Gwendolyne Gets "Blocked"

Vanuatu is full of customs and traditions.  There still is a strong focus on preserving these traditions but including some newer ideas and twists.  We recently had a big celebration.  One of my sisters was "blocked."  This is the Bislama way of saying she's engaged!  The ceremony to "block" a woman involves work on both sides of the family.  Our family prepares a banana laplap kworo to give to the family of the man.  Bubu Madeline is putting thick coconut cream on the slabs of banana laplap.  Three whole chickens were placed on top before they leaves covered them.

Flowers and colorful leaves are used to make the bundle look fancy!

Here is the father of the groom.  He traveled from his island of Malekula with his wife to do the ceremony.  They brought yams, custom mats and money to give as gifts.  People from our village came to witness.

 

Here is the groom and his father giving gifts to members of the brides family.

The mother of the bride, Bubu Nancy, receives her mats, buckets, yams and money from the groom to be.

Gifts were given to each of the bride to be's uncles as a thank you for raising her.

After the groom's family was finished Cheif Jeconiah gave a talk thank you and presented the kworo laplap to the family of the groom.

Here is my new "taewi" and his mom.

And here is their son David Moli with his grandmother (Bubu) Nancy.

Coconut Crab!

Life on the island is very simple.  Most families garden to have plenty of food to eat.  To eat a balanced diet our sources of protein vary.  The locals have pigs, goats and chickens as domestic animals.  We can hunt wild pigeons and flying fox (bat).  We can look for crabs living within the stones, gather shells, and fish.  Cows are killed on special occasions or for funerals.  Occasionally even a dog or cat can become a meal.  The local stores do sell tin tuna, spam, corned beef, and eggs too for those that are "wealthier."  

But, a lucky hunter or gather might stumble across the infamous coconut crab in the dense bush.  These are the world's largest land-living arthropods.   They can get up to 9 lbs!   According to Wikipedia: "a coconut crab cuts the coconuts from the tree to eat them on the ground. The coconut crab can take a coconut from the ground and cut it to a husk nut, take it with its claw, climb up a tree 10 m (33 ft) high and drop the husk nut, to access the content inside.  They often descend from the trees by falling, and can survive a fall of at least 4.5 metres (15 ft) unhurt.  Coconut crabs cut holes into coconuts with their strong claws and eat the contents, although it can take several days before the coconut is opened."  I am not sure if that is necessarily true but it sounds good!

They live in holes they dig in the ground and hide inside during the day.  They come out to feed at night or after rain.  My Papa is quite the avid hunter.  He makes sure our family has enough meat for balanced diets, to Ni-Vanuatu standards.  One night while going out to catch smaller crabs he found a delightful treat!

This is no ordinary crab.  It is HUGE, thus we have to have a big meal to go with it as well.  Mama decided to make some yam laplap.

Here she is cleaning the skin off the yams then "ras ras ing" them to make the pudding like texture.

 

While Mama was busy preparing supper I was busy playing with the kids.  Charlotte and I went collecting pomplemous (our version of grapefruit), mandarins, and oranges for a snack.  Joy Joy practiced her hair braiding on my luscious locks.

Noella, JoyJoy and Christiano also helped to de-feather the chickens!  Mama Vira can't eat crab because she is allergic.  We needed to have some meat for her as well!

Mango the pig came along for a little belly rub too!

Mama made the laplap and wrapped it up in banana leaves.  We decided to be silly and dance around the laplap Ambae style!

Now for the challenging part!  Coconut crabs are STRONG!  If that giant claw pinches you chances are high it won't let go.  Mama needs to kill it so that we can then clean it.

Look at her arm muscles.  It is not making this easy for her!  The kids and I crowded around to watch.

Here is a picture of cooked coconut crab.  The yellow stuff is the crab's "balls" according to the locals.  It is mostly fat that tastes creamy and slightly bitter.  Bon appetit!

Sticking Coconuts

Thirsty?  The locals don't reach for water when they have been working hard all day in the hot sun.  To refresh they drink the water from fresh green coconuts!  

One way to get them down from the tree is to cut some foot holds in the trunk and climb their way up.  This works for my cousin brothers Daniel and Michael.

For taller trees (or those people that can't climb them) we use bamboo to "stick" the coconuts.  Here is Mama carrying the bamboo!  It is long and heavy.

With a few coordinated jabs you can get some coconuts to fall down.  Watch out they don't land on your head!

 

Now...what can be done effortlessly by Mama takes me about 10 minutes.  To drink the coconut water you have to cut away the strong skin first.  She and Papa guide me step by step and make sure to laugh at me the whole time!

  

Now drink and enjoy!!  This water is better than Gatorade and free!

Camp GLOW/BILD

During the 2 week break between school terms Peace Corps volunteers gathered together for a Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and BILD (Boys in Leadership Development) at Vureas School on East Ambae.  This is part of the GAD (Gender and Development) initiative through Peace Corps posts around the world.  This one week camp is a way to build leadership skills, boost confidence, and increase motivation of local youth.  They are the future of the communities around Vanuatu but lack the proper working knowledge of what it means to be a good leader.

We traveled from West Ambae to East Ambae by boat...an overcrowded boat that is!

Throughout the week we had various workshops to work on building up leadership skills. 

Team building...



Communication and goal setting...

Public speaking...

Decision making...

Trust...

Adolescent Reproductive Health...

One day we even roasted our own lunch over an open fire!  Who needs plates when you have leaves?

We had time to play too!  We taught them how to do friendship bracelets and hair wraps...

 We made a banner and wrote thank you letters to the donors...

At the end of the week we had a closing ceremony where each participant received a certificate and award for their hard work and participation. 

Here are my 3 village participants, Jio, Alice, and Soloman getting theirs:

This camp was such a blast!  Not only did we get plenty of time to laugh and play but we learned lots of strategies to help guide us as leaders in our communities.  Yes I say "us" because I learned a lot too and I am already a good leader.  Our plan is to now run a similar camp in our village within the next few months.  Thank you to Mom and Dad who donated money to help pay for a chinese bag full of materials that will help us prepare for our camp on West Ambae.  This support will be appreciated by not only us by the members of the community that we will teach our newly acquired knowledge to!