Vanuatu

Living here is close to living in a place where money isn't an issue. I realize I am living a charmed life here. I mean, our host families and the Peace Corps provide a great deal of support. But still, on a day to day basis I am starting to get a feel for how one aspect of life is different here for many ni-Vanuatu. People here don't have two jobs. They don't have to go work on Saturday or Sunday (as in go into work at an office, but Sunday truly is a day of rest here). They aren't drowning in debt or worried about foreclosure. They don't own a car or truck and don't have a lease or monthly payments. Most days, food is gathered from a garden or from the bush. Fish is caught from the ocean. The coconut, which really is the tree of life for the island, is plentiful. In Vila, this is different and people buy their food, but here in Epau most families grow and sell aelan kakae (island food), such as manioc, taro, island cabbage, and various fruits. It isn...

After 10 days of intensive cabana boy training at the Holiday Inn, tomorrow we return to our training villages where we will officially be Cabana Boys. A note about the language here: "ol man" refers to everyone, not just men. Interestingly the Ni-Vanuatu have also come up with a gender neutral pronoun that isn't just "it". Anyway, both men and women are Cabana Boys, which is not only the official Peace Corps title, but also approved by the GAD committee because reasons. For the first time in their lives, four newly minted Cabana Boys contemplate a life outside the Holiday Inn. Cabana boys must keep up with popular culture in order to be conversant with guests. The Holiday Inn values us as cabana boys and isn't making leaving any easier. Tonight they served dinner on the beach. It looked like a wedding dinner, with all of the chairs covered in those special form fitting tablecloths made for chairs. And not only did they bring out the mango and coconut...

Tropical Cyclone Donna spun up into a Category 4, then this afternoon went right into Category 5.  The cyclone is still located to the west of Vanuatu, and for now is still slowly headed south.  The operative word here is slowly.  In Port Vila, it has been raining pretty much all day, and it has been windy too.  The weather isn't especially bad so far,  no more than storms in Minnesota. But the trainees and volunteers have nonetheless been moved to safer locations ("consolidated").  Why, if the weather on the islands isn't worse than an average storm would this be necessary?  Imagine you're at a county fair, and you go to the midway stall where the carnie guesses your weight.  You've managed to squeeze into jeans too small, and in spite of all the cheese curds and funnel cakes today, at the right angle you still think you look good.  The carnie calls 'Next' and there you are, under his gaze.  You suddenly realize that to the trained eye ...

The village of Epau has a multiple water sources, each of which is important and used differently. Rainwater is collected by rooftop water runoff configurations that drain into rain barrels. Not every house has a rain barrel, so neighbors freely use one another's rain barrel water. There are two rainwater barrels at the town aid station, and at least one at the school. Collected, untreated rainwater is suitable for drinking and cooking.   Rain doesn't interfere with play in the village.  It gives the kids an excuse to play with their umbrellas. Salt water (solwata) from the ocean isn't consumed or collected. An abundance of fresh water from rain means no desalination plants are needed in Vanuatu.  However a healthy ocean fish population is an important source of food and income of  the ni-Vanuatu.   Anthony demonstrates the homemade speargun with flashlight that his older brother made. (Spear not shown)    Two of the 20-or-so fi...

Cyclone Donna is for now staying westward, away from Vanuatu. The likelihood of having to evacuate to Australia is decreasing. We're still at the Holiday Inn, where a Coke is $5.00 but a round of golf is free. So Matt and I played the par-3 9-hole course. Waiting for Cyclone Donna to pass This was the most fun I've had playing golf. We played barefoot, even though danger grass was everywhere (it has little thorns, but I'm trying to toughen up my feet), it rained the whole time, and in technical golf rating terms, the course ah--well, it was rustic. I'm not a golfer and didn't care. I'm playing golf on a South Pacific island, what's to complain about? Drai leg (barefoot) golf is the best golf By the end of 9 holes the weather was getting more Caddyshack While playing, we found two large coconuts. In spite of our lack of experience, we managed to husk them with a bush knife (machete), carve a hole into each and enjoy coconuts on the beach after a round ...

Aelan kakae, or island food, is the typical food that is grown and eaten by the ni-Vanuatu. Taro, manioc, yam, papaya (popo), coconuts (coconas), fish (fis), oranges (aranis), bananas, grapefruit (for this one, they use the French name of pamplemousse), sweet potato (kumala), green onions, pineapple, breadfruit (bredfrut), and island cabbage (aelan cabis) are eaten by everyone. Aelan cabis is not cabbage. It is a bush, but it is very good, and cooks up to something like spinach. They grow pumpkin here too. With the soil and weather here, most everything grows. Papaya trees grow like weeds. Eating breadfruit is like eating clay. Since most vegetables are root vegetables or need ro be cooked, fresh veggies aren't really a thing here. I never saw a salad. The word aranis means orange, but only refers to the fruit. Arenj refers to the color orange. Rice, bread (made from the usual suspects of flour, sugar, etc.), and biscuits are not aelan kakae but are also common. There is...

Donna has already churned herself into a Category 3 Cyclone. FWIW none of us wanted to come back to the Holiday Inn. It is nice, but we can't leave and we're all going stir crazy. We really would rather have stayed in our respective villages. Its just like Hotel Rwanda! Worse yet, we're probably going to be evacuated to Australia soon. While I have always wanted to see the place, we will probably be in a similar lock-down situation there. Since my iPhone is dying, I'll see if I can get a new phone for a decent price there. The prices on Vanuatu are really high. Most of us have diarrhea. And for many of us, including me, while it was manageable in the village, it has worsened along with Donna since we returned to Port Vila. This is surprising because washing one's hands wasn't really a thing in my village. I haven't mentioned the PC staff here. They're ni-Vanuatu who work for the PC. They're all great and working 2x as hard as anyone. And t...

Tropical Cyclone Donna has been upgraded to a Category 2 cyclone. It is expected to intensify into a Category 3 in the next 24 hours. The cyclone continues to move slowly and is expected to intersect the island of Efate (where I am, in Port Vila) on Sunday-Monday. PCVs from the northern islands are in the process of being moved to Port Vila. Currently the weather here is pleasant, about 80 degrees with a light breeze. See the earlier weather post with Vanuatu weather links. The windy.com has a 'play' button in the LL corner. Check it out to see where and when the cyclone may go.

The tropical storm has been upgraded to a category 1 cyclone named Donna. Here is a screenshot of the text message everyone received: Cyclone warning text message A category 1 cyclone is the weakest kind, but it is still a cyclone. It is moving slowly, which means it does more damage. It is headed toward Vanuatu. We're still at the Holiday Inn, where we've been in language classes much of the day. An EAP has been declared, which means for one thing that we can't leave the hotel--er... Resort. There is a casino here and the desserts are usually pretty good. A Coke is $5.00, and laundry is $4.00 per load ($4 for wash, another $4 for drying). "It isn't the mountain that gets you, it's the pebble in your shoe." - Muhammad Ali. While the cyclone is being taken seriously, nobody is panicking, flights are still operating, etc. It is just kind of windy and rainy at this point. There are families on vacation who are here, enjoying themselves. Well, as mu...

Ive only been through two weekends in T'Pau, but both were marked by a lack of music. I mentioned the music in church, but other than that, nobody was producing music. It is really unusual to me to see no band or just some guy playing the guitar or whatever on a weekend night. Even if someone is playing just for themself or for friends, theyre still playing. I never saw anyone with an instrument, heard one, or heard someone talking about one. Is this normal? I mean, have the ni-Vanuatu never been musical? Did the early missionaries convince them to stop? If they've never been musical, isn't that really unusual?

Here's a Vanuatu weather site that's been recommended: http://www.meteo.gov.vu/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx This one looks pretty cool too: https://www.windy.com/?-17.733,168.317,5 I mentioned yesterday we were evacuated because of a possible cyclone. The key word here is possible. They use odd language to describe how it develops. "The system is decreasing in disorganization" or something like that was used. An experienced PCV here told us that was bad, because it meant instead of being a bunch of disorganized clouds and wind, the storm was shaping into something, namely a big spinning funnel. Also, only the PCTs were evacuated. The PCVs are all still in place. If there was pending doom, everyone would be gone. As PCTs, we're very green and honestly just liabilities for the villagers hosting us, so it is better not tot take chances and get us out before a cyclone comes (if it does). Lastly, we're past the end of the cyclone season, and it is unlikely thi...

I havent posted since my last post because the Holiday Inn Wi Fi stopped working, and there was no connectivity at our training village of Epau. We abruptly learned early this afternoon that a tropical storm heading our way was starting to look like a cyclone. The PC evacuated all trainees back to the Port Vila Holiday Inn, and we'll probably be here until Sunday. Maybe the Wi Fi will even keep working. What PCTs fleeing a hurricane look like. So while it may look like we just hang out at this resort, we've all been living with our own host families and having adventures. I've been writing notes on my Ipad about the adventures. I didnt write every night. Most night I didnt write. Many times i am just done with the day, or we have some evening session or function. Anyway, here are the notes I did write. Tip: PST=pre service training, PCV=peace corps volunteer, PCT=peace corps trainee, which is what We are until we're sworn in. Friday, April 21 Today my group, the ...