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!

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.

Lap-Lap

Here is the whole process of making lap-lap the traditional dish of Vanuatu. It is a "pudding" eaten alongside the staple diet of fruit, fish, root crops and the occasional pig. Lap-lap is made from grated vegetables such as manioc, taro or yam which are soaked in coconut milk to form a paste. On special occasions, pork, beef, chicken, fish or even flying fox (a large fruit eating bat) may be added, or the paste may be sweetened with a few bananas.




Here my Mama (on the right) and my Auntie. They are making lap-lap banana. They are "ras rasing" unripe bananas with a special shell. This is hard work on the arms!










Here Mama is preparing the banana leaves. The mixture will be wrapped in these leaves and tied with vine to form a kind of parcel. She removes the hard stem of the leave to make it easy to fold. Then, the stems will be used to tie everything together.






Auntie is now arranging the leaves getting them ready to
place the lap-lap inside.











Next she milks the coconut. The dry coconuts have been "scratched." The coconut shreds are mixed with water. Then the two are squeezed together to make coconut milk.








Here the coconut milk is spread out first before the bananas are put inside the leaves. This prevents the lap lap from burning. It is similar to how we would use oil or butter in a pan.






Next, all the banana is placed in the big leaves. After the mamas ras ras the banana they use their hands to soften it and smooth out all the bumps. It feels similar to bread dough. Coconut milk is added to the mixture as well to sweeten it up. The lap-lap is then shaped into a rectangle shape.

Mama is cleaning the chicken wings in the back.








This lap-lap was being made for a fundraiser. Auntie put island cabbage, tomatoes, and chicken wings on top.








Now the big banana leaves are folded on top of the lap-lap. More coconut milk is added to moisten the leaves. Then the leaves are folded and tied together.






While they were preparing the lap-lap the fire was heating up the stones. Now the lap-lap is ready to be cooked. The hot stones are moved so that some are underneath.







The lap-lap is placed on top of the hot stones and then more hot stones are put on top of it. The stones have to cover every piece of the leaves. This will take about 3 hours to cook.







Here is the finished lap-lap! My favorite parts are where it is a little crispy and brown. The final texture is chewy and gooey similar to pizza dough that is not quite cooked all the way. This lap-lap was then cut up and sold for 100 vatu per piece (about $1 American).