November 30, 2008
WOW… has it really been more than a month? Where do I even start blogging?
First off, my training is over! Group 21B of Peace Corps Vanuatu officially swore in on 11/27/08 (Thanksgiving)
we're a good lookin' bunch
Tomorrow, I’ll be going to the island of Pentecost, which will be my home for the next TWO years.
a map of vanuatu (pentecost is the red one)
a map of pentecost
More on my future home after I’ve lived there for a little while. For now, I’ll recap some things that have happened during training in my random bullets.
1) My job description entails teaching computer classes at a secondary school and assisting neighboring schools with any computer-related problems. Unofficially, I’ll be hanging out and just experiencing an awesome culture.
2) My host family in training has been a really great part of my Peace Corps service thus far. I really hope that my next host parents are as awesome as my training host parents.
a bunch of us saying goodbye to our host families after the end of training
3) My host village was the staging village for Survivor Vanuatu! It was season nine in America and they also had versions of Australian and French Survivor here too. It’s funny because a lot of the custom introduction that’s given is very theatrical. The chief speaks very good English (they don’t let him speak a word on the show) and not everyone is wearing custom grass skirts and leaves to cover their “taboo places” (the Bislama word for baby making factories).
3) People in Vanuatu are extremely passive aggressive. They’ll never tell you that they have a bone to pick with you but they will tell their brother, uncle, next door neighbor and pet chicken that they do so that eventually it might somehow get to you. Then you can fix it. Sometimes it’s really frustrating for me as an American because in America, that might be considered going behind someone’s back. In America it means you don’t have the cajones to go to a person directly to express your dissatisfaction. In Vanuatu, you have to take that indirect approach because most Ni-Vanuatu are just not confrontational. It’s a head scratcher but it is what it is.
4) When you travel, never overpack. This is probably the most valuable lesson I’ve learned in the Peace Corps so far. Do you really need 3 pairs of shoes, 4 pairs of sandals and 6 backup pairs of waterproof hiking boots? NO! Bring only what you absolutely need and either buy the rest of it if by chance you do need it when you get there or just deal. You probably don’t need it so just forget about bringing it.
5) I’m both nervous and glad to be going back to my site. It’s on one of Vanuatu’s more populated islands but it’s still very rural. Some of the villages do traditional land diving, which is like hardcore bungee jumping using ropes made out of vines. To quote Gwen Stefani… B-A-N-A-N-A-S. It doesn’t start until April though so I won’t be able to blog in depth about it until I’ve watched it then. The main moneymaker for the island is planting, growing and selling kava. I do plan writing a long entry about Vanuatu kava and about its strong cultural significance sometime after I’ve been here for about a year.
Meh. That’s it for now because I’m rushing to get it up before I leave. If you wish to send me anything, send it to the same address as below (emails included) until I get a better idea of my new address. Below, there are some more pictures from random points in training.
Cheers,
E
baby powder is the weapon of choice at weddings
and so is banana goop
a bigfala chief in vanuatu
roastin' fish over a fire
coconut trees makes a picture look nice
