One of my many new skills!

As I am settling into my new home, each day brings new stories, people, as well as things to both teach and learn. Part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is building friendships within the community which then will lead to teamwork towards accomplishing goals of positive change. My first two months at site have been very VERY laid back. At times I find myself so bored that it makes me doubt my time in Vanuatu and it's purpose. However, in those moments I realize that I need to get up and out into the community. One particular day I was struggling and forced myself to go to the market stall and "storian" with anyone there. They told me that some of the Mamas were making thatched roofing for a local custom house. This is called pinning "natanguras" which are leaves from a special kind of tree. One of my sisters brought me up to the house where the Mamas were working.

The Mamas quickly cleared a place for me to sit on a bench (while they all sat on the ground!) and welcomed me. After sitting there for 5 minutes watching them all work hard I asked them if someone would teach me how to do it. They looked at each other shocked and almost speechless. My host Mama cleared a spot next to her and the other Mamas gathered all the supplies I would need.

Step by step my Mama showed me how to take the leaves and weave them onto the wild cane. You take a big leaf and 2 small ones together, you fold the leaves 1/3 of the way down around the stick of wild cane. They using a dull knife you cut a slit in the leaves and weave the "bun" of a coconut leave to hold it into place like a safety pin. The "bun" is the hard part in the middle of the leaf. They use this to make brooms as well.

This is Mama on the right wearing the purple shirt. She is my Mama but is 29 years old! :)

Here is the wife of Pastor Joel and their son.

As they showed me I modeled what they were doing and slowly but surely got the hang of it. As I made 1 they each made 2 or 3!

Here I am finishing one. The woman with me is Mama Sunny. She is my Bubu because our Bubus' (aka grandparents) are siblings.

The finished products will be overlapped onto the roof of a house or bush kitchen. Roofs made with these leaves can last 20-30 years and amazingly keep the houses cool on hot days.

Some challenges with them is that spiders, lizards, hornets, and other critters enjoy them as homes. Also when the lizards or rats walk around on them it is noisy. Luckily my kitten Puss has scared away the rats for now!

Here is my finished handi-work! I made 8 in total. They count 2 for 1 so using their counting method I made 4. The family that the finished natanguras was going to was very grateful that I helped. They told me "you win" because many of the younger women and children do not know how to do this!

The family that will be using these for their roof did all of the preparation work of collecting the leaves and cutting the wild cane and "bun" from the coconut leaves. They also provided lunch and dinner for everyone that was involved in making them. I ate dinner with them that night too. It was quick cook noodles and spam over rice...yum huh? All together that day the women made 150 (aka 300). WOW!

I really enjoyed being able to take part in an important process in building a house or kitchen. Since that day as I meet more and more people they frequently say "I heard you helped pin natanguras!" This is one of the many things I will learn over the next 2 years. It is a great way to integrate into the community, learn something new, and get me up and moving or at least out of the house!