Like I said in the
previous post...WE HAVE MADE IT TO VANUATU! I thought for this post I would
just do more of a bullet list of information, things that have happened,
etc...So, here goes...
- There are 31 volunteers in our group ranging in age
from 22 to in their 60's. There are four couples.
- When we arrived we were greeted with the best welcome
by a band, several peace corps volunteers and staff member, coconuts, lava
lava's (which are like wraps or sarongs), and leis! It was so great and
got us all very excited!
- After introductions and pictures we all loaded into 4
buses (with one more bus behind us carrying all of our luggage) and went
on a quick tour of the town of Port Vila and then headed about a 20 minute
drive to the IDS site where we are currently staying and will be staying
until Friday.
- On Friday, the Vitel (Education) volunteers will head
to one village for training and the Community Health Vols will head to a
different training village. We will be there for two weeks.
- At the end of the two weeks, we will switch, and be on
the other training village for 3 weeks.
- After being in the second village for 3 weeks, we will
get to visit our site (Narango, Santo for Cole and I) for one week!
- The place where we are staying now has running water
and electricity for some of the day.
- The water is cold, but it is VERY HOT so the cold
showers aren't so bad.
- We sweat all day and all night.
- It is strange to sleep under a mosquito net. It is also
strange to sleep with no blankets.
- We have gone to bed around 8 or 9 each night and gotten
up when the roosters wake us around 5.
- Cole and I are currently sharing a little
"bungalow" with two other couples. Pictures below.
- Johanna and Aaron (one of the couples) found a GIANT
spider on their ceiling last night which Cole and Aaron trapped in two
buckets and took outside.
- Lisa, Colt (another couple), Cole and I found one HUGE
hermit crab in the small common area of our bungalow.
- I got up around 4:00 am last night to use the bathroom
and saw a centipede (maybe about 6 inches) on the floor of our room when I
came back in. I became immediately frozen with fear and was unable to kill
it before it crawled into a hole in our closet. Terrifying.
- The place where we are staying is beautiful.We have had
time to swim once. The coral is amazing and there are some pretty fish
that several people saw while snorkeling.
- It is weird swimming in board shorts and a tank top!
- The night sky is really beautiful here. You can see a
ton of stars and they are all very bright.
- We tried Kava for the first time last night. It is
disgusting. I had one shell. Cole has 3. It didnt do much other than make
us feel chilled out and relaxed.
- Other volunteers from G25 and G26 (so people who have
been here for one year or who have extended and been here for over two
years) have come to talk to us some and came to our first kava experience.
It has been very reassuring to talk to them and have Storian (Bislama for
conversations or story telling) with them. They are all so happy here and
have only wonderful things to say. They have also given us some great information
and advice.
- We had our first Bislama lesson today! We learned vowel
sounds, consonants, dipthongs, and some common words! We have been trying
to speak it some with the local Peace Corps staff members who are training
us.
- The mamas have been preparing amazing meals for us each
day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and two tea times where we are served
snacks! (I have gained about 5 pounds. I know this for a fact because I
was weighed today in my medical interview!)
- We each got three shots today and got our malaria
medicine which we will take daily.
- I've been able to drink instant coffee each day and I really like it! YES!!!!
- We are doing well. Happy, healthy, overwhelmed, hot,
excited, etc, etc..
- We miss you all very much (especially Murray).
- Please email us or comment here and let us know how you are and what you are up to! After this post, we probably will not be able to get online for a ling while, but we would love to have lots of email updates, messages, etc when we check it again. Thank you to those of you who have emailed so far! I'm sorry we havent been able to email you back individually. We should be able to get online a bit more once we are at our site permanently, which will be in about 10 weeks.
- Use this email: coleandcarooverseas@gmail.com
We're here!!! With our coconuts, Lava lavas and Leis!
Group 27!
Some volunteers and locals playing frisbee and soccer
About to try Kava... I was unsu
Drinking Kava
Getting rid of the GIANT spider! 
Our bungalow that we share with Lisa, Colt, Johanna and Aaron!
I don't even want to imagine how big that spider was if the buckets had to be that big! It looks so pretty and like yall are having a good time so far! Ill be putting your first (of many) care packages in the mail today! Love and miss you guys so much!!
ReplyDeleteI love this! Keep it coming! Reading this is so surreal to me! You know what else is surreal? The fact that y'all met Dennis Rodman. I am dying to hear more about that. It looks absolutely gorgeous over there. I wish I could give you some new and exciting news from the states but I there is really nothing going on out of the ordinary here. Oh! When I came home today, Chipper was laying in the middle of the kitchen floor instead of in her bed...that was kind of weird. Also, Brandon and I seriously thought about buying backyard chickens for eggs last week. We changed our minds when we realized Chipper would probably eat them and that chickens probably make bad pets. Anywayyyy I gotta go do more mundane boring stuff now. See you later! Meanwhile, we'll be planning our trip. ;)
ReplyDeleteP.S. I have tried to post 3 times now and something keeps going wrong and not posting. How do you like that for perseverance? Hopefully you don't have 3 more posts from me above this that all kind of sound the same but are slightly different. Boy, that would be embarrassing. Ok byeeeee!