Adding the roof to the new dorms

Volovuhu School has grown in the past 2 years to include year 7 and 8 students.  We are now Volovuhu Center School as opposed to primary school.  In the future the school committee would like to grow to include year 9 and 10 as well.  One challenge for outer islands is that the students have to walk longer distances to get to school.  Our school decided to build dormintories to give the year 7 and 8 students places to sleep so that during the week they could focus more on their studies and not have to worry about walking to and from school.

In one of my earlier posts I showed you how I learned to weave natanguras leaves into thatched roofing.  One day the community was working on the dormitories and I came along to see what they were up to.

They had built up the frame of the house already. 

Before the natanguras can be put onto the roof the vines have to be prepared.  A group of youngfalas brought heaps of vines from the bush.  We then tediously split the big ones down the middle to make them easier to use.

After the vines are split they soak them in water to make them "sop sop" (soft).

Bubu Fred (my grandpa...blue shirt), Bubu Edward (my grandpa...black shirt) and Bubu Fred's "Tawi" (brother-in-law...grey shirt) are reinforcing the ends of the natanguras that will be on the edges of the roof.  The normal natanguras are only woven with the stem of coconut leaves.  These edges get woven again with bamboo which is stronger.  The reason they do this is to help the thatched roofing hold up on windy days.

Before the natanguras are sown onto the bamboo frame, a namele leaf is placed around the roof.  These leaves are custom to provide protection over the house. 

Now the leaves will be woven onto the roof's frame using the bush vines.   

Before the dormitory was complete the community members helping taught some students how to "sowemap" the natanguras onto the roof during a cultural learning afternoon.

When the dormitory is complete I will post more pictures!

Cultural Learning

Volovuhu School is starting a very interesting project that has had a great start so far.  The village and school are concerned that local customs and traditions are being lost.  Many of the bubus (oldfala) have knowledge of these customs but the younger generations are less and less interested in doing things the old fashion way.  The school has decided to take on the challenge of teaching some cultural skills and beliefs during Friday afternoons.  In America this is somewhat similar to our enrichment block I think.  This is a new initiative by the school but so far so good!!

Here Bubu Edward and his son Mr. Jason (the Headmaster) are talking about fishing techniques to the students Years 1 - 4.

This picture shows Bubu Simeon (also the school Chairman) teaching the Years 5-8 girls how to pin natanguras leaves to make the thatched roofing.  I already know how to do this too (see my earlier post!) :)

The boys in years 5-8 are learning how to now weave the natanguras onto the house's structure.  Both the boys and girls got to learn each skill but were taught in two groups.

The students have also had cultural learning sessions about respect, weaving bamboo to make walls, and building a fence.  This will continue throughout the year.  The school staff hopes doesn't want to take away the opportunity for parents to teach these skills to their children.  The hope is to ensure that the cultural beliefs, values, and skills are not lost as the western influence continues to take over.

Volovuhu Center School

My work here in Vanuatu is mostly school based.  As an education volunteer we are available to support the school in any capacity they need.  Peace Corps overall goal is to help with literacy development but we all know they need support with so much more too.  My village has a center school called Volovuhu and has year K-8 students from 3 villages.  We have just completed term 1 out of 3 terms.  Our school has 2 classroom buildings and one for administration.  There are all together 6 classrooms, 1 library, and 2 offices.   

Here is the headmaster's desk and office area.

This is where the teachers do some of their lesson planning.  The shelves are used to hold our student and teacher workbooks.

This is my office that I share with my counterpart Chris the ZCA (Zone Curriculum Advisor). 

Here is my 5th and 6th grade classroom.  I taught them all subjects for the first term.  I also trained a new teacher, Mr. Joshua, to then take over so that I could work more with the ZCA.  Here he is during a math lesson.

Our school had a beautiful library already thanks to the Mormon church.   I fine tuned the library by making sure it was organized and I labelled some of the books by reading level to help make the library more accessible for students of all abilities.

The students use the library during break time and lunch time to exchange books.  Here are some students working on a researching activity.

This is one of the beautiful maps my Mom sent along.  They love to look at the pictures!

Here are some quick glances into a few busy classrooms!

Year 1 and 2

Year 3 and 4

Year 7 and 8

As we head into Term 2 my work should be changing.  I should be spending sometime in the classroom teaching English for my 5th and 6th graders but I will start to focus on observing teachers, offering feedback, and supporting them individually.  I hope to assess the reading levels of all students and do some small group instruction as needed.  The library will continue and I may be able to fit in some library classes or a library club after school.  As always I will continue to do some school based workshops.  We focused on classroom management this last term and we are going to be learning more how to make math lessons more interactive next.  I enjoy being busy and having many different areas of the school to be a part of.  These students and teachers have a great energy and eagerness to learn! 

Welkam bak kakae

One thing my family does well is welcoming family members back home after a long time spent away. My counterpart Chris spent 2 months in Japan, at the beginning of this year, for a math teacher's training. He was awarded with a scholarship and was the one representative from Vanuatu to go. While there he was taught the Japanese approach to teaching math and even got to observe teachers in the field. On his return home we celebrated this great experience and welcomed him back to Ambae.

The family all got together to bake lap lap and pig a pig. My Mama, Mama Vira (Chris' wife) and Bubu Marium prepared the banana lap lap. Timothy was helping "ras ras" the manioc.












Papa prepared the fire. The key is to make a huge fire so that it gets the stones scorching hot. They the stones alone cook the food.






Here Mama is heating the leaves to make them soft so that they wrap around the lap lap easily.

Then she spread coconut milk on the leaves first so that the banana and manioc do not stick to the them while they cook.






Papa and Timothy killed the pig, cleaned it out and then burned off the hair. No gruesome pictures sorry! But here are my siblings and cousins watching this messy task!

Once the pig was prepared it was seasoned with salt. A hot stone was placed inside it to make sure it cooked all the way through. Then bush cabbage was put with it took. Papa used coconut leaves to weave/braid around the pig so that it would not burn while baking in the hot stones.

The lap lap and pig were placed over hot stone and then covered up with even more. They are left there to bake for many hours. We use pieces of bamboo to pick up the hot stones and put them on top.










That afternoon we enjoyed manioc lap lap, banana lap lap, baked pig, and delicious bush cabbage. It was a great meal and welcoming for Chris to come home too. Not only did we have this good food but my cousin brother Michael was even playing with the pig bladder like a balloon! I guess you get crafty with your toys when there isn't a Toys-R-Us nearby!!

Vermont Maple Syrup finds its way to Vanuatu

Being born and raised in Vermont I have a slight addiction to real pure maple syrup. Whether it is maple candy, sugar on snow, drizzled (ok dumped!) over vanilla ice cream, baked into salmon, mixed with pepper on shrimp, or made into maple butter I love it. For example, I am more than willing to pay more for the real syrup at restaurants that usually serve "Aunt Jemima" and have been known to ask the server to show us the bottle to make sure it is pure!

My host family had seen pictures of maple trees and sugar houses that my parents sent on post cards and they always ask about what we eat in America. I told them about maple syrup and they wanted to try. So, Mom and Dad sent me a bottle along with some pancake mix. One sunday morning I cooked up a bunch and we ate them with some fresh fruit from the trees around our house, avoka (avocado), nangai nuts, and tea. It was a success!















This is one of our neighbors that came to go to my Mama's store and was there when I arrived with the food. Talk about good timing! He took some back to his house to share with his family too.








Here's Mama and my baby sister Jenny. Jenny has even got some crumbs on her face!

Then I brought a plateful down to my Bubu's kitchen and counterpart's family's house. They shared them equally between all the kids and I think almost everyone loved them! Here is Mama Vira splitting them in half for the kids to taste. Charlotte looks happy!

My family make pancakes sometimes but they don't use eggs or baking soda to make them fluffy. Their pancakes usually end up greasy and flat like crepes. In Bislama they actually call them grease!! So, they loved the fluffy ones that I made.

They all agree...Vermont maple syrup is "namba wan!"