmaster. His name is Mr. Jayson and his wife is also a teacher at the school. She teaches french and her name is Ms. Leisheila. Here is Mama and her new baby!

They are growing up so fast! Their personalities are starting to come out and smiles all the time!



Here is Ms. Mebon with her baby Junea

I'm a proud Aunty!Meet Baby Jessica! Here she is with her Mama and big brother and sister.

In local language they call her Jessica Kele Kele (which means small Jessica) and they call me Jessica Lakua (which means Big Jessica). Yay for having a namesake! I feel so honored!

The world cup only happens once every four years and for a culture that loves playing "futbol" (aka soccer) this is a big occasion. The chinese government (or some government) sponsored Vanuatu and made the World Cup accessabile on the outer islands. All we needed was a long piece of wood and an antenna which we could then connect to a small TV screen powered by a generator! I decided to use this opportunity to help build some worldly knowledge among my students. So we had a World Cup Flag making day!First I read to them about the meaning of flags and showed them some pictures of flags from around the world. Then they worked in pairs and made one big flag for each country playing in the World Cup. The younger students painted the simpler flags with 3 colors and the older students worked on the more intricate ones with colored pencils, crayons, and paint. We used a world map donated by my parents and 1970s World Book Encyclopedias from the library. A few flags were a bit out dated but we did the best we could! The students worked hard to make each flag look as close to the real one as possible! We had some great artists that were very serious about their handiwork.

For paint we used powdered poster paint that we mixed with water in coconut shells. The paint is perfect for only making as much as you need but the color rubs off the paper after if you are not careful!



The students spent a full afternoon working hard and even members of the community started to come in and join..The completed flags came out great and we decorated the market stall with them throughout the World Cup games. It was a great day that we will all remember for a long time.

Here is my cozy house on West Ambae island. It has a cement floor. The front half of the house has wood and tin walls. The back half and inside walls are made from woven bamboo.

The roof is made from natangura that has been woven and sewn onto the wooden beams. Spiders and geckos just love to hang out up there! It is a hexagon shape and has 6 windows. On a hot sunny day it actually stays resonably cool (you know like 85 degrees)!

West Ambae makes a special style of mats made from pandana leaves that they paint or dye red. I have never seen one made but I have heard that they carve the design into a banana tree trunk then press it onto the mat before they paint it red.

This is where I wash my dishes! The blue bowl is for washing and the pink bowl is for rinsing. The green bowl in the middle is where I put fruit to keep the critters out of my house (well or at least attempt to!)

And THIS is my "swim haos." We actually call it the bathroom on West Ambae. I carry a bucket of water from the water tank and use a cup to bathe. It works for what it is meant for and just that alone. Sometimes it even is used as a way for my siblings to start climbing up the guava and orange trees nearby!

The line I use to hang my clothes to dry is right next to my house. If it rains I hang them underneath a tin covered veranda at my counterpart's house. Saturday mornings is laundry day! It is so much easier to wash a little each week instead of letting it build up. I just fill a big basin with water and use a wooden plank to prop the clothes up on while I wash. I actually enjoy it. While here in Vila this week I paid to have a load washed and dried at the laundromat. $12 later I was LOVING the smell of the cleanest clothes I've had since September of 2009!

The front half of my house is a living room/dining room/pantry/kitchen! Here on the left side, as you walk into the house, I have this table that I use for doing work and eating. The chair is my favorite reading spot. My Bubu man Fred made both of these!

This is my wall of letters and cards! After I read them and write back I hang them on the wall. My host family loves to look at the pictures and sometimes tries to read them.

Here's my cousin sister Charlotte. She is in Kindy and starting first grade next term. She is 6 and loves to talk talk talk. One of her favorite things to look at in my house is my wall of letters! Her favorite is the one with baby Jesus (thanks Mom!). She also likes the singing cards (thanks Andrea and Mom & Dad!!).

Sometimes the kids come over and like to look at books, do puzzles, or color in my house. I also taught them how to play concentration (or memory) and they love that!

This is the right side of the front room and you can see my food safe and cooking area. The barrel is where I keep my water that I carry from the water tank. I only boil water to drink tea or eat oatmeal. I am eating lunch and dinner with my host family so as of now I don't cook actual meals in here.

Here is my food safe where I keep everything except for fresh fruit. The rats can chew through it if they really want to but if I block the top with things they tend not to be able to jump from the wall onto the top. Little by little I am learning how to outwit the critters!

On the door connecting the two rooms I have lots of pictures that people have mailed me and my calendar. Every day I write what I did that day on the calendar to help me remember in years to come.

Ok this is the second half of my house. It is seperated from the front half by a woven bamboo wall and the door above. This is the right side where my bed is and my clothing wardrobe (which Bubu Fred also made!).

Inside the wardrobe I can hide (oops I mean hang) my island dresses. Now that the rainy season is ending I am realizing I may need to reorganize. The rainy season did bring a large amount of mold that grew inside the wardrobe so I need to find a new place to keep my clothes!

On the left side of my bedroom I have a table and bench along the wall. I have a clothesline strung in here too to hang sweaty workout clothes or clothes that I may not hung outside for everyone to see (if you know what I mean) ;)

Here is my current collection of books to read. Well actually I've read half of these now...

The bamboo walls are covered with calico to make it more homey feeling. My counterpart decorated it for me so unfortunately I wasn't able to choose my design but that's ok! I get to have Christmas every day :)

This is my toilet! It is also called a "smol haos" on some islands. It is about a 1 minute walk from my house. It has a concrete floor which is over a long hole. The walls are made with cement brushed over burlap bags.

This is "the box." You can sit on it or hover but I keep it as clean as possible. Keeping the lid on helps to keep the smell down along with some bleach every week or so.

So there you have it! I glimpse into my everyday life. I like my house and am so grateful to have some space just for me.

If you are interested in sending things my way here are some ideas for things we can definately use! If you use flat rate boxes from the post office they seem to be the best deal. Send used items as well because even second hand to them here is much better than what we have access to!!

books, books, books (esp. easy readers, picture books, and reference books)file foldersnotecardsclear contact paperclear packing tapejigsaw puzzles

gamesconstruction paper or colored paper of any kindstickersold magazines to cut updollar store prizessilica gel packs to absorb moistureAlso here is my most up to date address if you are sending small packages or letters. For bigger packages still use the Peace Corps office address.

PO Box 33 Volovuhu School

Ndui-Ndui Post

West Ambae

Republic of Vanuatu

Thank you so much for all of your support and help so far! If you are unable to send items my way letters are always appreciated!

I heard about a TV show called "Meet the Natives" that is on the Travel Channel that features men from Tanna Island in Vanuatu while they visit places in the US. Check it out!! I know how much many of you hate reality TV but this one might be interesting. Enjoy!

Well my "vacation" in Vila is almost coming to an end! I have enjoyed the luxuries of hot showers, clean clothes, cold beverages and delicious food! Training was informative and fun. I loved hanging out with other PCVs and talking with family and friends back home! Now back to the real Peace Corps experience of dirty feet, hairy legs, killing cockroachs, outsmarting rats, eating rice, and talking in Bislama!

I will be coming to Port Vila again in May for in-service training with all of the teacher trainers around Vanuatu. Until then for the next 4 months I will be working on a variety of things.

School starts on February 15th so I will be:

teaching in the Volovuhu Centre School library with each class coming once a week and time for the community to come as wellworking with individual classrooms on literacy pre and post assessmentsdoing workshops on formative assessmentclassroom observations and model teachingmaking tippy taps for hand washing (see picture on the right)teaching computer skills and typing to the staffHere are some of the other ideas I have discussed with my counterpart but do not have immediate plans for yet:Ways to dispose of garbage and batteries (we currently burn everything! eek)English ClubWorking with students in small groups that need more assistance in literacyHelp find grants for getting our solar panels up and running againRe-opening the library in Ndui-Ndui that has not been used in a year due to a political issueCreating manipulatives and classroom resources out of local materialsVision and Hearing Screenings and finding ways of getting glasses for childrenMaking bread with manioc flour instead of white flourWorkshops on anything and everythingI am excited to go back to site and actually start doing what I came here to do! When I was on the truck headed to the airport 2 weeks ago to come to Vila a few of the villagers asked me "Where are you going?" I joked with them "Oh, I'm going back to America now!" They said "But you haven't done anything yet!" haha I guess I better get back there and start making a difference!

When the weather gets hot we head to the ocean! West Ambae is full of black stone beaches. As the "soltwata" tide comes in and out the big black stones capture it and make small pools to swim in. They aren't deep so it makes it very safe. No sharks allowed!

This is one of the many places we go to swim. Here is my host Papa and some of my sisters and cousins enjoying the refreshing coolness. The kids usually just swim in their underwear or naked. Everyone else just wears shorts and t-shirts.

The names of the kids starting from the left are Noella (6), Charlotte(5), Selena (6), Christiano (4), and Joylynn (5).

Here are Michael (12) and Jerekslynn (12) (not sure how to spell that one!) climbing up the rocks to look at the ocean. They are the oldest kids in our family. They are both my cousins.

This was baby Jenny's first time in the salt water. That is my host Mama and youngest sister (8 months)!

And apparently she wasn't a fan!

I look forward to more days at the beach to come!

I will be working at Volovuhu Centre school in Tavala. Our school is K-8 and has plans of growing to continue up to year 9 and/or 10. Here is the school's logo. They had a drawn version and I made it into a computerized one for them.

Mid November we celebrated the launch of our plan to promote health education within the school. The first step was for the school to build an aid post. This building is a short walk from the school and is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday during school hours. It has two rooms inside but is quite small. The first room is Andrea's desk and basic supplies for first aid. The second room has a bed as well as shelves for the rest of her supplies.

The aid post worker was trained in first aid and the basics related to malaria, infections, and is able to give out medication. Her name is Andrea and she is quickly becoming one of my good friends! Here she is receiving a gift of banana lap-lap to thank her for working at the aid post. She is in the brown island dress.

She is going to Pentecost island for 3 months of training and when she gets back we are going to make plans to climb to the volcano's crater on our island!

The ceremony to officially open the post was lots of fun!

One of the teachers (Mr. Vira) and some of the students performed a skit to demonstrate how in the past the villagers were not always receptive to visitors coming to their islands. The boys dressed in leaves and pretended to block the invited guests as they arrived by holding up pretend bows and arrows.

Here they are also banging a beat on the tamtams. These are hollowed out tree trunks and are used to form the beat for dancing as well as to announce many other things such as births.

These are the salu salu's that were made from fresh flowers to give to the invited guests. This is the National Flower of Vanuatu and many of you may have seen it on stamps that come when I send letters. I call it "friendship honey" because that is how it sounds but the name is spelled something like "Fragipane." It smells BEAUTIFUL!! The come in white and pink.

With every ceremony that I have seen so far in West Ambae there are generally the same order of events. The invited guests arrive (probably about an hour or two late...this country takes fashionably late to a new level!). They are given salu salus and sometimes fresh coconut water to drink.

Here the chief of Tavala is giving a fresh coconut to the doctor that works at the only hospital on West Ambae.

The ceremony is opened with a prayer.

There is always an MC. Then there are multiple speeches followed by presentation of gifts. Here is my counterpart Chris who I will be working with at the school. He was the MC and loves the megaphone!

Now the plan is to encourage members of the community to use the aid post. There is a very small fee to get a sore cleaned and bandaged. I think it is either 50 or 100 vatu (aka 5o cents or a dollar American). Also, the school will be doing more health education and I hope to be a part of that as well. First goal...get them to wash their hands!!!

As I am settling into my new home, each day brings new stories, people, as well as things to both teach and learn. Part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is building friendships within the community which then will lead to teamwork towards accomplishing goals of positive change. My first two months at site have been very VERY laid back. At times I find myself so bored that it makes me doubt my time in Vanuatu and it's purpose. However, in those moments I realize that I need to get up and out into the community. One particular day I was struggling and forced myself to go to the market stall and "storian" with anyone there. They told me that some of the Mamas were making thatched roofing for a local custom house. This is called pinning "natanguras" which are leaves from a special kind of tree. One of my sisters brought me up to the house where the Mamas were working.

The Mamas quickly cleared a place for me to sit on a bench (while they all sat on the ground!) and welcomed me. After sitting there for 5 minutes watching them all work hard I asked them if someone would teach me how to do it. They looked at each other shocked and almost speechless. My host Mama cleared a spot next to her and the other Mamas gathered all the supplies I would need.

Step by step my Mama showed me how to take the leaves and weave them onto the wild cane. You take a big leaf and 2 small ones together, you fold the leaves 1/3 of the way down around the stick of wild cane. They using a dull knife you cut a slit in the leaves and weave the "bun" of a coconut leave to hold it into place like a safety pin. The "bun" is the hard part in the middle of the leaf. They use this to make brooms as well.

This is Mama on the right wearing the purple shirt. She is my Mama but is 29 years old! :)

Here is the wife of Pastor Joel and their son.

As they showed me I modeled what they were doing and slowly but surely got the hang of it. As I made 1 they each made 2 or 3!Here I am finishing one. The woman with me is Mama Sunny. She is my Bubu because our Bubus' (aka grandparents) are siblings.

The finished products will be overlapped onto the roof of a house or bush kitchen. Roofs made with these leaves can last 20-30 years and amazingly keep the houses cool on hot days.

Some challenges with them is that spiders, lizards, hornets, and other critters enjoy them as homes. Also when the lizards or rats walk around on them it is noisy. Luckily my kitten Puss has scared away the rats for now!

Here is my finished handi-work! I made 8 in total. They count 2 for 1 so using their counting method I made 4. The family that the finished natanguras was going to was very grateful that I helped. They told me "you win" because many of the younger women and children do not know how to do this! The family that will be using these for their roof did all of the preparation work of collecting the leaves and cutting the wild cane and "bun" from the coconut leaves. They also provided lunch and dinner for everyone that was involved in making them. I ate dinner with them that night too. It was quick cook noodles and spam over rice...yum huh? All together that day the women made 150 (aka 300). WOW! I really enjoyed being able to take part in an important process in building a house or kitchen. Since that day as I meet more and more people they frequently say "I heard you helped pin natanguras!" This is one of the many things I will learn over the next 2 years. It is a great way to integrate into the community, learn something new, and get me up and moving or at least out of the house!

Oh the "Mother Hubbard." Island dresses are a staple outfit in Vanuatu. In Bislama they are called "aelan dres." Most of the Mamas wear them daily. In more urban areas skirts and shirts are more common for the younger generations. Island dresses are still worn to church and for special ceremonies. They are given as gifts at engagement, bridal, and marriage ceremonies.

Here is a link to a string band video where they are singing to the song "aelan dres" which was composed by a man from Paunangisu!

Mama made me a matching one for our first day at church together! I asked her why they are so big and she said it was so the wind can blow up them and cool you down! I think these dresses were introduced by the missionaries that came to Vanuatu. They hide the shape of a woman's body so they are more appropriate to wear then pants.

Here are some of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers at church on our first Sunday in Paunangisu. After church all of the Peace Corps members had to form a line outside and the whole village shook our hands! Hand sanitizer is very useful here!

Here are 2 island dresses my host Mama made and a shirt for my host Papa. She painted them herself and used stencils to write Vanuatu on them. This is the newest style of island dresses.

Often the Mamas make dresses and sell them for a small income or fundraiser for the church. Carolyn (a fellow volunteer) purchased this one for 1500 vatu which is about $15 American.

Side note: Check out the sunset in the background! I love the sunsets against the silhouette of coconut trees. It is stunning!

These next pictures are from our "last kakae" or feast in the village. They threw a big party to celebrate our last day in Paunangisu before we left to come to Port Vila.

This is Sandra! We went running together every morning. She is headed off to the island of Malakula. She is a fellow SHREP volunteer so we will have all of our teacher trainings together!

Our village had 15 trainees. We had 18 but 3 people have gone back to America. Here we are in our island attire for the last kakae!! Such a colorful bunch.

Now boys don't think you have it easy! You get to wear island shirts. My favorite is when the men pop their collars!

We often ask the locals...why don't island dresses have pockets!? They don't really have a reason that makes sense other than they just don't want them. Many island dresses have a little "flas" on them for fashion. We think they look like wings. At our last kakae we found out a purpose for them! They use them to swing their dresses while they dance.

This is my language training group. Linda is a local Ni-Van woman who was our teacher. We are at the University of the South Pacific for our swearing in ceremony!

Here we are! This is Group 22. We are the 38 new Peace Corps Volunteers of 2009.

Here is the whole process of making lap-lap the traditional dish of Vanuatu. It is a "pudding" eaten alongside the staple diet of fruit, fish, root crops and the occasional pig. Lap-lap is made from grated vegetables such as manioc, taro or yam which are soaked in coconut milk to form a paste. On special occasions, pork, beef, chicken, fish or even flying fox (a large fruit eating bat) may be added, or the paste may be sweetened with a few bananas.

Here my Mama (on the right) and my Auntie. They are making lap-lap banana. They are "ras rasing" unripe bananas with a special shell. This is hard work on the arms!

Here Mama is preparing the banana leaves. The mixture will be wrapped in these leaves and tied with vine to form a kind of parcel. She removes the hard stem of the leave to make it easy to fold. Then, the stems will be used to tie everything together.

Auntie is now arranging the leaves getting them ready to

place the lap-lap inside.

Next she milks the coconut. The dry coconuts have been "scratched." The coconut shreds are mixed with water. Then the two are squeezed together to make coconut milk.

Here the coconut milk is spread out first before the bananas are put inside the leaves. This prevents the lap lap from burning. It is similar to how we would use oil or butter in a pan.

Next, all the banana is placed in the big leaves. After the mamas ras ras the banana they use their hands to soften it and smooth out all the bumps. It feels similar to bread dough. Coconut milk is added to the mixture as well to sweeten it up. The lap-lap is then shaped into a rectangle shape.

Mama is cleaning the chicken wings in the back.

This lap-lap was being made for a fundraiser. Auntie put island cabbage, tomatoes, and chicken wings on top.

Now the big banana leaves are folded on top of the lap-lap. More coconut milk is added to moisten the leaves. Then the leaves are folded and tied together.

While they were preparing the lap-lap the fire was heating up the stones. Now the lap-lap is ready to be cooked. The hot stones are moved so that some are underneath.

The lap-lap is placed on top of the hot stones and then more hot stones are put on top of it. The stones have to cover every piece of the leaves. This will take about 3 hours to cook.

Here is the finished lap-lap! My favorite parts are where it is a little crispy and brown. The final texture is chewy and gooey similar to pizza dough that is not quite cooked all the way. This lap-lap was then cut up and sold for 100 vatu per piece (about $1 American).

Here is a little glimpse into where I lived during training!!

During our training we spent 6 weeks living with host families in the village of Paunangisu on North Efate island. This is the house that I lived in with Mama Monica and Papa Fred. My host Papa is a retired police officer. They have 4 children in their mid twenties but they are all living in various other parts of the island.

This house was built in 2003 by my Papa and his sons. It isn't finished yet. Inside the walls that separate the rooms do not go all the way up to the ceiling.

Here are Mama and Papa with me at our official swearing in ceremony!

Every morning my host Papa wakes up and rakes the lawn. My host family works very hard to make their house and yard clean.

Paunangisu is like the suburbs. It is about an hour or so truck ride to the capitol city. They have stores with small refrigerators so they can buy cold beverages, meat, fish, etc.

Here is a picture of their outdoor kitchen. The building on the left is where Mama stores some food and prepares it to be cooked. The building on the right side is the kitchen where they cook over fire or with hot stones. The building in the far back is a shed for storage. When the boys of the family get married they will live on this plot of land with their wives. The storage shed will probably be torn down and a house will be built in that part of the yard.

Here was my bathroom and shower. The toilet is called a "small house" and the shower is called a "swim house." I had my own small house but shared the swim house with my host family.

The shower was water from a huge rain water tank for the village to share. During the middle of the day you could almost take a hot shower because the water pipes are black and run along the top of the ground.

This was my toilet. To "flush" you just pour water from a bucket into it so it essentially works the same as a normal American toilet. I was special with a toilet seat...they usually don't have those.

At night there were always spiders in my small house. Thank God they only came out at night! I was ok with it because I knew they were eating the mosquitoes. Oh how I have changed! :)

Here is the "living room" of the house. This is where they store food and their extra plates, bowls, etc. Under the cloth is a TV! My family has a generator but they don't use it very often. When the generator is on they have 2 or 3 lights and this TV as well as a DVD player. They like to watch religious musical shows! Each room of the house is separated by either a door or a piece of calico. They use calico to decorate the walls too. Mats that are woven from leaves of pandandas trees. These mats are often given as gifts for almost every ceremony. In many houses they do not have beds and just sleep on the mats.

This is the kitchen/dining room area. This is almost equal to a porch in America. There is a 4 burner propane stove on the table that Mama used a lot. This is where vegetables and fruit are stored and where they do dishes as well. The ground is sand and they cover it with the mats. When it rains we have to keep our legs up on buckets so that those poisonous centipedes don't bite us!

The table cloth was hilarious. They asked me so many questions about what things were on it. It was a great conversation starter. They think that everything on this tablecloth is American. They wanted to know why the fruit looks so perfect...I gave them a mini lesson pesticides.

Here is my bedroom. It was a a comfy twin size bed. The room also had a plastic circle table with 1 plastic lawn chair. I had a couple smaller coffee tables that I put my clothes and toiletries on. The concrete floor was covered with something similar to wallpaper.

The red blanket you see is from the Peace Corps. The red fuzz gets on absolutely everything and the color bleeds when you wash it. It has already started to unravel and I have only used it for 2 months! My host Mama and I joked about the Chinese blanket and how cheap it is!

Here is my favorite accessory! This mosquito keeps away mosquitoes, spiders, centipedes, rats (called rats but they are really just field mice), and who knows what else!! It keeps me safe and happy!! I always keep it tucked in so nothing has a chance to get through.

These are the great wall decorations that my host Mama put up! Soccer is big around here. They call it futbol of course from that British influence. Depending on the place women are sometimes allowed to play futbol. Usually the women just play volleyball. I have always been really bad at soccer but maybe I can actually learn how to play now!

Just one more reminder before I go!!

My trainers in Vanuatu asked me to tell family and friends that no news is good news.

I will have very limited access to internet and supposedly none at all during my first 3 months of training. I will have some phone access and letters of course!! Love you all and I will be in touch as soon as possible!

I'm here in Los Angeles! Tomorrow I have a day of orientation and then the flight leaves at 9:30 PM to head to Vanuatu. I have already met a bunch of people in my training group. They are teachers, social workers, business professionals, environmental workers and more. We had dinner in the restaurant here at the hotel. Many of us went for the burgers! We have to get that red meat in before we won't have it for a while :)

I am excited that tomorrow is the day we leave!! I'll be in touch as soon as I have access again.

Here's to new friends, big adventures, safe travels, suntans, and lots of fun!!

The moment arrived! I am leaving Thursday for staging. It is going to be so exciting (and nerve wracking!) Here is the scoop:

Thursday Sept. 10th -- I from Albany NY at around 10 AM and arrive in Los Angeles around 3PM. I have registration for staging (it is like college orientation) at 6 PM. That night I stay in a hotel near the airport.

Friday Sept. 11th -- I meet up with the other 44 volunteers heading to Vanuatu. We have logistics sessions as well as ice breakers. This will be out last day eating American food!! Friday night we head to the airport around 4:30. I will finally be getting this adventure started!!!

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT ITINERARY:

11 SEP 09 - FRIDAY

AIR UNITED AIRLINES FLT:9549 ECONOMY MULTI MEALS

LOS ANGELES-AUCKLAND OPERATED BY AIR NEW ZEALAND

LV LOS ANGELES 930P EQP: BOEING 747 400

DEPART: TERMINAL 2 12HR 55MIN

13 SEP 09 - SUNDAY

AR AUCKLAND 525A NON-STOP

ARRIVE: INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL REF: EDCZ3H

AIR AIR NEW ZEALAND FLT:878 ECONOMY BREAKFAST

LV AUCKLAND 735A EQP: AIRBUS A320

DEPART: INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL 03HR 25MIN

AR PORT VILA 1000A NON-STOP

Here is a website with lots of info about Vanuatu.

http://www.peacecorps.vu/

Here are direct links for:

Stories from past and current volunteers: http://www.peacecorps.vu/experiences.html

Info about the language Bislama: http://www.peacecorps.vu/bislama.html

Details about their drink Kava: http://www.peacecorps.vu/kava.html

I accepted the position immediately! I want to know as much as I can about Vanuatu before I go. Here are the most important details for now!

Country: Vanuatu

Project: Strengthening Human Resources through Education Project (SHREP)

Job Title: Primary Education Teacher and Literacy Trainers

Dates of Service: November 2009-November 2011

Orientation Dates: September 12, 2009

More details to come!

Applying for the Peace Corps is not as easy as one would think. There are lots of hoops to cross through! I applied in October, had my interview in November, got my medical packet in December, completed all heath requirements by February, and finally got my medical clearance 8 weeks later in March! I am a patient person but waiting to find out the fate of your near future is stressful. So imagine my excitement when my invitation package arrives! This package would include my placement, job description, and departure date. This package would either be my future or I would be back at square one.

Drum roll please...

The moment arrived on April fools day of all days. But, we all knew this was no prank. I opened it up with Andrea by my side. I have been accepted and offered a teaching position in Vanuatu!! This was exactly what I was hoping for!

When I was a kid I dreamed about helping feed the homeless in Africa. I had heard about programs like the Peace Corps and was very intrigued. My parents would mention, "what about the kids in our country." So, I pursued that passion to help others by getting my teaching degree and working in both public & private schools with special education students. Last summer when I realized that I was comfortable living in Colorado I had mixed feelings. I was excited to have found a place to be that was both comfortable and adventure filled. In Colorado there are always new things to learn and try. However, I am a person that likes to have challenges and goals to strive for. I wanted to plan for a new adventure. Peace Corps had been on the back burner for long enough. It was time to make the steps towards an experience that would be like none other. I was going to apply and see where the wind blew me!