Island Dresses!

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.

Lap-Lap

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).

Paunangisu Village

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!

Message from my trainers

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!

Bon Voyage!!

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!!

I have my plane tickets!

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

If you want to know more!

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

My assignment

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!

The package has arrived!

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!

Life is calling...how far will you go?

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!