A day at the "soltwata"

When the weather gets hot we head to the ocean! West Ambae is full of black stone beaches. As the "soltwata" tide comes in and out the big black stones capture it and make small pools to swim in. They aren't deep so it makes it very safe. No sharks allowed!






This is one of the many places we go to swim. Here is my host Papa and some of my sisters and cousins enjoying the refreshing coolness. The kids usually just swim in their underwear or naked. Everyone else just wears shorts and t-shirts.

The names of the kids starting from the left are Noella (6), Charlotte(5), Selena (6), Christiano (4), and Joylynn (5).

Here are Michael (12) and Jerekslynn (12) (not sure how to spell that one!) climbing up the rocks to look at the ocean. They are the oldest kids in our family. They are both my cousins.



This was baby Jenny's first time in the salt water. That is my host Mama and youngest sister (8 months)!





And apparently she wasn't a fan!











I look forward to more days at the beach to come!

Launching of our Health Promoting Program

I will be working at Volovuhu Centre school in Tavala. Our school is K-8 and has plans of growing to continue up to year 9 and/or 10. Here is the school's logo. They had a drawn version and I made it into a computerized one for them.

Mid November we celebrated the launch of our plan to promote health education within the school. The first step was for the school to build an aid post. This building is a short walk from the school and is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday during school hours. It has two rooms inside but is quite small. The first room is Andrea's desk and basic supplies for first aid. The second room has a bed as well as shelves for the rest of her supplies.



The aid post worker was trained in first aid and the basics related to malaria, infections, and is able to give out medication. Her name is Andrea and she is quickly becoming one of my good friends! Here she is receiving a gift of banana lap-lap to thank her for working at the aid post. She is in the brown island dress.

She is going to Pentecost island for 3 months of training and when she gets back we are going to make plans to climb to the volcano's crater on our island!

The ceremony to officially open the post was lots of fun!

One of the teachers (Mr. Vira) and some of the students performed a skit to demonstrate how in the past the villagers were not always receptive to visitors coming to their islands. The boys dressed in leaves and pretended to block the invited guests as they arrived by holding up pretend bows and arrows.


Here they are also banging a beat on the tamtams. These are hollowed out tree trunks and are used to form the beat for dancing as well as to announce many other things such as births.










These are the salu salu's that were made from fresh flowers to give to the invited guests. This is the National Flower of Vanuatu and many of you may have seen it on stamps that come when I send letters. I call it "friendship honey" because that is how it sounds but the name is spelled something like "Fragipane." It smells BEAUTIFUL!! The come in white and pink.




With every ceremony that I have seen so far in West Ambae there are generally the same order of events. The invited guests arrive (probably about an hour or two late...this country takes fashionably late to a new level!). They are given salu salus and sometimes fresh coconut water to drink.



Here the chief of Tavala is giving a fresh coconut to the doctor that works at the only hospital on West Ambae.


The ceremony is opened with a prayer.






There is always an MC. Then there are multiple speeches followed by presentation of gifts. Here is my counterpart Chris who I will be working with at the school. He was the MC and loves the megaphone!










Now the plan is to encourage members of the community to use the aid post. There is a very small fee to get a sore cleaned and bandaged. I think it is either 50 or 100 vatu (aka 5o cents or a dollar American). Also, the school will be doing more health education and I hope to be a part of that as well. First goal...get them to wash their hands!!!

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).

Paunangisu Village

Here is a little glimpse into where I lived during training!!

During our training we spent 6 weeks living with host families in the village of Paunangisu on North Efate island. This is the house that I lived in with Mama Monica and Papa Fred. My host Papa is a retired police officer. They have 4 children in their mid twenties but they are all living in various other parts of the island.

This house was built in 2003 by my Papa and his sons. It isn't finished yet. Inside the walls that separate the rooms do not go all the way up to the ceiling.

Here are Mama and Papa with me at our official swearing in ceremony!

Every morning my host Papa wakes up and rakes the lawn. My host family works very hard to make their house and yard clean.

Paunangisu is like the suburbs. It is about an hour or so truck ride to the capitol city. They have stores with small refrigerators so they can buy cold beverages, meat, fish, etc.

Here is a picture of their outdoor kitchen. The building on the left is where Mama stores some food and prepares it to be cooked. The building on the right side is the kitchen where they cook over fire or with hot stones. The building in the far back is a shed for storage. When the boys of the family get married they will live on this plot of land with their wives. The storage shed will probably be torn down and a house will be built in that part of the yard.

Here was my bathroom and shower. The toilet is called a "small house" and the shower is called a "swim house." I had my own small house but shared the swim house with my host family.

The shower was water from a huge rain water tank for the village to share. During the middle of the day you could almost take a hot shower because the water pipes are black and run along the top of the ground.

This was my toilet. To "flush" you just pour water from a bucket into it so it essentially works the same as a normal American toilet. I was special with a toilet seat...they usually don't have those.

At night there were always spiders in my small house. Thank God they only came out at night! I was ok with it because I knew they were eating the mosquitoes. Oh how I have changed! :)




Here is the "living room" of the house. This is where they store food and their extra plates, bowls, etc. Under the cloth is a TV! My family has a generator but they don't use it very often. When the generator is on they have 2 or 3 lights and this TV as well as a DVD player. They like to watch religious musical shows! Each room of the house is separated by either a door or a piece of calico. They use calico to decorate the walls too. Mats that are woven from leaves of pandandas trees. These mats are often given as gifts for almost every ceremony. In many houses they do not have beds and just sleep on the mats.


This is the kitchen/dining room area. This is almost equal to a porch in America. There is a 4 burner propane stove on the table that Mama used a lot. This is where vegetables and fruit are stored and where they do dishes as well. The ground is sand and they cover it with the mats. When it rains we have to keep our legs up on buckets so that those poisonous centipedes don't bite us!






The table cloth was hilarious. They asked me so many questions about what things were on it. It was a great conversation starter. They think that everything on this tablecloth is American. They wanted to know why the fruit looks so perfect...I gave them a mini lesson pesticides.






Here is my bedroom. It was a a comfy twin size bed. The room also had a plastic circle table with 1 plastic lawn chair. I had a couple smaller coffee tables that I put my clothes and toiletries on. The concrete floor was covered with something similar to wallpaper.

The red blanket you see is from the Peace Corps. The red fuzz gets on absolutely everything and the color bleeds when you wash it. It has already started to unravel and I have only used it for 2 months! My host Mama and I joked about the Chinese blanket and how cheap it is!

Here is my favorite accessory! This mosquito keeps away mosquitoes, spiders, centipedes, rats (called rats but they are really just field mice), and who knows what else!! It keeps me safe and happy!! I always keep it tucked in so nothing has a chance to get through.


These are the great wall decorations that my host Mama put up! Soccer is big around here. They call it futbol of course from that British influence. Depending on the place women are sometimes allowed to play futbol. Usually the women just play volleyball. I have always been really bad at soccer but maybe I can actually learn how to play now!