First three weeks on Moso Island

Tue, Aug 8, 2017

I finally made it to site, Tassiriki Village on Moso Island.  The island is only about 25 sq. km. and is off the northwest coast of Efate.   Two villages, Tassiriki and Sunae, as well as two resorts, The Moso and Tranquility, are on Moso Island. Fewer than 300 people live here, and about 100 children attend the K-6 school.  While the island does appear on Google Maps, my village doesn't.

I live in a house which is very close to the water, maybe 30 feet.  There is a lot of foot traffic around my house because boats are used to go anywhere and I'm right by where the boats come in.

This is pretty much the view from my front door.  Mangroves protect the coast, except in several places where
they have been cut away to allow boats in.  The slope to the sea is gentle.  You can wade 
out a hundred+ feet in waist deep water, all on sand.

Thu, Aug 10

First day in the garden.  We bagged charcoal and planted some bananas.  Charcoal is a major source of income for some people, as is firewood.  (Some prefer charcoal for cooking because it doesn't produce smoke.)  My host family sells a lot of charcoal but they don't use it.

Uncovering the charcoal pit

Prepping bags for packing the charcoal while the pit is uncovered.The bags are waterproof chicken feed bags and cost 50vt each.  Bags of charcoal sell for 1000vt.

Making sure the charcoal has cooled enough.

You have to get in the pit with the charcoal after a short time.  It is dirty work! The three of us bagged 15 bags.

Getting the last large pieces out of the pit

Quality control.  Charcoal from partially burned wood is chopped off and bagged.  Wood that has not completely burned into charcoal is not used.  The music in the background is from a bluetooth speaker paired with a phone.

A cardboard lid is placed on each bag before being sewn up.

Fri, Aug. 11

Went to a wedding in Sunae.  It was a dual wedding.  The ceremony was Christian, but with some differences.  I'll just post this video for now.  The woman spraying people with baby powder is a normal part of these celebrations.  And you'll see there is a long line of people taking gifts to the house of the new couple.

Tue, Aug. 15

A coconut tree right next to my house was cut down.  They said the coconuts loudly falling onto my roof might bother me, which was really thoughtful.  The tree coming down created a flurry of activity and fun, and allowed me to see the top of a coconut tree up close.  I learned that the local brooms everyone has are made from the spine of coconut leaves, so I started making one, with the help of Neli.

An immature coconut

A coconut flower

Not sure what this part of the coconut tree was.  It was tough like leather.

Who needs a bouncy castle when you have a pile of coconut leaves to play on?

Leiwia holds an unopened coconut flower.

Cut open

Immature flower inside

The immature flower, opened up, was quite pretty, like a ... flower of all things.

Wed, Aug. 16

I learned to play peltanque.  It is like bocce ball.  Except the balls are metal.  Except the scoring is funny.  Except you use a cochonnet (a small ball) as the target at which you throw the balls.  Some of the guys here take it very seriously and they are good at it.

Playing peltanque.  The woman on the far right and her partner won.
I was more of a liability to my partner, but it was all fun.

Thu, Aug 17

I brought a few of these pods that grow on vines in the garden.  I asked what they were, and the answer was "I don't know," which rarely happens.  I've learned that if a plant is useful or dangerous, everyone will know what it is.  Otherwise, it doesn't matter much.

L to R, least to most mature.  The cap comes off just as shown, a perfect little cap.

Half of the outer shell removed.  Child's hand for scale.  (They're about the size of a large Kiwi fruit)

The insides, youngest to oldest.

Father and daughter

A father sits outside the kitchen, playing with his daughter.  To his left is an outdoor fire used mainly for boiling water.

Sat, Aug 19

On Saturday, August 19, Andrew installed a new solar freezer in his store.  It is the first one on the island.  It came with two 270W solar panels and two huge deep-cycle batteries, and is already stocked with ice cream!

Dinner with Ozil.

This is Ozil. Like many youngsters, he doesn't know Bislama and speaks only the local language.
Once in school he will first learn Bislama and later English and French.

Sun, Aug 20

The SDA (Seventh Day Adventists) began their three week crusade here in Tassiriki.  Every night starting at 6:00, they will be loudly promoting their church and beliefs.  I say loudly because I honestly can't believe how loud their sound system is, and that people don't complain about it.  The best part of the SDA's presence is that a number of families have built small "road markets" where they sell food.  I've been eating more cake since the SDA showed up, so it isn't all bad.

I cut off the footboard of my bed today.

My hair is long enough that the little girls want to try to fix it up and braid it, etc.  "Pinem" they say.  It just isn't quite long enough yet, though not for lack of effort.  I've never had my hair pulled and twisted so much.  We all laugh and it is fun.  I tell them it should be ready in "4 manis" (4 months) or so.

They managed to get one hairclip in.

Two girls, to my left and right, attempt to fix up my hair, again.

Mon, Aug 21

The class 1-2 teacher is out for the week at a workshop.  The headmaster is covering for him, so today I taught class 5-6.  There aren't enough classrooms for class 5 and class 6 to be separate, so they're all in one.  That was a challenge.  We worked on reading comprehension and math.  The class 6 students claimed to know how to calculate area, so I created a few problems to test them.  I don't think they really understand area that well.  Hopefully we'll have time to work on that more. The reading comprehension was mainly for the class 5 students.  I didn't like the reading comprehension questions in the workbook.  I thought they came out of left field and were unfair to the students.

Because of the way teaching is done here, students are not used to speaking individually.  In fact they seem scared of it.  Well, maybe caught off guard and unprepared, I don't think anyone had asked them to individually speak before.  Anyway it is really hard to get kids to speak up, and when they do they are really quiet.   That made it hard for me because the walls separating the classrooms do not go all the way to the ceiling and are thin to begin with, so there is a lot of noise to pierce through. I eventually coaxed answers out of a few of them, but only a few.

Tue, Aug 22

Someone returned with dozens of fish from a night of spear fishing.  Spear fishing is easier at night because the fish are asleep.  I realize that sounds like I'm kidding, but it is true, and people usually go at night.  You can just swim right up to a fish and put the spear next to its head and pull the trigger, instead of trying to chase it.

The "moustache fish" has what looks like a moustache.  The guy who caught them said this was is favorite.

Fish in the village sells for 500vt/kg.  It all sells quickly

I found a ripe papaya this morning.  Thank you, lord.  I also told Lulu I'd give her 50vt if she brought back a pamplemousse (grapefruit).

Wed, Aug 23

I brought out some face paint today.

Thu, Aug 24

Big work / cleanup day at school.  A new classroom is being built next month.  The foundation is done, but al around it are trees and brush that needs to be removed and burned clear.  This will give the workers clear access to the site, and is part of landscaping around the new building.  The kids in classes 4-5-6, the headmaster, a guy with a chainsaw, and myself all worked.  We got a lot done and the site looks much better.  A New Zealand aid organization will build the building.

Class 5-6 students relaxing after work.

Don't know what the skeptical facial expressions are about.

A woman in the village died.  She was 73 years old and had 6 children. Her name was Flora.  They don't go for euphemisms here.  She died, there is mourning and wailing, then people get over it and move on quickly, relative to Americans.  There will be five days of feasting, where the community brings and makes food at her house, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The dead are entombed in concrete.  The coffin is placed in the tomb on top of a mat, and calico is placed on the coffin.  The lid is poured on top of a piece of plywood reinforced with rebar.  Here, it is still drying and the supports are still in place.

The following day the tombstone was erected and some men carved a memorial into it.  Note the mold for the concrete cross on top of the tombstone.

The completed tombstone

Fri, Aug 25

No school today.  I was going to come to Vila, but the funeral was today so I stayed.  I went snorkeling in the morning and tried out my spear gun.  I had to first walk down past the school (about 15 minutes) before I could use the spear gun as the waters in front of the village are protected.  I managed to get one fish.  It was so pathetically small that I left it for the scavengers.  On reflection, I should have brought it back for Crayon, the family cat.

Crayon the family cat

Later in the afternoon, Neli and I finished the broom project. Another volunteer wrote that you know you're in the Peace Corps if your best friends are a six year old and a cat.  So I am in the Peace Corps.

The finished broom.  Neli is a great help in many ways, and a fantastic 7 Lock player (a card game).

Sat, Aug 26

Back to the garden.  Let me first clarify that this is farming.  The Bislama word is karen, and kinds of sounds like garden but without the 'd'.  But it is hard, manual farming of bananas, coconuts, manioc, tomatoes, taro, and so on.  It is not optional work in a decorative garden, it is how they make a living and feed their families.

Working in the garden is one of my favorite things.  We only planted one small banana today (Terry makes a point of planting something every time he goes to the garden), and dug out two yams.

I have to stress how much work is involved in digging out yams.  Yams here are 3 feet long and grow straight down.  You can't break them while digging them out or they lose value at the market.  Yams are big but not very strong.  You have to dig out a very deep hole, but also do it carefully.

Tae Ito (brother Ito) with a yam he just dug up.

We gathered and husked coconuts, and burned the brush and ground where the next crop of yams will be planted.  The ground is burned to clear brush, but more importantly to kill bugs.

Terry owns the boat people use to get to their gardens on Efate.

Noel's garden, a boatload of tomatoes, lettuce and some corn.  The tomatoes were delicious.

Terry burns the brush and ground where the next yams will be planted.  The fire is started along one side.  As he rakes it across the plot in a line, more fuel is added to the coals to keep it going.  Coconut husks are good for burning.  The ground is burned to kill bugs that eat yams.

Sima sharpens a stick to be used for husking coconuts.

A wheelbarrow full of coconuts.  Terry burns out brush.

The pit where we make charcoal.  Not today though.

At the end of the day we enjoyed some roasted manioc and tomatoes.  Those bunches of bananas are heavy.  Actually a whole bag or bunch of anything is heavy.  This is hard work, but we were all in a good mood.

Sun, Aug 27

It rained a little bit last night, but not enough.  Now is the dry winter season and we need rain.  The island depends on rain water to fill rain tanks. Most tanks are empty, and if we run out we'll have to boil all water (from wells, and slightly saline) before drinking it.  That means more gathering of firewood and few glasses of cool water.  A couple days ago a bell was rung many times in quick succession.  I'm familiar with most of the bell sounds, but that was new and it was at 6am.  I learned it was to announce that the cyclone shelter's water tank was available for use.  I went to find a line of people, tea kettles in hand, waiting for water. That should tell you how little water is left, that water for the cyclone shelter is crucial were a cyclone to hit.  The low water availability and that we're out of cyclone season now influenced the decision I'm sure.  One positive about the dry season is that there aren't any mosquitoes right now.

What a man pointing to a rain barrel looks like.

What a man with a tea kettle looks like

The sea was placid this morning, making for good snorkeling.  I'd heard about the giant clams but only found them this morning.  They're right out of science fiction, easily two feet across.  No pictures yet.  I thought something like that would grow slowly and be decades old, but they're only 8-9 years old I am told, and aren't yet mature enough to reproduce. I touched some lightly and they closed slightly, or just retracted their flesh a little.  Others somehow knew I was near and would close up more, though I didn't see any close up completely.

I also learned that the people of Moso Island are running a giant clam repopulation project.  Not that the project is gigantic, but the clams are.  They're giant clams.  At some point all of the giant clams were taken, probably to decorate people's bathrooms.  All the ones I saw are the group that was placed there 10 years ago, when they were the size of a cell phone.  They're big enough now that we need to move them so they have more space between to grow, and we will also brush and clean them to prevent parasites.  They're so large that they can't be moved by hand.  A boat above, a rope lowered below, tied to the clam, and the clam dragged.  There are about 70-odd giant clams out there now.  Hard work but that's how they're moved.

A group of women from the Solomon Islands visited the women's group in the village this afternoon, and held a workshop on different methods of coloring fabric and making patterns on it.  They used paint instead of dye.  The workshop was well attended, with many women taking notes on the techniques used.

Drying in the sun

In this technique, the wet fabric is spun by hand into a spiral.  Paint is poured on top, the item is flipped,
 then painted on the other side.

The result of the spiraled fabric from the previous photo

Fabric is placed over a piece of wood with patterns cut unto it (see below).  A roller has been coated with three colors of paint, and is rolled over the fabric, resulting in patterns of color and texture.

One of the patterns used for the roller technique

After fabric coloring I kept heading NE on the village's main path.  I learned that this is the place to be when it is hot.  The constant breeze was refreshing, and the village had built some benches there to enjoy it.

Mon, Aug 28

I felt a small tremor this morning.  First one I've noticed since I've been here.

I came to Vila this morning to run a couple errands and buy a few things.  In the boat were two sea turtles caught the night before.  Turtles are easiest to catch when they're asleep.  I know they're strong swimmers and can bite so I asked how they get them into the boat.  Terry showed me how you just grip their top shell with one hand behind the turtle's neck, and the other at the tail end, then point the turtle up.  The turtle then wakes up.  Unlike fish, turtles can't really twist, and only swim forward.  The turtle will take you up with it to the awaiting boat where another person hauls it in.  I'm assuming the turtles will be eaten for the last night of the 5-day funerary feast.

Both of the turtles were still alive and uninjured.  They are simply completely helpless out of water.