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.