Cole and Caroline's PC Adventure: Life at site and stuff

A few happenings and pictures from the last 3 weeks or so at site…I'll post more pics on facebook in a few weeks when we are in Vila :)

We arrived back in Narango from our long weekend in town on Tuesday May 19^th. We were going to head back on Monday but decided to stay another night after hearing from our host family that they were all going to a mared (wedding) on another island and would be gone the rest of the week. With them being away and school being on break, we didn’t have much to head back to, so we stayed that extra night and ate cheeseburgers and watched a movie! (St.Vincent, which I recommend!). Once back at site, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful. The teachers at my school were in their home villages for the break, lots of people were at the mared in Malekula, school was on break and not much was going on. We did a lot of reading and watched a lot of House of Cards! We did attempt to give Cole a haircut on Friday. It did not go quite as planned. I was trying to use his clippers, which I haven't ever used before (I actually haven't ever given a haircut before so this probably wasn't the best idea to begin with!) and he took them from me at one point in an attempt to show me how to use them properly. He ran them through a portion of his hair and they sure did work for him! So, he ended up having a very short strip of hair that he had buzzed much shorter than he planned. I tried to make the rest of the hair match as much as I could with the clippers and scissors, but I wasn't entirely successful. It is growing back it very nicely though and made for a good laugh! I think in the future he will either grow it out or go to a professional.

That Saturday May 23^rd, Sky, an Australian volunteer who has spent a lot of time in Narango and is working on a project there, and his girlfriend, Georgia, were in town. They came to our hut on Saturday morning to introduce themselves and tell us about the project that they are working on, a community/disability center. We were laying in our hammocks reading when we heard noises outside and were very surprised to see two white faces walking towards our hut!! After chatting for a bit they invited us to go to a waterfall with them for the rest of the afternoon. Having spent the last several days in our hut not doing much, we gladly accepted and were walking to the waterfall within 20 minutes! We walked along the road for a while and then turned off the road and walked through the bush the rest of the way. The walk took about an hour. We were with Sky, Georgia, a few guys from our village and lots of pikinini from our village. The waterfall was beautiful and lots of fun! We spent a few hours there climbing and swimming and playing and then ate some sugarcane and fruit and then headed back!

We went to church that Sunday for the 2^nd time in our village. Each Sunday before church there are 3 bells that ring, the first bell means that it is time to get ready for church, the second means that it is time to walk to church and the third means that church is about to begin. We always follow the rules and head to church on the second bell and we are always the first ones there because everyone else in the village operates on island time! After a little while people start to arrive, all barefoot and all sporting their island gear (us included) and take their seats on the wooden benches. When it starts to fill up a man always grabs a guitar and everyone starts to sing. This always lasts for about 20 or 30 minutes while more people continue to arrive and is always my favorite part of church. Everyone knows the words to every song and they all sing loudly and enthusiastically. Sometimes clapping is also involved. This time always reminds me of my dad and makes me miss him. I think he would love listening to the singing.

On Monday, MAY 25!!!, Cole woke up a little bit before me and set out a plate full of pop tarts (that we had been hoarding for quite some time as they are major treat), a delicious cup of hot cocoa (that Amanda sent in a package several months ago and that we had also been hoarding as it is also a major treat and a nice change from our usual instant coffee), and a really sweet handmade birthday card. After breakfast he headed off on his 45 minute walk to school and I started to get ready because school was supposed to start back after the two week holiday. There are 5 teachers at my school and 3 of them, including the headmistress, live on school grounds like Cole and I. We had expected them to all come back on Sunday evening, but as of Monday morning only 1 of them had returned. After getting ready, sweeping the hut and washing our breakfast dishes, I checked my phone and had a message from Cole saying that all the children in the village that he has passed so far on his walk told him that there was no school because there were no teachers. I went next door to Mrs. Catherine’s house, the only teacher there so far, to ask her whether or not we were in fact having school or if the children in the village were correct. She didn’t seem to know where any of the other teachers were, when they were coming back or when school was starting again. We stood there and talked for a bit, 4 students showed up as we were talking and she sent them home and told them to come back tomorrow. So, I spent the day reading Harry Potter until Cole came home and we chatted about his day (his school started, but only about half the kids came and the headmaster was not there) and then we both spent the rest of the day talking and reading. Not the most exciting birthday I’ve ever had, but maybe that means my year will be super exciting!!!!

Birthday poptarts, cocoa and homemade card!

Tuesday 3/5 teachers had come back and less than half of the kids came. So, I like to say we had “sorta school”. I did laundry.

Wednesday and Thursday were better, with all the teachers having come back and about half of the kids coming at my school. ¾ of the teachers at Cole’s school had been coming each day, but his headmaster had only shown up on Thursday. We played Frisbee with then kids at my school on Wednesday afternoon, which is always sports day. Thursdays are always “working” day where the kids stay afterschool and clean up the school and then they have devotion. After devotion the headmistress told class one, two and three not to come to school on Friday because the teachers were going to town. So, last week my school was in session about 2.5 out of 5 days, and Cole’s was in session each day but without a headmaster/class one teacher 4 out of 5 days. This has proved to be frustrating and disheartening and we are struggling a bit with what we are going to be able to do here because of the lack of emphasis and value on education both by teachers and students. But, we are just going to continue to take it one day at a time!

When we arrived in town last Friday we ate a delicious breakfast and then went to run some errands, one of them being the post office. I cannot say enough times how much we appreciate the packages and letters that we continue to receive. When we left the post office we brought our packages back to Kate and Brian’s where we excitedly opened each one and ooohhhhed and ahhhhhhed at their amazing contents! We then headed to Beach Front Resort where we had lunch and used the internet. We had tacos for dinner at Kate and Brian’s for dinner. On Saturday we used the internet again, had lunch and then Hannah came over to Kate and Brian’s for dinner and movies.

On Sunday we headed back to site relaxed, rejuvenated, armed with lots of new goodies, and thankful for Brian and Kate who always let us crash with them and drink their delicious coffee, and smoothies and eat their homemade meals!

On Monday, June 1^st while we were eating our breakfast our headmistress came over to tell us that she and the class four teacher, her cousin, would not be at school that day because they were going to walk to their village because someone had died. The class 2/3 teacher also had not showed up back at his house yet, so we could only assume that he too would not be at school. We were unsure at that point about the class 5 teacher, who walks to our school each day from his village. So, that left me and Mrs. Catherine, the class 6 teacher. We had devotion (where the kids stand in line by class and sing songs and then Mrs. Catherine prays and talks about a passage from the bible and then makes any announcements. During this devotion she talked to them about how God says that they must always obey, and that if that do they will live long lives but if they don’t they will die young) at around 8:30, it is supposed to start at 7:45 I think. After that she asked me to supervise class 1, 2, 3 and 4 in one classroom while she taught class 5 and 6 in another. She said that she would come and give them an assignment in a few minutes. After 20 minutes, I decided to just start teaching them myself. I taught them about vowel sounds in English and then read them two books. The class 5 teacher came, but only for about 30 minutes and then he left again and said that he would not be there tomorrow either because he had to go into town. After their 10-10:30 break, I supervised them again while they did some math problems that Mrs. Catherine had written on the board, and then again in the afternoon after lunch while they drew pictures of food until school was over. I am not technically supposed to be supervising 4 classes in one room, but what are you gonna do? After school they were told to pick up leaves around the school before going home. One boy hit a girl in the stomach, so he got hit on the bottom with a big piece of wood by the teacher. Cole had come back around lunch time from his site. All 4 of his teachers were at school that day and he spent time assessing class two and then talked to the headmaster for a while.

On Tuesday 3 out of the 5 teachers at my school were present, which is not great but better than Monday! The headmistress took class 1, 2 and 3 in her room (She normally only teachers class 1), the class 4 teacher was back and with her class, and Mrs. Catherine took class 5 and 6. That afternoon a man came from another island close to Santo to teach the kids how to play cricket. Next week some kids from my school will be chosen to play in an upcoming cricket tournament. It was pretty fun to watch. Cole did not go to his site on Tuesday because he was going to go to another school about an hour and a half walk away to have them fill out some forms so that they can get a PC volunteer when the next group comes. He was just going to copy the information from the forms onto paper and have them fill them out that was because we don’t have a way to print them. But then he talked to our PC boss who told him to print the forms in town this weekend and just go to Tata school next week after they are printed. So, he just hung out at the hut.

Wednesday there was no school because the teachers had an awareness meeting about teaching licenses in another village. Since Cole and I do not and will not have a teaching license in Vanuatu we stayed back and did laundry, cleaned out and filled all of our drinking water bottles, cleaned out our dish washing bins, cleaned out and filled our buckets for swimming, sweep the hut really well and then read our books for the rest of the afternoon.

On Thursday 4/5 teachers were at my school and 4/4 were at Cole’s. Not too shabby! The one teacher that was not at my school has not been there all week and no one can get in touch with him. The other teachers are saying that he has not come back because the village is supposed to finish building his bush kitchen for him and it isn’t finished yet and he is upset about that. Great reason not to show up for your job! Thursday afternoon the kids spent some time practicing cricket. Cole joined them and I sat with some class 2 girls under the mango tree and watched. After that the kids had devotion and then the headmistress told class 1, 2, and 3 not to come to school on Friday because their teachers would not be there. She told class 4, 5, and 6 to come even though the class 6 teacher won’t be there either. So, Friday will be a 2/5 day. Not a great way to close the week. Maybe next week will be better. We are still only having half or less than half of the kids show up to school each day. We think it is because they get word that their teacher isn’t there so they just don’t come. Understandable. Cole passes them in the village on the way to his site just sitting at their house. As I said earlier, it is very frustrating and discouraging when the teachers and the kids do not come to school. Again, maybe next week will be better! Also, I finished the Harry Potter series today! I started reading it about 6 weeks ago when we first got to site and I highly recommend it to any PCV that hasn’t read it yet, as it is a great time taker upper!

Cole playing Cricket with the pikinini

Thursday night we went and ate dinner with our host family. Our little brother is a total ham and made us laugh the whole time! Our host mom asked me if I am pregnant because she says that my cheeks have gotten bigger…low blow, mami! Guess I need to take it easy on the laplap.

Today, Friday June 5^th, we came into town to go to Sam’s final kava tonight. She has been a volunteer in Vanuatu for 4 years and is going back to the USA in a few weeks to start grad school. GOOD LUCK with everything, Sam! Bae mitufala misem yu!

We are heading back to site tomorrow, Saturday, and then will be coming back into town on Thursday to fly to Vila. We aren’t supposed to be heading in until Sunday, but our host parents in Lelepa are getting married on Friday and we are going to their wedding! We will be in Vila for about two weeks for some additional training. We can’t wait for the wedding and to see all of our fellow PCV’s! Lot’s to look forward to in the next few weeks!

Some updates from my previous post:

Turns out the men fighting with sticks when we were coming into town about 3 weeks ago were fighting over a chicken.

Our friend, Gabriela, who we took to the hospital on Thursday, May 14^th experienced some of the same pains once back at site so they flew her to Port Vila to have an ultrasound and found that she needs to have her gall bladder removed. She left to go back to the USA last Friday to have the surgery, recover and hopefully get back here! We miss you, Gabriela and can’t wait for you to get back!

Congratulations to Jackson and Kelly Hatch on the birth of their precious baby boy, Oliver!

Don't know if I'm supposed to say this, but I'm going to anyway because I am safely across the world...Congratulations to Brittany Hatch and Katherine Hackett on your little baby bumps!

Also, Congratulations to Lisa and Emaleigh on your new JOBS! I love ya’ll! Alyson, you are amazing for what you are doing in Haiti and I'm really proud of you!