Early Childhood Education Conference

The Australia and New Zealand Governments have worked very hard to build up the Early Childhood Education programs here in Vanuatu.  The Vanuatu government recognizes the importance of Kindy but only provides limited financial assistance for it at this point.  Each Kindy is built and supported by its community which can either be a wonderful thing or more frustrating.  Some communities embrace the schools and acknowledge it's significance but other communities think the government should be in charge.  Every three years the Kindy teachers in Penama Province come together for a conference.  They all have to pay their own transportation and do fundraising to provide food and facilities for the week.  This years conferenc was held in Gambule, Maewo. 

Before the conference began the participants arrived and paraded through the village with hand made banners chanting about the importance of Pre School Education.  Their energy and excitement was uplifting.

 We had a wonderful custom welcome from the chiefs of this village.  They danced and dressed in ceremonial clothes to welcome the conference participants.

 Customary salu salus were hung on all of the invited guests.  This is a custom that we do for all big events.  The salu salus are basically what we know as "leis" from Hawaii.  They are made from local flowers and leaves and area always beautiful!

 During the conference I ran two workshops.  Each workshop I presented 6 times to 6 groups of about 10-15 Kindy Teachers from the three islands, Maewo, Pentecost, and Ambae that make up Penama Province.  Each workshop session was 1 hour and 30 minutes.  My first workshop was titled "Early Intervention."  I talked about how to identify students that are slow learners or extra bright and how to use the activities they already use to build up areas of weakness.  Here are a few of my chart papers in Bislama.

 The participants worked in groups to match some of the pre reading, writing, and math skills that the Kindy students should master before transitioning to year 1 with activities to develop them more if they are weak.  Then they took this list of activities with them home as a resource for using in their Kindys.

 At the end of the conference we had our parade again and were given salu salus.  The participants brought island baskets and various other locally made gifts with them to present to us as thank yous.

Kindy Workshop - West Ambae

 Most of my Peace Corps work is within the primary and center schools throughout West Ambae.  But, we also have 15 Kindys in our zone area.  The Kindy teachers asked me to help teach them about phonics and other literacy skills to help get their students ready to go to grade one.  We did a 2 day workshop focusing on pre-reading skills and phonics. 

Here is the President of West Ambae's Kindy Teachers opening our time with a prayer.

My counterpart has a projector so I was able to make a powerpoint presentation and show it on the big screen.  We made handouts for each school as a resource for them to take back later.  22 Kindy teachers attended!

 Here they are doing some group work.  They are thinking about the activities that they already use in their Kindys such as water play, drawing, blocks, etc. and how they can integrate pre-reading, pre-writing, and pre-math skills inside.

Here is one group presenting their ideas.

 We also learned how to play some games to build up literacy skills through play.  Memory match was a big hit.

I also gave them time to create some materials for their classrooms.  I had collected cardboard for the past few months so they could make Bingo boards, game boards, flash cards, etc. 

 

I also gave them time to share some of their materials they already use to build up literacy skills.  Volovuhu school has made books out of cardboard written in their local language. 

 Here is Chris working on a future workshop for us while I facilitate this workshop.  Got to take advantage of the generator while you can!

At the end of the workshop the teachers presented me with a homemade cake and a small gift.  In our culture when you lead a workshop you are often given an empty bag at the end.  This represents the knowledge that you shared with them and they want you to go fill up your bag of knowledge again and share it with them at a future time.  Laef i olsem long Vanuatu.

How we say goodbye to friends

On one of our youth mission trips we went to East Ambae to a village called Nanigama.  Myself and the teachers came back by boat so we didn't miss too many days of school.  The youth from our village walked from East Ambae to West Ambae by passing through the South as well.  While in the South they stayed for a week at an extended family members house.  The group worked together to lay the foundation of this villages new church.  When it came time for the youth of West Ambae to come back a few members of South Ambae joined them and came to visit us.  During their month stay in Tavala village they lived in the church house and helped work around the village during the days.  They helped to build the new market stall, helped in family gardens, and even cut the grass at school.  Before they headed back home we had a big send off for them and chance to say thank you to them.

We called it a love offering and members of the community came and gave each of them clothing, money, toiletries, etc.  One of the young boys was also preparing to go to Bible school so he was given gifts that would help him in his studies as well. 

I have seen my community support each other many many times.  However, this was an amazing display of gratitude towards these visitors.  They were showered with gifts and given a ceremonial laplap called "kworo."

The leader, Joseph (in the red shorts), said thank you on behalf of the group and they sang a goodbye song that they had composed.  It was a fun night and was a wonderful reminder of how generous this culture can be even without a lot of income or extra materialistic things. 

Afterwards we enjoyed tea and bread together and had a little time to play!

Monthly Baby Scale

When the doctor's office is over an hour walk away...they come to you!  Every month the nurse team brings a scale to the village market house and does the baby scale to get a chance to check in on all the new babies.

 With so many new babies in Tavala it helps the Mamas out a lot!  Aren't they cute!

Here is Baby Eury, Mr. Vira's baby!!  She is so cubby and cute :)

How the other side of Ambae lives!

 I live on West Ambae and a boat or plane ride away on the other side of Ambae is Rachel.  She is a volunteer that has already been here about 2 years.  I have been there to visit a few times and thought I would show you how the other half lives :)

Rachel's house is owned by the provincial government and has been a Peace Corps volunteer house for years.  It is only about a 5 minute walk for her to get to the Provincial office where she works.

Her house has lots of modern day conveniences but not necessarily at our American standard of living.  Compared to a long drop toilet and bamboo walls this house is "flas."  She has some comfortable chairs, a sitting room, 2 bedrooms, flush toilet, cold water shower, and kitchen with a working sink. 

 This village has a large generator that runs M-F from 8:30 AM -9:00 PM and just in the evenings on Saturday and Sunday.  Thus she can watch movies, use her computer, charge her phone, have working lights, etc.  Lucky!  No internet...yet...

It is a bit hot in there though...Rachel why don't you get an air conditioner?  haha j/k

On one of my visits we had to wait for days because the ship didn't come on schedule (well it never comes on schedule).  So in our free time we found lots of things to entertain ourselfs.  My favorite was we watched the complete season 1 of Burn Notice.  Even the yams became entertainment!

  

Even though she may have a fancy house, she still has some creepy neighbors!